reprinted with the permission of the publishers of ... · smith makes exquisite guitars. they’re...

S P E C S | PPRRSS GGuuiittaarrss, (410) 643-9970; prsguitars.com

1 6 2 O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 G U I TA R P L AY E R

GEAR Bench Test

CCuussttoomm SSeemmii--HHoollllooww OOnnee PPaauull AAlllleennddeerr MMooddeell

PPRRIICCEE $858 retail/$599 street $618 retail/$499 street $898 retail/$649 street

OORRIIGGIINN Korea Korea Korea

NNUUTT WWIIDDTTHH 1h" 1h" 1h"NNEECCKK Mahogany Mahogany Maple

FFRREETTBBOOAARRDD 25”-scale rosewood 25”-scale rosewood 25”-scale rosewood

FFRREETTSS 22 medium-jumbo 22 medium-jumbo 24 medium-jumbo

BBOODDYY Maple top with flame-maple veneer andmahogany back

Mahogany Maple top with quilt-maple veneer andmahogany back

PPIICCKKUUPPSS PRS SE humbuckers PRS SE soapbar PRS SE Vintage Bass and PRS SE HFS humbuckers

CCOONNTTRROOLLSS Volume, Tone, 3-way pickup selector Volume Volume, Tone, 3-way pickup selector

BBRRIIDDGGEE PRS SE stoptail PRS SE stoptail PRS tremolo (gold)

HHAARRDDWWAARREE PRS SE tuners PRS SE tuners PRS tuners (gold)

FFAACCTTOORRYY SSTTRRIINNGGSS D’Addario, .009-.042 D’Addario, .009-.042 D’Addario, .009-.042

WWEEIIGGHHTT 6.14 lbs (may vary) 7.04 lbs (may vary) 7.84 lbs (may vary)

KKUUDDOOSS Superb workmanship. Unique sound. Superb workmanship. Rocks like ademon.

Superb workmanship. Versatile tones. Excel-lent hard rock/metal yowl. Edgy cosmetics.

CCOONNCCEERRNNSS Not as sonically versatile as some other semi-hollowbodies.

None. None.

Originally printed in October 2007 issue of Guitar Player. Reprinted with the permission of the Publishers of Guitar Player. Copyright 2007 NewBay Media, LLC. All rightsreserved. Guitar Player is a Music Player Network publication, 1111 Bayhill Dr., St. 125, San Bruno, CA 94066. T. 650.238.0300. Subscribe at www.musicplayer.com

AT THIS POINT IN TIME, ONLY A WOOLY MAMMOTHwho has been encased in an ice flow for a mil-lennia or so wouldn’t be aware that Paul ReedSmith makes exquisite guitars. They’re oftenexpensive beauties, and yet few seem to arguethat they aren’t worth every penny. But thegood news for players on a budget is that thecompany’s affordable SE line—which offersmodels in the street price range of $500 to$700—has been typically reaching a level ofquality that can also be rated as “exquisite.”

In GP’s May 2007 roundup of solidbod-ies under $500, the SE Soapbar II nabbedan Editors’ Pick Award, and all the editorsmarveled at how amazing the guitarsounded, and how well it played. The gui-tar that kicked everything off—the San-tana SE—was given an inexpensive pricetag at Carlos Santana’s personal request,

and it won an Editors’ Pick Award in August2001, as did Mark Tremonti’s SE model in

June 2003. The SE EG and SE Soapbar werewell-reviewed in August 2004, and narrowlymissed out on making the SE line a 100 per-cent GP Editors’ Pick Award winner. This is an

G U I TA R P L AY E R O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 1 6 3

3 New PRS SE Models T E S T E D B Y M I C H A E L M O L E N D A


impressive run.The three new SE models debuted at the

January 2007 Winter NAMM show upholdthe line’s superb build quality, attention to detail, player-friendly ergonomics, andinspired tonal chops. They also hold the lineon pricing, and continue to deliver maxi-mum value for working musicians who cravean inexpensive instrument that can snarl,roar, and rumble along with the guitar indus-try’s top dogs.

C U STO M S E M I - H O L L O WThe Custom Semi-Hollow is so light, it’salmost like wrapping a ghost around yourneck. That lightness is echoed in the gui-tar’s airy unplugged tone, which shimmersand snaps with excellent articulation. In fact,during an overdub session, I was inspired tomic it sans amplification—with an AKG C414angled near the 12th fret—to record a fauxacoustic-guitar part under a phalanx of dis-torted electrics. The Semi-Hollow aped aconventional acoustic quite nicely, addingsparkle to the layered electrics without alsobringing on the woofy low-end I might haveencountered had I miked a dreadnought ora jumbo.

