PRS SE Custom 24/08 VS

Was looking for a versatile rehearsal & backup guitar. I'm primarily a Les Paul guy, but PRS caught my eye as a great design — better for me than an HSS strat.

+ Individual split coils offer convincing tele twang (bridge) and strat sweetness (neck)
+ No huge volume loss when splitting coils
+ Looks nice with the zebra pups and maple top that looks like binding
+ Stunning veneers - nicely matched, no obvious dead spots. I got 2 copies to pick the nicest veneer, one was a fine tiger stripe the other a more classy cloudy/wavy pattern.
+ Comfortingly heavy, not as much as an LP but it's no Fender alder lightweight
+ Neck feels great - no stickiness, frets are properly filed, easy access to upper frets
+ Cost-cutting measures mostly not detrimental to quality (3-piece neck with scarf joints, maple veneer, 3 piece body...)
+ Vibrato bar feels stable, strings stay in tune reasonably

+/- Gig bag is okay. I've had better, but it's acceptable

- Definitely not "vintage sunburst" - the colours are more vivid than in the pictures, and the contrast is quite large, making it look cheap.
- The toggle switches for coil split look very DIY
- Nut & saddles/bridge feel cheap - luckily these can be upgraded if need be
- Linear potentiometers

Overall it's great value for money - a versatile, quality instrument at a reasonable price. I'm planning on returning though it because frankly I can't stand to look at that god awful clown burst job.

The lead guitar player in my band is a PRS fanatic and has been telling me how great they are. I bought this to try out before possibly upgrading to a core model. I'm now a PRS convert. The versatility of this guitar is fantastic. It can sound like a Les Paul or a Strat and also maintain it's own personality.

Fantastic range of tones and great at any volume although screaming at top volume will send shivers down the spine.

The fingerboard is wide which really suits my long fingers making fretting really easy for me. I thought it would take a while to adapt from my Strat but it felt right straight out of the box. The factory strings were 9's which felt a bit limp so I put 10's on it and it plays beautifully. Setup out of the box was brilliant (I had to tweak the Bridge a little after the restring but that's to be expected.). My only slight (and I do mean slight) criticism is there are a couple of minor flaws in the finish which you wouldn't expect in a €1000 guitar but it looks amazing and plays and sounds even better. I still might add a core to the collection but this beast is staying put.

I have this a couple of years now, and it is an incredibly verdsatile instrument. The pickups can cover everything from blues & jazzy tones to hard rock, to funk... they really have a wide tonal range with the various full-humbucker and coil split options.
When it first arrived, my impressions were very good as far as setup and finish was concerned... frets were excellent, polished and nicely rounded at the ends. Action was a little high for my tastes (though exactly to factory spec) and a few minutes with the included tools got a nice low, buzz-free action of slightly under 1.75mm at the bass side and even lower on the treble.
The nut on these instruments is not amazing, but replacing with a Tusq XL is easy, and does wonders for tuning stability.
If I could only have one guitar, and this was it, I would not be unhappy about it.