PRS SE Hollowbody II Piezo Review

Thankful for Ben Porter

Recently my house burned down and I lost a lot of my instruments, multiple guitars (including the first guitar I ever owned), mandolin, amps, etc. When I reached out to Ben he was quick to listen and slow to speak. His customer service was above and beyond that of hundreds of other phone calls I had made. After we chatted he help me acquire this guitar and an amp. I am thankful… read more to know that there are still men like Ben in the world, full of character and grace. Ben even thought about strings and a guitar strap, items I had lost in the fire that I had overlooked. Bottom line this guitar is beautiful and sounds amazing. If you need a sales rep, contact to Ben Porter. You will not be sorry you did.

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Tone machine

This is one of the most versatile guitars I've ever owned/played. The combination or the magnetic pickups and the Piezo system is outstanding. When I play the Piezo through an acoustic amp it sounds better than my Taylor. I also love the ability to send the Piezo to a separate amp from the magnetic pups. Playing both together is like having 2 guitarists in the band. As for… read more the rest of the guitar. The playability and neck feel are fantastic. The aesthetics and attention to detail with all of the bindings, tone woods and finish are top notch. Something I would have only expected from a domestic build. My sales engineer Dave Hoffman was on the money when I asked him what he recommended in a budget hollow body. First thing he suggested was the PRS especially with the Piezo. He was very reassuring that the SE line was built with the highest quality standards and he was right. Very happy with this choice and thanks to the entire (sales, luthier's, shipping) Sweetwater team for recommending and delivery high quality gear.

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Simply Amazing!

I got this guitar 3 days ago and can't stop playing it. I also have a Fender Ultra and Taylor Academy. This guitar is the best of both worlds and even better. While the acoustical unplugged sound is not that of acoustic guitar, it is plenty loud enough to practice that way. The other day my wife texted me from across the house through several closed doors, "Am I going to have to… read more listen to that from now on?" She sure didn't say that while playing my Fender. Also means she thinks I suck and need to practice more. On to quality of this foreign made PRS. As I said, I have a Fender Ultra which is considered their higher end American made guitars. While the fret work and pickups are great, the guitar was poorly set up (got from local store) the tremolo back was sticking about 1/2 up from guitar and the frets had a horrible buzz. I paid to get it reworked and set up to fix it. This was not the case with the PRS. Out of box the guitar was amazing with a quick tune. Impressive for the cheapest line of PRS'. Makes me wonder why I would ever need to buy or want a core PRS. Well, if Paul wants me to have one I'll take it off his hands! /wink /wink Sweetwater /wink! The pictures do not do the guitar justice. It is so much more amazing in person. I like just touching it before I go to bed. You know a slight tickle of the F holes as a nigh cap. Only thing I didn't care for was that the pickups seemed a bit loose. I think that is because it is a full Hallowbody so not much holding them in place. Just used to solid body mounting. I'm can't knock PRS for that. Locking tuners at a $ price tag would've been nice. All-in-all PRS has an amazing guitar and if I ever get another guitar (which my wife said no I don't need another one) it will definitely be PRS. As for FedEx, they suck! Here is a picture of the box after I got it from those Neanderthals.

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Found the perfect guitar for my needs!

First and foremost I want to thank Charlie Davis, my sales engineer for sometime now. When I finally decided on the Peacock Blue finish, there were none on stock. However, Charlie contacted me to let know there was a demo model available. I was so happy! Price discount with a relatively minor defect. Good deal. Why I really like this guitar; - The versatility of this guitar is… read more amazing. The piezo pickup is the best I have ever heard. - After many guitars, the 14" lower bout body is a very comfortable fit for myself. - The PRS "wide fat" neck profile is a joy. You don't need large hands to enjoy it. - The weight is about 6lbs. 8ozs. A very lite weight feel to it. - Some people have criticized the price. In my opinion the fit, feel and finish is similar to much more expensive guitars I have owned. Finally the guitar is just beautiful. The multiple view photographs Sweetwater provides really does an excellent job of seeing exactly what you are buying. Sweetwater---> Excellent service with personal sales engineer assigned to you. 55 point checkup before you get the guitar. Seamless customer service, the best I have experienced over the years.

