Re: PRS Tremonti SE
I would definitely not hesitate to recommend one of these to someone looking for a lower priced guitar. One of my buddies brought over a brand new silver Tremonti SE the other day, and I played it through my Classic 50 for about an hour. Overall, I was very impressed. The factory setup was pretty good, although I would've lowered the action a bit if it were my guitar. The workmanship was excellent, I never would've guessed it was a Korean-built guitar. Well-cut nut, frets were perfect, and the guitar was lighter than I was expecting. The wide/fat neck was very comfortable, although the neck was a little slower than I'm used to. But then again, my main guitar is a Wolfgang with an oil finished neck, so it's not really fair to compare the two. It had great sustain, and it stayed in tune perfectly. It sounded pretty good plugged in, although I would've put a set of Duncans in if it were my guitar. The pickups were fairly hot, and maybe a bit muddy, but I didn't really tweak my amp much, so that's probably why. For stock pickups in a korean guitar, they really weren't bad. The bridge had a decent crunch, and the neck sounded fairly similar to an Alnico II Pro, although I'm guessing both pickups use A5 magnets. PRS isn't going to sacrifice their reputation for quality, even on their foreign-built models. I looked over it pretty closely, and I really couldn't find anything wrong with it. I've never been a big fan of Epiphone/Squier/etc, but I was really impressed by the Tremonti SE. My suggestion is to find someplace where you can try it out for an extended period of time. With a few upgrades here and there, you could very well end up with a Les Paul-style guitar that outplays some Gibsons.
Ryan