NGD - PRS SE Hollowbody II Piezo & Redecoration Project

Gear & Tools Talk 🎸 Guitars, Instruments & Maintenance
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I’ve been hunting around for a PRS SE Hollowbody II Piezo for a while now. All the usual online retailers I shop at were out of stock and didn’t know when they’d have it back in stock (Thomann’s, Anderton’s, Peach Guitars, etc.). So I decided to take the plunge into Reverb listings. After contacting various resellers, I lucked out with Dave’s Guitar Shop (USA) that had a “used - very good condition” 2022 model that turned out to be in mint condition, no indication whatsoever of being used/abused. So I got a great deal on this guitar that arrived last week just in time for my 46th birthday and 1 year anniversary of my guitar playing journey (pre-approved by my wife of course) :blush:

While I’ve only had it for just under a week, I must say I love it :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: This is the first guitar that I didn’t have to do any kind of setup on other than changing the strings, oiling the freboard, and installing locking tuners. The action is just right (low-medium height) and it sounds beautiful when playing blues and rock solos. I’ll record one of the B.B.King solos I’m learning to play on it soon.

I must say, these PRS SE guitars are impressive considering they’re PRS’ entry-level guitars. The build quality is amazing, the design and looks are gorgeous (flame maple top, binding, and f-holes), and they sound amazing! I’m becoming something of a PRS fanboy :grin:

Since my guitar collection started getting slightly out of hand, I decided some redecoration was in order and got some Hercules wall mounts, which I’m happy to say worked out great :blush:

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Congratulations and enjoy the new guitar! It looks awesome…

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Hey Firas you are giving me serious competiton :rofl: Sweet looking PRS, I am not normally a “blue” guitar person but I really like that finish. “Studio” is also looking nice and tidy.
A belated happy birthday and a Happy NGD !!

:sunglasses:

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Man ,I see so many guitars …I like to say You have some serious “issues” :scream:

:wink:

But… Congratulations on your birthday and double congratulations on this beautiful new addition Happy NGD :partying_face: :sunglasses: :partying_face: :sunglasses:

Greetings

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Very nice, and happy NGD :slight_smile:
R

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Nice addition to your large collection there Firas.
Love that Blue!
Absolutely stunning!
Oh, and gorgeous too… :wink:

Congrats.

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Happy Birthday & NGD Firas. I mostly play acoustic, but I have lusted after that particular guitar for a while now. It is beautiful.

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Hello Firas :slightly_smiling_face:

First of all a very happy (belated) birthday and guitarversary :sunflower: :partying_face:

And you’ve treated yourself with such a great addition to you collection, too. Looks beautiful :heart_eyes:

I’m sure you are going to have lots of fun with her in your very cosy and stylish practice room/studio :sunglasses: :notes: :guitar:

Cheers
Gunhild :lady_beetle:

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In the hunt for a hollow body myself. Are you playing it through the Fender? And what amp settings sound best so far? One more, does it put out much volume unplugged?

I have a solid body core PRS that I play everyday. Big fan.

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That’s a beautiful guitar. I love the necks on the PRS guitars. I’ve been thinking about getting a solid body electric to go with my Telecaster Thinline. The PRS solid bodies feel really nice when I’ve played them in the store. I’m leaning that direction.

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Very nice! That is the number one spot on my “want to buy” list of PRS guitars.

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Thank you all for the kind wishes and compliments :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

@TheMadman_tobyjenner Not quite there yet, last I checked you have a few more guitars and a few decades of playing ahead of me :grin: Both of which are good to aspire to :blush:

@roger_holland Yeah I tend to get obsessed when I get into something :rofl: My OCD, perfectionism, and tactile sensitivity are probably not the best combination of traits to have for an aspiring guitar player, or the best combination, depends on your outlook :grin: It took me buying, 3 or 4 cheaper guitars to figure out what I like in a guitar, which led me to my favorite 3 in my collection (all in the guitar stand along with the acoustic): PRS SE Paul’s Guitar, PRS SE HB II and the Fender AM Pro II Strat. Hopefully, my guitar acquisition will slow down for now (at least for this year hopefully) while I continue to learn and practice enough to make these guitars sing :blush:

@TheCluelessLuthier thanks Mark :blush: I was afraid of being disappointed, as all the reviews where just too good to be true I thought, turns out they’re not. It really is an amazing guitar!

@Gunhild Thank you :blush: It truly is a beauty to behold with matching lovely tones to go with it.

@dblinden Hey Dennis. Yes I play it through my Fender Mustang GTX100. I don’t have any acoustic amps (for the Piezo) to compare it to, but for my purposes it sounds great on my amp in both electric/piezo. I have a simple Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb custom preset that I made myself with just a spring reverb pedal for rhythm playing, and I toggle different combinations of the following pedals for lead/solo: overdrive, greenbox (tube screamer), EQ7 graphic, and mono delay.

