New PRS SE Singlecut guitars are "Da Bomb"

[Steve A.]

I've got 2 PRS SE Soapbar II Maples that I got for $350 each, and have one with P-90's and one with a mini-humbucker at the neck and a stacked SD P-90 at the bridge. But I decided to get one more and rout it out for full-sized humbuckers.

When I got down to GC, the cupboard was bare- no more Soapbar II's in stock and none on order. But they did have one of the brand new SE Singlecuts which they gave me for $411.58 (the ticketed price was $599 and the MSRP was $799):

http://www.prsguitars.com/sesinglecut/

The neck is a little bit thicker than on the SE Soapbar II's but right out of the carton it plays like a dream. Perfect intention and action all of the way up to the 22nd fret. This guitar is lighter and thinner than a Gibson LP, but it still sounds very full and rich.

The stock pickups aren't too bad, but I did think that the neck was a bit too dark and the bridge was a bit too bright so I took the BurstBucker Pro #2 bridge/BurstBucker #2 neck set out of my Epiphone Flying V and put it in this PRS.

This guitar is an absolute beauty- looking at it you'd think it was a $3500 guitar except for the "SE" on the headstock. And it puts my real Gibson Les Pauls to shame (not the cheap $700 Special Junior Specials but the real ones with a carved top).

I believe that PRS started the Korean SE series a few years back with the Santana model which was impressive for the price, but IMO still not as good as a real PRS or Gibson. The original SE Singlecut was pulled for legal reasons but these guitars just keep getting better and better.

Whether you buy one or not, you ought to check them out just to see what is coming out of Korea these days. I suspect that much of the machinery is computerized so it spits out exactly what you tell it to...

Steve Ahola

[Sir Cuitous]

I suppose the Soapbar II would compare to the PRS SE ONE. Has anyone played one of these models?

[Steve A.]

I suppose the Soapbar II would compare to the PRS SE ONE. Has anyone played one of these models?

I'll have to look in that model! I guess that is the PRS answer to the Les Paul Junior...

I would imagine that the neck and flat body are pretty much like the Soapbar II. (So does the "ONE" in the name refer to the single cutaway, the single pickup or the single control??? I guess all of them, but wouldn't that add up to THREE? LOL)

[Sir Cuitous]

One of the guys I work with loves Juniors, so the SE One is interesting to me. It looks too simple, but with the right pickup it just might do one trick really well. I'm also thinking about getting a guitar with P-90(s) sound.

[t_k]

Earlier this year I picked up one of the SE Customs (on a whim) and I'm quite pleased with it.

For the price, it is an excellent guitar. The only significant complaint I have with it is the huge freaking heel. Otherwise, it sounds and plays like a much more expensive guitar.

[Sir Cuitous]

Is that heel asymetrical? How does the access to the upper frets feel?

[Steve Conner]

The full price PRS's have that huge freaking heel too! Well, my McCarty has it at least. I think it was a design change they made in 2000-something.

It doesn't bother me in the slightest because I have huge freakin' hands.

[Steve A.]

One of the guys I work with loves Juniors, so the SE One is interesting to me. It looks too simple, but with the right pickup it just might do one trick really well. I'm also thinking about getting a guitar with P-90(s) sound.

I got one of the discontinued Gibson Les Paul Juniors that Musician Friends was selling for $400 back in 2003, I believe. I was disappointed to learn that the P-90 pickup had ceramic magnets... ugh! So I tried swapping out the ceramic with Alnico V and Alnico II and Alnico III, and then various combinations of the Alnicos. Very interesting sounds from all of them, but I went back to the ceramic because it was the most responsive to changes made to the volume and tone settings. I thought I could get some better sounds with Alnico II magnets, but they just didn't provide the full range of sounds that I could get with the ceramic magnets.

With my Les Paul Jr, I use the tone control extensively, cutting it back for rhythm guitar parts and boosting it for lead guitar parts so I just can't imagine how it would be if I didn't have the tone control.

But I guess if someone was playing through a pedalboard or an multi-FX box, the lack of a tone control might not be such a problem...

[t_k]

Is that heel asymetrical? How does the access to the upper frets feel?

I'm not looking at it right now, but I'm fairly certain it's a symmetrical heel. I can reach all the upper frets without a problem, but I certainly feel that heel against my hand from about ---oh, about fret 15 and up.

This isn't a huge problem for me. I'm not making my living off of playing my guitar. Neither am I a blazingly fast technical player that's dancing all over the fingerboard. So though it doesn't cause problems for me, I could see it becoming really annoying if I was playing to pay my bills. Know what I mean?

As I said above, that heel is really the only complaint I have. The rest of the guitar is excellent and worth every penny.