Wish there had been guitars like this around when I first started playing, I think it would be an excellent choice for your son, or perhaps one of the Gretsch Electromatics, depending on his musical preferences, I have had a few Gretsch Electromatics and they are spectacular for the money, however the Bigsy versions are a pain to restring when you are just starting out.
As the “guitar player guy” amongst my friends, I get the “what guitar should I buy for my kid?” question pretty often and I’d have to say this one definitely will get a mention. It fights well above its weight class - not sure there is another new guitar this good at anywhere near the price out there right now.
Yes! I purchased this model in the Silver satin color/finish in late October, nedless to say, I am no longer in the market for any more guitars. And my wife couldn't be happier. Thanks for the review, learned alot.
PRS SE is a quality line of “affordable” import guitars. I still have me SE Standard from a decade ago when they first launched and it’s still great. Replaced the pickups with PRS American pickups and locking tuners and it feels great to play
I have a 2017 silver se standard 24, awesome guitar that’s been an absolute workhorse. Put a set of fishman moderns and it absolutely sings. I actually think I neglected it a bit and needs some love, because this seems to be set up better and have better finish than mine 😅
I spent Thanksgiving in Nashville (half the family are Vol fans and had to sit in a freezing stadium watching my school’s big rival beat up the smart kids lol) and took in a show on Broadway. The guitarist was just amazing, had a beautiful Suhr guitar and had the most amazing sound on everything from country, to rock, to whatever. Chatted with him for a bit between sets and was amazed that he had one of those Katana amps. I’ve always been a “toobs or death” guy but seriously if a working guitarist in Nashville can gig one of those amps they must be the tits.
Hey Phil... I bought my PRS SE CE 24 Satin in Vintage Cherry almost a year ago. First of all I'm jealous yours only weighs 6.6lbs..mine 7.3. Anyhoo, I really love this PRS and was ecstatic they finally made an affordable model for all those who otherwise would never be able to own a PRS. Sooo glad you finally agreed to do a video on this model and that overall you like ! It's a lot of guitar at this price point....and am so glad you agreed !
Phillip eres todo un crack. Te sigo desde pandemia del covid y siempre veo tus videos. Nos ayudas mucho. Que pases unas excelentes fiestas navideñas. Saludos desde México. Todo un capo
I'm really enjoying this trend of open pore finishes on guitars becoming more popular. I love the way they look and feel. I know manufacturers love it because it's less labor intensive to make and therefore widens profit margin, but I think it just gives instruments a really cool vibe. It's one of the main reasons I bought the GFS Slick P-bass that is my main axe. Just a vibey look. I'm glad more companies are just letting the wood hang out.
Thanks for reviewing! Bought the turquoise one back in March and I love it. First PRS and was totally looking for a "workhorse" guitar that could handle tones outside of your usual pointy guitars I play haha
I've had one for a few months ago. The CE has been one of my favorite guitars I've ever played, it feels high quality, sounds and feels amazing. Punches WELL above it's price. Highly recommend
I bought this guitar in vintage cherry, and while I wouldn't say it's on par with my CE24 DW Floyds, I'd say it's 90% of the guitar for 20% of the price. My only real critique is, as Phil found, if you get too aggressive with the trem, you can knock it out of tune. On my personal guitar, bends would also knock a couple strings out, but I put some lube in the nut slots to correct that. I do plan to file a slight radius on the head-side of the nut for the problem strings (A and B on mine), to try and correct the slight issue I have left with tuning stability. I bought this as a cheap travel guitar that gives me almost the same feel as my better PRS guitars at home, and it has very adequately filled that role. Other than the slight tuning issues I still have with aggressive trem dives, this guitar is a home run for the price!
I’m glad the younger generation has all these the great sounding inexpensive guitars and amps to start with. I’ll be 52 in February and people close to my age remember when cheap guitars and amps also sounded cheap. 🤘🏼
Great episode! PRS guitars are so consistent. I have a nice collection of over 30 guitars, but I am a bit fan boy as I have 6 PRS, including 3 American Standards. The play ability and comfort are key. I also highly appreciate ROSEWOOD! It's the ultimate fretboard wood. Thanks for your in depth reviews and complete honesty, Phil. You are my go to guitar expert!
Got mine yesterday, birthday present to myself. Fret ends could just about draw blood on the treble side. Also has some high frets causing some buzz with the action set as low as the one you reviewed. Almost sent it back. Spent the time and effort to clean up the fret ends and now it's much better as long as I keep the action a little higher than I like. I'll address that at a later date. I sure didn't get one like you did Phil, but your videos have made me comfortable doing what needs to be done.
I bought an SE CE in vintage sunburst and was blown away by the quality relative to price. As in the video, the set up out of the box was outstanding. I own a number of guitars including some high end, vintage pieces and find myself reaching for the SE CE all the time. On a cost/ value basis, I don’t think you can beat it.
The Ice Blue SE CE 24 looks great, 85/15S sounds great. PRS really is hitting it way out of the park with the newest SEs. I love PRS and SEs and have owned a few, but I wish the necks were thinner for my arthritic hands than the so called "wide thin" on my SE SAS, which is not as thin as my Fender Lead II or LP Special Tribute. My hand doesn't hurt with those at all but this version of "wide thin" kills it fast and takes days to recover.
They're really good these days. I just got an NF3, which is the same construction as this but with different pickups. It was great right out of the box. Grease the nut up well if you're going to be using the trem a lot.
I got my SE CE24 Cherry maple veneer (from SW) last Spring and it is a phenomenal guitar at any price point. Frets were nicely polished with no sprout. The bolt 25" neck gives a nice snap and clarity to the humbucker pups that is missing from neck through / set necks that I've had in the past. At the current 15% discount it is a steal! I prefer clean single coils, but this is my favorite clean humbuckers.
