In 2013, Paul Reed Smith introduced the S2 line, a high quality, medium price point series designed to bridge the gap between their high end models and their entry level SE range. Since then, the S2 series has gone from strength to strength, introducing a wide range of guitars perfect for gigging professionals that want something of a high quality but not so fancy that it can’t be taken out on the road.
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The PRS S2 Special Semi Hollow is one such guitar and is a classic PRS in every way. From its double cutaway, semi hollow body shape, triple pickup design and quilted maple top to its iconic bird fret inlays, this model is quintessential Paul Reed Smith. Featuring a stunning transparent Lake Blue colour that reveals the texture of the Maple beneath, this guitar is stunning, and one would assume far more expensive than it is.
The Special SH’s body is constructed with a mahogany back and an asymmetrical Maple top carve. It has a single F-Hole, maintaining a versatile middle ground between solid body and hollow body design. The neck is also mahogany and sports a nicely balanced and familiar feeling ‘Pattern Regular’ shape with a 25” scale length, sitting right in the middle of the two most common scale lengths of 2.5” (F style guitars) and 24.75” (G style guitars). The result is an incredibly balanced guitar that excels at versatility both in sound and feel.
The Special SH carries a Rosewood fretboard with 22 frets and has a fretboard radius of 10”. Once again PRS choose the middle road with their specs, favouring versatility over ‘picking a side’ as it were. 10” is a nicely balanced radius that is equally well suited for lead and rhythm work, ensuring that whether you’re playing cowboy chords or pulling Gilmour bends, you’ll feel right at home. Combining modern technology with vintage elegance, the Special SH’s headstock carries PRS Phase III locking tuners with wing buttons, providing super lightweight tuners that promote tone transfer for a louder, more resonant instrument.
The Special SH is specially designed to be not only a robust, roadworthy instrument but to offer a versatile tonal platform that exhibits warmth, clarity and resonance. Featuring a pair of 58/15 LT humbuckers in the neck and bridge positions and a PRS Narrowfield in the middle, this guitar delivers a myriad of tones from articulate single-coil sheen to thick, growling humbucking warmth.
PRS 58/15 LT “Low Turn” pickups are vintage-inspired humbuckers with exceptional clarity. Designed to capture the warmth of late ‘50s PAF humbuckers but with an extra kick of treble, these pickups are very open-sounding with a healthy amount of midrange and a vintage timbre. The PRS Narrowfield on the other hand, takes the bright, spanky tone of a single coil and combines that with the full, no-hum sound of a humbucking pickup. The Narrowfield contains the same general components of a regular humbucker but in a smaller footprint, the narrower design capturing the vibration of a more focused section of the guitar’s strings, yielding a focused tone that is reminiscent of a powerful, full-sounding single coil.
So with two full size, beefy sounding pickups in the neck and bridge and a brighter, thinner pickup in the middle, the Special SH can tap into all sorts of different sounds thanks to a very nifty circuit design. With a total of 12 different combinations, the SH features both a 5-Way pickup selector switch and two Mini-Toggle Coil Tap Switches. The result is a spectrum of options from the darkest, beefiest humbucker tones to the thinnest, brightest single coil tones and everything in between. Overall, this guitar sounds sweet, even, warm and open with tonnes of sustain and a pleasant airiness thanks to its semi-hollow construction. The pickups are fairly low output, so they remain nice and dynamic with a lively open tone that perfectly encapsulates the PRS sound.
Other features of this guitar include a PRS Patented tremolo for all your dive bombing needs, gleaming Nickel hardware, a high-gloss nitro finish that really helps the Lake Blue colour come alive, a set-neck construction for maximum sustain and resonance and of course Paul Reed Smith’s classic ‘Old School’ bird design fret inlays. From top to bottom, this guitar is every bit as pretty as you’d expect a top-of-the-line PRS to be, but with a simpler, more robust design and a much more accessible price tag.
With a smooth, effortless playing experience thanks to its super comfortable neck, the S2 Special Semi Hollow maintains tuning stability and delivers expressive performance across a range of musical styles with ease. Its exceptional sonic versatility and lovely semi hollow resonance result in a dynamic instrument that allows players to stretch out and perform to the best of their ability whilst maintaining a refined, sophisticated tone.
Overall, this guitar would make an excellent addition to anybody’s collection, from beginners to seasoned string wizards. Bridging the gap between cheap, entry-level models and super high-end luxury models is a difficult balance to strike for PRS, but they’ve nailed it here. Ultimately, this is a working musician’s guitar, with a high fidelity sound versatile enough for a studio session and a tough enough build for the road. This is one for the wedding bands, the session players, the guitar teachers and the showbiz veterans of the world. People who need something of a professional quality that they are going to use, not just hang on a wall.
There is nothing ironic or punk rock about a Paul Reed Smith. They certainly aren’t going to be winning the coolest guitar of the year award any time soon, but they are exceptional craftsmen, and they have their fan base, and that base is going to absolutely love this model. So if you dwell on the jazzier, more refined side of the guitar player spectrum and you’re looking for an accessible workhorse that is gorgeous to boot, the Paul Reed Smith S2 Special Semi Hollow could be the guitar for you.
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