I’ve never played a PRS !! What am I missing ??

Musicwolf

Secret_Sam said:

I tried an SE Hollowbody a few months ago.  Stunningly good instrument.  It's on my shopping list as soon as I get the last of my son's university fees paid. 

It comes alive in your hands like a 335, but at less than half the price.  It has its own sound and feel, but has the same level of magic.  The 'Aha, that's right' realisation when you play it.

I'm on my second.  The first was a non-piezo, which I picked up on here, and it was a great guitar but then Andertons were offering the piezo version for £799 and it just seemed rude not to take them up on their offer.  When I play live I use both outputs into my Helix (the piezo has an onboard pre-amp so you can send it to the aux input on the Helix).  I apply an acoustic IR to the piezo signal to produce a pretty respectable emulation of an acoustic guitar.  I've since traded the non-piezo version.

My only negative with the piezo version is that the fancy binding makes it hard for me to see the fret markers on stage without reading glasses.

rockmonster

I stepped over from Les paul’s that I’d been playing for years after picking up an early hard tail custom 22 which just happened to be for sale locally. I snapped it up and immediately loved the playability and tuning stability but found it a bit meh on the tone front so started flipping pickups and it became my number one gigging guitar after finding the pickups which worked for me. I eventually sold it after getting a few core singlecuts again I flipped pickups until I was happy with the tone. They are some of my main gigging guitars now. There seems to be richer tone in the core models for me but I do own quite a few SE guitars too, they are great value and are just as well finished but the wood, hardware and electronics are not of the same quality but it’s fun to try to upgrade to get as close as possible! I still own one Les paul and 5 Fenders though.
As a retired engineering and Product Design teacher I can appreciate what Mr Smith has done regarding the headstock design and the solving of tuning issues that other well known brands suffer from. To me I think it’s very positive how he has developed his line of guitars and the improved the quality control in the manufacture of guitars in general. Everyone has had to up their game. IMHO PRS manufacturing quality is as good and better in some cases (as has been discussed here recently!) as a lot of custom hand made guitars and for mass produced instruments that’s incredibly. More than could be said for Fender and Gibson in the past. They too have upped their game as a result as far as I’m concerned. 

Imagine still driving around in a shitty old Ford model T  had the purists been in charge………

Sorry for droning on!
Girds himself for the backlash

ICBM

rockmonster said:

IMHO PRS manufacturing quality is as good and better in some cases (as has been discussed here recently!) as a lot of custom hand made guitars and for mass produced instruments that’s incredibly.

I've always found this a very odd idea. Maybe it's because my father ran a precision engineering company, but I've always understood that mass-producing something using machines is more accurate and consistent than doing it by hand. PRS quality is better than Gibson's *because* they use more machine processes, not despite it. The entire modern world is based on that - without industrial mass production we would still be back in the 18th century.

rockmonster

I've always found this a very odd idea. Maybe it's because my father ran a precision engineering company, but I've always understood that mass-producing something using machines is more accurate and consistent than doing it by hand. PRS quality is better than Gibson's *because* they use more machine processes, not despite it. The entire modern world is based on that - without industrial mass production we would still be back in the 18th century.

Exactly! But is this a positive or a negative in the grand scheme of things? It is to me regarding the manufacture of guitars but not everyone would agree I’m sure!

Strat54

rockmonster said:

I've always found this a very odd idea. Maybe it's because my father ran a precision engineering company, but I've always understood that mass-producing something using machines is more accurate and consistent than doing it by hand. PRS quality is better than Gibson's *because* they use more machine processes, not despite it. The entire modern world is based on that - without industrial mass production we would still be back in the 18th century.

Exactly! But is this a positive or a negative in the grand scheme of things? It is to me regarding the manufacture of guitars but not everyone would agree I’m sure!

Like making great violins?

soma1975

Weirdly the only PRS I've played was a £15,000 dragon inlay crazy OTT bullshit thing that set in stone all my feelings about them even though it was like 20-odd years ago. 

slacker

I the manfacturing thing is always going to spawn different opinions. IMHO it's diminishing returns. It's always about sound for me. This is where prs fall flat for me. 