Got this day before yesterday. Vintage Cherry Absolutely love it. My 1st PRS ever I am no Pro but I can tell a good Guitar from an average one. This is PRS’s cheapest Guitar and it sounds, feels and plays amazing. I can only imagine what a $2000 CE made in USA will feel like Mr. Paul Reed Smith is making the world a much reasonable place for us Guitar players by offering such stellar instruments at a price which a common man can afford ❤
Nicely done, Phil. You really can’t go wrong with PRS in any price category in my opinion. I have one of their earliest SE custom 24 is made in Korea. It is still a fantastic playing guitar. As an owner of more than 20 electrics, and a couple of PRS’s, I am thoroughly impressed with their quality control, their choice of woods, and you have to admit, Paul Reed Smith is the man who make sure all of this stays true.
My 4 CE27162 in sunburst from 2004 still impresses me not only visually and sound wise. No matter what detail you look at, you will only find the finest craftsmanship and technical ingredients.
Thank you for going into the details on the PRS Trem screws... I have used these on all of my strats with pretty amazing results. I don't use all 6. I did need to hone out the holes on one trem to get a better knife edge. Super effective upgrade, if you have the room to intonate back about .5 mm due to the inset on the screws. I have an old Ibanez Stagestar with the original trem with these on it... better tuners, and a bone nut, but it makes me smile when I do irresponsible dive bombs and it comes back in tune... It almost makes me angry.
Yup, bought one myself in the vintage Cherry Satin. Beautiful guitar! I’ve had it since May and it’s been so good I ended up getting rid of my Fender Tele FMTHH as it was just sitting in the case. One of the best things about the guitar is the satin finish on the Maple Neck. The Fender neck is finished and I always found it sticky and hard to slide. So even though the guitar sounded great, the PRS gives me the same tones and plays so much better. Highly recommend this guitar! BTW, the guitar stays in tune using the trem system as well!! Nice job PRS!!
Went to a guitar store ealier in the year to get myself a Gretch. Was handed this to try out and I was instantly converted despite never considered a PRS just because it aint the big two. Bought one, then I got another used SE 24-08 a few months after. Great guitars for what I need.
My PRS SE 24 was purchased in 2019 and was Indonesian. My selection switch was a standard slide switch similar to a Fender type which had a defective center position from the time I received it (that I replaced with an American switch). The guitar has been a gem keeping its tune and being a pleasure to play. Besides the replacement of the switch, it has remained one of my three favorite guitars to play regularly. (With a '95 LP and a 2019 Fender Deluxe Strat).
I have had one since they came out. Incredible value for price. The only issue I had was the top of the body kept carving into my arm. I used some sandpaper to smooth it out. Then took a red sharpie and colored the wood. Then used satin wipe on poly and went over the whole body. So perfect!
What more amazes me is that a well known guitar brand created a really good quality guitar under $ 500 when the other big brands have been dedicating on raising their prices on the same guitars.
I picked up the gloss maple top version last year when they were on sale for $559 and it is a fantastic guitar. Setup almost perfect out of the box, just polished the frets, put on 10's and added a spring to the trem and it's perfect for me. It has replaced my 12 lb 1976 Les Paul for gigs due to the weight, and since the coil split sounds great, I can even leave my strat at home if I just want to take one guitar. I am glad I was able to get the maple top version for only $60 more as I really like the look and feel, it's a really attractive guitar.
I have the white sandblasted version. I found that the added swamp ash top helps to give more balance to the overall sound vs a full mahogany body. It also looks cooler with the streaking and smoked hardware. I was also shocked at how light it was considering mahogany and swamp ash are usually the heaviest tonewoods around!
I was deciding between this and the NF3 SE. Considering I prefer single coils I ended up going with the NF3. I was not disappointed. Wonderful review though.
I just got an SE Paul's Guitar about a month ago- I'm blown away. The only issue I've found with it, cheap tuners- it doesn't like to hold tune. It was a common complaint in the reviews when I bought it, so I kind of expected as much. But everyone said if you just install a set of PRS locking tuners, they match right up supposedly, no drilling or anything required- and it fixes the issue. I'm definitely going to give it a try because this is an amazing guitar otherwise, easily the best I've ever owned. The DGT series is knocking it out of the park at 600-700 as well, the low output HBs David designed for it sound incredible, even the SE series pups. They're imports but they're manufactured to David's specs and imo they sound as good as the Core series. This is the first time I've heard this model, but I'm impressed with it as well- sounds amazing for 500 bucks. Granted, they're still not competing with Sire or Yamaha as far as features- but it's a PRS, it sounds great, looks great, and it's only 500 bucks. Imo the SE line is one of the best budget lines on the market this season. If things going forward change the way it looks like they might- the SE line may not be around much longer- if it is, it will definitely cost significantly more than it does now so- I would jump if you're interested. In fact, I would say that about any import line- they're not going to be this inexpensive much longer. Elections have consequences- remember?
I have an S2, a FCS and LPs... and I still bought one of these at GC because I played it and was like, this guitar is perfect. Not all of them are, but the one I got is great at any price... especially $499. Love it.
Keep an eye out at guitar center. Their used guitars are usually priced really fairly. I got a prs Carlos Santana SE for 400 with the warranty money from one of my acoustics. 24 frets, hh, and super nice.
I bought one of these new from Zzounds almost a year ago (in charcoal) and it’s fantastic. Swapped out the pickups and wiring system, added locking tuners and she’s my money maker guitar. She can handle any situation from metal, to rock, to worship gigs you name it, it can do anything. Great first guitar, great mod platform, just a great guitar overall. Fantastic work horse/beater. Highly recommend.
Just bought a new PRS McCarty 594 SE single cut for $499. My first PRS. Flawless in every way out of the box. Frets are smooth all the way down. Intonation is spot on. No fret buzz. Other than my Schecters this is the only guitar I've bought that didn't need a full set up out of the box. Impressive especially for their less expensive line. I definitely see myself getting another someday.
