PRS SE Soapbar II Maple

The Soapbar 2 Maple is part of the PRS special Edition range of electric guitars, and features a Mahogany body with a Maple cap, set Mahogany neck and heavily flamed Maple veneer. Available in either tri colour sunburst, or Mateo blue burst finishes these guitars look stunning, and they have the sound to match thanks to the bright sounding ‘soapbar’ pickups.
The Soapbar 2 Maple has the classic PRS double cutaway body shape, and all contours are extremely rounded for a luxurious and smooth feel. The upper back portion also has a shallow bevel to accommodate your body. The neck has a ‘wide fat’ profile giving it a very sturdy feel, and it is also finished in a gloss black lacquer that offers minimal friction against your fretting palm. The 25” scale gives you more room for exploring elaborate fingering techniques, which in conjunction with the superior rosewood fingerboard make this guitar such a pleasure to play.
The strings slip and slide against the frets with no friction at all thanks to immaculate polishing, and this smooth action translates into crystal clear tone and incredible sustain. Set into the finely grained rosewood are a set of blue Abalone ‘moons’, each containing a crescent that shimmers in the light, with a customary double inlay at fret 12. The neck heel thickens out before joining the body at the second to last fret, and this bulk behind the upper frets lets you reap the full tonal potential of the Mahogany body. A deep scallop is carved into the smaller lower cutaway, which acts to cradle the fretting hand of those who spend too much time soloing!
At the headstock the chrome tuners are arranged into a three a side formation, getting narrower towards the jagged tip. Between these lies the Special Edition Soapbar2 Maple logo, and the truss rod cover is labelled with PRS. Around the back each machine head is PRS branded on the sealed gear mechanism, and the large turning posts give you accurate control over string tension. Tuning stability is also enhanced by the accurately cut top nut, with deep grooves to maintain perfect string height above the fretboard.
The SE soapbar 2 Maple is fitted with single coil PRS designed ‘soapbar’ pickups, set in rectangular housing. This housing is black on the blueburst guitar, and cream on the sunburst model, and each has a matching pickup selector knob. The master volume and tone controls have matching speed dial knobs that feel smooth, adding a vintage touch to this modern instrument. The PRS SE Soapbar2 Maple is available with a wrap around Stoptail Bridge, this incorporates a compensating one-piece saddle system, and the strings wrap around this to slot into place underneath.
On clean amp settings the neck pickup has a crisp and sparkling voice, with the Mahogany body transmitting a strong and colourful midrange. The single coil soapbar pickups are characteristically brighter than humbuckers, but have more bass response than traditional ‘strat’ style pickups. The soapbar pickups are extremely sensitive to tremolo style techniques, responding with shimmering bluesy tones. The excellent workmanship of the fretboard and set neck construction has a noticeable effect on the sound of this guitar, and it clearly exceeds the potential of cheaper PRS imitations.
The volume and tone dials have a precise and accurate action, letting you experiment with a range of tones for different styles of playing. As you increase the gain, the colourful tone of the guitar oozes from the pickups with a lively and responsive character. For wailing blues solos the neck pickup is just the trick, and the bridge pickup barks pure rock and roll! Turning back the tone control yields a powerful midrange growl for heavier rock, and with the pickup selector in mid position there is a hum cancelling effect great for full on distortion.
Altogether this is an extremely versatile instrument, lying somewhere between a Stratocaster and Les Paul in terms of sound capabilities. The tone and playability of this guitar is inspirational, built to PRS standards the SE soapbar 2 maple offers luxury at a very reasonable price.
The guitar is supplied with a thickly padded PRS gig bag. This premium guitar case has heavy duty zips with loops for use with a pad lock, a large front pocket and backpack style handles. The front pocket is embroidered with a large PRS SE logo.

Winner of Guitar Magazines 'Best Electric Guitar £500-£1000 in November 06, they say
'it's a total peach'
'the P90's are gutsy and powerful'
'the neck pickup is perfectly balanced with the bridge'
'it's the PRS for players who thought they didn't like PRS guitars'

£419