PRS DGT SE incoming...

Musicman20

chris78 said:

Musicman20 said:

The prices for the new lines are pretty insane. A lot of £1000+ SE guitars!

I'd be looking at the higher end MIM Fenders for some of those guitars instead. This is pushing it way too far.

Have you seen the price of Vintera modified? Road worn?

Andertons have their purple road worn tele on backorder at £1300.

Moaning about PRS prices when Fender imports are more expensive seems odd?

More of an observation that they are, IMO, becoming very expensive when SEs were £400-500 originally or less. The marketing is doing a very very good job for PRS.

Andertons are never a good comparison site for prices, however, 

https://www.andertons.co.uk/fender-road-worn-60s-strat-candy-apple-red-american-vintage-59-pickups?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=surfaces&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6-rgs9i9_AIVkO3tCh3tww0WEAQYCSABEgKBYfD_BwE

Down to £1049. £1149 normally, USA pickups, nitro.

Purple Tele is overpriced. Prob some daft reason like 'oh Pete uses purple, GO BOOMERS'.

Aornic

Musicman20 said:

Purple Tele is overpriced. Prob some daft reason like 'oh Pete uses purple, GO BOOMERS'.

To be fair, it is an Andertons exclusive (for UK) custom colour and has upgraded pickups over the regular road worn Telecaster model. Both these factors made it an easy buy at 1000 in 2020. 1300 is just tough for me personally though. My friend's SE Paul's Guitar was the better instrument between the two.

RaymondLin

I feel like we have this conversation about guitar prices going up every year, but then if we look back, we would snap our old hands off to get a PRS core at £2499 10 years ago.  I picked up one for £1249 in 2013...

Those days are long gone but 1 thing is still hold true, if you have patience, have cash ready, every now and again you will pick up a bargain, either in sale (like the recent S2), or used or a slightly dinged PRS sold at a massive discount being a PRS with a ding.

grungebob

If no one buys em at this price point they will reduce em. That’s across the board no matter the manufacturer. 

We become accustomed to accepting price rises year on year out. 

rpr

PC1971

Sorry, just noticed someone else already posted this earlier. ;-)

Alterlifeson

chris78 said:

Musicman20 said:

The prices for the new lines are pretty insane. A lot of £1000+ SE guitars!

I'd be looking at the higher end MIM Fenders for some of those guitars instead. This is pushing it way too far

Moaning about PRS prices when Fender imports are more expensive seems odd?

It does seem odd but Fenders MIM range are completely separate from their MIA line. I am much more interested in the interesting MIM models than anything (with exceptions) that's coming from the USA plant. The nature of things like the Tele and Strat means that they can't economise the body carves or neck joint so the basic instrument is the same.

PRS are basically recreating their core line up with fewer features and are increasing the price each year. There is nothing really different or unusual about the SE series, they are just a cheaper version of their expensive models.

RaymondLin

Alterlifeson said:

chris78 said:

Musicman20 said:

The prices for the new lines are pretty insane. A lot of £1000+ SE guitars!

I'd be looking at the higher end MIM Fenders for some of those guitars instead. This is pushing it way too far

Moaning about PRS prices when Fender imports are more expensive seems odd?

It does seem odd but Fenders MIM range are completely separate from their MIA line. I am much more interested in the interesting MIM models than anything (with exceptions) that's coming from the USA plant. The nature of things like the Tele and Strat means that they can't economise the body carves or neck joint so the basic instrument is the same.

PRS are basically recreating their core line up with fewer features and are increasing the price each year. There is nothing really different or unusual about the SE series, they are just a cheaper version of their expensive models.

Most of the time, I think you are right but every now and again they bring out something that isn't on the Core line.

I have a SE One, a single pick up, solid body, 24.5" all mahogany guitar.  But it came with only volume control.  That was never in the Core line up or S2 line up.

dindude

One thing is pretty certain, fret ends and fingerboard edges will be way superior on a PRS SE than a MIM Fender, the fretwork is pretty terrible coming out of Mex now, I think it’s a self limiting thing to differentiate from the US line. But then PRS, Schecter, Sire, Ibanez etc can all make more consistent guitars in Indonesia than Fender can in Mexico. Once Indonesia fix the plasticky finish issue then I think we’re there as the frets/fingerboards/pickups thing is really getting there.

roberty

dindude said:

One thing is pretty certain, fret ends and fingerboard edges will be way superior on a PRS SE than a MIM Fender, the fretwork is pretty terrible coming out of Mex now, I think it’s a self limiting thing to differentiate from the US line. But then PRS, Schecter, Sire, Ibanez etc can all make more consistent guitars in Indonesia than Fender can in Mexico. Once Indonesia fix the plasticky finish issue then I think we’re there as the frets/fingerboards/pickups thing is really getting there.

