PRS SE Hollowbody II Electric Guitar Tri Color Sunburst

As a proud owner of a 1997 Core PRS Swamp Ash Special -I know good tone when I hear it...This Offshore instrument offers tremendous bang for the buck. It has a very sweet harmonically rich tone ,and is a nice light guitar at apprx. 6.0 lbs. I love the clear sounding ,Full,Rich Tone from these pickups... This guitar can cover a huge number of musical bases,and I am able to coax musical feedback from this Hollowbody II. Also came with a nice sturdy hardshell case. This Fully hollow construction adds a nice harmonic ring to my playing... As an aside-I find the folks that complain about Guitar Center -Generally, do not now what they are looking for ,and can often have unrealistic expectations. If you do a little homework,and get off the couch -You can easily find a nice Guitar Here...

I want to leave a better review so I can specify something. I like this particular model of guitar and PRS is making a good product with these more affordable SE guitars, but I kept the one I purchased in actual new condition elsewhere / more local, and returned what Guitar Center sent me which had a dinged up and dented tailpiece from people using the wrong sized screwdriver, and the pickup selector switch was broken and snapped off. The tone and volume knobs on it also didn't turn smooth and made a grinding noise. So this guitar had been owned, used, abused, exposed to elements, and worn and torn. If Guitar Center wants to sell that particular guitar to someone in that condition then their website listing should have a reduced price and state "used, b-stock, worn & torn, needs repairs." Since they are selling it at the new price and only mentioning "may not arrive in it's original packaging", one would figure it was new, just not brand new / unopened. I honestly felt betrayed by the lack of transparency in the website listing to make it clear to me what I was buying. Since it would apparently require a replacement pickup selector and a soldering job to install it, as well as replacement hardware if I wanted hardware that was not abused and beat up, it drastically reduces the value of the guitar and they shouldn't have tried to sell it to me as new at the new price. Also misleading in that any warranty PRS gives to an original owner I wouldn't have had in my favor since I bought it thinking I'd be that 1st owner when I truly wasn't. I would say customers are owed better more complete and specific detailed transparency on the website these guitars are sold from. I realize that Guitar Center and Musician's Friend are now pretty much one in the same and there are many locations that ship the purchased gear nowadays. So I guess it's different than 20+ years ago when my family would always get brand new instruments never worn and torn by anyone else. To rectify the situation to have the guitar I wanted, I acquired one from a more local in-state music shop that was an authorized PRS dealer. Now I have one I acquired brand new and I get some warranty coverage as the true 1st owner. Also wear and tear is something I much prefer to have the chance to do myself when paying a full price a particular guitar sells for as new. This experience makes me hesitate to buy again from Guitar Center or Musician's Friend in the future. Maybe it's for the best because having a relationship with a dealer of guitars more local to me can keep it all closer to home. So to sum it up, PRS's entry level SE line of guitars have their place in my world, but Guitar Center is an unreliable source of transparency as far as authorized PRS dealers go. So consider this 3 star review a mixture of the fact that I approve of PRS's guitar, just not of Guitar Center's dealings of the PRS guitar.

Did an A/B between Standard and the II. Firstly, good luck telling them apart, not even a different designation on the truss rod cover. Everyone talking about the "vast" sonic differences, not true...I hear about 2% difference;two guitars of the same model have more difference so dont worry about it. I use an EQ pedal and a super-tiny tweak will more than make up any difference. I'd just go with whichever neck feels better, because the carves are always slightly different; i liked the neck that happened to be on the Standard. You cant go wrong either way, life is good.

James at Guitar Center Manhattan (Union Square) took care of me on this one. Felt light and sounded nice in the store, but later that night through my Roland Jazz Chorus JC-40, OMG!!! Fabulous real live jazz round tone and beautiful cleans. Such a pure sound. And very nice disturbed crunch and little if any problem with feedback. I love it in Charcoal Burst - an elegant shade of gray.

Couldn't get a decent jazz tone out of any guitar in the store, until this one. I tried Epiphone, Gibson, Fender, Gretch. They were all buzzy, or tinny, or the action sucked. Then I tried this one and it was like night and day. Clear, true, warm tone with no buzz and perfect intonation. I LOVE IT. This is the only guitar I will ever need.

I used to play professionally, but now just at home to keep my fingers tuned and my mind occupied.