- 5 days ago
The Special Semi-Hollow is one of its most versatile and rich-sounding electrics PRS makes. And the two most affordable versions of this ultra-capable electric are both sensational instruments. But does it make more sense to buy the Indonesian-built SE version or save a little more for the S2 version that's made in Maryland, USA, the home of PRS? Jamie Dickson and Richard Barrett take a close look at the features and sounds of these highly playable electrics – which are more different under the skin that they first appear – and share their thoughts on which one comes out on top for value, tone and quality.
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MusicTranscript
00:00I'm
00:30Hey I'm Jamie with Guitarist. And I'm Richard. Hi. So today we've got two guitars made by PRS
00:35very similar spec one is made in Indonesia and the other is made in Maryland USA the home of PRS.
00:43Now these the the US made one is not a core line model it is one of the S2s which
00:49is the sort of
00:49entry-level US made PRS line and this is the SE which is made in by Cortex for PRS in
00:57Indonesia
00:59this one is £1,180 and your one is £2,899. £1,600 between them which one is worth the
01:07candle
01:08we're going to find out so stick around with us and we'll tell you what we think is best value.
01:51Okay so we're going to do a bit of a side-by-side comparison of what these guitars offer and
01:55we're
01:55going to start with the S2 which is the US made model so these are three pickup guitars PRS are
02:02known for their tone tweaking for their switching options and so on and these don't disappoint on
02:07that level so what do we get here on the S2 Richard? Well I mean these are made alongside the
02:12core models
02:13with a slightly simplified process so we get a lot of the same things on this we've got one of
02:19PRS's
02:19finely tuned circuits they are notoriously secretive about exactly what goes on under the hood you know
02:26I guess I don't blame them we have a mahogany neck and that is the pattern regular as opposed to
02:35something like the wide fin but we'll get into that won't we we have a scarf joint attaching the
02:40headstock which is a cheaper way of manufacturing but very strong there was this same controversy over
02:46the gibsons with the three-piece necks and the volute this is a three-piece mahogany uh but it's
02:51got the scarf joint um it's stronger yeah and it's actually we we pointed this out straight away the
02:57the fretboard is rosewood and the tint of the rosewood is rather pink naturally it's not a
03:01stain or anything like that yeah I know I was surprised by that and I'm encouraged by that because
03:06I think a tint will probably wear off what's bound to you know one re-fret away from disaster
03:11um we've got the birds of course the famous birds but here they are in um vintage ivory acrylic I
03:16think well remembered actually yeah I was just struggling with that yes yeah so it looks great
03:21actually it's just the right sort of shade of white it's not bright white um we've got the wing
03:26tuners again they're the same uh as you'll find on the core model which is getting up around five
03:33grand isn't it I mean that's quite a price just for a bit of perspective um we uh have well
03:38I'll talk
03:39about the hardware but as opposed to the electrics first um the same um bridge as you get on the
03:45us
03:46bolt-on guitars and I think it's the same bridge that you've got on the SE so it's uh yeah
03:50that's
03:51the same spec but on the core line models that's only on the bolt-ons that that um bridge but
03:56it
03:56appears here on the indonesian made SE as well so it's quite interesting that um previously S2 used to
04:03have the indonesian parts mostly but on an american body now they've upgraded some of the
04:09pickups to the full yes in fact these are yeah these are the full uh us they're the 58 15
04:15lt
04:16pickups which come in about 7.2 something k each of them there was a slightly more power in the
04:24in
04:24the bridge which is you know the normal thing these days and then we have the narrow field humbucker
04:30in the middle um and looking down it's actually slightly staggered to go with the string radius
04:35which is a nice touch so um the humbuckers themselves have a form of coil split well
04:43it is coil split but rather than turning off one of the coils it's just vastly reducing the output
04:49of one of them so there's a subtler subtler version of that old trick for for making things sound a
04:55bit
04:55um lighter and more single core light and you'll also notice the neck pickup and the neck humbucker
05:00has been reversed yes indeed though i mean with the coil split in you know it's very difficult to say
05:07a subtle difference i guess it depends on the rig and depending on a completely clean tone might be
