All user reviews for the PRS SE Santana - Black

Ok now we've read all the other reviews. No one mentioned the great playing rosewood fretboards or flawless jumbo frets. Plus being an absolutely beautiful Tobacco Sunburst finish on a one piece mohagany body as well as the same for the set neck. Makes this the perfect platform for a very fine touring and recording guitar. With that and it's great low price, I bought one and with only a few mods it's the go to guitar.
First off I replaced the non-locking tuners with Grover Rotomatics. The saddle issues mentioned with a set of Graph-Tech PRS Santana SE saddles and their Tusk self lubricating nut (can be bought as a set for this model. I had it set up by a pro and wow! It stays in tune for weeks even when I use the tremolo, and it's now a resonating, sustaining dream. I also changed the bridge pickup to a Seymore Duncan JB4, the pots for CTS ones with orange drop caps, and a set of D'Adarrio XL 10's and now it is a gigging and recording tone monster! It truly is a players guitar and will now easily keep up with and surpass many U.S. humbuckered Strats, Teles or Sg's and a few cheaper Pauls and definately anything offshore. All of these mods cost less than $400 installed, and lots less if you can do the work yourself. I own in total 13 guitar and 8 basses all of which are U.S. and/or

It originally sold for the regular dealer price (don't remember) at the local PRS dealer here in southern Ontario, Canada. Where it was bought and modded by me.

With these modifications I love everthing about it, even the stock neck pickup shines for cleans and overdriven/bluesy tones with the new pots and Graph-Tech parts etc..

The big neck heel...but it's really not a big deal.

see above

It may seem like a lot of money for a guitar that costs not too much more than the mods but for under a $1000 you get a guitar that tone wise will keep up to the best of them, and with great playablity that together can't be rivaled at this price point buy anyone.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

i got it at a music store in my town wher i buy all of my my guitars and i have loved all of them i have gotten but this one. i paid about $600 for thispiece of crap. if i could give it a zero i would

i don't like anything about this fuckin guitar simple as that.

i hate everything about it. the damn thing never stays in tune the pickups don't pickup anything well on it.th wiring is all scrwwed upi had to oay an extra $200 to get that fixed.it buzzes even with a high action. they welded the pickups in so you can't take them out.

none, i would have to be crazy to put somethin here

its is a damn piece of shit

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I Bought this fantastic axe for 850€ (close to 1020 USD) at Faminho in Portugal (Yeah, that's right. I'm Portuguese). I was in the market for a double humbucker guitar and... this IS a PRS!!!

Everything! I mean, have you heard it's tone? It's fantastic. The fingerboard is very smooth and extremely fast. Playability is great and the sound is full and rich.

..unhh!!! Dificult! Maybe I'd like it to have separate tone control for each pickup... but it doesn´t bother me that much! It doesn't have locking tunners but it keeps tune just fine.

It's really solid!! Built like a tank, I'd say, and still manages to be quite light!! Don't think I'll ever have a problem with this unit. I think it can take a serious beating...

Fantastic!!! I play this guitar through a Line6 POD and into a Fender RockPro 1000!! It's a killer sound. I usually play lead guitar based on Eric Clapton, Gary Moore, Pink Floyd, Queen and, of course, Santana. The versatility of this piece of equipment is oustanding. This baby sunk my Fender Stratocaster to reserve status and I use it on live gigs all the time... it became my main guitar.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I bought this superb axe from FAMINHO in Famalicão (Portugal) for €850 (about the same amount in USD). Why did I bought it? Well, I was looking for a humbucker based guitar and found this amazing piece of equipment… come on, it’s a PRS (even if it is Korean made).

I love everything about this guitar. For starters, it’s extremely beautiful (mine is dark brown woodlike colour… I think it’s Mahogany Black Sunburst, but I’m not sure. That colour does not appear in PRS site as one of the available colours for the SE! Don’t know how I got it, but I love it…)! It’s really light (compared to a Gibson) and the neck fit’s me perfectly and the strap buttons seem sturdy. There’s a small buzz on the A string, but nothing special… As for the sound, just one word: PERFECT for a guitar with this price range. I mean it’s a full, warm yet a little dark sound. Maybe not as powerful as some of the “extreme metal” players would like, but since I mostly play blues and rock&roll it suits me fine. I play it through a Line6 POD and a Fender Rockpro 1000! The result is great.

