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.