05:12different but it's not out of phase or anything like that um for those of you that like the kind
05:17of peter green type thing it's it's not out of phase i think it's i think you're saying it's so
05:22that the slug coils rather than the screw coils are what's voiced when you do the the coil um yeah
05:26when
05:27you when you bump the switch yes yeah so you'll get a different voicing and so you know prs guitars
05:33are known for their sort of curvaceous um you know beautiful lines so what's going on here with
05:37this well i mean the part of the simplified production process i mean i've already talked
05:41about the scarf joint and everything um this is much more of a flat top in actual fact i think
05:46their
05:46word is asymmetric bevel yeah which you have around here and a little bit more for your arm that's a
05:51solid maple top so that's not a veneer that is actually a really nice piece of flame maple two piece
05:56top and book matched i don't know it looks nice anyway um and i actually do quite like the flatter
06:03top coming down the center that's a personal preference of mine i don't like too much of that
06:07arch and these controls aren't recessed at all they're just you know on top of the top
06:13again which i quite like the way that i like to play to sort of maybe flip the volume on
06:18and off
06:18um sometimes a curved top so again i just wanted to emphasize that though that is a cheaper
06:25production process it might actually be what you like so i wouldn't be sort of thinking that it's
06:32not desirable compared to the other spec so you're playing through a jtm45 you've got a blues driver
06:38here do you want to show us a few sounds so we can see here some of that functionality in
06:41play because
06:42we've got a five-way selector so run us through what the selector actually selects right um just for
06:46clarity i'm not using the blues driver at the moment though i've got a bit of a crunchy sound set
06:51on the jtm45 though i might kick that on for some fun later so at the moment i've got everything
06:57sort of full fat uh the tone control right up and i'm bringing the bridge pickup volume up let's hear
07:02that
07:12so you're hearing that real bloom on the bottom notes from the jtm45 out of interest i'm going to
07:18bring this down because you know they have their special treble bleeds and
07:36so you can hear that that treble bleed is working in a very natural way that's part of the way
07:41they
07:42tune the circuit with a capacitor and a resistor i think don't shoot me if i'm wrong or drop a
07:47comment
07:47um so that's the bridge pickup so i think we should hear it with the partial coil split yes
07:55um you can hear there's a power drop but there's not a massive volume drop which is nice so if
08:02i
08:05so we've got a little bit more of that twang especially on the front end of the note
08:14i mean it's a little bit sweeter a little bit more straty really though i suppose it's probably
08:19would technically be more telly-ish
08:24quite like the fact that they haven't knocked it back too much it's just giving you a little
08:27subtle variation it's not going gone back to a sort of anemic kind of i know what you mean it's
08:32like some of the fake analog delays you can't just suddenly do that yeah this is a lot more natural
08:37and a
08:38lot more usable yeah yeah just very easy the the controls are calibrated in such a way that you
08:50get what you hope for when you when you adjust them so um when i i'll put that back onto
08:57full humbucking
08:58and then i'm going to bump it onto the next position which as you you know you probably expect with
09:03a
09:03five-way selector gives us the bridge and the middle so um let's hear that
09:15this is the narrow field and the reason that it's called that is obviously the magnetic field is
09:19narrower like a single coil so even though it's a humbucker you've got a little bit more
09:23high frequency content less space content um so what if i single coil that bridge pickup
09:36it's worth bearing in mind that the the low end on the jtm45 is very chewy um but i quite
09:44like that
09:44we've got that because if i bump this down to about six so that's pretty versatile i mean it's not
09:59the
09:59most versatile setup a jtm45 raw turned up like that but this is working very well that's right
10:05so what this really does is with these um combinations of switches and pickups it's giving
10:10you um rather than you know more of the same you're getting some definite distinct shades of
10:17you know be great great for like a function band or something like that where oh yeah yeah perfect
10:21yeah you'd only need to take one guitar and some spare strings or whatever i mean i suppose i should
10:25probably recap i'll speed things up and make it a little bit easier to follow um so we've had the
