PRS SE 7 -What kind of interest?

[Justin Bailey]

some doublecuts, very rough:

 

[MFB]

I imagine that blue one as like a "whale blue" with quilt and I'm totally sold on it

 

[Drew]

Someone mentioned this thread over at Metalguitarist.org, so I quickly surfed over and started reading. I waded through the first 8 pages before I gave up.

This. Just kinda indifferent on this one. If an SE model is made though, they should add a C24-7 to the standard lineup for a reasonable up-charge.

The SEs, for me, are just waaay too pedestrian to warrant a lot excitement...

Not trying to put a golden-shower over anyones parade - Just IMO

I completely disagree.

I grabbed this a couple weeks ago. Excuse the shitty pic, I haven't had a chance to take good daylight pictures yet:

A bassist buddy of mine decided that he wanted to get back into guitar, and as he's a huge Porcupine Tree and Opeth fan, when he realized how affordable PRS SEs were, he was sold. He dragged me along to help him play guitars and check them out to make sure he was getting a good one, and to my surprise I was so impressed that I went back and grabbed one the next day for myself - I'd just gotten an unexpected bonus that, while nice, wasn't enough to get into any serious trouble with, so I figured I'd be responsible with most of it but celebrate to the tune of a SE of my very own.

Now, I'm absolutely NOT the PRS type - I don't like mahogany, I don't like short scales, I don't like fixed bridges, I don't like singlecuts, you name it and if it's on a PRS I'm biased for them. With all due respect to Ripper I've always kind of considered them the guitar equivalent of wall candy for rich doctors and lawyers, and while I've enjoyed the few I've played, there's no way in hell I'd spend that kind of cash on a guitar that the specs bore me so much on.

So, I was really surprised how much I was digging it. The neck was comfortable, once I threw a strap on it it balanced pretty well, and the stock pickups sounded great. We played a couple but kept coming back to this one tobaccoburst, that first night in GC - I'd play another one for a couple minutes, pick this one up, play three notes, and just start grinning. The tone was happening, the neck felt amazing, and something was just "right" about it. It very well might be the best PRS of any stripe I've ever played. My buddy bought it, of course - if he didn't, I'd have probably brained him with the one he chose over it and then bought it myself - but I felt so conflicted I went down to another GC the next day and found another tobaccoburst that was almost as nice, and grabbed it.

Really, it's a surprisingly nice guitar even before you account for the price - more so than a "real" PRS, these are just perfect gigging guitars. They look great, they play great, and they sound great (the stock pickups are actually excellent - I have no desire to change them right now). My biggest complaint is the tailpiece, which is pretty light and, while sexy looking and very comfortable under your hand, doesn't allow intonation. I figure I'm probably going to throw a Graphtech/Tonepros Ghost piezo on this anyway though, so whatever.

Plain and simple, it's a great guitar. It's not one I'd have bought at $2k, but for what GC sells these for, it was a total no-brainer. It's a fun guitar, it sounds great, and it just begs for chunky Alter Bridge sort of drop-D riffing and pinch harmonics. I've been jamming with a couple guys lately, and it's sort of turning into a Drop-D 6 string thing, and if we start gigging I'm probably going to grab a second as a backup. It's that good.

And, honestly, while I suppose you could argue PRS "cheaped out" on the specs, they did it as intelligently as I've seen anyone do so. The Singlecuts have a carved top, but it's less carved than the regular PRS model. No biggie. They have a flamed maple veneer, but it's a veneer over a 1/4" non-flamed maple top, so you still get the sound of a maple top on a mahogany body without the expense of a solid flame top. Fuckin' genius, I wish more people thought like that. And I don't know where they got the pickups, but whoever wound them did a surprisingly excellent job - I'm so used to Ibanez and having to immediately toss the pickups in any new guitar I buy that I can't get over the fact they actually sound great.


Now, on the scale length thing...

Can I feel a difference? Absolutely. Say what you will about it only being a half inch on a 25 inch board (a 2% change), but stretches are definitely a little easier and string tension is noticeably lighter compared to my 25.5" Strat, strung up with the same gauge of Elixirs. And, to be perfectly honest, I'm embarrassed to admit I kind of dig it - it's very comfortable. I haven't really pushed the limits of detuning it (and considering I'm used to a .68 at B, tuning the .49 currently on it down simply isn't going to work for me, so it'd be a question of grabbing a proper set of baritone strings).

