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tjon901 « Real metal PRS SE »
Published on 11/28/11 at 07:32The PRS SE line of guitars is a line of guitars that PRS makes overseas and they are much more affordable than their USA made line of guitars. A lot of the PRS signature guitars are SE models so fans of the artist can afford them more easily. This is the current signature model for the Cradle of Filth guitarist Paul Allender. This is the current version as the older one had passive pickups I think this one is much better for heavy music. This is basically a modded Custom 24 SE. It has a mahogany body with a maple neck. The fretboard is ebony with 24 frets. It has bat inlays instead of the traditional birds. The pickups are a set of EMG's. It has an 81TW in the bridge and an 89 in the neck. The Allender obviously wanted the versatility of coil splitting. The bridge is a traditional PRS tremolo and the controls are traditional as well with a volume and tone with a 3 way switch.
UTILIZATION
These SE models do not come with locking tuners but everything else is pretty much PRS spec. This model has the wide thin neck which is really nice. It is like a 60s Gibson but with a flatter radius. The ebony fretboard is great and something you do not see often on even USA made PRS guitars. The bat inlays are pretty crazy and do not help much once you are at the higher frets because they are so big. I am not a big tremolo fan so I didnt use the tremolo much but PRS tremolos are pretty good even with their simple looking design.
SOUNDS
The EMG 81tw and the 89 are both splittable EMG pickups. But since you cannot really split an active pickups these pickups are actually 2 pickups in 1 case. These EMG's pretty much have a single coil packed in with them. Ill start with the 81tw in the bridge. With this pickup you get an EMG 81 with an EMG SA in the same pickup case. This essentially gives you humbucker and single coil tones in an active pickup without splitting anything, and these are true single coil tones. With this design you get the classic 81 sound unmolested with true single coil tone. The 81 tone needs no introduction. It has a crushing high end sound that can cut through the thickest gain or the muddiest mix. The EMG SA is one of their best single coil models. It has a very fat sound. It is almost like a single coil EMG 85. You still get the single coil twang but with this pickup the twang has some body to it. It is a very cool design. Not many people use active single coils so with this you get a very strong single coil sound. The 89 is basically the same thing but with an EMG 85 base. So it has better clean tones and the tone is thicker and has more bottom throughout the range.
OVERALL OPINION
This is a nice signature guitar. It doesnt have any huge logos on it or names so you do not look like an advertisement for someone else. It is a solid PRS with pickups that work great for metal. There are not many PRS guitars that come with EMG's stock. I can think of this and the Nick Catanse model and that model is not a good signature model. It is covered in logos and red binding and all sorts of crazy stuff. If you are looking for a PRS with EMG pickups get this one. Its great because it does not cost any more than a normal PRS SE guitar. They are all well priced.
UTILIZATION
These SE models do not come with locking tuners but everything else is pretty much PRS spec. This model has the wide thin neck which is really nice. It is like a 60s Gibson but with a flatter radius. The ebony fretboard is great and something you do not see often on even USA made PRS guitars. The bat inlays are pretty crazy and do not help much once you are at the higher frets because they are so big. I am not a big tremolo fan so I didnt use the tremolo much but PRS tremolos are pretty good even with their simple looking design.
SOUNDS
The EMG 81tw and the 89 are both splittable EMG pickups. But since you cannot really split an active pickups these pickups are actually 2 pickups in 1 case. These EMG's pretty much have a single coil packed in with them. Ill start with the 81tw in the bridge. With this pickup you get an EMG 81 with an EMG SA in the same pickup case. This essentially gives you humbucker and single coil tones in an active pickup without splitting anything, and these are true single coil tones. With this design you get the classic 81 sound unmolested with true single coil tone. The 81 tone needs no introduction. It has a crushing high end sound that can cut through the thickest gain or the muddiest mix. The EMG SA is one of their best single coil models. It has a very fat sound. It is almost like a single coil EMG 85. You still get the single coil twang but with this pickup the twang has some body to it. It is a very cool design. Not many people use active single coils so with this you get a very strong single coil sound. The 89 is basically the same thing but with an EMG 85 base. So it has better clean tones and the tone is thicker and has more bottom throughout the range.
OVERALL OPINION
This is a nice signature guitar. It doesnt have any huge logos on it or names so you do not look like an advertisement for someone else. It is a solid PRS with pickups that work great for metal. There are not many PRS guitars that come with EMG's stock. I can think of this and the Nick Catanse model and that model is not a good signature model. It is covered in logos and red binding and all sorts of crazy stuff. If you are looking for a PRS with EMG pickups get this one. Its great because it does not cost any more than a normal PRS SE guitar. They are all well priced.