PRS SE Hollowbody Piezo ii Review

I review the PRS hollowbody piezo 2 guitar.

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0:00 intro
1:20 Unique headstock features
2:25 Neck, setup, QC
4:05 Se Variety
4:31 Body
5:40 what makes it special
9:15 electronics
10:55 Tone Deep Dive
13:30 Piezo tone explained
18:54 Piezo + Mag is a deep dive
22:14 THE TONE
22:55 final features
23:20 Price & Conclusion

[nicholasaragon]

Sorry for the long comment: I've had mine for exactly 1 year. I spent several days in guitar stores for 4 hours at a time trying everything at every price point. On my last day I plugged this in, strummed a few and immediately bought it. What you don't get from videos or the pictures next to the price is that this guitar is an absolute treat for all your senses. The neck fills my hand and feels luxurious, it resonates beautifully against your body, I can't take my eyes off the binding while I play, you can smell the wood through the F-holes. To top it all off, just a hair of Piezo gives a tight percussiveness that you can feel through the amp. As corny as it sounds, this allows me to connect with it unlike any other guitar. When guests come over, they walk straight up to it like it's a piece of art...then I watch their jaws drop when they hear how gorgeous it sounds. The Piezo doesn't replace my acoustic electric, but splitting to an acoustic amp while having the electric side to an amp set up for just subtle, room feeling ambience is very cool. I could gush all day, but I really do love this instrument, it's a unique experience.

[samseitz]

Andre I don’t typically gravitate to guitar reviews but I have to say yours are informative and very well done. I like that you don’t make corny demo tracks and play an instrument in a way it’s not meant to be played. I also appreciate how let the instrument be itself and not talk about all the ways you could deface it or modify it into oblivion like some djent cretin bro.

[scottforce]

I've had this exact guitar for almost 2 years now and love it. I checked out youtube reviews for at least a year and finally played one. I waited for about a year before this was available when I was ready to commit to the purhase. I play it almost every Sunday at church for both acoustic and electric guitar it!!! Great review and I loved the tips for the acoustic sounds.

[frankblackburn]

As a guitar fan I'm not sure what changed in the YouTube algorithm that recently began recommending me a bunch of your videos but I'm all for it! Nice videos and keep it up!

[Captain_Yata]

Those pickups are INSANE. SOOOO clear but also full of character :)

[electrikjam]

I just played one of these!
I agree 100% with everything that you said in your review. It is very much like a "mini" Gibson ES355.
Great review, Andre!

[DennyBob]

Great, detailed review. I have three US PRS, and I've been milling over buying the Core vs SE HB II Piezo. My experience with overseas guitars is two fold - I have a 1985 MIJ Fender Stratocaster that was made by FujiGen, who makes the highest level of Ibanez and is an incredible guitar (and my first "real" nice guitar), to crappy Squiers from the nineties. I have owned five US PRS guitars, two I sold and now wish I hadn't, but I've only played SE Models in stores, and none recently. The guitar store situation around me is poor. There a Guitar Center an hour away and they had no Core PRS and when I said I was looking for a Silver Sky, they said they'd only had one in the 4-5 years they'd been out.

I love that you can still hear a little of the guitar's acoustic sound when you switched to the seated position with the Shure mic. Even plugged in, the guitar's acoustic sound was loud enough to bleed into the vocal mic. nice.

One more comment - we are very similar in the desire to play a little of everything. I "play" at Jazz, but I'm not a Jazz guitarist. I write pieces with "Jazz" chords that I fingerpick. And I love Archtops. But I realized and had to get honest with myself that I like to look at mine more than play it, so I just sold a 2006 CF Martin/American Archtops CF-1. I bought it because it's beautiful and was hand built in the Martin Custom Shop and it was a true archtop, the pickguard and pickup were attached to the end of the neck and the volume pot was on the pickguard. The neck didn't even touch the body, it "hovered over it", only the bridge touched the top, it had a Bennedetto style tailpiece. I made a profit off it, even in the crappy resale market we're in. Maybe I'll pick up the SE HB II Piezo.