Ive got the sandblasted swamp ash in red and i love it. Mine is 6lbs on the dot. Great feel, great playability, and it sounds good with all but the heaviest metal.
Hi Philip , I bought exactly this PRS you are showing ; mainly i was aiming for a guitar that would stay in tune and have the versatility in tones combining Les Paul to Strat in one guitar . I’m finding it a nice guitar ; super lightweight - i love that ; Tuning stability so far is not what i expected , its going out ; all the time on B and G strings . Annoying , Pickups ; ok , but i just feel the tones are lacking in depth / body / soul / warmth I feel i must go to Locking Tuners ; and am toying with the idea of changing pickups ; but maybe i need to just re dial my amp settings more to suit this fresh new guitar !! Neck is great , looks great , i love the simplicity in the controls . 1 Vol , 1 Tone , 3 way switch . Oh yeah , id like the volume control to be a bit firmer / tighter as its pretty light on the feel and easy to go too far round too quick with a flick of your finger ; But position is fantastic ; where it should be - reachable . ( unlike my Les Paul !!! ) Great review , just great ; Love your work , love your detail , and still you move through the vid with a perfect pace !! Tops tops tops !!! Keep going Philip , never stop !!!!
I own three PRS SEs. A 30th Anniversary 24, A Soap Bar II, and a Single Cut. The Soap Bar II is by far one of my favorite guitars. Can't beat the P90 pickups in it. I don't care where they're made, as long as it speaks to me. TBH, I don't think there's a 4-5k dollar difference between the core models and the SEs. Any short comings can be easily rectified with a little inexpensive tweaking. YMMV Thanks for the video.
I have the higher price blood orange glass version I love it. I followed your advice and put it in my cart for a couple of days and the seller offered it to me for $550 down from $799 I will put locking tuners eventually and I already have a brass block for the trem to install and put 2 FU tone red springs.
Makes for another cool video, Phil. I'm so glad I came across your channel. I definitely found a new favorite. I hope the guitar works out for you. I pulled the plug on a Heritage ascent in Pelham Blue yesterday. It was only a little over 200.00 bucks. I'm 54 yrs old, and I wanted to see what the fuss is all about with these budget guitars. If I don't decide to keep it and mod it out, I'll more than likely see if my 17 yr old stepson still has a desire to start learning. Happy holidays, too you and yours.
I'd like to suggest a seasoned Christmas suggestion why don't you ask your stepson if you're still interested in playing guitar and not have it predicated on whether or not you decide to keep a guitar I think that would be really cool of course I say this not knowing any of your particulars which is sort of you know not cool so of course it's not it's just a suggestion and you can throw it out with the rest of the garbage because that's most likely will probably be sincerely David Raphael AKA Bob the blind person guitarist PS have a happy and healthy New Year and seasons greetings
I love my PRS SE Custom, mine's the non-satin version with the glued neck and its a 2019 model from Korea not Indonesia but the PRS quality has been consistent through the years and I'm certain the new factory producing these in Indonesia has retained so many of the positives and charactistics of the earlier models. The biggest difference I'm aware of between the Satin and originals aside from the savings of the Satin is the weight, my guitar is pretty heavy in conmparison. If I didn't have my heart set of the glued neck and finish however I would certainly have purchased a Satin model, they are great value.
Just bought the new NF3. Very nice. Same body and neck I believe but has humbuckers that are single coil like though a bit thicker. Between a single coil and a p90 but no hum.
I have the American CE and I absolutely love it! It has been with me 7 years, recorded, gigged, and still looking sharp and does not even need a setup and I live in sometimes very humid weather. With PRS you get what you pay for. I`m sure with this guitar you will get the best bang for your buck for what you paid for. I just like supporting brands with such high standards
I have some higher end PRS guitars and i wanted something lower-end that i could abuse a bit, and it still be playable. The SECE was great. I did swap out the tuners with lockers and did graphite saddles and its a great "beater" backup guitar. I also covered the pickups and it looks really sharp
I just picked up the limited edition sandblasted swamp ash ce24 and it was perfect out of the box except for some fret sprouts, I'd say it was a 3 out of 5 and took me less than an hour to fix them. ALSO had zero high frets. I was intially concerned about the tuners but after changing strings it holds tune very well. I love the pickups as well. I paid 567.00 US for the guitar and love it. I would buy it again foir sure. Thanks for the video.
I used to hate PRS guitars until I saw (and heard) this one. I ended up buying two. They look great, feel great and sound great - esp. the middle position coil tapped is very quacky like a Strat. And there's no volume loss when you coil tap either. The trem is also very smooth and stable. Overall, astonishing quality and value.
This a great guitar for someone on a budget. It can play all genres, from Blues to Metal. It looks great. The controls are simple. I would definitely use this in the studio or the stage!
Sweet Guitar! My best bang for the buck, and one of my Favorite guitars that I own. One thing to me that stands out over all of my pieces is the bridge/trem. Smooth as butter. Mine is the Satin Red.
I have bought 2 PRS SE signature models for half the price because the owners did not understand the bridge and messed it up. A little knowledge and time and they both were restored and played as new. A Santana and a Tremonti Custom.
I bought one of these for my wife’s birthday. I couldn’t get over how good it was. The fact it’s that high quality and comes with the gig bag is just insane.
Not seen the video yet, will watch shortly. I bet the guitar is superb. I have four PRSes, a Core, a CE, an S2 and an SE (Singlecut). I've had and still have some very nice American Gibsons and Fenders. The SE is superb.
I got my katana 3 yrs ago. I used to use nothing but fender. Katana is my amp now for every gig. Acoustic and Electric sets. My acoustic set up is the katana on the acoustic setting and my ME 70 with delay and a little chorus.