I haven’t found any major complaints about this guitar yet. I would like to have locking tuners, so maybe I’ll upgrade them in the future.

This guitar seems quite solid. No finish flaws or anything. Built to last, I’d say…

Bottom line: an excellent buy!! Perfect tone and intonation, incredibly lasting sustain, fantastic neck. There’s no way you’ll get a better guitar for nowhere near this kind of price. I’ve been playing an Epiphone Les Paul and the is no possible comparison… the PRS blows the competition away. On live gigs I use both this guitar and my Eric Clapton Stratocaster. I love them both, yet the “Claptoncaster” was much more expensive. This PRS really rocks…

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I bought this superb axe from FAMINHO in Famalicão (Portugal) for €850 (about the same amount in USD). Why did I bought it? Well, I was looking for a humbucker based guitar and found this amazing piece of equipment… come on, it’s a PRS (even if it is Korean made).

I love everything about this guitar. For starters, it’s extremely beautiful (mine is dark brown woodlike colour… I think it’s Mahogany Black Sunburst, but I’m not sure. That colour does not appear in PRS site as one of the available colours for the SE! Don’t know how I got it, but I love it…)! It’s really light (compared to a Gibson) and the neck fit’s me perfectly and the strap buttons seem sturdy. There’s a small buzz on the A string, but nothing special… As for the sound, just one word: PERFECT for a guitar with this price range. I mean it’s a full, warm yet a little dark sound. Maybe not as powerful as some of the “extreme metal” players would like, but since I mostly play blues and rock&roll it suits me fine. I play it through a Line6 POD and a Fender Rockpro 1000! The result is great.

I haven’t found any major complaints about this guitar yet. I would like to have locking tuners, so maybe I’ll upgrade them in the future.

This guitar seems quite solid. No finish flaws or anything. Built to last, I’d say…

Bottom line: an excellent buy!! Perfect tone and intonation, incredibly lasting sustain, fantastic neck. There’s no way you’ll get a better guitar for nowhere near this kind of price. I’ve been playing an Epiphone Les Paul and the is no possible comparison… the PRS blows the competition away. On live gigs I use both this guitar and my Eric Clapton Stratocaster. I love them both, yet the “Claptoncaster” was much more expensive. This PRS really rocks…

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I was at Good News Music in Traverse City, Michigan. I go in there and hang out alot, because I love guitars. I didn't need a new guitar at all, but I've always loved PRS and I've never had the money. As I walked in I saw this Royal Blue Santana in the middle of the room and I knew right then I had to have it. I plugged it into a Marshall MG100DFX (the amp I have at home) and let it sing. I got it with the incredibly nice gig bag for $500 out the door.

First of all, it's got the PRS shape. Next, it sounds awesome clean and even more awesome cranked out. It's incredibly playable and fast. The wide neck feels really really good. The finish is definitely eye catching. I got the version with the nickel covered humbuckers and no pickguard, which I think looks alot better than the new one. Also, it feels really comfortable when it's strapped on.

The Royal blue finish is really hard to keep clean. It's impossible to keep fingerprints off.
I'm not a huge fan of the trem and it was seated crooked when i picked it up. All I had to do was push it back in. Even then, when i use the trem, it knocks against the body. The non-locking tuners don't hold tune when you use the trem, but that's typical. Also, the bridge pickup has alot of feedback when I crank up my amp.

A very high quality unit for the price. I've played guitars that cost twice as much that sounded and felt like crap. There are a couple of defects in the finish, but nothing really noticeable and nothing that is going to affect sound or playability.

If you're looking for PRS looks, affordability, and one hell of a nice axe, get the PRS Santana SE.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I paid $360 with shipping from ebay, thought it was a GOOD DEAL

It looks really nice black with pearl se inlays and chrome hardware. A solid one piece guitar with plenty of sustain. Not to crazy about Santana though so I blackened out his name with shiny black car paint. I mean his old stuff is cool and all but you know....

I didin't know this before I bought it but most PRS guitars have a huge heel connecting the neck to the body this gets really annoying when your playing in the upper register. It takes alot out of my style of playing. Also there is a bad buzzing from the low E string, possibly the buzz is fixable.