[TVsBen]

Man, I adore piezo-equipped electric guitars. I have one of these (in the same peacock blue), and a Kiesel CT6. I use the exact same IRs that Matthew used from Worship Tutorials, and I use it with one path of my Helix. I play in the band at my church and we don't ever seem to have a dedicated acoustic player, so doing a nice clean Fender tone for the magnetic pickups and a compressor/EQ/IR for the acoustic is wonderfully lush. I agree with basically everything you said about it in your conclusion. The fit and finish is top notch. That's also true of my Kiesel, but I love how attainable this is.

[VexxJam]

It really is an amazing guitar. The pick ups are hard to distinguish from the core 85/15’s. It does super clean to super heavy and sounds so full with a lasting sustain. So good….

[stratkat]

Got one for Christmas. LOVE IT! I had a set of chrome Steinberger tuners lying around so I installed those. The only other thing I did was do a very gentle rounding of the shoulders on the fret ends. It didn't have fet sprout but the sharp angle of fret end slopes bugged me in a few places. Took me less than an hour for the fret dressing and the tuner swap. Perfection! Covers most of the bases quite well.

[AdvenuringTime]

All these guitars all seem so amazing. Congrats on this amazing sponsorship

[LouYorkeX]

Yeah, this one and the Schecter C-1 E/A are VERY intriguing because of the f-holes and piezoelectric pups. People get God-tier tones out of them.

[johnmatthewtennant]

I love the piezo mixed in with the electric sounds. Both clean and distorted. Gives my a similar sound to how I experience my guitar in the room: hearing the sound from the speakers plus the acoustic sound through the air. I always felt a disconnect between my recorded guitar sound because it lacked the acoustic aspect

[saxophite]

Can't wait to see the video on the Mark Holcomb! I'm a huge Periphery fan, and I'm thinking of picking one up, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!

[glennmichaelthompson]

Another excellent review in the PRS SE series! Thanks for pronouncing piezo correctly!!! I think you're one of 2 or 3 people I've heard saying it right in a YouTube video. :-) I've enjoyed a touch of piezo mixed in my guitar tone since I first played my Ibanez Artstar AE-200 back in the late 80's. For those without an Axe FX, I'd recommend a parametric eq for dialing in the tones of a piezo p'up. I have a Carvin HF2S which is completely hollow and it has a built in para eq for the piezo. (also separate outputs) I never felt the need or desire for a PRS guitar until this series you're doing. I have a feeling you'll help PRS in the sales dept; not that they need it. Great job Andre!

[Kensho]

Came for the guitar review, stayed for the thorough demonstrations and articulate explanations and opinions.

Phenomenal playing! Great clarity and articulation. I also love jazz-influenced genres but am not a traditional jazz head. Subscribed!!

[garymesser]

That was beautiful, that was one of the best sounding demos I’ve heard, great clarity! You hear so many demos where they turn up the gain, which to me is Annoying, if you want to really hear the instrument, play it clean, but that takes confidence In your playing..
So Bravo!

[JacobR.]

I was dead set on ordering a 594 hollowbody core model and wanted nothing to do with the 25” scale piezo. This review changed my mind. I ordered this same SE piezo model used for a great price to try it out and see if I would like it in the core version. I got such a good deal on it that I might even make money when I sell it!

I loved the jazz tone you got out of it, hopefully mine will sound similar!

[konradhof]

I paid 700 to have two rear shocks put on my compact car yesterday. 1000 for a finely crafted archtop electric is tremendous value for money. We guitar buyers are spoiled today.

[JackTaylorGuitars]

The experiment sure is heating up dude! I can honestly say the Piezo is absolutely not a guitar I would ever have any interest in owning but I'm very happy to learn about it from you, man. Stoked you love it and I can't wait to hear your thoughts on the Holcomb (and some chugs!) if this ties with it! 🤘