Next to Fender Tele/Esqu's. PRS are my favorite. I got two: a 2000 McCarty and the more recent Reverb buy, a 2023 used, but dead mint, SE Hollowbody II. Which insanely light and plays like a dream. That I payed 650.00 for with hardshell case. With only one mod, I put a McCarty truss rod on it, because, well, because I am one.🙂
I have an older SE with that same gig bag and it's the best gig bag I've ever seen. What a great bargain this guitar is. PRS SE is far and away my favorite affordable line of guitars.
Wow, sounded great. Ive always wondered what a bolt on neck PRS would sound like. I had a Custom 24 SE a few years ago and I hated it. The Previous owner Had some work done on it . I couldn’t touch the Trem arm or it would go out of tune. then I had some work done on it to fix the problem but the Tech had no idea what he was doing I later found out.
Hi Phil. I've started watching your videos and love them. I've played guitar for years but the basic stuff you show on here is incredible. It makes me feel more confident in guitar maintenance and repair. So I have a question, hope you'll reply, might even give you a good video for the future. I bought the roland vg99 guitar synth when it came out, with the midi pickup. The pickup had to be stuck to the guitar with a foam sticky pad that came with the pickup, and now I want to remove it and stick it to a cheaper guitar. That's right... I was young and stupid and stuck it to my '98 Les Paul. Could you tell me the best way to remove the sticky without damage to the laquer. I've watched your "Guitar cleaning myths" but would love if you could give a basic reply. And it could give you a video on the history of dodgy guitar inventions that can actually damage peoples guitars. Hope you can help, and thanks in advance.
is your's a Korean made model? My 2019 guitar which is also fantastic is Korean made, I'm not sure which year they began to produce these in Indonesia.
i think that "addressing issues" is a very powerfull maketing tool: if the new one has less issue than the previous versions you get a maketing advantage for the new one against the older version
I bought that same guitar last year (it's glossy blue though), it plays fantastic and it's clearly leagues above other stuff I have with similar cost (errr Squier...).
@@tomaslopez2940Dragon 2s get a lot of hate on line, but honesty I don’t know why. Yes they are aggressive with the volume and tone wide open, but play around with them a while and you will find out they are quite versatile.
I really like what you played. You should put out a tablature! You don't show off enough on your channel. LoL. I like your guitar evaluation videos a lot. Thanks for doing them.
The greatest thing about PRS guitars is evident at all levels. Playability, set up, fit, and finish. I find trems get more stable with some playtime. Even if I case a guitar for 2 weeks it'll take a bit of playing to get stable
Hey Phil, great vid as always. Mate, that little jam at 18:41 sounded so great I just slowed the vid down and learned it from you :) Does it have a name or was it your creation?
I have one of these in charcoal. The scale, neck shape, fingerboard radius, nut width, and fret depths combine for a really nice fit for me. I would like to put some different pickups in, but they are push/pull and I haven't swapped any of them out before and am probably too chicken to do it.
I've been really happy with my Custom 24 CE SE. (The Standard wasn't out yet when I got it.) I did get the locking tuners, which I'll install with the next string change. If they sold a hardtail version of the Standard, I'd pick one up because I'd really like to have the option of the same guitar with a factory installed hard-tail. But all the hard-tail SEs are different in various ways. I'm sure I'll eventually end up with one of those or getting a Standard and blocking the vibrato...but that's a much lower priority on my to-acquire list than a hard-tail Standard 24 CE SE would be.
Thanks, Phil. Was considering this Christmas gift for son...now I will get this for him for sure...he will love it!
Wish there had been guitars like this around when I first started playing, I think it would be an excellent choice for your son, or perhaps one of the Gretsch Electromatics, depending on his musical preferences, I have had a few Gretsch Electromatics and they are spectacular for the money, however the Bigsy versions are a pain to restring when you are just starting out.
As the “guitar player guy” amongst my friends, I get the “what guitar should I buy for my kid?” question pretty often and I’d have to say this one definitely will get a mention. It fights well above its weight class - not sure there is another new guitar this good at anywhere near the price out there right now.
I am open for an adoption. Ever thought of having a 50-year-old son?
By the way: I like the charcoal sandblasted one...
Awesome parent
This comment made me so happy! I can almost remember the joy.
I've been watching your videos forever and never said thanks. Thanks for the wholesome, high quality, and most of all great channel. Much appreciated!
Thank you, very kind of you to say.
Yes! I purchased this model in the Silver satin color/finish in late October, nedless to say, I am no longer in the market for any more guitars. And my wife couldn't be happier. Thanks for the review, learned alot.
You are the nicest and most competent Utuber on guitars. Great, no bubble and babbel, the facts, concentrated. Great!
PRS SE is a quality line of “affordable” import guitars. I still have me SE Standard from a decade ago when they first launched and it’s still great. Replaced the pickups with PRS American pickups and locking tuners and it feels great to play
I have a 2017 silver se standard 24, awesome guitar that’s been an absolute workhorse. Put a set of fishman moderns and it absolutely sings. I actually think I neglected it a bit and needs some love, because this seems to be set up better and have better finish than mine 😅
My PRS Santana SE was made in 2001. I bought it in 2006. It's brilliant.
I just bought one, used it on 2 gigs. Great guitar, nice bluesy growl and clean tones. I use an ME 70 and Boss Katana.
I spent Thanksgiving in Nashville (half the family are Vol fans and had to sit in a freezing stadium watching my school’s big rival beat up the smart kids lol) and took in a show on Broadway. The guitarist was just amazing, had a beautiful Suhr guitar and had the most amazing sound on everything from country, to rock, to whatever. Chatted with him for a bit between sets and was amazed that he had one of those Katana amps. I’ve always been a “toobs or death” guy but seriously if a working guitarist in Nashville can gig one of those amps they must be the tits.