As an amplified beast, the Semi-Hollowretains much of the zingy personality of itsunplugged tone. Through an Orange TinyTerror head and Mesa/Boogie 1x12 cabinet,I was able to coax acoustic-like clean soundsout of the instrument by notching back theguitar’s Volume knob and switching to thebridge pickup. There are three beautifullydistinct tonal colors between the bridge-,combined-, and neck-pickup settings, but,regardless of the relative thickness or thinness of the fundamental sound, somehigh-end sting and snap is always present.This isn’t a bad thing at all—and it provides the Semi-Hollow with a truly individual timbre—but the tight and bright attack doesmake it a bit of a challenge to get a ballsy,round sound (a la Duane Eddy) or a muted,smooth jazz tone.

The crystalline jangle imposes itself onoverdrive sounds, as well. Even if I ran theTiny Terror (or a Mesa/Boogie Stiletto) infull-saturation mode, and added an MXRGT-OD distortion pedal to the signal chain,the Semi-Hollow presented clear, coherentnotes with a woody bite. Chords involvingopen and fretted notes rang clean, arpeggiosspoke clearly, and note flurries did not


PRS GEAR

The zebra-striped humbuckers complement the SE Custom Semi-Hollow’s striking Blue Matteo finish.


collapse into an indistinct saturation stew.The Semi-Hollow doesn’t really embrace thefat or blues-rude tones you can pull out of,say, a Gibson ES-137 or ES-335, but it’s nowimp. It simply delivers a vicious slap morethan a body punch.

From an ergonomic standpoint, the Semi-Hollow is a total joy to play. Obviously, thenear absence of heft is a benefit, and thesmooth and flat neck inspires almost effort-less fretboard gymnastics. In addition, theVolume knob is perfectly situated for pinky-controlled volume swells. The workmanshipis everything you’d expect from a PRS—nicely dressed frets, a beautiful and flawlessfinish, and sturdy hardware. My only minorcosmetic quibbles are some splinters peek-ing out from the f-hole—which is actually a“slash” hole—and the view of natural, unfin-ished wood it reveals. (The Blue Matteo fin-ish is so super sexy that I wanted to take ablack Sharpie, and darken that hole up for abetter color match.)

I loved the unique, snappy timbre of theSemi-Hollow, and it would be a fabulousaddition to an armory already rich withanother semi-hollowbody and/or hollow-body. For one session, I played two cleanrhythm lines—one with the Semi-Hollow,and the other with a Guild X-160 rockabillybox—and panned each guitar hard right andleft to craft a tonal spread that went from anairy shimmer to a meaty punch. I didn’t feelthe Semi-Hollow’s thud-lite personalityworked well with heavier rock or blues mate-rial, but it was an excellent choice for ring-ing single-note lines, jangly parts, anddistorted passages where some opennessand air was desired.

O N ESimple. Gorgeous. Meaner than a rabid chupacabra who has been up all night drink-ing bad bourbon and losing at the Vegasblackjack tables. That’s really all you needto know about the One. This is a rock mon-ster. Pure and simple. Thanks for reading.

Well, you probably want a little moreinformation than that.

The One evokes the vibey, single-pickupguitars of the past, while simultaneouslymaintaining an air of sophisticated mod-ernism. The vintage cherry finish isabsolutely stunning, and the workmanship—from the polished frets to the wraparoundbridge and tuners—is flawless. It feels goodto hold, it feels good to play—it just feels sogood on all levels.

From an operational standpoint, this isabout as close to plug-in-and-play as you canget. There’s one soapbar pickup and a Vol-ume knob. But that doesn’t mean the Onehas to be a one-trick pony. You definitelyhave to work harder to pull varied tones froma one-pickup machine, but, to me, that justmeant getting more familiar with the “lostarts” of subtle Volume-knob manipulations,picking-position changes, and pickingdynamics. And when you get busy caress-ing, pummeling, stroking, and slapping theOne, it really delivers the sonic goods. Thisis one of the most responsive guitars I’veplayed in a long time. Plug into a good amp,and it seems as if your every touch is trans-lated directly to sound. Pick hard, and theOne barks. Fingerpick a line with the fleshypart of your fingertips, and you can almosthear the strings scrape against your calluses.

