I have previously documented some of my experience with these guitars in another thread. But I would like to put it all down here so that anyone doing an internet search on these guitars can find the information I wish I had beforehand. I have had three of these guitars come into my possession. Two seven strings (one of which was sent back to the retailer and replaced) and a six string. Also, my comments are meant only for the Holcomb models, not the entire PRS SE Line. I have only played one other SE (and old and dusty Custom 24 that had been hanging on a Guitar Center wall for ages, but it was still really good). So here it goes:
Summary: The strangest experience I've ever had with guitars in my twenty years of playing. I have never seen guitars with such a huge gap between how they came out of the box (very bad; awful quality control) and how they ended up once all of their issues got ironed out (incredible; playing and sounding better than many guitars that are 2x their price). I got mine on a 20% off during the 2025 end of year sale (1179 original down to 943 sale price for the six string; 1249 original down to 999 sale price for the SVN) so keep in mind my review and valuation of them is based on those price points and for those prices I highly recommend them. But even at those prices, I still had to put time and money into fixing both guitars to get them where they are now. And I absolutely love them NOW. However, given recent price increases to 1349 USD for the six string and 1419 USD for the seven string (170 USD increase for both models--roughly 13 to 14% over last year) I have a hard time recommending them. The subpar quality control combined with the lack of locking tuners and what feels like cheaper bridge material are deal breakers at this price point. If you really want one (or two, in my case) wait until they're on sale again and be willing to spend money on a tech or your own effort and skill to remedy what appear to be common issues. Or just hit the used market.
A Note on Value: If you're open to other styles and manufacturers, look to high-end Korean made stuff (LTD 1000/Deluxe, for example) or save a little more and get something made in Japan. Ibanez Prestige RG652 at 1700 USD, Ibanez Genesis RG550 at 1200 USD, or an ESP E-II M-I at 2100 USD (before dealer discounts of 10-15%) are a much better value with much better quality control that these could ever dream of being at 1349 USD. There's a little bit of an exception here for the SVN because there are less seven strings out there to choose from and this might still be the best one in the price range assuming you get a good one. PRS doesn't allow dealers to discount at their own discretion so you're relying on PRS to greenlight a sale during an end-of-year blowout. Phillip McKnight has talked about this quite a bit and if I'm paraphrasing him correctly, he basically believes that these sales will become fewer and far between as PRS gets better at forecasting sales with their SE line post-COVID. Thus far they have overproduced, but he doesn't expect them to continue to do so to this extent, reducing the need for and likelihood of end of year sales.
DETAILED REVIEW BEGINS HERE
Build Quality: carpentry is excellent. The guitars are sturdy and fell well-built. From what I have been able to gather the body's are three piece mahogany and the necks are three piece maple. I have no issue with multi-piece parts as long as I'm not being charged one-piece prices. And for necks I prefer multi-piece as I would choose the stability that construction offers over the alternative. The maple neck feels strong and the mahogany body is the perfect thickness, in my view. The guitars are around 8lbs give or take a few ounces and they balance nicely. I haven't noticed any issues with neck dive. It's also important to note that these guitars resonate incredibly well and sound very good acoustically. I knew I was probably gonna keep these the second I unboxed them and played a big open chord unplugged and it rang out beautifully and I could feel the strong vibrations sustain throughout the neck and body. In spite of the poor QC elsewhere, PRS/P.T. Cort have gotten the carpentry and neck/body assembly down pat. The core construction of these guitars is excellent.
Specs: overall pretty good. The pickups are definitely the best spec on the list. The nut is supposedly the same nut used on the Core series. It's a brass composite self-lubricating nut. I am happy with it. It resonates nicely and I see no reason to change it. I will say it was cut maybe a little too low on the six string but not quite low enough for me to move to shim or replace immediately. I've been able to get it setup and playing nicely in spite of this so I guess you could say it's cut as low as it possibly could be cut before causing issues that can't be ignored. The ebony board is fine. Nothing to write home about. I have other guitars with higher grades of ebony on them. But I don't see this a negative. It looks and feels good. And at this price point I don't expect pitch black ebony that almost shines. The tuners are standard PRS SE tuners; not locking. They're fine. I have no issues with them and they're good enough to leave alone until I feel like burning some cash on locking replacements that aren't really necessary. The bridges on these wear more quickly than I would expect. When removing to saddles to address burs causing buzzing issues (more on that later) I noticed that the metal was already worn along where the string rests in the saddles and where the action adjustment screws rest on the metal plate of the bridge itself. This isn't a deal breaker but worth noting. I think it's probably a combination of relatively soft-ish metal of the bridge plate and saddles, as well as the quality of the screws being used (sharp ends that dig into the metal when pressure is applied). The bridge itself is comfy, though. There are options for upgrades, but I feel the same way about the bridge that I do about the tuners. They're fine. Might upgrade later for the fun of it. The medium jumbo nickel silver frets are a good choice in terms of playability and feel, but in my experience they are poorly installed, poorly leveled, and poorly polished.