Phil's playing has kicked up a notch👍
Hey Phil... I bought my PRS SE CE 24 Satin in Vintage Cherry almost a year ago. First of all I'm jealous yours only weighs 6.6lbs..mine 7.3. Anyhoo, I really love this PRS and was ecstatic they finally made an affordable model for all those who otherwise would never be able to own a PRS. Sooo glad you finally agreed to do a video on this model and that overall you like ! It's a lot of guitar at this price point....and am so glad you agreed !
Just a couple of months ago I bought my ce24 in Cherry satin finish and it's quite nice
Phillip eres todo un crack. Te sigo desde pandemia del covid y siempre veo tus videos. Nos ayudas mucho. Que pases unas excelentes fiestas navideñas. Saludos desde México. Todo un capo
I'm really enjoying this trend of open pore finishes on guitars becoming more popular. I love the way they look and feel. I know manufacturers love it because it's less labor intensive to make and therefore widens profit margin, but I think it just gives instruments a really cool vibe. It's one of the main reasons I bought the GFS Slick P-bass that is my main axe. Just a vibey look.
I'm glad more companies are just letting the wood hang out.
Thanks for reviewing! Bought the turquoise one back in March and I love it. First PRS and was totally looking for a "workhorse" guitar that could handle tones outside of your usual pointy guitars I play haha
I've had one for a few months ago. The CE has been one of my favorite guitars I've ever played, it feels high quality, sounds and feels amazing. Punches WELL above it's price. Highly recommend
Nice job on your guitar playing! I’m impressed :)
I bought this guitar in vintage cherry, and while I wouldn't say it's on par with my CE24 DW Floyds, I'd say it's 90% of the guitar for 20% of the price. My only real critique is, as Phil found, if you get too aggressive with the trem, you can knock it out of tune. On my personal guitar, bends would also knock a couple strings out, but I put some lube in the nut slots to correct that. I do plan to file a slight radius on the head-side of the nut for the problem strings (A and B on mine), to try and correct the slight issue I have left with tuning stability.
I bought this as a cheap travel guitar that gives me almost the same feel as my better PRS guitars at home, and it has very adequately filled that role. Other than the slight tuning issues I still have with aggressive trem dives, this guitar is a home run for the price!
I’m glad the younger generation has all these the great sounding inexpensive guitars and amps to start with. I’ll be 52 in February and people close to my age remember when cheap guitars and amps also sounded cheap. 🤘🏼
Thanks Phil, I ordered this right after seeing this video. Thanks for supporting my addiction.
Great episode! PRS guitars are so consistent. I have a nice collection of over 30 guitars, but I am a bit fan boy as I have 6 PRS, including 3 American Standards. The play ability and comfort are key. I also highly appreciate ROSEWOOD! It's the ultimate fretboard wood. Thanks for your in depth reviews and complete honesty, Phil. You are my go to guitar expert!
Got mine yesterday, birthday present to myself. Fret ends could just about draw blood on the treble side. Also has some high frets causing some buzz with the action set as low as the one you reviewed. Almost sent it back. Spent the time and effort to clean up the fret ends and now it's much better as long as I keep the action a little higher than I like. I'll address that at a later date.
I sure didn't get one like you did Phil, but your videos have made me comfortable doing what needs to be done.
I bought an SE CE in vintage sunburst and was blown away by the quality relative to price. As in the video, the set up out of the box was outstanding. I own a number of guitars including some high end, vintage pieces and find myself reaching for the SE CE all the time. On a cost/ value basis, I don’t think you can beat it.
The Ice Blue SE CE 24 looks great, 85/15S sounds great. PRS really is hitting it way out of the park with the newest SEs. I love PRS and SEs and have owned a few, but I wish the necks were thinner for my arthritic hands than the so called "wide thin" on my SE SAS, which is not as thin as my Fender Lead II or LP Special Tribute. My hand doesn't hurt with those at all but this version of "wide thin" kills it fast and takes days to recover.
I think a hardtail version of this guitar would be cool, never owned a SE before. I love the DW HT CE!
They're really good these days. I just got an NF3, which is the same construction as this but with different pickups. It was great right out of the box. Grease the nut up well if you're going to be using the trem a lot.
Just remove the bar, and the bridge should sit still and be very steady.
Been watching since the music store. Thanks Phil
whew ! just ordered one to a remote beach in east Asia. Thanks Phil. Merry Christmas to you. Such a reliable channel. rare
Thanks for the information Phil, much appreciated as always!!
I got my SE CE24 Cherry maple veneer (from SW) last Spring and it is a phenomenal guitar at any price point. Frets were nicely polished with no sprout. The bolt 25" neck gives a nice snap and clarity to the humbucker pups that is missing from neck through / set necks that I've had in the past. At the current 15% discount it is a steal! I prefer clean single coils, but this is my favorite clean humbuckers.
Got this day before yesterday. Vintage Cherry
Absolutely love it. My 1st PRS ever
I am no Pro but I can tell a good Guitar from an average one.
This is PRS’s cheapest Guitar and it sounds, feels and plays amazing.
I can only imagine what a $2000 CE made in USA will feel like
Mr. Paul Reed Smith is making the world a much reasonable place for us Guitar players by offering such stellar instruments at a price which a common man can afford ❤
Nicely done, Phil. You really can’t go wrong with PRS in any price category in my opinion. I have one of their earliest SE custom 24 is made in Korea. It is still a fantastic playing guitar. As an owner of more than 20 electrics, and a couple of PRS’s, I am thoroughly impressed with their quality control, their choice of woods, and you have to admit, Paul Reed Smith is the man who make sure all of this stays true.
My 4 CE27162 in sunburst from 2004 still impresses me not only visually and sound wise. No matter what detail you look at, you will only find the finest craftsmanship and technical ingredients.