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Absolutely amazing guitar

So I waited till I had run the piezo through the pa before the review, and yes is is really convincing, but also the way this guitar strums is uniquely almost acoustic like, chalk thqt up to the bigger neck which I wondered about at first. Tuners seem to be made by Grover and are pretty good, the humbucker s are Hot! Had to lower them quite a bit, especially bass side of neck pickup,… read more pretty bassy. Otherwise, I have been a strat guy for years, but. This guitar. Has a beautiful tone, I especially like the mid position, a little bit of snarl, a little bit warm, kinda like a 335, going back and. Forth between the two sounds is a little more. Involved than just switch flipping, but I got used to. It and it became intuitive very quickly, my band loves it, the tone is so good you just kinda play less notes, cuz the ones you play are so. Pretty. I use it with some really nice overdrives and a couple of delay pedals, not much else, and it actually does a fairly decent slide. Guitar sound, although nothing really touches an sg with p 90s in it for thqt. The workmanship is very nice, I even got the demo version and it was hard to find the scratches, I hesitated because of the price but I should not have. If you want a guitqr thqt can do almost everything except that strat quack then this is a semi affordable solution, I mean who wouldn't want the 5000 version but cmon you,ll never take thqt to a gig, thqnks to ken nace for hooking me up. Haven't had a new electric sound in years, but this is utterly intoxicating, and for those of you with a little heavier rock in mind, great ballad guitqr, these humbucker s can scream if you let em. JD out

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Beautiful Guitar

I called my sales engineer, Chris Mosely,(more bout him later), and asked him how long it would be before he could get one and he told me for the black and gold it would be September 2022, so we put my name on the list. Lo and behold Chris called me early May 2022, and told me he got his hands on an early one and did I want it? I said yes, and haven't, and won't look back.This is… read more one great looking axe. Great color, beautiful binding, just all around sweet looking guitar. Okay, now we play it. Plays perfect, sounds great. I ran the pick-ups through a Mesa-Boogie, and the Piezo through a Fishman Loudbox. Wow, what sound.This thing is PERFECT! Now for Chris Mosely. Great Guy, He remembers everything I'm interested in, And calls me When he has something I want. Friendly as can be. All round great guy. And of course Sweetwater's 55 point inspection, and free 2 day shipping. Sweetwater and Chris Mosely are the best.