As for playing it unplugged, it’s enough to hear it yourself for practicing exercises but not really to enjoy song playing (it’s about a quarter of the volume of my Yamaha APX 600 acoustic unplugged).

Which core PRS do you have? I can’t imagine how great those are if the SE line is this great.

@dmisen Thanks Dean :blush: I was afraid I wouldn’t like their “wide fat” necks which both the SE Paul’s and the SE HB II have since I have small hands, but I must say they’re very comfortable to play. Which is a good thing because there might be a McCarty 594 in my distant future :rofl:

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Very nice guitar and happy birthday. Beautiful flame blue top. Next time I want a new guitar, I will show my wife a photo of your guitars as evidence that my meagre 3 (in a year) is really not much and that I need a new one. :grinning::grinning::grinning:

Must be difficult to find time to play them all. I “waste” a lot of time playing something on the tele and then again on the starcaster obsessing over which sounds best (OCD?).

Love the Squier strat you modified. Looks super cool!!

@firasR , my post made me realise that you are seriously missing something in your collection. … a tele!!!

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Hey Firas!

Happy Birthday AND Happy NGD!!!

It’s BLUE!!! Oh man…
if I could figure out a way to convince myself (and my wife) that I NEED another PRS, I’d pick that one in a heartbeat. It is beautiful & knowing PRS attention to detail, I’m sure feels lovely in your hands + sounds good to boot!!!
Congratulations on this gem in your collection!!!
Play on my friend!

Tod

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@Prof_Thunder thanks Ian :blush: Uhm, good luck with that! Disclaimer: I’m not responsible for any fallout you get from your wife if you try that argument with her :rofl: As B.B.King wisely sang, “I’ve paid my dues” (and still do) with my wife to get away with what I have :grin:

As for going back and forth between guitars, I know what you mean. I used to do that a lot in the beginning which was counterproductive and a huge waste of time. So what I started doing was to commit to playing a specific guitar for a whole month. That gave me time to get acquainted with each guitar more and get a better feel for it until I settled on my favorites. Now that I’m more familiar with how each of them feels and sounds, I just pick the one I relate more with that sound/music. Practicing B.B.King? PRS SE Hollowbody. Learning Eric Clapton songs? Fender Strat. Playing AC/DC, alt rock, etc. or jamming with my friend? PRS SE Paul’s (it’s my Swiss army knife guitar). And of course for acoustic songs (which I don’t play too much) my Yamaha APX600. The others I’ve relegated to wall decoration which is why I’ve hung them up (instead of packing them away).

As for my Squier Strat, it’s my first so I’ve kept it for sentimental reasons. Spent a lot of time (and way too much money) upgrading it but it still doesn’t play as well as my other guitars. So it’s been relegated to my tinkering project guitar. I’m happy with how it looks though :blush:

Now don’t crucify me, as I know that so many people and artists swear by their Teles but I’ve never actually liked the look or feel of them (tried out some Fender Player Teles) and have no desire to acquire one, so no GAS there.

@CATMAN62 Hey Tod! It is a unique blue (kind of turquoise like). I wasn’t sure I’d like this shade (the non-Piezo version has a more traditional blue) but it’s grown on me. All the flame finishing really brings it together nicely, and most importantly it feels, plays and sounds amazing! PRS really hit it out of the park with this one.

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No offence about not liking teles. I can understand that. And after all, you’ve got to like the looks of the guitar to want to play it!!! I love teles but they are not for everyone.

My next project is to build a partscaster tele with a tele bridge pickup and a P90 in the neck.

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Oo I love guitar projects! Please @mention me if you post a thread about it. Would love to see and hear how it turns out for you :blush:

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@firasR When I do that project for sure I will let you know. I don’t think I’m going to start it for a while (probably in October) because I’ve been building a cabinet these last weeks for a Vox amp I picked up cheap 2nd hand. It didn’t really need a new cabinet but it was a combo and I wanted to split it into a head and speaker cab 1 x 12”. I’m currently using an Orange micro dark with the speaker while I get the head finished.
The micro dark sounds very nice with a 12” speaker and with my tele. I’ll post photos of the cabinet build step by step when it’s complete.

Actually I was first inspired to mod one of my Squier teles a few months back after seeing your post about your Squier strat mods. That went well and got me thinking about making a partscaster. I’ve been procrastinating about whether to build a tele partscaster or a strat partscaster. Both would be fun projects. Obviously if I do a tele and it goes well, then GAS will surely kick in and then I’ll have to do a strat as well :grinning::grinning:

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Sounds like you have a great queue of projects lined up Ian :+1:t3: As always, any question related to guitar acquisitions should be answered with “both” (pending budget and spouse approval if applicable of course) :rofl:

Glad my little obsession with my Squier modding inspired you to tinker with yours. You’ve in turn reminded me that I should update my project thread with the neck replacement I did on my Strat once I get it playable again (the replacement nut I installed just doesn’t quite fit right).

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