« Affordable PRS for the metal player »

The PRS SE line is their line of overseas made guitars. These guitars have similar specs to the American made models but come with a lot lower price tag. This guitar is a more metal version of the PRS SE line. It comes with active EMG pickups. It has an 81 in the bridge and an 85 in the neck the Zakk Wylde combo. The guitar also comes with a Floyd Rose tremolo system. Playability wise this guitar plays as good as any PRS guitar. It has PRS's wide-thin neck profile which feels a lot like a 60s Gibson profile. The Floyd Rose is a well known design and once setup it will be locked in tune pretty much forever. The setneck joint is nice and slim so you can play all the way up on the neck. The heel is very nice and it is almost like a neck through guitar. The action was nice and low across the neck. With PRS's unique scale the intonation just feels right where ever you are on the neck. This model has a deeper cutaway on the bottom horn. You can tell this guitar was designed for modern players. With the EMG pickups this guitar is pretty much as heavy as you are going to get. The 81 in the bridge has been an iconic metal pickup for decades. It has a high end crunch and distortion that gives it clarity no matter how much gain you are using or how low you tune. The 85 in the neck is a great pickup too. It has a more fuller sound than the 81 so in the neck position you can get fat lead tones. The 85 is also good too in the bridge. With EMG's quick connect system you can easily swap these pickups position without soldering anything. The 85 in the bridge produces a super thick tone and cleans up better than the 81. Speaking of cleans if you do the 18v mod on the EMG's. With the 18v mod you run the pickups on two batteries instead of one. This provides a more organic tone with more headroom. This tone produces better cleans than stock EMG's and clean tones are usually the weakest part of the EMG sound. With this guitar PRS is making roads into the world of super strats. Normal players may start looking at their guitars as a good alternative to Prestige Ibanez guitars or ESP's. PRS is showing people that their guitars are not just for dentists and lawyers anymore.