During band rehearsals, I plugged the


PRS GEAR

The SE Paul Allender model’s birds-gone-batty inlays add a devilish touch of Gothic graphics.


One into my usual Orange Tiny Terror andMesa/Boogie 1x12 rig, and I was transportedback to the classic-rock era. With the guitarvolume cranked—and nothing between theguitar and amp but a guitar cord—it wassimply a matter of adjusting the amp’s gainto ricochet between vintage AC/DC, Mottthe Hoople, Bad Company, Kiss, Sweet, andThin Lizzy tones. For a couple of sessions,I upped the saturation quotient by plugginginto a Mesa/Boogie Stiletto and a MarshallJCM 900, and was rewarded with some fero-cious heavy-metal sounds. I also ran directlyinto the board through a Radial JD1 directbox, and marveled at the One’s stout andpunchy clean sounds. Finally, I went for someskank by running a clean, but slightly grittytone through a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. Inall cases, I could easily get meaner—or morecourtly—by merely adjusting my pick attack,or bringing down the guitar’s volume.

It’s obvious that most guitarists play dif-ferently depending on the guitar they’rewielding. (Check out the Gary Moore inter-view in this issue where he states he gothimself out of an Eric Clapton “Beano”album mindset by simply switching from aLes Paul to an ES-335.) This is one reasonwhy guitarists tend to own so many guitars.The One could be the mother of “style chang-ers,” as its responsiveness and simplicityeither force you into rethinking the subtletiesof your attack, or seduces you into just plug-ging in and blasting away like a blissed-out,16-year-old basher. And whichever pathyou’re bidden to follow, the One has got yourback, because there are absolutely no badsounds in this bad boy. This is a truly bril-liant instrument, and it deserves an Editors’Pick Award.

PAU L A L L E N D E R M O D E LIn an edgy partnering with the ghoulish gui-tarist of Britain’s glammy black-metal bandCradle of Filth, PRS has developed one ofits most aggressively striking guitars. If youdig the Bela Lugosi side of life, the Allen-der’s stunning purple-black burst, gold hard-ware, and bat inlays should drive you intospasms of vampiric ecstasy. In fact, it’s prettyhard to believe that this magnificent signa-ture model streets for around $650.

Although the cosmetics are quite lush,it doesn’t seem as if any shortcuts were takenwith quality control. The Allender is just asbrilliantly rendered as the One and Semi-Hollow, or any other SE model. Look forsloppy fill marks in the rather intricate inlays,and you won’t find any. I had to put myself


GEAR PRS


in extremely bitchy-picky-particular modeto admit that maybe one or two of the fretends were a tad rougher than I’d like. Beyondthat, this wraith is downright flawless.

Of course, as this guitar has his name onit, it can’t just look Goth—it also has to deliverAllender’s punishing tone, handle his speed-of-light riffing, and accommodate his ungodlywhammy abuse. This is where the PRS/Allender collaboration really bears fruit,because the team developed an aggressivehard-rock guitar that plays great and soundstough in almost anyone’s hands. The wideneck feels good, and it’s perfectly suited forshred lines, heavy riffs, and complex chord-ing, while also inviting harder blues andblues-rock approaches. The PRS-designedVintage Bass (neck) and HFS High Output(bridge) pickups are just wild. This guitarscreams. It hit the front ends of my OrangeTiny Terror, Mesa/Boogie Stiletto, and Mar-shall JCM 900 like a werewolf at a full gal-lop, immediately eliciting creamy, sustainedtones. And yet, if I turned down the guitar’sVolume, or switched to the neck pickup, Icould still fire off some clean rockabilly-like lines or jazzy chord runs. This is a situ-ation where you can’t simply evaluate thisguitar with your eyes, because it looks evil,but it can deliver music of light—everythingfrom funk to reggae to Muzak pop. I threwevery style I could play at this sucker, and itjust said, “Yeah, I can do that. Just tweak youramp or my Tone and Volume controls a bit.No problem.” But when I wanted to ven-ture to the dark side, and launch massivelydistorted, sustain-crazed riffs of doom, theAllender loved it—egged me on, in fact. ThePRS tremolo is pretty dreamy, too. It allowsrather radical dive bombs without knock-ing the strings too far out of tune, and Icould do a song’s-worth of subtle vibratomoves without having to retune until thenext song. Looks aside, this is a versatile—and fun—guitar that’s dripping with vibe.Whoa! Don’t put a stake in this darkbeauty’s heart, because it’s an Editors’ PickAward winner. g


GEAR PRS

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