Electronics: The pickups sound great (more on that below). They obviously increase the price point of this guitar, but I'm ok with that given how good they are. Perfect for the style of music I like (metal and proggy stuff). The electronics cavity on these was fine as far as I could tell. I have had no issues with pickup switching (although the selector switch feels cheap) or use of volume, tone, coil-splitting push/pull. But at the same time it is worth nothing that the quality of the electronics is exactly what you would expect on a mid-range import guitar. You could swap them out for the Core-style electronics and be much better off not having to deal with push/pull toggle on the coil-splitting (which is a clearly inferior system in my opinion). The output jack on the SVN has been loose and required frequent tightening, but recently has been a bit more sturdy. I have had no issue with the output jack on the six string. At some point I will probably look into upgrading the electronics in these guitars, but they're in the same category as the tuners and bridge: good enough for now but on the future upgrade list.
Sound: The Duncan Scarlet/Scourge pickups are great. They're mid-output. They handle hi-gain and cleans very nicely. Bridge humbucker absolutely screams but remains clear when you crank up the gain. The coil-slitting middle position sounds really nice clean and with a little overdrive. I highly recommend it. The biggest thing for me when it comes to pickups is how clear and articulate larger chords sound, especially with gain. These pickups excel in this area. These pickups also do a good job of handling detuned 7-string tones. These guitars come setup in Drop G# on the SVN and Drop C on the six string. These pickups are tight and articulate on both models. If you've played other seven strings with inferior pickups you probably know how muddy and sloppy the seventh string can get. I have owned another seven string and have played it with both an EMG 707 set and a Duncan Sentient/Pegasus set. The Scarlet/Scourge set is much better than both of those in my view. The 707s were ok, but the Sentient/Pegasus set was the worst of the bunch (ironically, the six string Sentient/Pegasus set is one of my favorite pickup sets of all time). I know I'm rambling a bit here but I want to be very clear about why I like the Scarlet/Scourge set so much. I have found that there are trade-offs in getting a good tone on extended range guitars. You have to sacrifice tone on strings 1 through 6 to get tone you're happy with on string 7 and below. With the other sets I have played, that trade-off was greater than I was willing to accept. The Sentient/Pegasus, for example, required me to give up so much of what I wanted from the first six strings to get something I could tolerate on the 7th. The trade-off is far less when using the Scarlet/Scourge. So much so that I have found that I have to get all the way into really mid-spiked, bass-cut, low-gain djent territory before noticing that trade-off is starting to annoy me. The six string Scarlet/Scourge set is also very good. Obviously with a six string you're not going to have to worry about the trade-offs discussed above unless you're going quite a bit below Drop C. I can't comment on how these pickups handle such tunings on a six-string, as I've not tried them out. But ultimately, I'm happy with both versions of the Scarlet/Scourge sets.
Continued...
Summary: The strangest experience I've ever had with guitars in my twenty years of playing. I have never seen guitars with such a huge gap between how they came out of the box (very bad; awful quality control) and how they ended up once all of their issues got ironed out (incredible; playing and sounding better than many guitars that are 2x their price). I got mine on a 20% off during the 2025 end of year sale (1179 original down to 943 sale price for the six string; 1249 original down to 999 sale price for the SVN) so keep in mind my review and valuation of them is based on those price points and for those prices I highly recommend them. But even at those prices, I still had to put time and money into fixing both guitars to get them where they are now. And I absolutely love them NOW. However, given recent price increases to 1349 USD for the six string and 1419 USD for the seven string (170 USD increase for both models--roughly 13 to 14% over last year) I have a hard time recommending them. The subpar quality control combined with the lack of locking tuners and what feels like cheaper bridge material are deal breakers at this price point. If you really want one (or two, in my case) wait until they're on sale again and be willing to spend money on a tech or your own effort and skill to remedy what appear to be common issues. Or just hit the used market.
A Note on Value: If you're open to other styles and manufacturers, look to high-end Korean made stuff (LTD 1000/Deluxe, for example) or save a little more and get something made in Japan. Ibanez Prestige RG652 at 1700 USD, Ibanez Genesis RG550 at 1200 USD, or an ESP E-II M-I at 2100 USD (before dealer discounts of 10-15%) are a much better value with much better quality control that these could ever dream of being at 1349 USD. There's a little bit of an exception here for the SVN because there are less seven strings out there to choose from and this might still be the best one in the price range assuming you get a good one. PRS doesn't allow dealers to discount at their own discretion so you're relying on PRS to greenlight a sale during an end-of-year blowout. Phillip McKnight has talked about this quite a bit and if I'm paraphrasing him correctly, he basically believes that these sales will become fewer and far between as PRS gets better at forecasting sales with their SE line post-COVID. Thus far they have overproduced, but he doesn't expect them to continue to do so to this extent, reducing the need for and likelihood of end of year sales.