10:30full fat bridge and we've had this split bridge though it's a partial split rather than the full one
10:35now we've got bridge and middle and i split the bridge for that so we've got a little bit more
10:40in the strat world though there's a fatter version of that available
10:45which is quite a nice lead sound it sort of seems more middly um the middle position of the five
10:51-way
10:52selector any strat players will go well that's the middle and apparently not this is the two humbuckers
10:57so there isn't a selection where that narrow field humbucker is available on its own
11:02um so that uh let's hear it with both of these on full you know double coil full fat mode
11:18and let's split them both
11:31i mean that's just some random bluesy looks for you there but that's both split and obviously
11:35there are permutations you could leave the bridge on full fat you could leave the neck on full fat
11:40what is the what's the net the bridge on full fat and the neck on half sound like because that
11:44would probably be quite a usable tone right a little bit of warmth from the neck
11:55i think i remember having um you know you know guitars in the past that had loads of switching
12:04options and it was never a very satisfying contrast between what was offered and i think
12:08this one actually has done quite a good job of offering you some things you might actually like
12:11i must say yeah that's that's a really good point because i often you know will groan when i see
12:17something like that and i think well i've got to demonstrate this and all these tones only
12:20five of which are really what people would want but this is truly giving a lot of usable sounds
12:27yeah in a sensible format as well it's easy to negotiate you know to navigate but it's not
12:33very hard is it so what do you get well that's that's the bridge and neck humbucker together
12:36split it split or not if we go back to full fat what's next on the five way
12:41back to full fat and then we get um it becomes more predictable we've got middle and neck so
12:58so again we're going through the the amp that's not known for its clarity at the low end on these
13:03settings and we're still managing to hear what's going on i'll split them um i'll split the neck
13:09so there's no point in splitting them both when i could do might sound any different
13:13so i think that's quite valid i think in the studio you might find with a mix actually just
13:36flicking that switch backwards and forwards you do find the yeah yeah and and in the context of a band
13:42mix as well you hear these subtleties a bit more i think that's why i wanted to play the same
13:46lick
13:46over and over really and just flick between the two because i'm in the room here i'm hearing quite a
13:50difference um so yeah so you've got that we're back to the sort of strat lineup and then of course
13:57we've got the full um humbucking neck
14:25i should have said before i did it but now i've done it so i'll say it afterwards
14:30that's the slug coil of the neck pickup which is giving me a bit more of the srv sort of
14:37flavor
14:37another variation yeah it's got that sort of bounce and snap too which is nice
14:49that's interesting i i don't normally on other guitars gravitate towards the split options
14:54because they can sound a bit like a sort of you know um diet you know diet version of of
15:01the full
15:02pickup yeah well the volume drop for me often makes them just impractical to use unless you
15:07set a level for that or set a boost specifically for when you do that then you've got two things
15:12to do
15:12um but for me these function in the way that i always thought that the coil split should
15:18yeah it's a nice selection i would genuinely i mean um if you do find yourself wanting needing to sort
15:24of dial things in or wanting to get just exactly the right sort of thing to sit in the mix
15:29you've
15:29got to say that's all your options you could really want for there you know over three pickups apart
15:35from maybe the middle on its own but you know um i don't think you're going to exactly you know
15:40miss it all that much because there's a lot there on offer
15:44um yeah absolutely well tell you what at this point should we go over to this one to sort of
15:47um
15:48yeah um sort of point out the differences so okay this is the indonesian made version and there are
15:53differences i mean superficially they look very similar um but i'll walk you through them um
15:59firstly we have a slightly different body here it is a mahogany body but it's got a maple veneer
16:05over the top here so it's very nice figured veneer it looks quite natural
16:09and um the the sort of curves at the top are what they call a shallow violin um arrangement
16:15so with that one there's a quite a hard line where the asymmetric bevel sort of ends on the