Phil McKnight was saying that Fender's QC has taken a dive recently. Their sales are way up so I guess they're rushing to try and keep up with demand

I had an Indonesian made Revstar that had a lovely soft feeling finish. Polyurethane I think

Musicman20

dindude said:

One thing is pretty certain, fret ends and fingerboard edges will be way superior on a PRS SE than a MIM Fender, the fretwork is pretty terrible coming out of Mex now, I think it’s a self limiting thing to differentiate from the US line. But then PRS, Schecter, Sire, Ibanez etc can all make more consistent guitars in Indonesia than Fender can in Mexico. Once Indonesia fix the plasticky finish issue then I think we’re there as the frets/fingerboards/pickups thing is really getting there.

Maybe recently, but my MIM RW Jazzmaster, RW Jazz Bass and Baja Tele are absolutely flawless. All three have excellent pickups. 

Aornic

roberty

Sounds great in Phil's demo. Looks like they did get the pickups right 

Kebabkid

Aornic said:

I like that and I'm still interested to try one and I liked the SE Silver Sky I played but not any of the other SE's like the Tremonti and CU24 and I had a HSH model a few years ago that was just ok.

What I'm getting from this and other things I've seen/read is that this seems to be sitting somewhere between an SE and a Core model CE as there are certain things that push it more to the latter and maybe that's where the higher price comes in.

Talking to a PRS Rep recently about the SE Hollowbody guitars, he said there were noticeable differences between the SE Hollowbody II and the more expensive Hollowbody II Piezo in terms of construction and some materials and it was a superior guitar that had more in common with the core models. The latter had a price tag of over £1K until recently when it could be had in the Black Friday sales for £799 and I think PRS might be trying to do this with this model to set it apart from the 'regular' SE's

Remember the Suhr's budget Rasmus range? Having owned several Suhrs, the ones I tried were fantastic and on par in sounds and quality with the core models and I regret not buying one. However, many people complained about it being Chinese-made and the cost being around £800

The online reviews seem positive and Guitarist mag get to do one next month. So, let's see

HandwrittenHero

chris78 said:

HandwrittenHero said:

chris78 said:

Musicman20 said:

The prices for the new lines are pretty insane. A lot of £1000+ SE guitars!

I'd be looking at the higher end MIM Fenders for some of those guitars instead. This is pushing it way too far.

Have you seen the price of Vintera modified? Road worn?

Andertons have their purple road worn tele on backorder at £1300.

Moaning about PRS prices when Fender imports are more expensive seems odd?

The purple tele is overpriced when a blue vrw is £1049 at guitarguitar.

Vintera modified it depends on the model, but £850ish gets you some of them. It’s a bit of a leap to say the Fender imports are more expensive.

I didn’t say that.

If you’re comparing a top of the line PRS guitar at circa £1k, you need to compare to top of the line Fender Mexican (which actually I haven’t done - see Joe Strummer, Jason Isbell etc). Plenty of PRS SEs are under a grand - the new 594 singlecut for example is comparable to a Vintera modified. 

Let’s level the playing field here and PRS are not more expensive than Fender

It’s not really worth splitting hairs on since we can both selectively pick and claim apples to oranges is still comparing fruit. I’d point out the Isbell Tele was a really limited run as an sig, but equally PRS refresh every year, Fender every 2, David Grissom is a real person etc etc etc.

I’ve wrote out and deleted a longer post - my main complaint is similar to what I throw at Gibson as well, premium brand that uses it as an up sell. Both to an extent using headstock. Admittedly Gibson are worse for it, but thread is PRS.

FWIW I actually like the guitar in isolation, it looks well specced when getting nerdy enough etc. I don’t think it’s a Student Edition though. To be honest if PRS just changed the branding around their Student Edition and Series 2nd lines but kept pricing similar they’d probably land better on perception. Weird nuance to my argument I know.

markj

Aornic said:

roberty said:

Sounds great in the demo. The only thing I'd say is I'm keen on the look of the knobs but that's easily changed and they probably look fine IRL

Any of these would suit it more, in my opinion. 

https://uk.prsaccessories.com/collections/parts-1/products/lampshade-knobs

They only fit U.S made guitars.

TimmyO

I may be rowing back on how good I think the Goldtop looks - need to see one in the flesh - those smooth edges look a little odd in some of the pics - still impressed by the product as a whole (and feel very fortunate to have got a full-fat DGT secondhand when that didn't cost what it does now) 

grungebob

I think the stupid up charge for 2023 on all things will only be a good thing for the small luthiers and repairmen. What used to be non economical repairs can now be justified and that’s going to help them no doubt. Where’s before I couldn’t justify a £2-300 refret on a guitar I’d only get £300 for second hand,it now looks to be a viable option rather than fork out £999+ for something of lesser quality.  

Remember when SE’s were quality guitars at a price that couldn’t be bested? Well that new DGT doesn’t even get countersunk control plates anymore plus the cavity routing looks to have a fair degree of chatter or tear out. Not to mention the screw holes are really close to the cavity wall it’s going to cause issues. 

March

Grissom has said that he used an SE version of his guitar for the entirety of his gig at the Saxon last night.

Musicman20

They may as well take SE off the headstock and call them something else. Not really an affordable options for a 'student' anymore.