NGD: PRS SE Custom Semi-Hollow

RevDrucifer

Fractal Fanatic
I went into Guitar Center yesterday to play a Taylor I fell in love with last week. I generally scrutinize large purchases and it was around $1700 (though I jumped on the FM9 waitlist immediately :tearsofjoy:) so I wanted to take my time and make sure I really wanted/needed it right now. I checked out a few electrics before going to the acoustic room. I always plays the PRS SE's because I've played a few that were really nice in the past and I'm always really curious about them in general. I played a SE 245 singlecut that was really nice and I think something like $640? Crazy! Played a each one they had and then the last one, when I saw the top on it I had to look at the headstock to ensure it was an SE and not a higher end model.

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In 28 years, I've played a lot of guitars, I'm sure we all have, out of those thousands of guitars, I've played maybe 8 that I remember played amazing right off the wall, as if I set them up specifically for myself. This was one of those guitars. Before I plugged it in I knew I was going to be leaving with it. I put it down after a couple of minutes and went to look at the Taylor again. They have two of this same model (a koa special edition) and the one I played last week was locked behind those locking hangers. I played the other one and it didn't sound or feel like the first one at all, I didn't even play it for 45 seconds before putting it down. I went outside to think for a minute; I "need" a hollowbody to round out the tone collection, it was absolutely flawless and only $880 and that damn top looks like it could easily be on a high end model. Of course, I did absolutely nothing to talk myself out of it.

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I really can't say enough good things about this. It's guitars like these and my Ibanez SZ (that was also perfect without me touching it and $500 new/cased) that make me really turn my head to guitars over $1500. All my presets are for metal stuff or my Strat, so I started going through some factory presets and got on Velvet Sun; within 10 minutes I had the skeleton of a song recorded. That's certainly a good sign of things to come!
 
I went into Guitar Center yesterday to play a Taylor I fell in love with last week. I generally scrutinize large purchases and it was around $1700 (though I jumped on the FM9 waitlist immediately :tearsofjoy:) so I wanted to take my time and make sure I really wanted/needed it right now. I checked out a few electrics before going to the acoustic room. I always plays the PRS SE's because I've played a few that were really nice in the past and I'm always really curious about them in general. I played a SE 245 singlecut that was really nice and I think something like $640? Crazy! Played a each one they had and then the last one, when I saw the top on it I had to look at the headstock to ensure it was an SE and not a higher end model.

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In 28 years, I've played a lot of guitars, I'm sure we all have, out of those thousands of guitars, I've played maybe 8 that I remember played amazing right off the wall, as if I set them up specifically for myself. This was one of those guitars. Before I plugged it in I knew I was going to be leaving with it. I put it down after a couple of minutes and went to look at the Taylor again. They have two of this same model (a koa special edition) and the one I played last week was locked behind those locking hangers. I played the other one and it didn't sound or feel like the first one at all, I didn't even play it for 45 seconds before putting it down. I went outside to think for a minute; I "need" a hollowbody to round out the tone collection, it was absolutely flawless and only $880 and that damn top looks like it could easily be on a high end model. Of course, I did absolutely nothing to talk myself out of it.

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I really can't say enough good things about this. It's guitars like these and my Ibanez SZ (that was also perfect without me touching it and $500 new/cased) that make me really turn my head to guitars over $1500. All my presets are for metal stuff or my Strat, so I started going through some factory presets and got on Velvet Sun; within 10 minutes I had the skeleton of a song recorded. That's certainly a good sign of things to come!
Sweet guitar! Really hard to look at that top and not have trouble believing it's an SE. What pickups has it got in it? 85/15? My $499 SE Standard 24 has them, and they sound nice, and the guitar's neck feels like home. Your tone knob probably pulls up to coil split both pickups, if it's wired like mine was when I got it....

Congrats!
 
Sweet guitar! Really hard to look at that top and not have trouble believing it's an SE. What pickups has it got in it? 85/15? My $499 SE Standard 24 has them, and they sound nice, and the guitar's neck feels like home. Your tone knob probably pulls up to coil split both pickups, if it's wired like mine was when I got it....

Congrats!

Yep, 81/15 with the coil split on the tone knob. Took me a few hours before I found that. :tearsofjoy: I'm not totally sold on them yet but I'm totally not used to dialing in tones for a guitar like this. They're just a little on the bright side, but once I get to know the guitar more I'll make a decision. I'm putting the Mad Hatter solderless kits in all my guitars so I can swap pickups out in 5 minutes. I hate soldering pickups. Anything else I'm fine with, but pickups I aboslutely hate soldering.

I still can't get over that top either, it's pretty nuts.
 
