PRS SE Santana

review
PRS SE SANTANA, SE CUSTOM 24 AND SE TREMONTI
114
Guitarist december 2016
PRS SE SANTANA, SE CUSTOM 24
& SE TREMONTI
£849 EACH
CONTACT PRS Europe PHONE [phone] WEB www.prsguitars.com
dark pearloid, and that final, ahem, ‘bird’ in
front of the top fret indicates a full 24-fret
complement (like the USA model), not the
22 of the previous SE Santana models. And
along with its different shape, the Santana
uses the shortest PRS scale of 622mm
(24.5 inches) – as opposed to the main
635mm (25-inch) scale – again, just like the
USA Santana model.
Another change to this new Santana is
its pickups, which swap from the good-
sounding, if slightly generic, 245 ’buckers
to open zebra-coiled SE Santana pickups
(Korean-made replicas of those used on
the USA guitar). These are controlled by a
simple three-way toggle with closely placed
volume and tone with dark amber speed
knobs. The triangular rear cavity apes the
original. Inside, we see a treble bleed cap
on the volume and notice that – although
there’s no pull/push switch on the tone to
activate any coil splits – the pickups have
four conductors, so if you wanted that
feature it’d be an easy enough aftermarket
mod. While we’re round the back, the
vibrato cavity has a coverplate (the USA
model doesn’t) that isn’t recessed but has
a single open hole for string access. The
unchamfered dark grey painted vibrato
block appears to be steel and it’s set as
standard with four springs. Tuners and
straps buttons are more generic than the
PRS’s USA spec, but at less than a quarter
of the price of the USA piece, do we care?
Like all SEs, of course, it comes with a very
rugged gigbag.
SE Custom 24
It took a while for the Custom 24 – PRS’s
original and still best-selling vision – to
W
hile PRS Guitars is coming
to the end of its 31st year of
producing industry-defining,
top-notch production guitars, the SE
(‘Student Edition’) range is only half that
age, originally appearing after much
deliberation in 2001. Back then, the much
less established company worried whether
a cheaper ‘offshore’ line would devalue and
reduce sales of its USA models. It needn’t
have worried: over the years the SE range
has become much more than a copy of the
USA line, not least with a diverse range of
signature models and SE-specific models.
But some have decried the SEs as the
‘poor man’s PRS’, and to an extent that’s
true. But with top-quality Korean build and
USA-conceived parts and pickups, the SEs
remain affordable, highly giggable working
guitars. Now, with 2017 around the corner,
PRS has done a bit of a refresh with, for
the first time, a Paul Reed Smith signature
headstock logo over a vastly reduced SE
motif, and various updates that make them,
on paper at least, better than ever. Let’s start
at the beginning…
SE Santana
Back in 2001, the first SE was a Santana
signature, a rather dowdy-looking slab-
body electric, more in the vein of a Les
Paul Special than the company’s flagship
Custom. It was swiftly blinged up for the
next version (that appeared in 2002) and
from then on the SEs took flight.
In the flesh, the new headstock décor
does look classier. The black signature
script is in strong contrast to the unfaced
headstock, even though that black plastic
truss rod cover still looks over-large. With
an all-over gloss natural finish (aside from
the yellow-stained top), you can clearly see
how the construction differs from the USA
model. The neck is one-piece and is very
clearly quarter-sawn, but the body appears
to be three pieces with clean but off-centre
joins, while the ‘bevelled’ maple top (again,
three-piece with off-centre joins) is faced
with a subtly flamed veneer, far less figured
than you’d see on any USA model. The
glossed finish does appear thicker than the
USA coating, too, but if you like your guitars
box-fresh and shiny, you can’t fault it.
Fretwire is a little wider but flatter than
the standard USA gauge, yet extremely
well installed and polished to a slippery
mirror sheen. The ‘old-school’ solid bird
inlays – so much a part of the PRS recipe
– actually look quite vintage-like in their
With 2017 around
the corner, PRS
has done a bit of a
refresh with a Paul
Reed Smith signature
headstock logo over
a vastly reduced SE
motif, and various
updates that make
them better than ever
VIDEO DEMO http://bit.ly/guitaristextra
GIT414.rev_prs.indd 114 27/10/2016 17:42