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Incredible

Before I begin, I just want to point out the importance of setup. I was originally unsure whether or not I would keep this guitar, because it hurt my hand and wrist after only a few minutes of playing. I tried playing it as it came for a few days, but ultimately had to get in and fix the action. I'm not sure if PRS set the action or someone at Sweetwater did, but they may have used… read more the Grand Canyon as their point of reference. It took me several days of alternating between tweaking and playing. The bridge and truss rod required massive changes. Finally, I fixed intonation on the saddles and lowered the pickups. At this point, there is zero discomfort. With setup out of the way -- let me start by saying this guitar is downright gorgeous. I'm not even sure that the professional photos or videos I saw were able to do this guitar justice. The peacock blue color and the burst that accompanies it is simply stunning. The maple binding all the way around this thing oozes class and really elevates the aesthetic. I have never paid much attention to binding on my guitars after 24+ years of playing. This one made me take notice -- it's just that lovely. The bird inlays are magnificent though being real abalone shell, they will vary by guitar. For example, the birds on my A60E are much more muted than those on my Piezo. I can't speak for every serial number, but the inlays on my Piezo are gorgeous. My one complaint is that the blue version doesn't come with lampshade knobs, while the black gold version does. I don't understand why that difference exists, but I do think the lampshade knobs look classier, so I swapped mine out. There are also some hard lines in my veneer. The back is perfect but the front of the guitar is quite obviously veneer. This of course will vary by serial number, and some will look more convincingly like real wood than others. As for sound, I don't have an acoustic amp so I run it in mixed mode through my amp (Blackstar HT Club 40 Black and Blue). Let's start with the magnetic pickups (58/15 "S"). A pleasant surprise: these things are actually quite hot. I thought being a hollowbody it might not get too dirty without massive feedback. However, I have cranked the gain on the overdrive channels and this thing handles it beautifully. The bridge just screams without any noticeable feedback or hum – certainly not any more than I get with my Epiphone Les Paul. For clean tones I tend to use the neck or mid position. The neck pickup is incredibly warm, and you can get an excellent bluesy tone out of it or the middle position. Go neck pickup only and roll back the tone knob a bit to get the jazziest of jazz tones (then add a touch of piezo!). All in all, I'm actually very impressed with the pickups. They are articulate when you want them to be, but also very warm and can handle loads of gain without issue. I much prefer them to the humbuckers in my Les Paul, without question. Despite being double cut and a hollowbody, they still have a surprising amount of chunkiness. But if that ultra chunky sound is what you're after, this may not be your guitar. A single cut solidbody might be more up your alley. The piezo system adds an additional special something to the tone. Even though it's all going through my electric amp, I love the sound this thing creates on a clean setting with a touch of the piezo added to the neck or mid position. I roll the magnetic pickup volume to about 7 or 8, then roll the piezo between 2 and 5. It just adds a new sonic dimension and so much presence. I wish I had an acoustic amp to test splitting the outputs, but even running to an electric amp in mixed mode it's capable of producing some fairly convincing acoustic tones. Does it sound exactly like my acoustic? No. But it still sounds great, is fun to play around with, and great to mix in with the magnetic pickups. I have plugged directly into a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 and done some recording in GarageBand. The piezo sounds excellent and full. In fact, I'm probably going to re-record some chords I played in a lead section with the piezo instead of the magnetic pickups. The chords from the magnetic pickup track just sound so thin by comparison. Unlike most (all?) other instruments in the SE line, this one includes a hardshell case. The storage compartment is fairly minimal, but it's still really nice to get a real case instead of a gig bag. It won't accommodate much more than a strap, a tuner, and some picks however. On the plus side, given the light weight of the guitar and the small footprint of the case, it's very easy to haul around. Besides lampshade knobs, PRS SE locking tuners are a nice addition as well. The stock tuners didn't work very well when I first got the guitar, but after fixing the action they mostly stayed in tune. The same SE tuners on my A60E stay perfectly in tune for literally weeks, so it may just be a bit of a gamble. To be fair, the A60E stays in its case with Boveda humidity packs when I am not playing it while the Piezo hangs on my wall. The Piezo is therefore subject to temperature and humidity fluctuations that the acoustic is not, so maybe that is why the tuners fall out more frequently. I installed the SE locking tuners and they stay pretty much in tune, plus it makes string changes a breeze. Another thing I have been hoping to experiment with is an ABY pedal with multiple inputs. As it stands now, you have to roll the volume knobs on and off to swap between magnetic and piezo pickups. Being able to switch between them independently, or combine both pickup systems, all from a footswitch seems ideal. Especially if you're the only guitarist in a band, having an ABY pedal and a looper could really open up the possibilities to have acoustic and electric sounds going simultaneously. In summation, this is the best electric guitar I have ever owned. It's downright gorgeous to look at, sounds great, and weighs almost nothing so you can play it for hours. The sonic possibilities are infinite, and when setup properly it's effortless to play. The only real cons I can think of are really more preference than anything. I prefer lampshade knobs on here. I can also see folks who may not like the wide fat neck profile (personally, I find it comfortable, and it's neither too wide nor too fat). Ultimately, I think PRS knocked it out of the park with this one. I basically do not play any of my other guitars anymore, except my PRS acoustic. I guess I'm noticing a trend...

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Love it!