Yep, 81/15 with the coil split on the tone knob. Took me a few hours before I found that. :tearsofjoy: I'm not totally sold on them yet but I'm totally not used to dialing in tones for a guitar like this. They're just a little on the bright side, but once I get to know the guitar more I'll make a decision. I'm putting the Mad Hatter solderless kits in all my guitars so I can swap pickups out in 5 minutes. I hate soldering pickups. Anything else I'm fine with, but pickups I aboslutely hate soldering.

I still can't get over that top either, it's pretty nuts.
I found my coil tap switch while trying to get the knobs off to line it up so they said 10 when it was all the way up. Whoever assembled it lined it up as if you were going to be looking at the knob from directly above, but who plays guitar with the neck perfectly horizontal? :) The knob was so tight, it pulled the shaft out of the pull switch :eek:, so I ended up replacing it temporarily with a plain tone pot, and added a couple mini toggle switches to do series/parallel on each pickup. Later, I got another pull pot and did the phase switch thing. Nice bunch of sounds available. Both pickups with one or the other in parallel make for some nice sounds, due to the parallel pickup's lower output and impedance loading the other's output. With a 4P5T Super 5-way switch, you could rewire it like the fancy US-made ones pretty easily, or whip up your own thing. The 85/15 pickups are nice and clean, with a tight bottom end....
 
I found my coil tap switch while trying to get the knobs off to line it up so they said 10 when it was all the way up. Whoever assembled it lined it up as if you were going to be looking at the knob from directly above, but who plays guitar with the neck perfectly horizontal? :) The knob was so tight, it pulled the shaft out of the pull switch :eek:, so I ended up replacing it temporarily with a plain tone pot, and added a couple mini toggle switches to do series/parallel on each pickup. Later, I got another pull pot and did the phase switch thing. Nice bunch of sounds available. Both pickups with one or the other in parallel make for some nice sounds, due to the parallel pickup's lower output and impedance loading the other's output. With a 4P5T Super 5-way switch, you could rewire it like the fancy US-made ones pretty easily, or whip up your own thing. The 85/15 pickups are nice and clean, with a tight bottom end....

Yeah, I’d like to have the coil split on a toggle instead of a push/pull. That’s my only gripe about playing this guitar; the selector switch is in a terrible spot and I always have to move the whammy out of the way to get to it and after having the coil splitting on my FIshman’s done with a mini-toggle within finger-reach, it’s certainly missed.

I bought Austin Buddy’s Live Gold pack yesterday and started going through the presets while playing the PRS last night, man, it sounds so fucking great with the Friedman amps. I might just end up sticking with these pickups because between the coil split and just working the volume knob, there’s such a huge range of tones using one scene.

I really wanted it to kind of get away from the more metal/shreddy shit I do with most of my music and I’m looking to venture out into some other musical endeavors this year, possibly a cover band. I’ve pretty much got all the tonal ground covered except a guitar with P90’s, which I’m really thinking I might go the Jazzmaster route on when it comes time, or a Partscaster with P90’s.

Regardless, I’m taking a break from buying shit after today!
 
Yeah, I’d like to have the coil split on a toggle instead of a push/pull. That’s my only gripe about playing this guitar; the selector switch is in a terrible spot and I always have to move the whammy out of the way to get to it and after having the coil splitting on my FIshman’s done with a mini-toggle within finger-reach, it’s certainly missed.

I bought Austin Buddy’s Live Gold pack yesterday and started going through the presets while playing the PRS last night, man, it sounds so fucking great with the Friedman amps. I might just end up sticking with these pickups because between the coil split and just working the volume knob, there’s such a huge range of tones using one scene.

I really wanted it to kind of get away from the more metal/shreddy shit I do with most of my music and I’m looking to venture out into some other musical endeavors this year, possibly a cover band. I’ve pretty much got all the tonal ground covered except a guitar with P90’s, which I’m really thinking I might go the Jazzmaster route on when it comes time, or a Partscaster with P90’s.

Regardless, I’m taking a break from buying shit after today!
Jazzmaster? P90s?
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Picked this Noventa up when I visited Sweetwater last month. Great guitar! I added a pull switch to the tone knob that does a passive bass cut, which is useful on this guitar for when you want a skinnier tone. Fat Strat tones all day long. The brown is translucent, and shows grain through. They say these are all alder, but the grain I see looks suspiciously like ash.
 
Are these real P90's or Jazzmaster pickups?

I've found this video where the Jazzmaster sounds glassy and thin, while the Tele Jim Adkins P90 sounds great, with full body, as a P90


The Noventas have something very much like a P90 in them. I have not pulled them to check, but, based on the sound, I suspect they are a Fender take on the P90, with a slightly lower wind. Still a bit hotter than the "Blues 90" pickups in my BluesHawk, though.
 
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