Overall, I've been a huge advocate of 25.5 or greater scales on seven strings from way back, and have been a thorn in Warmoth's side for some time now about their, um, curious choice to offer only 25" and 28.75", but honestly the 25" scale is really part of PRS's "thing," and I'd probably say stick with that on a production 7. If I get a chance I'll throw a baritone set on my SE and see how it stacks up, but so far I do think that the response is crisp enough that a B should be fine, and I wouldn't want to trade the feel or sound elsewhere on the neck. I think the 25.5" thing as a bare minimum, as one of the former bigger proponents around here, is sort of a bit of inherited wisdom that gets passed along as gospel fact a lot, and the reality is more complex - on the right guitar, with the right pickups and the right "other" specs (say, maple top, and pickups that aren't incredibly high output or dark), it can totally work.

So, long rambling post short, the SE series are some of the best H-H "workingman's guitars" I've ever picked up. They're cheap enough that you can beat the crap out of them and it won't matter, they look and sound great, they're intelligently designed, and they're just fun. If a seven string Singlecut hit production, I'd absolutely make a point of going and playing a whole bunch of them and trying to find one that clicked for me. As it is, I wouldn't be shocked if a year from now I own another Singlecut 6.

Actually, a couple slightly better pics - Quigley administering some Drop-D goodness on the thing, a shot of it keeping my Roadster and UV company, then a shitty one of me playing the thing, from a recent CQ picstory:

 

[darren]

I'd love to see a 7-string version of the Tremonti SE. With birds.

Or a Singlecut SE like Drew's. With birds.

Or one of the old SE Standards in the natural walnut stain.

I'm not a big fan of the SE Customs.

I'd be fine with it being 25" scale, as that's a big part of the PRS mojo.

 

[Sweetnothing]

Overall, I've been a huge advocate of 25.5 or greater scales on seven strings from way back, and have been a thorn in Warmoth's side for some time now about their, um, curious choice to offer only 25" and 28.75", but honestly the 25" scale is really part of PRS's "thing," and I'd probably say stick with that on a production 7. If I get a chance I'll throw a baritone set on my SE and see how it stacks up, but so far I do think that the response is crisp enough that a B should be fine, and I wouldn't want to trade the feel or sound elsewhere on the neck. I think the 25.5" thing as a bare minimum, as one of the former bigger proponents around here, is sort of a bit of inherited wisdom that gets passed along as gospel fact a lot, and the reality is more complex - on the right guitar, with the right pickups and the right "other" specs (say, maple top, and pickups that aren't incredibly high output or dark), it can totally work.

I have to say, I've tried to make both my tremonti SE and my CE24 work in lower tunings without any success because of the scale lenght.
For B standard I ended up using a 14-72 set, and the intonation was waaaay off in some spots on both guitars, tension aside.

I'm not suggesting a longer scale because "everybody says so" ( I'm a noob here by the way) but because of my own experience with the 25" scale and the 24'75 one. Intonation is not that great on the low B string, the guitar sounds really muddy, you end up using ropes as strings to achieve a proper tension...
My SE in particular, being a mahogany set neck, is the worst of the bunch.

I'm not a fan of the longer scale of my schecter because of wide stretches etc, but I see a benefit in sound on a 7 string, and I still thing 7 string baritones sound clearer than standard ones, but that's just my opinion.

I agree about them ( se's) being great guitars for the price, I love mine, and while the CE sounds better, the SE is still a great guitar and a bang for the buck

Didn't want to piss you off quoting and such, just wanted to state my opinion in a civilized way

 

[darren]

But can you be absolutely sure that the scale length was the only factor? Dark sounding wood (all mahogany) and pickups not optimized for low tunings would definitely play a role.

I bet an SE Korina 7 would be awesome.

 

[asmegin_slayer]

PRS SE Paul Allender in Drop A

 

[Drew]

Didn't want to piss you off quoting and such, just wanted to state my opinion in a civilized way

Hey, go to hell!