I went to a jam and a gentleman was playing a prs via my matchless. Sounded good. The he plugged in a lp Jr. No contest. 

Some people like prs guitars. I played bass in a covers band or two with guys with ce,s customs etc. Sounded OK, did the humbucker thing, did the single coil thing. But didn't move me. I borrowed a ce for rehearsals for 6 weeks. Didn't move me, it was a guitar, nice to play, stayed in tune. Where's the soul...

I've got a les paul  strat tele ric and gretsch. All old designs all deeply flawed in some way. But all move me. All inspire me. 

Ymmv as subjective

menamestom

I’d be interested if they brought out a CE22 with a fatter neck than the CE24.   People always say they are a perfect mix between Gibson and Fender but they are generally more Gibson, I’d want the bolt on neck personally.

Other than wanting a model that doesn’t exist and the baltimore port being closed now which will massively affect exports, I’d say it’s fairly likely I will get one.

guitars4you

menamestom said:

I’d be interested if they brought out a CE22 with a fatter neck than the CE24.   People always say they are a perfect mix between Gibson and Fender but they are generally more Gibson, I’d want the bolt on neck personally.

Other than wanting a model that doesn’t exist and the baltimore port being closed now which will massively affect exports, I’d say it’s fairly likely I will get one.

Think USA PRS Guitars are air shipped to the UK/EU warehouse

The original USA CE22 Maple Top had a wide/fat profile (which is now equivalent to the pattern profile) - The Original CE24 Maple top did have the wide/thin which is slimmer - Same applies to the original CE22 and CE24 models (without the maple top)

ICBM

menamestom said:

I’d be interested if they brought out a CE22 with a fatter neck than the CE24.   People always say they are a perfect mix between Gibson and Fender but they are generally more Gibson, I’d want the bolt on neck personally.

That’s why I like the Swamp Ash Special so much too.

menamestom said:

Other than wanting a model that doesn’t exist and the baltimore port being closed now which will massively affect exports, I’d say it’s fairly likely I will get one.

The port will be open again within weeks, possibly sooner - they can’t afford not to. It’s unlikely to affect PRS availability even if they go by sea, since the dealers here will have some stock.

No doubt Ebay sellers will be trying to convince people otherwise though, and put prices up…

SixStringSage

I had a Core Custom 24. It was excellent, as one of the first responses said it had great ergonomics. The pickups sounded really nice and articulate. 

I ended up selling it though, as I played it more I realised the neck was too thin for me and the frets felt like tombstones under my fingers when I played lead. I sold it to help fund my R9 and honestly, I don't think about that guitar unless I see photos of it.

The model I had is extremely versatile, given the 5-way selector switch. But I don't know that I'd be in a hurry to buy another — the SE and S2 models are fine but I don't think they're giving the same "PRS experience" as the core models, and the prices are hard to justify these days even on the used market.

That said, lots of players will say that PRS was their eureka moment, in which case they'd be worth every penny.

So, you're missing out on knowing whether a PRS is for you or not.

motorhead

Interesting commentary on the neck shapes. I used to fret about this (har har) but am kind of over it now. I got my first PRS in 1997, it was a CE 24 with the wide/thin neck. Due to a crazy period at work plus a horrific commute, I had very little time to play anything let alone justify multiple guitars so I sold it. I had also swallowed a load of BS perceived wisdom about thick necks / set necks, more heft, blah blah. So a few years later I got a Cu 22 stoptail wide/fat. Which was nice, but after a while I noticed I wasn't playing that all that much either. So I sold it. And a while after that got a DGT, which had even more neck heft nut also the bigger frets that really do make a difference. Along the way, I'd grown a preference for ever bigger necks generally till I recently fell for a Tyler with the extra slim neck. Had a really hard time adjusting (week of Difene, even) but persisted,

Now I find that with a bit of technique adjustment, it doesn't much matter how thick the neck is. There will be limitations, but that's ok. Wide necks are more forgiving if you're clumsy (that'll be me) but the penalty is you can reach less. I've watched players with tiny hands fly around thick and wide necks and realised I've just been lazy all along, seeking comfort zone when it's far more interesting to seek tones, and play to a guitar's strengths rather than have it slot into my lazy ways.

