PRS SE Soap Bar II

Описание: 00:00 - Introduction
00:39 - A Little History
02:03 - My Intro to the PRS SE Soap Bar II
02:44 - Specifications
03:44 - My Opinion
06:39 - Sound Samples
Paul Reed Smith SE Soap Bar II
On the bench today is the Paul Reed Smith SE Soap Bar II.
The PRS SE series was introduced to make the brand's core design philosophies and quality available to a wider range of musicians, including students and those without a lot of financial resources. Typically manufactured under license in Korea (and later Indonesia for other models), these instruments aim to provide a genuine PRS experience without the premium price tag of their US-made counterparts. Some of the SEs I have seen and owned in my opinion are some of the better made budget priced guitars in the industry.
A little history about how the PRS SE Soap Bar II came to be as a guitar.
Gibson filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against PRS stemming from PRS's Single cut models of guitars, which was deemed similar to Gibson's Les Paul.
The lawsuit was initiated in 2000 with a cease-and-desist letter.
Gibson formally filed the lawsuit in federal district court in Nashville, Tennessee, in November 2000.
In 2004 the district court granted an injunction in favor of Gibson, temporarily halting the production and sale of PRS Single cut guitars.
The lawsuit is believed to have influenced the quick transition of the PRS SE Soap Bar (I) which is a single cutaway P-90 guitar to the PRS SE Soap Par II which is a double cutaway P-90 guitar.
The PRS SE Soap Bar guitar was released in 2003 and production stopped in 2004.
In 2004 the PRS SE Soap Bar II was developed and released in 2005, and production ran until 2007.
The case was ultimately dismissed in 2005 in favor of PRS by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
In later years PRS resumed production of the single cutaway guitars.
I first saw a PRS SE Soap Bar II being played on a TikTok channel called roachman510 where Terry Gayhart comes online each day and just jams for several hours. I asked him what the guitar was, and he answered back the “PRS SR Soap Bar II guitar.”
My favorite pickup configuration on a guitar is two P-90 pickups. I lusted after the guitar and I just had to get a Soap Bar II for myself.
The next time I saw a really nice specimen of the guitar I purchased it.
I purchased mine for only $499. Here is what you get:

• Double cut solid mahogany body and neck
• My guitar has a flame maple top veneer in a tobacco sunburst finish. I have seen models of the guitar without flamed maple top as well as different colors.
• Rosewood fingerboard
• A C shaped PRS Wide Fat neck carve that measures:
• Measures 1st fret .872", 12th fret .944"
• 22 frets
• 10-inch radius and the scale length is 25 inches.
• 2X Soapbar P-90 pickups
• 3-way Toggle Pickup Selector Switch
• Master Volume and Mater Tone controls
• PRS Deluxe Soft Case

Used you can find models between $369 to $567 depending upon condition.
I am going to apologize now if my praise is a little over the top and to be honest not normal for me when I do an on the bench video. I am talking about a 20-year-old guitar, and I am not affiliated with PRS but I absolutely love this guitar and cannot say enough good things about it. I cannot believe what I paid for it. The quality is exceptional. When I can I am going to buy another just so I have a backup.
From a modding platform perspective, at least for me, this is a boring guitar because there really isn’t anything that needs to be upgraded.
I just happened to have a set of PRS SE Locking Tuners, so I decided to install them on this guitar. I REALLY like the PRS locking tuners. The design is just so minimalistic, and the design works. The tuners are also solid feeling and smooth when tuning.
The finish is excellent, and the guitar’s finish is beautiful.
The neck is so damn comfortable to play. My guitar is used but there is no fret sharp edges or fret rocking. I was lucky to get a guitar with minimal play.
The guitar is not as lightweight as I would expect when looking at it but it comes in at 7 lbs. and 6 ounces or 3.365 kilos.
The wrap-around bridge is compensated with slots cut into it. Once I adjusted the two Allen set screws the guitar intonated perfectly.
Let’s talk about the pickups. At lower volumes the pickups are clean and clear. From mid volume and up you start to increasingly get the “P-90” growl. I would not expect pickups of this quality in the SE line or price point. They do however have the typical P-90 hum in pickup selector switch positions 1 (bridge only) and 3 (neck only). The middle position (2) hum cancelling kicks in and mostly knocks out the hum.
Measuring for resistance the neck pickup measures 8.90 k ohms. Both pickups measure 4.562 k ohms, and the bridge pickup measures 9.13 k ohms.