PRS SE Hollowbody II Piezo - Peacock Blue 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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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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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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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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