It has a great look to it kind of like a cross between an SG and Les Paul with two humbuckers and standard PRS bridge. Selector switch can give you a nice fat tone or a high almost tinny tone. However I can't express this enough the heel is definetly a great flaw in this and all PRS gutiars.

If your a beginner and are looking for a first cool guitar or are more into the rhythum and not so much a soloist style. I would suggest this. If your an experienced and fluent guitarist pass on this and beware of PRS guitars

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I ordered the guitar from Musician's Friend
in 2002 for $400.

The guiatr is crafted with quality materials.
The body is a select piece of mahogany.
The fingerboard is rosewood with pearl inlays.
The pickups are medium output.
The tremolo is excellent as well.

It takes some time to find your own voice on the guitar.
It has a vintage vibe, which I like.
However, for hard rock and metal, it lacks some "edge."

The construction is commendable.
It has an impressive all around "feel."

PRS did a good job making an affordable,
great sounding instrument with the Santana SE!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I bought this guitar from American Musical supply for 399.99 because I was looking for a well built and inexspensive electric guitar.

This guitar sounds really nice through my Behringer Ultraroc amp. I especially like this clean tone. It's nice and warm with good sustain. The tone is also very versatile. You could probably get just about any sound you wanted to out of this guitar. I really liked the neck. Though I am more of a fan of thinner necks, I still think that the smooth, mahagony neck is easy to grip and play.

There is not a whole lot I don't like about this guitar. Maybe if the neck was a little thinner and I wouldn't mind if it had locking tuners but other than that it's a really nice, well built, easy to play guitar.

The construction quality is very good I've dropped it a number of times and haven't had a problem. It's and overseas guitar so of course it's going to have some minor flaws, but nothing too noticeable.

The bottom line is that I would suggest that anyone buy this guitar whether you're a student or planning to go professionaly. With the great tone and price this guitar can't be beat.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Purchased from Musician's Friend online for
$499.00. I liked the looks and what I read in the reviews.

Awesome tone, good harmonics, intonation o.k. after alot of adjustment. Nice looks, I had the vintage cherry.

Bridge hieght was hard to adjust with the intonation set screws adjusted in. The screws scored the bridge posts. I tried to control this by backing the set screws out to adjust the bridge hieght, then back in again. A long process to get everything set right. Also the neck was too wide for my tastes. It screwed me up, going from my Ovation 1668 std. elite to the SE

Nice finish, fretboard binding and the nut appeared cheap though. The stop tail piece was a pain in the rear to adjust. Some string buzzing, I stopped it by adjusting the neck and raising the bridge. So much for the low action, but I couldn't handle the rattling 1st, 2nd and 6th strings. This raised the action back up there with a strat, which was what I was wanting to get away from.

I wouldn't mind having another one, but I think they are over-rated. I wouldn't give more than $250 for a used one. Save your money and by a real PRS, made in the USA.
Also, to my ear, the tremelo equiped guitars don't have the tone of the stop-tail guitars. PLEASE NOTE: I bought a pearl white Santana SE first and didn't like the color, called Musician's Friend and they traded me for a Vintage Cherry. Very few questions. Super-good people to deal with.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Purchased from Musician's Friend online for
$499.00. I liked the looks and what I read in the reviews.

Awesome tone, good harmonics, intonation o.k. after alot of adjustment. Nice looks, I had the vintage cherry.

Bridge hieght was hard to adjust with the intonation set screws adjusted in. The screws scored the bridge posts. I tried to control this by backing the set screws out to adjust the bridge hieght, then back in again. A long process to get everything set right. Also the neck was too wide for my tastes. It screwed me up, going from my Ovation 1668 std. elite to the SE

Nice finish, fretboard binding and the nut appeared cheap though. The stop tail piece was a pain in the rear to adjust. Some string buzzing, I stopped it by adjusting the neck and raising the bridge. So much for the low action, but I couldn't handle the rattling 1st, 2nd and 6th strings. This raised the action back up there with a strat, which was what I was wanting to get away from.