Love your work Phil. Smartest man on youtube in my humble opinion. Best wishes for the Christmas period 🙂
Thank you for going into the details on the PRS Trem screws... I have used these on all of my strats with pretty amazing results. I don't use all 6. I did need to hone out the holes on one trem to get a better knife edge. Super effective upgrade, if you have the room to intonate back about .5 mm due to the inset on the screws. I have an old Ibanez Stagestar with the original trem with these on it... better tuners, and a bone nut, but it makes me smile when I do irresponsible dive bombs and it comes back in tune... It almost makes me angry.
Yup, bought one myself in the vintage Cherry Satin. Beautiful guitar! I’ve had it since May and it’s been so good I ended up getting rid of my Fender Tele FMTHH as it was just sitting in the case. One of the best things about the guitar is the satin finish on the Maple Neck. The Fender neck is finished and I always found it sticky and hard to slide. So even though the guitar sounded great, the PRS gives me the same tones and plays so much better. Highly recommend this guitar! BTW, the guitar stays in tune using the trem system as well!! Nice job PRS!!
Went to a guitar store ealier in the year to get myself a Gretch. Was handed this to try out and I was instantly converted despite never considered a PRS just because it aint the big two. Bought one, then I got another used SE 24-08 a few months after.
Great guitars for what I need.
So Gretsch is one of the big two?
@@richardclark. I was looking at the Gretch as an alternative to the big two.
Just bought the sandblasted CE and it's fantastic.
My PRS SE 24 was purchased in 2019 and was Indonesian. My selection switch was a standard slide switch similar to a Fender type which had a defective center position from the time I received it (that I replaced with an American switch). The guitar has been a gem keeping its tune and being a pleasure to play. Besides the replacement of the switch, it has remained one of my three favorite guitars to play regularly. (With a '95 LP and a 2019 Fender Deluxe Strat).
Best review I've ever seen. Well done!
I have had one since they came out. Incredible value for price. The only issue I had was the top of the body kept carving into my arm. I used some sandpaper to smooth it out. Then took a red sharpie and colored the wood. Then used satin wipe on poly and went over the whole body. So perfect!
My youngest son has 2 PRS SE guitars (Silver Sky and Standard 24) and the build quality is amazing. As always, thank you for another amazing video.
What more amazes me is that a well known guitar brand created a really good quality guitar under $ 500 when the other big brands have been dedicating on raising their prices on the same guitars.
I picked up the gloss maple top version last year when they were on sale for $559 and it is a fantastic guitar. Setup almost perfect out of the box, just polished the frets, put on 10's and added a spring to the trem and it's perfect for me. It has replaced my 12 lb 1976 Les Paul for gigs due to the weight, and since the coil split sounds great, I can even leave my strat at home if I just want to take one guitar. I am glad I was able to get the maple top version for only $60 more as I really like the look and feel, it's a really attractive guitar.
I have the white sandblasted version. I found that the added swamp ash top helps to give more balance to the overall sound vs a full mahogany body. It also looks cooler with the streaking and smoked hardware. I was also shocked at how light it was considering mahogany and swamp ash are usually the heaviest tonewoods around!
Mountain Ash is heavy. Swamp Ash is much lighter. Since it grows in or around inland water, the wood becomes much more porous, and therefore lighter.
I bought one in Metallic Gold last November and I've been loving it. Looking forward to upgrade its tuners to locking ones in the future.
That's a hell of a good buy at $499!
Love mine
I was deciding between this and the NF3 SE. Considering I prefer single coils I ended up going with the NF3. I was not disappointed. Wonderful review though.
These have the same necks.
@@chrisfit yes
NF 3 - single coil? My understanding is that those are humbuckers. What am I missing here?
Yes they are humbuckers. “Voiced to sound like single coils”. In reality they end up between a single coil and a p90 sound without any of the hum.
@@johnlebarton9220 it’s kinda like their straight NF53 but a strat thing instead of tele vibe.
I just got an SE Paul's Guitar about a month ago- I'm blown away. The only issue I've found with it, cheap tuners- it doesn't like to hold tune. It was a common complaint in the reviews when I bought it, so I kind of expected as much. But everyone said if you just install a set of PRS locking tuners, they match right up supposedly, no drilling or anything required- and it fixes the issue. I'm definitely going to give it a try because this is an amazing guitar otherwise, easily the best I've ever owned. The DGT series is knocking it out of the park at 600-700 as well, the low output HBs David designed for it sound incredible, even the SE series pups. They're imports but they're manufactured to David's specs and imo they sound as good as the Core series. This is the first time I've heard this model, but I'm impressed with it as well- sounds amazing for 500 bucks. Granted, they're still not competing with Sire or Yamaha as far as features- but it's a PRS, it sounds great, looks great, and it's only 500 bucks. Imo the SE line is one of the best budget lines on the market this season. If things going forward change the way it looks like they might- the SE line may not be around much longer- if it is, it will definitely cost significantly more than it does now so- I would jump if you're interested. In fact, I would say that about any import line- they're not going to be this inexpensive much longer. Elections have consequences- remember?
I have an S2, a FCS and LPs... and I still bought one of these at GC because I played it and was like, this guitar is perfect. Not all of them are, but the one I got is great at any price... especially $499. Love it.
Keep an eye out at guitar center. Their used guitars are usually priced really fairly. I got a prs Carlos Santana SE for 400 with the warranty money from one of my acoustics. 24 frets, hh, and super nice.
I bought one of these new from Zzounds almost a year ago (in charcoal) and it’s fantastic. Swapped out the pickups and wiring system, added locking tuners and she’s my money maker guitar. She can handle any situation from metal, to rock, to worship gigs you name it, it can do anything. Great first guitar, great mod platform, just a great guitar overall. Fantastic work horse/beater. Highly recommend.
Just bought a new PRS McCarty 594 SE single cut for $499. My first PRS. Flawless in every way out of the box. Frets are smooth all the way down. Intonation is spot on. No fret buzz. Other than my Schecters this is the only guitar I've bought that didn't need a full set up out of the box. Impressive especially for their less expensive line. I definitely see myself getting another someday.