DETAILED REVIEW BEGINS HERE
Build Quality: carpentry is excellent. The guitars are sturdy and fell well-built. From what I have been able to gather the body's are three piece mahogany and the necks are three piece maple. I have no issue with multi-piece parts as long as I'm not being charged one-piece prices. And for necks I prefer multi-piece as I would choose the stability that construction offers over the alternative. The maple neck feels strong and the mahogany body is the perfect thickness, in my view. The guitars are around 8lbs give or take a few ounces and they balance nicely. I haven't noticed any issues with neck dive. It's also important to note that these guitars resonate incredibly well and sound very good acoustically. I knew I was probably gonna keep these the second I unboxed them and played a big open chord unplugged and it rang out beautifully and I could feel the strong vibrations sustain throughout the neck and body. In spite of the poor QC elsewhere, PRS/P.T. Cort have gotten the carpentry and neck/body assembly down pat. The core construction of these guitars is excellent.
Specs: overall pretty good. The pickups are definitely the best spec on the list. The nut is supposedly the same nut used on the Core series. It's a brass composite self-lubricating nut. I am happy with it. It resonates nicely and I see no reason to change it. I will say it was cut maybe a little too low on the six string but not quite low enough for me to move to shim or replace immediately. I've been able to get it setup and playing nicely in spite of this so I guess you could say it's cut as low as it possibly could be cut before causing issues that can't be ignored. The ebony board is fine. Nothing to write home about. I have other guitars with higher grades of ebony on them. But I don't see this a negative. It looks and feels good. And at this price point I don't expect pitch black ebony that almost shines. The tuners are standard PRS SE tuners; not locking. They're fine. I have no issues with them and they're good enough to leave alone until I feel like burning some cash on locking replacements that aren't really necessary. The bridges on these wear more quickly than I would expect. When removing to saddles to address burs causing buzzing issues (more on that later) I noticed that the metal was already worn along where the string rests in the saddles and where the action adjustment screws rest on the metal plate of the bridge itself. This isn't a deal breaker but worth noting. I think it's probably a combination of relatively soft-ish metal of the bridge plate and saddles, as well as the quality of the screws being used (sharp ends that dig into the metal when pressure is applied). The bridge itself is comfy, though. There are options for upgrades, but I feel the same way about the bridge that I do about the tuners. They're fine. Might upgrade later for the fun of it. The medium jumbo nickel silver frets are a good choice in terms of playability and feel, but in my experience they are poorly installed, poorly leveled, and poorly polished.
Electronics: The pickups sound great (more on that below). They obviously increase the price point of this guitar, but I'm ok with that given how good they are. Perfect for the style of music I like (metal and proggy stuff). The electronics cavity on these was fine as far as I could tell. I have had no issues with pickup switching (although the selector switch feels cheap) or use of volume, tone, coil-splitting push/pull. But at the same time it is worth nothing that the quality of the electronics is exactly what you would expect on a mid-range import guitar. You could swap them out for the Core-style electronics and be much better off not having to deal with push/pull toggle on the coil-splitting (which is a clearly inferior system in my opinion). The output jack on the SVN has been loose and required frequent tightening, but recently has been a bit more sturdy. I have had no issue with the output jack on the six string. At some point I will probably look into upgrading the electronics in these guitars, but they're in the same category as the tuners and bridge: good enough for now but on the future upgrade list.
Sound: The Duncan Scarlet/Scourge pickups are great. They're mid-output. They handle hi-gain and cleans very nicely. Bridge humbucker absolutely screams but remains clear when you crank up the gain. The coil-slitting middle position sounds really nice clean and with a little overdrive. I highly recommend it. The biggest thing for me when it comes to pickups is how clear and articulate larger chords sound, especially with gain. These pickups excel in this area. These pickups also do a good job of handling detuned 7-string tones. These guitars come setup in Drop G# on the SVN and Drop C on the six string. These pickups are tight and articulate on both models. If you've played other seven strings with inferior pickups you probably know how muddy and sloppy the seventh string can get. I have owned another seven string and have played it with both an EMG 707 set and a Duncan Sentient/Pegasus set. The Scarlet/Scourge set is much better than both of those in my view. The 707s were ok, but the Sentient/Pegasus set was the worst of the bunch (ironically, the six string Sentient/Pegasus set is one of my favorite pickup sets of all time). I know I'm rambling a bit here but I want to be very clear about why I like the Scarlet/Scourge set so much. I have found that there are trade-offs in getting a good tone on extended range guitars. You have to sacrifice tone on strings 1 through 6 to get tone you're happy with on string 7 and below. With the other sets I have played, that trade-off was greater than I was willing to accept. The Sentient/Pegasus, for example, required me to give up so much of what I wanted from the first six strings to get something I could tolerate on the 7th. The trade-off is far less when using the Scarlet/Scourge. So much so that I have found that I have to get all the way into really mid-spiked, bass-cut, low-gain djent territory before noticing that trade-off is starting to annoy me. The six string Scarlet/Scourge set is also very good. Obviously with a six string you're not going to have to worry about the trade-offs discussed above unless you're going quite a bit below Drop C. I can't comment on how these pickups handle such tunings on a six-string, as I've not tried them out. But ultimately, I'm happy with both versions of the Scarlet/Scourge sets.
Continued...
