you could be my flamingo

I became aware of this model guitar a few months ago...back in the spring sometime. The moment it entered my orbit of awareness, I knew I had to have it.

Those that know me know that I'm a child of the 80s. Yes, there are gaps in my knowledge of pop culture that get filled in occasionally (like it was the mid-90s before I saw Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller), but I was culturally aware enough to know generally what was going on. That included fashion. And one of my favorite fashions from like 85 through the end of the decade were the bright, neon colors. Bright yellow will always be my favorite color. Right behind it is hot pink. My wife knows that, these days, I tend to wear conservative, dark blues and greys and blacks and things that don't stand out. Back in those days, however, my favorite pair of jams were black with bright yellow and hot pink flowers all over them. Most of my other clothes had bright yellow and hot pink in them somewhere. My favorite car color ( and one of my favorite cars, although I never owned one) will that 1988 Honda Prelude that I believe they called canary yellow. That part of the 80s definitely influenced the colors I like best.

When I saw this specific guitar model for the first time, I thought there was no question, I had to get one. So I began trolling online and, especially, Reverb in hopes to find a good deal on one. Visited a couple of guitar shops, and they either had them regular price or didn't carry the specific model. Finally it happened. I saw 2 of them pop up on my Reverb feed for cheaper than I had seen any yet. In fact, they were both advertised as brand new, but their price was less than the vast majority of the used ones I was seeing. I messaged the seller to be sure that it was brand new. When they replied that the ad was correct, I pulled the trigger on a PRS SE Custom 24 in Bonnie Pink. 

I've now had it for a month. And I can honestly say that I'm still as happy with it as I was on the day it came in. It's, also, the first PRS I've ever had. It's an SE, so it's part of their more affordable, import line. Thinking of it being in their import line, the most recent Squiers I've bought new have caused me to say I won't buy another Squier (they were that bad), but the most recent Epiphones and now this PRS have been excellent guitars and make me wonder why folks bad mouth import guitars.

As soon as this one came in, I did my usual "clean-up" routine on it that I do with every guitar when I first get it home. My little routine allows me to go over the whole guitar and be sure that there's nothing major wrong with it. And this guitar's fit and finish out of the box was top notch. For a "budget" guitar, I was super impressed with its out of the box playability.

I pulled the strings off of it, kind of buffed it out a bit just to get anybody else's funk that might be on it off, oiled the fretboard, bumped all the screws with a screwdriver just to be sure that none were falling out, and then restrung it. Carried it into my little music room, kicked on an amp, plugged it in, and played a few chords. Sonically, it didn't do much for me. It's kind of like my Parker; it sounded like a humbucker guitar, but doesn't really stand out to my ear. I grade all my 'bucker guitars against my LP with Burstbuckers in it, and this one, although it sounded ok, didn't quite have that whatever-it-is I like about those BBs coupled with the LP.

But, the more I played around with it, I was really impressed with the guitar. It'll be a keeper for sure. So, even though it sounds like just a generic humbucker guitar, here are some of my pros and cons on it after playing it for a month.

Pros:

• Since I already mentioned the color, I'll mention it first. It's hot pink, y'all!!! I love the color.
  
• It's super light. Noticeably lighter than both of the guitars I play the most. It weighs in at under 7 1/2 pounds. That's a full pound lighter than my Gibby 339 and and 2 pounds lighter than my LP.
  
•  The PRS trem. I have a love/hate relationship with trems. I hate Floyds because I have never been able to get one to tune to pitch. They're always slightly off sharp or flat. That means I can't play them if I'm with someone else. I really dislike Strat trems because I rest my hand on the bridge, so I end up blocking them so I'm not always pushing it sharp. I occasionally plug the whammy bar in, but that means the trem will on go down. But I love a Bigsby. That trem is about my speed. The PRS one is somewhere between the Strat trem and the Bigsby trem. For the way I play, it seems to work really well. When I rest my hand on it, it doesn't go sharp. Also, when I tune a single string, it doesn't mess with the tuning of the other strings. I'm not sure what kind of voodoo PRS has done to make their trem system work, but it works really well.
• 24 frets - I've never had a guitar with 24 frets. That's just been fun to have.
• The pickups...in single mode. I'm not sure if the pickups do the coil-split thing or the coil-tap thing. Whatever it is, it's the first guitar that I've had that I actually use that in. In fact, I've had two guitars that have done the coil-whatever thing that I ended up just swapping the pickups and pots out so that isn't even an option anymore. The "single" position never did anything for me, and I never, ever used it. But, whatever magic they have in this PRS makes the "single" position sound ok. And then, in the middle "single" position, it actually sounds spanky enough that it can almost pull off a Strat in the 2/4 positions. None of the coil-whatever guitars I have ever had have done that, and I dig it!
• It came with a gig bag. I know this is weird to add as a pro, but the last few sub-$1500 guitars I've bought didn't come with either a bag or a case. So, even just to store it in a closet, I have to buy something extra to put it in. The fact that this one, a budget import line guitar, came with a bag is impressive. And it seems to be a good enough bag that you could actually use it as a gig bag.
  

Cons:

• I'm not a huge fan of the neck. I never realized how much difference a neck could make until I got my Epi Standard 50s LP. It has a bigger than average neck. You can really grab a hold on it when you're playing. I love the neck on that guitar. The one on the PRS is what I would call an average neck. I could grab it or any of my other Epi necks or the neck on most of my Fenders, and I'm not sure I could tell the difference. It's just a really average neck. I'm putting it in the con section because, after that 50s neck on the Epi, I realize that this one is just a neck. It's like the humbuckers in it. It's not really bad, but it's, also, not really good.
• The humbuckers in it. After I got it, I played 4 different guitars in, and ran them through the looper back to back so I could try to gauge the ones in this guitar. The LP has a Gibson Burstbucker 1/2 combo. The 339 has Gibson 57/57+ combo, the Epi 339 has an Epi Probucker 1/2 combo (Epi's version of Burstbucker 1/2) in it, and the PRS has a PRS 85/15 S combo in it. Admittedly, I seem to be partial to Burstbuckers, especially a BB1 in the neck position. Playing those 4 guitars, my bias was confirmed when the guitars were absolutely clean. The LP with BBs sounded best to my ear, followed by the Epi with PBs, then the Gibson with the 57s, and finally the PRS. However, once I introduced some drive and gain to the sound, if I'm being objective, they all started to sound the same, and I'm not sure I could really declare a winner. So the 85/15 S pickups may not really be a con. They just don't stand out. All that said, I, also, felt like they were a little hotter than the PAF-inspired Gibson/Epi pickups.

Overall Verdict:
After having this guitar for a month, the more I play it, the more I like it. I'm pretty certain that it will never be my favorite guitar, but it's solid enough that it has become one of 3 that sit out on the stand that I leave out to play. And it will probably stay there. I've had Gibsons that weren't this nice of a guitar. I've had Gibsons that were nicer. The same can be said of Epiphone and Fender. I, also, believe that it's noteworthy that my cons are more preferences and things that are average and not really things that are wrong with the guitar.

So the question I have to ask now is, knowing what I know after playing the guitar for a month, would I buy it again? Absolutely! This is a solid guitar. Bang for the buck, there's so much to like about this guitar. It plays really nicely and it doesn't sound bad. Truth is, if I didn't admittedly have a bias towards the BB-type pickup, as was evident when I introduced some drive in my little pickup test, I'd probably say it sounded really good. This is a nice enough guitar, even though it's out of the "budget" import line, as my first PRS it has impressed me enough that I wonder what their more expensive MIA line is like. If this one is any indication, those have to be killer guitars!