Also, if I was to have any of my old PRS's back, it would be that CE. With a re-fret of jumbos.

MagicPigDetective

Musicwolf said:

Secret_Sam said:

I tried an SE Hollowbody a few months ago.  Stunningly good instrument.  It's on my shopping list as soon as I get the last of my son's university fees paid. 

It comes alive in your hands like a 335, but at less than half the price.  It has its own sound and feel, but has the same level of magic.  The 'Aha, that's right' realisation when you play it.

I'm on my second.  The first was a non-piezo, which I picked up on here, and it was a great guitar but then Andertons were offering the piezo version for £799 and it just seemed rude not to take them up on their offer.  When I play live I use both outputs into my Helix (the piezo has an onboard pre-amp so you can send it to the aux input on the Helix).  I apply an acoustic IR to the piezo signal to produce a pretty respectable emulation of an acoustic guitar.  I've since traded the non-piezo version.

My only negative with the piezo version is that the fancy binding makes it hard for me to see the fret markers on stage without reading glasses.

They look great. An SE Hollowbody is currently at the top of my hypothetical next guitar GAS list. Do they only make the Piezo version now? It’s not a feature I’d need, perhaps the older version would do me. 

Kurtis

slacker said:

Where's the soul...

In the player? 

Musicwolf

MagicPigDetective said:

They look great. An SE Hollowbody is currently at the top of my hypothetical next guitar GAS list. Do they only make the Piezo version now? It’s not a feature I’d need, perhaps the older version would do me. 

It looks as though PRS are tweaking the range for 2024, but they are still making both piezo and non-piezo versions.

normula1

I reckon my CU22 is in a different universe build quality wise from all my other guitars inc. a custom shop Gibson. It has (for my preference) a couple of design flaws, that a lottery win Private Stock would fix, but I'm certain others on here would hate the fixes

Still play all the other guitars though

Musicwolf

Took the opportunity, whilst everyone was out (they don't understand), to take a gratuitous family photo.

Back row L-R.  SE Hollowbody II Piezo, S2 Semi-Hollow, SE Custome Semi-Hollow.

Front.  Silver Sky, Fiore, Studio 22.

Rowby1

@thomasross20 twas I that made that comment. My experience was trying a load of the expensive ones out at Musicstreet just pre Covid. They were lovely looking, flawlessly finished and perfectly set up but didn’t make me want to keep playing. I picked an Eastman T486 off the wall and it had exactly what the PRSs I tried were lacking. Bought the Eastman, twice the guitar 1/3rd the price. 

Last year got persuaded to play at an open mic/jam on a borrowed guitar, and S2 I think is the model. It was really impressive! Really lively and resonant and inspiring to play….. hence my comment. 

I dare say some of the more expensive ones are also great guitars but none of the half dozen or so I tried that day in Musicstreet were a patch on the borrowed jam S2. 

Philly_Q

Musicwolf said:

MagicPigDetective said:

They look great. An SE Hollowbody is currently at the top of my hypothetical next guitar GAS list. Do they only make the Piezo version now? It’s not a feature I’d need, perhaps the older version would do me. 

It looks as though PRS are tweaking the range for 2024, but they are still making both piezo and non-piezo versions.

That's the Mira completely eradicated from the PRS range then.     It's gone from the Premier League to something like a hypothetical Vanarama North.  Is there any way back?

TTBZ

I'm really interested in trying an SE CE24. Looks like a lot of guitar for the money. My trouble with PRS is they don't quite make the model I'd really like (at least in my price range) which is the standard doublecut shape, 22 fret, hardtail with moon or dot inlays, preferably not wide/fat. Some of them come close like the Vela or S2 Standard 22.