This guitar is beautiful and sounds great. Fit and finish is excellent. Smallish lightweight. The piezo by itself sounds as good plugged in as any acoustic/electric I have, or dang close, and I have Matins, Taylor's and a Hummingbird. The only thing that sounds better is the single coil Seymour Duncan Woody in the sound hole (single sounds better than humbucker, imo). That's plugged… read more in, can't compete unplugged, of course. The 58/15s are really sweet too but I've only had it for just over 24 hours so I've really been mainly playing with the piezo side. This is a pretty unique electric. I bought a T5 years ago which was supposed to be what this is. It just wasn't. Now I can sell it. Much thanks to Ian Lemberg at Sweetwater for making this possible since this thing was on serious backorder. Great service as usual.

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Awesome guitar

Once again I have to begin by singing praise to my phenomenal Sales Engineer Mike Soper. Mike is a great guy who understands guitars, takes the time to understand what different people look for in their equipment and goes out of his way to make sure of the connection between an artist and their gear. Really appreciate all your help Mike!!! The guitar is awesome. Very clean build… read more and finish. Piezo sounds awesome. Neck pickup is matched very nicely to the axe. Tuners are a cut above the other SE's I've played with smooth and hold tune, if they were locking they'd be perfect. Guitar sounds great unplugged. Resonates nicely and has a good tone. I think I prefer the old piezo/humbucker switching/blending method (as on the core) but this setup should be workable live. Bridge pickup has a tad too narrow focus for me, but others may like. Overall very very happy with this guitar. Definitely worth the price of admission, and in fact a very good deal for all the appointments and quality.

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Holy mackerel … this is one awesome guitar!

So I saw the video demo by Bryan Ewald first on the PRS Facebook page. Then the articles started showing up. Reverb started posting some of the early batch. I alerted Sweetwater and Justin Dunbar was able to help me select a fantastic sample. These are amazing guitars. I am a bit of made in China snob since my last bad experience with the PRS SE Angeles AE60E – cracks by the nut,… read more contaminated finish, and real bad neck set. This guitar does not reflect any of my past quality issues with Chinese made guitars. PRS got it right with this guitar. I had passed on a beautiful PRS Hollowbody McCarty with piezo that I saw decades ago at Lighthouse Sound. The guitar was light and just felt right. Why I walked away from that one I will never know. So here was an opportunity to purchase a similar guitar with similar features. The SE is definitely a heavier guitar than the McCarty but not objectionable. Guitar and included hard-shell case were well packed unlike other PRS retailers try and save money by not double boxing and throwing away the PRS box. The case is a nice hard-shell case with very good padding and rigidity. They could have used a nicer storage door tab but it is functional. The case ships with two pieces of foam that cradle the headstock from impacts. For a Chinese made case it was well done. The guitar's finish was well done with only one microscopic dimple that I am only able to see. Frets were well dressed and my micro-fiber cloth was hard pressed to sang anywhere on the fretboard. Abalone (yes the real deal) inlays were well done. Nut was cut and set properly. There was just miniscule neck relief and no buzzing what so ever. There were no tools marks on the fretboard like my Gibson Standard and Classic exhibited. The flamed maple purfling was awesome. The purfling was even installed in the S holes. Unlike my recent Gibson Les Pauls, the trim around the neck was even and well applied. Yeah …. look at the flamed maple purfling! Top wood exhibited a beautiful AAA flame. Back was more like an AA and half but still awesome. Again not a big fan of the back of the neck and body sides being black but that must be part of the cost cutting. PRS tuners held in tune very well. One tuner had a little bit of play which a tightening would likely solve. Guitar was a real player … real easy playing with access to the upper frets. The piezo was nicely executed and could be blended with the magnetic pickups for a fuller sound. As with all hollow-body electric this guitar will get feedback squelch if gain is not keep under control. Very happy with this purchase … five stars … workmanship wise this guitar beat my Gibson Les Paul Standard and Classic. Nice job on these Paul! Thanks again to Justin for helping to make this happen. I knew the minute that I saw the video that these would be flying off the shelves … Sweetwater sold out in just two days during Gearfest. Booyah!

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