PRS has been busy. They’ve got new SE amps with boutique tone and features at down-to-earth prices. The SE acoustic guitars offer outstanding quality, sound, feel, and value. At the high end, the PRS Collection Series serves up handcrafted guitars graced with a heady blend of exotic tonewoods and premium appointments.
PRS has designed and built their all-tube 2-channel SE guitar amps with a decidedly boutique sensibility. The SE 20, SE 30, and SE 50 are all offered as heads or as closed-back 1 x 12″ combos. If you go the head/cab route, PRS also offers a 2 x 12″ cabinet. Housing different power tubes in their engine rooms, the three amps each possess a distinct sonic character — and at 20, 30, and 50 watts, respectively, they cover the gamut, from practice and recording to gigging in sizable venues. In general, the clean channels are voiced to produce glassy cleans and light-to-medium crunch. Tap the included footswitch, and you can gain-stage overdrive suitable for blues, roots rock, fusion, and even metal. Through it all, the SEs maintain articulation and organic responsiveness.
The PRS SE Angelus is the avant-garde of PRS’s emerging SE acoustic guitar line. Offered in Standard (mahogany sides and back, rosewood fingerboard and bridge) and Custom (rosewood sides and back, ebony fingerboard and bridge) models, the SE Angelus defines a new standard of quality in its price range. Featuring solid backs, solid spruce tops, bone nuts and saddles, PRS-designed SE tuners, and the same proprietary bracing pattern as higher-end PRS acoustics, these acoustics serve up rich, resonant tone and are impressively responsive to your touch. Sporting PRS’s iconic bird inlays and traditional headstock design, they look quite amazing. The SE Angelus will be joined by models with pickup systems early next year.
The select acoustic and electric guitars of PRS’s Private Stock Collection Series are built in small batches by elite luthiers, from the finest materials. The rare tonewoods used — including prized pernambuco for necks and fingerboards — will no longer be available for standard Private Stock orders. Other proprietary features, such as Celtic knot inlays, are being reserved exclusively for Collection Series guitars as well. The production of each Collection Series guitar is overseen by Paul Reed Smith himself. If you’re ready for a truly outstanding guitar, the PRS Collection Series should be on your short list.
PRS has accomplished what few manufacturers have: they’ve successfully created a broad, seamless range of acoustic and electric instruments and amplifiers, each offering outstanding performance, value, and aesthetics at its respective price point.
