PRS SE Mikael Akerfeldt

Oh, a small update on my whereabouts. Right now I am in Bangkok. 

One of this church member here is a big fan of metal. He plays metal and almost only metal. It appears he doesn't really favour other genres so much. For me, I listen, play and explore everything, maybe with an extra bit of attention towards blues and fusion.

Anyway, his gear was a signature PRS SE. Mikael Akerfeldt. I am not so much of an Opeth fan so it isn't surprising that I wouldn't touch this signature guitar at a music store. But I had the luxury to try it out for quite a long time.

It is a nice looking guitar. That was my first though. Tone-wise, it isn't that bad as well, considering the fact that I played through a Roland Cube 15x and I could get some nice tones. The pups there are the same ones as SE Orianthi, PRS Designed SE HFS Treble (bridge) and Vintage Bass (neck).

Let's talk about the neck. The guitar shop he'd bought this from didn't make a proper setup for this guitar.
Either that or he'd lowered the action too much. There was a very bad fret buzz in the 19th fret on the 4th string. Oh, for those who hates gloss-finished neck, I have a good news for you. The neck on this guitar is matte-finished. No more glossy feel. And it sports an ebony fretboard. The neck width is rather wide and it reminds me of some Schecters. I used to be very anal about the neck size but along the way, I got used to switching between different types of necks. Thus, it is not a big problem. The rest of its features are the same as most SE Singlecut models; the bevel at the cutaway, 1-volume and 1-tone control.

Tone-wise, the bridge pickup sounds really fine. Feed it with quite a bit of gain and it sings well. But for the neck, it wasn't my cup of tea. While it sounds sweet with the gain cranked up, its sweetness dies of when the gain is reduced. Some may like that tone where there is a huge mid hump thanks to the body shape and the humbucker. To me, I still prefer the wooly tone of a single coil and a strat. Personal preference I would say.

Once again, with that said, you still have that 3-band EQs on your guitar amp, unless it comes either with a single tone knob or 2-band EQs. I would normally place them in the low criteria list since I like to have more control over my tone and I feel uncomfortable with being limited to a single tone-knob. Mid-band is a very important band to me as well and I wouldn't want it to be lacking as well. Anyway, you can tweak and adjust your guitar amp to compensate or cut down any section of your tone. We should try to tweak first before we start to whine.

Guitar + crystals

What do you get when you add Swarovski (ask your girlfriend or google if you don't know what this is xD, U ought to know) and PRS together ?

+

This is what you get. (take note of the guitar)

It is crazily hard to find just the photo of it alone online. These are all the few 'visible' pictures I've got. 

This PRS is a normal Custom 24 but at the same time, it is one-of-a-kind Custom 24. The only difference is that, this whale blue guitar is totally covered with Swarovski Crystals. It was custom made for Michael Jackson's ill-fated 'This is It' tour and she nicknamed it after him, MJ. 

'MJ' was also featured in a cover of her album 'Believe' (2009) and also in her MV 'According to you'.

Pe-Are-es! (PRS)

New PRS?

Well, yeah..... but... not mine though. I wish it was =P. It's my friend's first guitar. She got it fresh from Davis Guitar today (and yes it's a 'she')!! To be specific, at its expanded branch.


This is PRS SE Orianthi Signature model in Red Sparkle (indeed, it is sparkling, especially under the light).

Price: S$850

Special Features
Its most outshining feature is the 'O' at the 12th fret rather than a usual signature spread eagle of PRS.

Body
The body is made up of Korina with a maple top. Korina is rarely used in guitars. In fact, PRS is the only brand that I know uses Korina for the body. It is somewhat like a mahogany, having similar grains of mahogany. However, compared to mahogany, it has a brighter sound.
The hierarchy of brightness will be as shown below:

Mahogany < Korina < Alder

Neck
The neck is a maple neck according to the PRS website.
As for the neck profile, it is a bit wide but rather thin compare to a PRS SE Custom 24, which features a much thicker neck profile.  It is a set-neck construction and allows easy access to the lower frets.

The fretboard is an Ebony fretboard. Its extremely dark and shiny looks highlights it. Ebony is said to have a brighter attack in terms of tone, which further contributes to the brightness of this guitar.

Pickups
The pickups in it are PRS Designed SE TFS Treble at the bridge and Vintage Bass at the neck. The pickups do it job well when it is played through clean. The resultant tone (with the pickup switch in the mid position) is of my preference, bright and clear sound. When some distortion kicks in, it sounds somewhat like my alder-bodied Fernandes, with less brightness. It does a good job in sustaining (I'm very particular about this). Do take note that the sustainability doesn't just depends on the guitar but also on the level of gain on the amp and other factors as well.

Controls
It has a 3-way pickup switch, a volume knob and a tone knob.

Bridge
The bridge is a PRS Designed Tremolo bridge like many other PRS SE has. 6 screws bridge. Nothing too special that I could expand on this. The tremolo is the not a screw-in type. All that is needed is to insert the tremolo at the bridge and use it.

Accessories

Other extra accessories included are (of course) a guitar bag, a short cable, tremolo bar and all the Allen keys. The included bag is a well-padded bag which would normally cost around $35-40 to get it. Well, after paying a $850, such quality bag is to be expected, isn't?

Overall: 5/5
This guitar is a great guitar. The neck profile, though it isn't as slick as an Ibanez RGs, it is still considered as thin. Shredding isn't a problem for me. Its standard action is just right; neither too low nor too high. If I have the ability to buy it, I would DEFINITELY do so. Of course, the stock pickups will be changed accordingly to the genre I would use it to play. However, it would be much better if PRS features a 2-point bridge; after all the problem my Squier has given me, I feel that it's safer use the tremolo without going out of tune so much for 2 point bridges than its 6 points kins.