PRS SE Custom 24 - thoughts?

Chuffola

In the mood for something different and have never owned a PRS of any description.

One of these has come on the local market, it's a hardtail and in good nick. For sale at £450, which seems steep. 

I like the sound of LPs but don't get on with them and, whilst I know this will be different, I suspect it's in the same ballpark and might fit me better.

Any issues I should be aware of? Tuning? Pickups? Electronics? Anything else in the same vein I should be considering?  

I'm not sure if I'll follow through but welcome the board's advice!

Thanks, in advance.

TTony

Chuffola said:

 £450, which seems steep. 

^^

It does.

The PRS SE range were really good value, but seem to have got a bit above themselves nowadays, with a bit of SE bling.

Might be better looking at some of the others - older models that are more true to the original concept of much cheap, good quality, more honest guitars (singlecut or SC245?).

The pups are usually thought to be the weak points.  Apart from that, they're generally rock solid in build and QC, hardware & pots should be fine.  And at £250ish, they're good value buys.  Keep your eyes on the Classifieds here, or post a WTB and see what you get offered.

DeeTee

£450 second hand? Very steep. I bought my old Custom 22 for about £200 including delivery off the old forum. I'd echo what @TTony said, the pickups were a little weak. Everything else was rock solid and I only sold it because I needed the money.

bazxkr

Think these are about £600 new ... so £450 does seem on the top side. Not held one but saw a purple burst one and a whale blue one side by side & they both looked stunning.

Certainly worth trying one to see how it fits you. I had an Epiphone Les Paul & I didn't like the feel of it but do have a PRS SE245 & love picking that up & that was about the same £600 mark new. Plenty of choice if you want a PRS for £400/£500 with many different ones to try. I have a PRS Paul Allender SE which is not a single cut style & that is quality too. Both PRS's seem very highly put together if you ask me. Plenty of shops carry PRS so easy to check loads out to.They have very nice tone and sound great dirty.

If you pay top dollar make sure it has the nice PRS gig bag. Many will ask top money for the guitar & also sell the bag seperately to get another £30/£40 or whatever. If you are Essex based you are welcome to try my two out.

I would have thought you could get a decent plaything for £300 or so unless you are looking to go too high spec PRS

Cheers Baz

Chuffola

Thanks chaps - confirmed my suspicions!

Unfortunately, none of the Belfast guitar shops stock many PRS (weird, I know) but £450 seemed v high and I'm not THAT interested. 

I'll keep my eyes peeled for something else or maybe try a cheeky offer.

But, with GAS funds available and my childlike ability to spend money incredibly quickly, I dare say I'll pick up something else.

Tried a Squier VM Tele Deluxe and a VM Cabronita with Bigsby today at lunch. Incredible value for money. I was really, really impressed. The Deluxe might satisfy my immediate GAS need for humbuckers.

ThePrettyDamned

I wouldn't pay £450 new - but that's just me.  

Definitely look on classifieds and post a WTB.  Plenty of them around I prefer trem models.  

Agreed the main weak point is the pickups, but also the tuners and the hardtail bridge does lose it's chrome really quick.  Or maybe that was just us...

To be honest, they can be an amazing bargain second hand, but they're easy to over value - look at the feature sets of other guitars for the same money and it'll shock you.  I always compare to the Korean Fender range (FMT Tele?) and LTD Deluxe range, which are both from the same factory IIRC.  The FMT Tele has a great spec and real Duncan pickups for similar money to a new SE.  

If going second hand, they often go CHEAPER with upgraded parts.  Look for Grover tuners or Duncan/Dimarzio pickups.  My mate got a Tremonti SE stupid cheap because it had a Duncan JB pickup in the bridge.  He ripped it out, sold it and used the money for a pair of iron gear pickups.

Adam_MD

I kept the tuners from the one I had and put them on an Epi Les Paul. After I had a new nut out on it the tuning has been rock solid, they seem to be the same as the no name ones from axetec/axesrus.

Has the variax gone to a new owner? What did you think of it? Also have you tried the modern player tele thinline deluxe? I would have thought the thinline tele p90 goodness was right up your street. I'm gassing for one of those really badly at the minute, it's the main reason the g&l is up for sale again.

ICBM

ThePrettyDamned said:

I wouldn't pay £450 new - but that's just me.

No, it's me too.

The one I played recently was a massively disappointing guitar, especially compared to the older Santana SEs and the SE Ones, and even the SE Tremonti.

Characterless, generic and cheap-feeling, and worse sounding. If it had any other name on it it would be about half the price it was.

And I *like* PRSs...

ThePrettyDamned

ICBM;98990" said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

I wouldn't pay £450 new - but that's just me.










No, it's me too.

The one I played recently was a massively disappointing guitar, especially compared to the older Santana SEs and the SE Ones, and even the SE Tremonti.

Characterless, generic and cheap-feeling, and worse sounding. If it had any other name on it it would be about half the price it was.

And I *like* PRSs...

Yup, that's about it. I am always massively disappointed in the pickups too, at the price, they should be Duncan pickups or even emg actives on more rawk models (7 string). People buy them, I'm sure, because old reviews when they were half the price new say how amazing they are for the money.

I think the new ones are worse, too. Not sure how, but older ones seemed nicer to me.

Col_Decker

How about a PRS Se Santana Special Edition with hardcase, like the one under my bed? Its destined for ebay but maybe you could head it off at the pass?

kos5150

You can easily pick one of these up on ebay for £300. Funnily enough I had one of the newer ones for sale a while back and listed it at £325. Absolutely mint condition, plenty of pics, etc. and not the slightest bit of interest outside of about 10 watchers. A few weeks later I dropped it to £300 and I had a guy at my front door with cash within 3 hours and a couple of others ready to tear my arm off for it, all for the sake of £25! So it seems that £300 is the magic number I think.

On the subject of old versus new, I had one of the initial SE22’s when they first came out and the frets were much chunkier (as was the neck). I couldn’t say that it was a better guitar overall, but it felt better to me personally because I don’t like skinny frets. I guess you could argue in a value sense that they were better because they used to cost around the £400 mark and now go for at least a couple of hundred more. The weight of my old one was a lot lighter too, where as the 24 was like it was made of iron.

Also OP, I know you mentioned not getting on with LPs, but if it’s anything to do with comfort, I’d suggest picking up one of the new ones with a carved top. I’m kind of the same which is why I went back to PRS, but found that the flat top was just really uncomfortable unless I was stood up. The edge of the body just dug into my forearm too much for my liking because it was such a sharp angle. I’d imagine the newer ones alleviate that.

TTony

Col_Decker said:

How about a PRS Se Santana Special Edition with hardcase, like the one under my bed? Its destined for ebay but maybe you could head it off at the pass?

Do I half-remember seeing that listed on here a while back??

Col_Decker

yes bud, I was due to put it ebay but the Mrs made me tidy up, and it went back under the bed. Where it has remained since.

 

 

'kin women