16:20curvy bits on the edge begins this one is arguably a bit closer to the the classic core line prs
16:26idea
16:26except it is very flat over a large part of its surface so there's no hard bevel but you don't
16:32get
16:32quite that lovely sort of voluptuous um whale back kind of curve on it that you would on the core
16:37line
16:38um same bridge as before which is yeah i think they're exactly the same on these yeah um this
16:44one here has a maple neck so underneath this sort of stain is actually a maple neck so it's departing
16:48from the scripts of the core and that one even though that's a three-piece margony this is a
16:52maple neck and that used to happen on you know certain gibsons and things oh yeah yeah and they're
16:56sort of no linear gibsons yeah um the profile is um wide thin on this one so yours is pattern
17:02regular this is wide thin to me to me it doesn't feel wide thin in the sort of ibanez
17:07sense where it's like an aircraft carrier deck super subtle yeah so it's a bit of a misnomer it
17:12just feels quite like a quite comfortable sort of c into d profile to my hand um we've got 58
17:1915
17:19humbuckers here but these ones are the s version which is indonesian made so they do differ from the
17:24the the us ones you've got there um as does the middle pickup which is um the narrowfield dd
17:31so if you've been following prs guitars you know that they brought out the the somewhat telly
17:35like nf 53 um not so long ago this is the se version of that pickup so it's the it's
17:41a
17:41narrowfield dd and it's got these kind of blade like poles that it's not a continuous blade but
17:47they almost it's like almost like the side of a string yeah it's like a sort of morse
17:50exactly and um so that is a little bit different to what you've got the standard
17:57flat pole pieces so both humbucking um what else is worth mentioning on this one i mean
18:04the um as mentioned the bridge is the same i mean you've got the same sort of lampshade style
18:09fluted controls here and the same control layout so all the things that richard demonstrated there
18:14are also true of this one so i think at this point what i'd quite like to do is just
18:18to keep
18:18things the same i'm playing through a hand-wired vox ac15 here it does sound quite surprisingly close
18:24to the jcm45 but not exact so i know we'll get comments if we don't hand for the sound right
18:29don't hand it to richard for the exact same i will uh unplug this yes one moment we'll just do
18:34our
18:35magic so richard's got the guitar now let's do a quick we won't we won't linger as long as we
18:40did
18:41last time because we'll explain what we're doing but let's do a quick rattle through the same settings
18:44on this guitar right so bridge full fat
18:52and then split
19:02right back to full fat on the bridge and now bridge and middle
19:13i'll split the bridge again
19:21i can really hear that and let's try this um treble bleed
19:28it all works great i mean they're slightly different these may be alpha pots if i remember
19:32correctly but i'm not really hearing any tonal penalty is that a phrase
19:43okay and i'm going to put that back on full fat and go for the middle which is both
19:56splitting both
20:08i mean as i mentioned earlier we've gone with this jtm45 driven and and the low end can be a
20:15bit
20:15overwhelming you know it's why people used to use tube screamers and things but you can really
20:19control that here and if we can control that then we can use it through any rig and get a
20:23great sound
20:23as far as i'm concerned um i might skip straight to um middle and neck then that's everything full
20:40and let's split
20:52most noticeable on the higher strings but it's definitely there where you've just got that thinner sound and you can
20:58of course
21:04it is completely different sound when it's there right back to full onto the neck
21:20and let's split that
21:26if you heard the chord i was imagining that lick would have made sense of course
21:29um but so we've got this same um lineup exactly it's interesting to hear that this
21:37works as well really it does i mean you know exactly the same i suppose because we can't you know
21:45identically ab them you know in real time here and perhaps we can do something in the edit but um
21:49what i you know just subjectively here is a little bit more snap from that one and it's left me
21:55thinking
21:55wonder if that's the influence of that narrowfield dd there or yep or perhaps a bit of maple neck i'm
22:00not sure yeah but certainly it seems logical that there would be a difference and that would be it
22:06i mean but having said that as much as i there are subtle differences i'm also surprised by how
22:13similar these guitars sound in on the whole given that there's 1600 quid between them yeah um i mean
22:19that one's got like pretty more more standard tuners on it this has got this sort of american style