All of my electric guitars are blue in color. Just a theme that I started. I love the black and blue color combo for this guitar
Blue is the best color!
You should do the blue sandblasted one!
I borrowed one of these from a recently, and I was astonished at how good the pickups sounded through my deluxe reverb.
Ive got the sandblasted swamp ash in red and i love it. Mine is 6lbs on the dot. Great feel, great playability, and it sounds good with all but the heaviest metal.
Hi Philip ,
I bought exactly this PRS you are showing ; mainly i was aiming for a guitar that would stay in tune and have the versatility in tones combining Les Paul to Strat in one guitar .
I’m finding it a nice guitar ; super lightweight - i love that ;
Tuning stability so far is not what i expected , its going out ; all the time on B and G strings . Annoying ,
Pickups ; ok , but i just feel the tones are lacking in depth / body / soul / warmth
I feel i must go to Locking Tuners ; and am toying with the idea of changing pickups ; but maybe i need to just re dial my amp settings more to suit this fresh new guitar !!
Neck is great , looks great , i love the simplicity in the controls .
1 Vol , 1 Tone , 3 way switch .
Oh yeah , id like the volume control to be a bit firmer / tighter as its pretty light on the feel and easy to go too far round too quick with a flick of your finger ;
But position is fantastic ; where it should be - reachable . ( unlike my Les Paul !!! )
Great review , just great ; Love your work , love your detail , and still you move through the vid with a perfect pace !!
Tops tops tops !!!
Keep going Philip , never stop !!!!
Love mine except for the pickups. I swapped mine out for Seymour Duncan ‘59 and JB. Now it’s perfect!
sounds great. I've never thought I would buy a PRS, but this video may have sold me on getting one.
I own three PRS SEs. A 30th Anniversary 24, A Soap Bar II, and a Single Cut. The Soap Bar II is by far one of my favorite guitars. Can't beat the P90 pickups in it. I don't care where they're made, as long as it speaks to me. TBH, I don't think there's a 4-5k dollar difference between the core models and the SEs. Any short comings can be easily rectified with a little inexpensive tweaking. YMMV Thanks for the video.
I have the higher price blood orange glass version I love it. I followed your advice and put it in my cart for a couple of days and the seller offered it to me for $550 down from $799 I will put locking tuners eventually and I already have a brass block for the trem to install and put 2 FU tone red springs.
Makes for another cool video, Phil. I'm so glad I came across your channel. I definitely found a new favorite. I hope the guitar works out for you. I pulled the plug on a Heritage ascent in Pelham Blue yesterday. It was only a little over 200.00 bucks. I'm 54 yrs old, and I wanted to see what the fuss is all about with these budget guitars. If I don't decide to keep it and mod it out, I'll more than likely see if my 17 yr old stepson still has a desire to start learning. Happy holidays, too you and yours.
I'd like to suggest a seasoned Christmas suggestion why don't you ask your stepson if you're still interested in playing guitar and not have it predicated on whether or not you decide to keep a guitar I think that would be really cool of course I say this not knowing any of your particulars which is sort of you know not cool so of course it's not it's just a suggestion and you can throw it out with the rest of the garbage because that's most likely will probably be sincerely David Raphael AKA Bob the blind person guitarist PS have a happy and healthy New Year and seasons greetings
That's such a beautiful colour! I have one of the PRS SE SE Sandblasted guitars in purple
I love my PRS SE Custom, mine's the non-satin version with the glued neck and its a 2019 model from Korea not Indonesia but the PRS quality has been consistent through the years and I'm certain the new factory producing these in Indonesia has retained so many of the positives and charactistics of the earlier models.
The biggest difference I'm aware of between the Satin and originals aside from the savings of the Satin is the weight, my guitar is pretty heavy in conmparison.
If I didn't have my heart set of the glued neck and finish however I would certainly have purchased a Satin model, they are great value.
Just bought the new NF3. Very nice. Same body and neck I believe but has humbuckers that are single coil like though a bit thicker. Between a single coil and a p90 but no hum.
I have the American CE and I absolutely love it! It has been with me 7 years, recorded, gigged, and still looking sharp and does not even need a setup and I live in sometimes very humid weather. With PRS you get what you pay for. I`m sure with this guitar you will get the best bang for your buck for what you paid for. I just like supporting brands with such high standards
Hi Guitar 🎸 Guy 👦 nice video 📹 and workmanship
I have some higher end PRS guitars and i wanted something lower-end that i could abuse a bit, and it still be playable. The SECE was great. I did swap out the tuners with lockers and did graphite saddles and its a great "beater" backup guitar. I also covered the pickups and it looks really sharp
I just picked up the limited edition sandblasted swamp ash ce24 and it was perfect out of the box except for some fret sprouts, I'd say it was a 3 out of 5 and took me less than an hour to fix them. ALSO had zero high frets. I was intially concerned about the tuners but after changing strings it holds tune very well. I love the pickups as well. I paid 567.00 US for the guitar and love it. I would buy it again foir sure. Thanks for the video.
I used to hate PRS guitars until I saw (and heard) this one. I ended up buying two. They look great, feel great and sound great - esp. the middle position coil tapped is very quacky like a Strat. And there's no volume loss when you coil tap either. The trem is also very smooth and stable. Overall, astonishing quality and value.
Got it. Love it! There is nothing wrong with the pickups!
This a great guitar for someone on a budget. It can play all genres, from Blues to Metal. It looks great. The controls are simple. I would definitely use this in the studio or the stage!
Thinking about this in the vintage cherry as a studio guitar and backup for gigs. PRS for the win yet again.
Sweet Guitar! My best bang for the buck, and one of my Favorite guitars that I own. One thing to me that stands out over all of my pieces is the bridge/trem. Smooth as butter. Mine is the Satin Red.
