PRSCE 22

This is my PRS CE 22 which I've had just over a year.

I got it second hand from a shop in Chatham (Mid Air Music) which is worth a browse if you are ever  in the area.

It was obviously second hand when I got it for the bonzer price of £650 including the original PRS case - minus the case key sadly but hey ho.  It is I think a 2001 from researching the serial number.

So a puka USA PRS for the price of a Korean new SE - yes true.  Search around and PRS CE's are the bargain PRS buy I'd say.  Well my son agreed he bought himself a lovely orange one for under £800 a few months after I got this one.

This one is "whale blue" so has the painted black back rather than it left natural.  It has a maple bolt on neck.  Many seem to think that CEs are a poor mans PRS, maybe in some part true but they are an alternative sound as well.  Now I'd been thinking of getting a SuperStrat - something with a humbucker in the rear to relive the early 80s when I hacked an Ibanez h/b (later a Dimarzio PAF) into the rear slot of a Columbus Strat.  That gave me in those days "my sound", i.e. the single coils in mid and neck for clean chorus dripping arpeggios etc. and a humbucker driven raunch for solos or rockier bits.

Now this guitar has all of that courtesy of the PRS 5 way switch (bit of a bugger for quick changes mind) and more.  Given the mahogany / maple body the humbucker sound is more Gibbo than any fender with a H/B slammed in it - but the neck does give it a different character from a set neck alternative.  Sorry no Custom 22 to compare side by side but comparing to my Gibson Les Paul and Gordon Smith the PRS is more "open" and less "dense" in sound.  However the Strat like vibrato may add to that with the "reverb" that you get with those fitted.

So an extremely versatile guitar - the five way switches gives the usual three sounds plus two otehrs which are like the Strat in between sounds if you get my drift but slightly dark in tone - probably more to do with the wood than anything else.

PRS stopped making CEs a while back now - although the Swamp Ash special is still on the books same neck but ASH body and a middle single coil - so much more like a Strat.   But if you see one try it out as a "do pretty much anything with it" guitar it's hard to fault.

Mine had non original tuners and strap buttons so I've replaced them with original PRS locking tuners (why you'd ditch locking tuners I don't know?) and new Schaller locking strap buttons (I use them pretty much of everything I own).   My son's which is vintage orange (Santana like) is all original and in lovely condition.  He got his from www.guitars4you.com who I also would recommend.