22:23with the brass posts locking tuners you know that's a that's a nice bit of high-end kit i
22:27think prs have realized that perhaps s2 and se were getting a little bit close for comfort to each
22:32other in terms of the the quality and the the sort of standard yeah they've actually put a bit more
22:36bling on the the s2s now to sort of differentiate them it's more defined as a tier isn't it in
22:41the
22:42hierarchy and they've got these they've got these huge great um strap buttons which are a bit
22:45love or hate i i personally they've i mean once it's on it's on they're different on there
22:50to oh yes i see what you mean yeah um so i mean what are your thoughts then richard having
22:56sort of
22:56picked up both of these i have to say i mean i suppose it depends on the individual preference
23:01i personally quite like a maple neck i like the rigidity of it i like the strength of it those
23:07three-piece mahogany it's just that so that's tricky so i'm confusing my own um
23:14my own priorities there i think that uh ultimately i think i'd go to a shop and try out as
23:23many of them
23:23as i could get my hands on and compare and based on these two i do wonder whether i might
23:29be tempted
23:29to keep the the 1600 cred really here's what i think if i was going to buy let's say you
23:35know
23:36because not everybody has a collection of guitars if i was going to buy one guitar and i was going
23:39to
23:39push the boat out a bit because it was going to be my one and only i would probably be
23:44tempted to
23:45go for this just because it is a little bit nicer the feel and the fit and finish are just
23:49a tad kind
23:50of more special you feel like you really now that they've kind of changed the spec a bit and
23:54upgraded it in parts you do feel like you've really bought a piece of that classic prx heritage yeah i
23:58suppose so you might buy and given its feature set you might say well i'm going to get one really
24:02great
24:02guitar if though i had a few you know let's say we've got all the standard things that you've got
24:08to
24:08have in your electric collection if you're going to have a few you know the strats the tellies and so
24:11on if i decided that i wanted to have a guitar that had the capability to offer a range of
24:17tones
24:17let's say for that you know proverbial wedding gig or whatever i would be tempted to just go for that
24:23because i don't think there's that there's not 1600s worth of difference no i mean as we were talking
24:28i realized this is heavier and i reckon that might be the maple neck yeah though it could easily be
24:33other things but i feel perhaps the balance um might not be as it doesn't disappear in the same
24:41way when you pick it up i would say subjectively as well aesthetics are completely subjective so this
24:46is purely this is not a uh you know an objective plus or minus this this um asymmetric bevel
24:54in some ways you could argue it's less true to the sort of prs curviness than the shallow violin because
24:59that has a completely graduated curve to it even though it doesn't go up to the same heights
25:04yeah yeah so i would say that there is a slight aesthetic consideration there if you like that
25:09and you dig it it's this is you know real deal usa guitar with a cool look to it that
25:14one does not
25:15distance itself very far from the original though it is it is less fancy but you know it's it's a
25:23pretty
25:24good stab for a 1200 quid guitar i've got to say yeah yeah i mean that's that's incredible and the
25:29the wiring and the pickups they've not just slapped cheaper components in and called it a good job they've
25:35they've really put plenty of effort into that and i've i've been pretty sure that at some point
25:40in recent times i've played other um guitars from the same factory with the same pickups and been
25:47impressed with them then as well these are these are not cheap microphonic rubbish pickups like i don't
25:52know some some viewers will remember from years ago the first thing you do with the guitar
25:56is take it to somewhere and get someone to fit some new pickups to it that's not necessary here
26:02so definitely not so um i think it's you pays your money and it takes your choice and i think
26:06um
26:07so what what should prs be applauded for in these guitars just how good the cheaper version quote unquote
26:14is and how close it is to the um uh the s2 which is the us made one so you
26:19don't feel cheated and
26:20for those that want the cachet of the full fat us version um well you've got that so um
26:26that's it really um two fine guitars um with a bit to choose between them but we'll let you decide
26:32on that um if you have enjoyed watching today then hit like and subscribe and we will see you again
26:36next
26:36talk
26:37so
26:50so