PRS SE Paul's Guitar

Snags

Has anyone here actually played one, or have any hands-on thoughts?

I was sort of lusting after one conceptually (although colour is an issue) and talked myself out of it, but @ttony 's recent thread has poked the slumbering beast, further aggravated by being generally pissed off and lying to myself that spending money will somehow make that better.

Obviously if the fit doesn't pass I'll pop down to Coda and try a couple, but in the hopes that there'll be a small chorus of "Nah, they're crap mate" to put me off (or, perhaps, as a teasing delayed gratification foreplay thing ...) thought I'd ask the question.

Grumpyrocker

I thought the concept was really interesting. Really F'ugly set of colours it's available in rather puts me off.

TTony

You won't really know until you've made the Coda trip


And what's the worst that can happen? 

You buy it (in red preferably), get it home, play it and love it like you do with every new buy, but then decide a couple of months later that you've not really bonded with it and have to offload it here at about half the price you paid.

I'm pretty sure you'd find someone to take it away for you.

In red.

guitargeek62

TTony said:

You won't really know until you've made the Coda trip


And what's the worst that can happen? 

You buy it (in red preferably), get it home, play it and love it like you do with every new buy, but then decide a couple of months later that you've not really bonded with it and have to offload it here at about half the price you paid.

I'm pretty sure you'd find someone to take it away for you.

In red.

...or yellow, or blue!

DeeTee

@ttony - You wouldn't, by any chance, fancy a red one of these would you?

TTony

DeeTee said:

@ttony - You wouldn't, by any chance, fancy a red one of these would you?

sshhhhhh.

Funkfingers

The big deal with the Core Paul's Guitar is its pickups and switching. I am not sure how much of this carries over to the SE model. (The narrow pickups certainly do not.) 

Try to find a pre-owned SE. That way, it doesn't feel so bad when you begin modifying it. 

Snags said:

a small chorus of "Nah, they're crap mate" to put me off, thought I'd ask the question.

I have PRS SE, S2 and Core guitars. Changing between them, the Core ones feel like "home" but this might be because I have had them longer than the other ranges. 

After a bit of fingerboard edge tumbling, the SE guitars feel as nice in the hand as the American guitars. In my opinion, the Asian hardware and control electronics let them down. 

At the time of this writing, I have been mostly grappling with an SE CU24. American pickups and pots plus a smartass German selector switch help the budget model sound more like a posh one. (These also get rid of the useless full coil split mode for the individual humbuckers.) A steel vibrato sustain block upgrade will probably complete the transformation.

Snags

@ttony admirable comments, and you're quite right. After you ...

Snags

Related to this, is there anywhere in the UK that stocks the full-fat Paul's Guitar at the moment? Apart from Andertons*?

Hypothetically speaking, of course, as, as previously mentioned, I have completely talked myself out of having a £3k+ guitar when I can barely play the more modest instruments I already own. But, you know, just in case it's a good year and the birthday fairies are really, really, really pissed.

Funkfingers

I was going to suggest Peach but they only seem to have the SE. 

Snags

Yeah, I've had a bit of a search and it seems to be a rare beast.  Probably just as well for my wallet.

Also, missing *

*Nothing against Anderton's, just awkward to get to for me

Funkfingers

IMO, the key feature is the narrow humbuckers. Hence, next best option might be a pre-owned hardtail 408.

rivercider

I played an SE Paul's guitar (red!) very briefly in Andertons and thought it was OK but I was there shopping for something very different so it was just a quick go. Thought the pickups sounded pretty decent in single mode, more so than most typical split or tapped humbuckers do, but still not like an actual single coil, really.

Prefer the humbuckers on my Bernie Marsden, although they're obviously quite different models and not intended to sound the same, I'm sure.
It wasn't as nice a guitar as the PRS Vela I had, so I think I'd opt for a cheap or used S2 again over this unless it was reduced substantially, or secondhand. However, if the spec floats your boat its definitely worth trying one.
Also, I'm not really a fan of the low frets that seem to be standard issue on all SEs, but apart from that it seems like a decent value and versatile guitar I'd say.

thegummy

Snags said:

Related to this, is there anywhere in the UK that stocks the full-fat Paul's Guitar at the moment? Apart from Andertons*?

Hypothetically speaking, of course, as, as previously mentioned, I have completely talked myself out of having a £3k+ guitar when I can barely play the more modest instruments I already own. But, you know, just in case it's a good year and the birthday fairies are really, really, really pissed.

Maybe on the core PRS guitar there would be so much attention to detail that the action can be set up so perfectly that you'll be able to play better more easily than you can on the modest instrument

thegummy

Not sure if I've already said this but I so wish this guitar was available when I bought my first guitar cause I'd have chosen this.

I chose the Custom and had no idea about number of frets so went with 24 thinking more must be better and now the guitar practically sits redundant because I hate 24 fret guitars now.

Whereas this only comes in 22 frets so I wouldn't have been able to make that mistake.

TINMAN82

thegummy said:

Not sure if I've already said this but I so wish this guitar was available when I bought my first guitar cause I'd have chosen this.

I chose the Custom and had no idea about number of frets so went with 24 thinking more must be better and now the guitar practically sits redundant because I hate 24 fret guitars now.

Whereas this only comes in 22 frets so I wouldn't have been able to make that mistake.

Why do you hate 24frets? Can’t you just ignore the last 2 if you don’t want to play them?!

thegummy

TINMAN82 said:

thegummy said:

Not sure if I've already said this but I so wish this guitar was available when I bought my first guitar cause I'd have chosen this.

I chose the Custom and had no idea about number of frets so went with 24 thinking more must be better and now the guitar practically sits redundant because I hate 24 fret guitars now.

Whereas this only comes in 22 frets so I wouldn't have been able to make that mistake.

Why do you hate 24frets? Can’t you just ignore the last 2 if you don’t want to play them?!

lol I take it you're joking but that's actually what I thought at the time, I didn't really know much about guitars.

Funkfingers

Uh-oh. Looks as if the Modmins have merged one Discussion about the Core model with an earlier one about the SE version.

Snags

No, that was me. I was gassing for the SE but went and rewatched a Philip.McKnight video where he plays both side by side, which re-ignited Gas for the Core.

Frankly the Core pickups and switching would do me, not fussed about added bling. 

Funkfingers

Have you seen the PRS mail order shop prices for their aftermarket pickups? Scorchio! 

Snags

Yeah, the whole thing is scorchio!

Had a look at the 408 too, as suggested. It's another limited run job, so also chuffing hard to find, and reassuringly expensive. Realistically I can't justify either of them: skill level "average pub rock band", disposable income not that disposable etc.

Also, if I was going to start getting up into the £3k territory I couldn't in all conscience spend the money without trying loads of other expensive guitars, or considering Feline etc. and … well, it's a huge rabbit hole for a hobbiest hack to fall down when he should be getting the garage rebuilt, patio relaid, bedroom ripped out and redone etc. etc.

Although Mrs Snags does keep saying "Well, it is your 50th, and we have to get you something." Although I've already confirmed that "A go on a hot blonde" is out of the question.