NGD - PRS SE277 Semi-Hollow Soapbar Baritone

AngryGoldfish · September 2018

I finally decided to pick up a baritone. The one I settled on was the PRS PRS SE277 semi-hollow with P90s in the rather smart limited edition 'stealth' black satin finish with quilt top. So far I'm loving it.

The quality is about as good as I've seen from World Musical Instruments. Other than the usual minor adjustments, it played like butter out of the box, and doesn't have a big neck. I was worried it would, but it 's comfortable and mirrors my other guitars. Tuning is stable considering it doesn't use locking keys, frets are smooth, finish is almost flawless (one flaw could be attributed to everyday wear and tear from being on show at GuitarGuitar in Epsom, and the other is the rough grain of the wood inside the F-hole), pots and switches are sturdy (though the tone pot crackles slightly), the bridge is incredibly comfortable, the weight of the instrument is bang-on, holes are drilled accurately. It's just a well made instrument for the money.

The sound is excellent. It's not as bright or airy as I had anticipated. The P90s are more like humbuckers than other P90s I've tried. They are very fat, ballsy, and scarily quiet. I don't mind this particularly, but a 'bass roll off' knob like on the Reverends would have been perfect for some twang. For now I'm just going to pick closer to the bridge and make adjusts with my amp and pedals. The extra £200 I paid for the stealth black satin finish was totally worth it. This guitar is so easy to play. The scale length doesn't bother me too much, at least with my fretting hand. Picking closer to the bridge arches the shoulder a bit further back than I'm used to, but some flexibility drills should help with that.

Overall, I'm a very happy man. With my Furch acoustic, PRS baritone, Gretsch hollow body, and my Woodworm/Rob William SS, I have pretty much everything I need. I do miss having a Tele, and I'd like to have a short scale Jag, but I'm really pleased with my guitars. More pictures below.