PRS SE Custom 24 Semi-Hollow LB

I purchasis the PRS SE 24 Semi-Hollow Piezo, but eventually decided to return it. Overall, I think it’s a very good “Swiss army knife” type of guitar with a lot of versatility, but the quality control on my particular unit was disappointing for this price range.

The positives first: playability was genuinely very good. The fretwork itself was solid — no sharp fret ends, no dead frets, and the action could be set very low without issues. The guitar is also visually beautiful and definitely has that premium PRS look. The pickups sounded tasty with good sustain, although they were a bit higher output than I personally prefer. The tremolo system also felt comfortable and smooth to use.

That said, I had several QC-related issues with the instrument.

For a semi-hollow guitar, the weight was a bit higher than I expected at around 3.3 kg. Not terrible, but definitely heavier than I anticipated.

More importantly, there were visible tooling marks and small chips on the fretboard. I also found noticeable leftovers of glue or some kind of residue around multiple fret ends and other fretboard areas — possibly from fret or binding work. I was able to remove some of it with my fingernail, but it left marks behind.

There was also white polishing compound residue scattered around the guitar, even inside the pickup selector switch, which I had to clean out manually with a toothpick. After inspecting the finish under direct light, I also noticed quite a lot of micro-scratches in the lacquer, almost as if the polishing process wasn’t completed properly.

The piezo system was a bit disappointment. When using the mix output together with the magnetic pickups, some signal still leaked through even when both the piezo and magnetic volumes were rolled off completely — enough to pass through a noise gate pedal. The piezo itself also produced strange noises that sounded like dirty vinyl crackle or scratching. Replacing the battery didn’t help, so perhaps it was a grounding or electronics issue.

In the end, I really liked the concept of the guitar and many aspects of how it played and sounded, but the weight, overall QC and electronics issues on my unit made me return it.

I see mixed reviews on this one. I like it a lot though and it is a very useful contribution to my collection. Actually it will replace 3 more expensive guitars (Gibson ES335, Ibanez JS1000 and Maybach Telecaster).
Allow me to write a detailed review.
TLDR: JUST BUY IT!!!

Excellent:
- Endless sustain!!!
- Amazing resonance WOW!!
- Tuners feel tight and high quality. no replacement with locking tuners needed.
- Incredible tuning stability. After use of tremolo but also when I pick it up the next day.
- Awesome looks! That blue is wonderful with the white binding. And aesthetically the manufacturing is flawless!

Very good:
- Neck/playability. Plays extremely light/sensitive with very easy hammer ons & pull offs. The scale is a bit odd with 24 frets on 25": the upper frets are very close to each other, making it difficult to play those tones beautiful and with the right vibrato. I slip easily to a next (unintended) tone. All by all I love it, but it will take some time to get used to.
- Soundwise this guitar is very versatile and unique due to the piëzo and pups. Very clear sound overal. Bridge humbucker is great for rock/metal with very easy pinch harmonics coming out. Both pups with coil split sound pretty Strat like to me, thoughI wouldn't call it a perfect resemblance. Middle position split is just like a Telecaster or even better with lots of twang and clarity (dial tone back to 2/3 and you have a great funk tone). I probably wouldn't use the piëzo on it's own but combined with the magnetic pups you can get close to an acoustic-kinda-sound. With some extra FX (f.e. Boss AC3) you can come even closer. Piëzo + bridge HB with gain will get you a very rich, thick rock sound full of harmonics and amazing resonance. I'm not too fond of the neck pup though. It's okay for blues when split or for fluent gain leads as HB, but I would prefer it more jazzy sounding with more dynamics. It does go quite well with the piëzo though, so I don't know if I will replace it.
- The acoustic sound unamplified is not as loud as my ES335 but it will be sufficiënt for when I want to watch TV with a guitar in my hands.

Good:
- Tremolo is better and way more stable than on a Strat but not as sensitive and versatile as a FR. It's really a tremolo, not a stunt device. I like that it's there and it doesn't effect sustain or tuning stability so it's definately a plus.
- Design and built are good overall. Very light weight. Ergonomically perfect. Some minor flaws like I miss an on/off switch for piëzo and would have liked push/pulls to split each pup separately for more versatility. My guitar tech will do that for me so no problem.
- It was almost playable out of the box. I only needed to adjust the truss rod but that didn't effect intonation and must have been due to temp changes.

Mediocre:
- Some materials feel cheap like the knobs on tremolo and pots. But hey, it's a 1100,- guitar so what do you expect?

Clear flaws:
- The screws on the pup rings are a bit sharp. The newer 2026 edition has different rings with the screws sunk in. I'll have to buy them for 25,- which also allows me to change color, cos I'd prefer them in ivory anyways.
- Allthough the edges of the frets are all rounded off, some still feel a bit sharp underneath where they touch the fretboard. You don't notice it when you play, only when intentionally check this out.
- There are some dead spots on the neck. Not too many, but they are very obvious. I will have my guitar tech work on that, or I will have it plekked. Actually I always plek guitars in this price segment. You can't expect a perfect fretboard on a 1k guitar so this is perfectly fine to me.

To conclude: The guitar just looks amazing in my living room and I am constanly temped to play, which basically says it all. It will compete with 3 precious Ibanez FGM's (my no.1) but together they are so complimentary that they will all get their love. The fact that this PRS SE will be on par with these high end Fujigen Ibby's does tell a lot about the quality of the instrument and how happy I am with it.

I should give it 4,5 star but since that isn;t possible and someone else gave it only 3 stars, I will give it 5 stars. In the end this is justified considering price vs quality/versatility. Even more so because this 1.1k guitar will effectively replace 3 guitars with a total worth of 5.5k.

Now shut up 'n play yer guitar!

agréable à jouer, légère, bien équilibrée, bonne finition (sauf les trappes d'accès à l'arrière qui font pauvres par rapport à la qualité de l'ensemble) manche plaisant, frettes de bonne finition.
Possibilités sonores vraiment larges grâce aux micro piézo et à la double connectique. Son précis et chaud, son puissant sans devenir boueux lorsqu'on pousse le gain. Suite au passage chez mon luthier : juste un petit réglage du manche, l'intonation et bien sûr le remplacement des cordes.
C'est un achat que je referais et que je conseille, surtout chez Thomann vu le prix proposé (999€)