I have bought 2 PRS SE signature models for half the price because the owners did not understand the bridge and messed it up. A little knowledge and time and they both were restored and played as new. A Santana and a Tremonti Custom.
Beautiful guitar..thanks for all you do. Deep dives rock!!
Appreciate you! Thank you
I purchased mine a couple months ago and can’t put it down! Never thought I’d own a PRS guitar! Great guitar!
I just opened the box of my SE Custom 24-08. Damn good.
I bought one of these for my wife’s birthday. I couldn’t get over how good it was. The fact it’s that high quality and comes with the gig bag is just insane.
Not seen the video yet, will watch shortly. I bet the guitar is superb. I have four PRSes, a Core, a CE, an S2 and an SE (Singlecut). I've had and still have some very nice American Gibsons and Fenders. The SE is superb.
Learned some smooth licks today, thanks.
I got my katana 3 yrs ago. I used to use nothing but fender. Katana is my amp now for every gig. Acoustic and Electric sets. My acoustic set up is the katana on the acoustic setting and my ME 70 with delay and a little chorus.
Wonderful playing Phil
Next to Fender Tele/Esqu's. PRS are my favorite. I got two: a 2000 McCarty and the more recent Reverb buy, a 2023 used, but dead mint, SE Hollowbody II. Which insanely light and plays like a dream. That I payed 650.00 for with hardshell case. With only one mod, I put a McCarty truss rod on it, because, well, because I am one.🙂
I've had a 25th Anniversary SE Custom 24 for years, and it's a bloody good axe!
I have an older SE with that same gig bag and it's the best gig bag I've ever seen. What a great bargain this guitar is. PRS SE is far and away my favorite affordable line of guitars.
I bought one made in Indonesia 6 years ago it stays in tune forever and sounds great. The cost was just under $700.
Wow, sounded great. Ive always wondered what a bolt on neck PRS would sound like. I had a Custom 24 SE a few years ago and I hated it. The Previous owner Had some work done on it . I couldn’t touch the Trem arm or it would go out of tune. then I had some work done on it to fix the problem but the Tech had no idea what he was doing I later found out.
Hi Phil. I've started watching your videos and love them. I've played guitar for years but the basic stuff you show on here is incredible. It makes me feel more confident in guitar maintenance and repair. So I have a question, hope you'll reply, might even give you a good video for the future.
I bought the roland vg99 guitar synth when it came out, with the midi pickup. The pickup had to be stuck to the guitar with a foam sticky pad that came with the pickup, and now I want to remove it and stick it to a cheaper guitar.
That's right... I was young and stupid and stuck it to my '98 Les Paul. Could you tell me the best way to remove the sticky without damage to the laquer.
I've watched your "Guitar cleaning myths" but would love if you could give a basic reply. And it could give you a video on the history of dodgy guitar inventions that can actually damage peoples guitars.
Hope you can help, and thanks in advance.
I bought a PRS SE Standard 24 in 2020 = fantastic guitar.
is your's a Korean made model? My 2019 guitar which is also fantastic is Korean made, I'm not sure which year they began to produce these in Indonesia.
i think that "addressing issues" is a very powerfull maketing tool: if the new one has less issue than the previous versions you get a maketing advantage for the new one against the older version
I bought that same guitar last year (it's glossy blue though), it plays fantastic and it's clearly leagues above other stuff I have with similar cost (errr Squier...).
I got the Green one.. recently I replace the Pups with Dragon II Pups.. Boom.. Love it very much
Dragon 2’s?
@@tomaslopez2940Dragon 2s get a lot of hate on line, but honesty I don’t know why. Yes they are aggressive with the volume and tone wide open, but play around with them a while and you will find out they are quite versatile.
I recently put Dragon 2s in my S2 594 Thinline. It now rocks with the best of them.
@@MrPhotonjockey who makes them? Where are they from?
@@tomaslopez2940 Its written Dragon II on the backside. maybe its the same as Dragon 2's. not sure ,I could be wrong😁
I really like what you played. You should put out a tablature! You don't show off enough on your channel. LoL. I like your guitar evaluation videos a lot. Thanks for doing them.
The greatest thing about PRS guitars is evident at all levels. Playability, set up, fit, and finish. I find trems get more stable with some playtime. Even if I case a guitar for 2 weeks it'll take a bit of playing to get stable
This is what I'm going to recommend to people for first guitar when they ask me. So much better than the Dixon I started on. Well done.
Thanks. I was looking to get this for my son for his first guitar.
My first one $100 soap bar 2, great light weight almost p 90s, now have Santana semi hollow so smooth.
Hey Phil, great vid as always. Mate, that little jam at 18:41 sounded so great I just slowed the vid down and learned it from you :) Does it have a name or was it your creation?
Cort from Indonesia! Great company and great products. Okay, the wife and kids are Indonesian. I'm biased.
Totally fine to mod it. Heck, I think the same thing for some of the core models! It feels dirty, but really it shouldn't matter.
I have one of these in charcoal. The scale, neck shape, fingerboard radius, nut width, and fret depths combine for a really nice fit for me. I would like to put some different pickups in, but they are push/pull and I haven't swapped any of them out before and am probably too chicken to do it.
I bought this guitar in silver about 2 weeks ago. I will upgrade to locking tuners but otherwise it's been really nice to play.
Glad you did this... its probably the gateway PRS I would try.
I've been really happy with my Custom 24 CE SE. (The Standard wasn't out yet when I got it.) I did get the locking tuners, which I'll install with the next string change. If they sold a hardtail version of the Standard, I'd pick one up because I'd really like to have the option of the same guitar with a factory installed hard-tail. But all the hard-tail SEs are different in various ways. I'm sure I'll eventually end up with one of those or getting a Standard and blocking the vibrato...but that's a much lower priority on my to-acquire list than a hard-tail Standard 24 CE SE would be.