PRS SE Mark Holcomb Holcomb Burst

This is a really nice guitar. The pickups are the star of the show - really high output, crunchy, sparkling with harmonic content, but still articulate for "big" chords. The body finish is beautiful and the ebony fretboard is a dream to play on. The satin finish on the neck makes it easy to get up and down and comfortable for long sessions. The white neck "binding" looks nice, but it's not actually binding, it's painted on, so while attractive, don't look too closely at it! The bridge is nice and low profile making it comfortable on your right hand and nuance in palm mutes a breeze. The only gripe I have is that I think the overall attention to detail on the finishing isn't quite where I'd expect it to be on a PRS, even on an SE model. This is still a grand's worth of guitar after all and I have several in my collection from Ibanez and others at that price point, on which the overall level of quality feels higher. Like most new guitars, this one needed a full setup as the factory setup was, well, non-existent. Amazingly, it arrived in tune, but the intonation was waaaayyy off. I couldn't get the action lower than 2mm at the 12th without fretting out on the higher frets. Saddle and truss rod adjustment wasn't enough - the frets needed attention so I had to take to a pro as I don't have the gear for fret levelling. No big deal - I kinda budget £150 to set up any new guitar I buy anyway, just in case. Now, on to the biggest issue... that terrible TERRIBLE nut! Why oh why PRS?! It's like they found a bit of scrap plastic in a skip, cut it to size and haphazardly sliced some grooves into it. Man, is it ugly! The strings catch terribly, which results in tuning instability. The edges of the nut are unfinished and coarse. One of the two guitars I had still had noticeable fingerprints on the side of the nut left in whatever excess glue was used to stick it down. Yuk. If you buy this guitar, budget to get the nut replaced (I bought a GraphTech). I also might consider replacing the tuners at some point as the standard PRS ones are rather, um, inconsistent. Small gripes aside, this guitar does play and sound really great. If you're looking at this guitar you probably know what kind of sound it's capable of, what with it being a Mark Halcomb signature. But, for the money there are nicer guitars out there in terms of quality, so you could just buy a pair of MH's signature pickups and get the same (or very similar) sound from another guitar. I just happen to love the look of this guitar and that is still important to me, even after playing for 25 years! By no means perfect, but a great guitar nonetheless. Has it made me want to spunk £4000 on a PRS Private Stock model? No. Will I play it more than my JEM7VWH... no, but maybe just as much because it is fun to play! Final words... wow, those pickups! Pinched harmonics have never been so satisfying!

The guitar is exactly what I was hoping it would be, an absolute beast that can also be sensitive if needed. Very comfortable to play, and stunning. My only issue is that mine shipped with a faulty guitar jack socket (very surprising from PRS!!!) so I'm going to have to repair or replace that as I would rather that ship the guitar back for repairs.