Haha, no worries, man. I think the lack of an intonatable bridge on the SE I have is the biggest drawback, but since they'd have to cast a new one for a seven anyway they could probably resolve a lot of that problem. I plan on swapping the stock one for a Tone Pros anyway, so if/when I do I'll definitely be curious to see how well I can get the low string intonated in B tuning.

Still, I'm always surprised just what you can pull off, given a good setup and the right amp settings - I had my 26.5" C7 Blackjack down in low-E (octave below standard) for a while there, and even though the JB is probably the last pickup I'd have chosen for that low a tuning, with a fairly bright, clean distortion setting on my (at the time) Rectoverb it sounded almost laughably thunderous.

 

[Sweetnothing]

But can you be absolutely sure that the scale length was the only factor? Dark sounding wood (all mahogany) and pickups not optimized for low tunings would definitely play a role.

I bet an SE Korina 7 would be awesome.

Of course the wood plays a really important role, the tremonti SE is a really dark guitar, but my CE is a bolt on model, with maple top and HFS pickups...really toppy on standard...and had the same issues (while sounding brighter) on note definition

Haha, no worries, man. I think the lack of an intonatable bridge on the SE I have is the biggest drawback, but since they'd have to cast a new one for a seven anyway they could probably resolve a lot of that problem. I plan on swapping the stock one for a Tone Pros anyway, so if/when I do I'll definitely be curious to see how well I can get the low string intonated in B tuning.

In the prs boards, the most popular mod is to put on a tonepros replacement bridge and locking tuners Mine just can't intonate lower than D standard

And yeah, the guys at prs make great instruments, I highly doubt they'll end up making a meh instrument

 

[SnowfaLL]

to reitterate what Drew said.. I also was VERY shocked when I started looking at prices on PRS's last few weeks. the 24 fret models and that Paul Allender model are both around the $600 price range, which makes them VERY tempting, with a flamed/quilted veneer top.

Like I said in my other post, I love Carvins so much and they cover everything I need, but I am very tempted to pick up that Allender model (esp since someone on MG is selling one for $500)

A 7 string version of the exact same guitar, would be amazing.

 

[Drew]

In the prs boards, the most popular mod is to put on a tonepros replacement bridge and locking tuners Mine just can't intonate lower than D standard

Oh, that's totally in the cards. The bridge, at least - so far the tuners are fine.

 

[7slinger]

stuff

thanks for the review

 

[Malacoda]

I found this in the PRS private stock section. Production model, please! (plus more color options)

I forgot to mention that this should have a piezo.

 

[HighGain510]

This. Just kinda indifferent on this one. If an SE model is made though, they should add a C24-7 to the standard lineup for a reasonable up-charge.

The SEs, for me, are just waaay too pedestrian to warrant a lot excitement...

Not trying to put a golden-shower over anyones parade - Just IMO

I'm sorry, didn't you buy a whole bunch of the same low-end LTD models in every color they made them in? If you're calling the SE models "too pedestrian to warrant a lot of excitement...", I'm confused. You either haven't played one or you're just up in that ivory tower sniffing some major cork because they are actually decent guitars and if you had picked up a few of those instead of 20 of the same model of certain other brands you would know that.

 

[808-ologist]

PRS 7 SE would definitely solve my next 7 string dilemma!

 

[The Somberlain]

My vote's for an extended and standard scale singlecut, hopefully with a piezo.

 

[Drew]

I'm sorry, didn't you buy a whole bunch of the same low-end LTD models in every color they made them in? If you're calling the SE models "too pedestrian to warrant a lot of excitement...", I'm confused. You either haven't played one or you're just up in that ivory tower sniffing some major cork because they are actually decent guitars and if you had picked up a few of those instead of 20 of the same model of certain other brands you would know that.

When the biggest gear whore I know wub calls you out for cork-sniffing, you KNOW you're losing your grip.

Hey Matt.

 

[Rick]

^

 

[JacksonKE2Shred]

I would LOVE a 7 string single cut SE with 24 frets and a trem

 

[gunshow86de]

When the biggest gear whore I know wub calls you out for cork-sniffing, you KNOW you're losing your grip.

Hey Matt.

I don't know, the guy he was directing the statement at was Rob, who might be an even bigger gear whore. I wouldn't be surprised if Rob's gear collection was worth more than the rest of ss.org combined.