I wouldn't mind having another one, but I think they are over-rated. I wouldn't give more than $250 for a used one. Save your money and by a real PRS, made in the USA.
Also, to my ear, the tremelo equiped guitars don't have the tone of the stop-tail guitars. PLEASE NOTE: I bought a pearl white Santana SE first and didn't like the color, called Musician's Friend and they traded me for a Vintage Cherry. Very few questions. Super-good people to deal with.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I ordered this through Musiciansfriend.com for 399.99 brand new. After reading a good amount of reviews and knowing that I had a budget, I decided on this two humbucker guitar without even playing it, mostly because the guitar store in my city did not carry it.

It was completely worth the money I payed for . The bridge pickup gives you good Jimmy Page type tone set with distortion, even some early Eric Clapton type Cream tones when set on clean. By the way I play it through a Marshall Valvestate Amp (great product as well). The neck pickup is smooth too. You can coax clean Jimmi Hendrix strat style sounds and when set on completely clean its like butter man. I use a wang bar too and the guitar stays in tune well as long as you dont do huge dive bombs on it.

The only thing I didn't like was that since it was a lower price PRS they had to sacrifice on some of the apointments. My only problem is that my bridge saddles are starting to turn brown, but those can always be replaced.

The tuners are fabulous, finish is excellent, it colore black, like i said the only set back so far is the bridge.

Bottom line its a great guitar, if it were stollen I would feel very angry and try to find a way to replace it. The tone is great, finish is good, neck is smooth and it plays well. Remember the search for tone lies within, the instrument and equipment help but everybody is different. By the way if you try hard enough you can even get it to sound like Carlos Santana himself. Im only putting 4 stars because nothing is perfect.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

at guitar center, i picked it up plugged it in and played it. didnt actually buy it yet but planning to very soon.

this guitar is the best guitar in the world for a $740 list price. it is light wieght, great sustain, solid bridge, set-in neck, smooth fretboard, stayed in tune (i played it a while until they made me put it back), looks cool, plays great, fits your body (or atleast mine), controls are out of the way so you dont hit them, full acces to all 22 frets.

about the only PRS guitar at a price this low.

well built ... mahogany i think.

Buy It!! Wonderful Guitar!!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I bought this guitar from musiciansfriend.com for $569.99
I bought the guitar because I love Satan, and I always thought PRS made nice guitars.

It had a nice color.

Hm, where to begin? First of all the pickups sound worse then the single coils on my little brothers squier bullet. The bridge was horrible, the saddles came loose all the time, and it fell out of tune at least 5 times a day it was PATHETIC

The construction wasn't half-bad..it looks like they actually almost attempted to care about how they built it.

Don't buy this guitar, Don't buy ANY PRS they're all terrible guitars, except for the wood.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I was trading in my Epiphone LP Special for an upgrade, maybe an Epi Les Paul Standard. I was playing an Epi Les Paul and happened to look at the Santana hanging on the wall. I plugged it in and I'll tell you the playability was much better than the LP Standard. I paid $422.00

I have a Tobacco sunburst, but this one is a darker burst than what you see on the PRS site, it has a black pickguard which looks cool. The neck is nice and fat and has white binding, easy playing. There are black open coil humbuckers which sound great. I saw on other reviews and on the PRS site that there are non locking tuners. I got it home and took it out of the bag to play it, and as I was tuning up I noted that my guitar has locking tuners! This has a tremolo which I dont really use but it looks cool and you can remove the bar anyway. The tones are amazing. I play through a small Marshall, and both distorted and clean tones are superb. The best way I can describe it is a nice blend of Gibson and Fender sounds. The guitar even sounds great un-amplified. The guitar came with a great gig bag.

I really have to work to answer the dislikes. I found run-of-the-mill minor things- there is a fret buzz here and there, and a small amount of wax visible between the coils of one pickup, that is it!

The guitar is superbly put together. This is a set neck guitar. I could not find any finish flaws. As I said above, this has a beautiful dark tobacco sunburst, which really brings out the mahogany wood. In comparison with the Epiphone Les Paul, I found the Santana to feel stronger and less flimsy, and more substantial- feeling.

This is a great guitar. Great feel, tone, construction,pickups, and tones. You get all of this for a great price. You can not go wrong with this choice and I highly reccommend it.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com