PRS to celebrate 35th Anniversary with six new SE models for 2020

To celebrate its 35th anniversary next year, PRS Guitars has unveiled six new models, with a variety of lush finishes revising the high-end guitar brand's more afforable SE line of electric guitars.

The 2020 SE models comprise the SE Custom 24 Burled Ash, SE Custom 24 Poplar Burl, SE Hollowbody Standard, SE Hollowbody II, SE Mira, and SE Starla Stoptail. And they are pretty sweet, putting that PRS luxury vibe in the hands of the regular salaried player.

Let's take a look at them . . .

SE Custom 24 Poplar Burl 2020

Here, the flagship PRS SE electric is revised with an eye-popping piece of poplar burl veneer that's been applied to a bound bevelled maple top, and a mahogany back.

The finish on the poplar burl is called Whale Blue and it's quite something.

Elsewhere, you've got a wide-thin maple set neck, a bound rosewood fingerboard with old-school bird inlays and 24 frets. There are a pair of 85/15 “S” humbuckers in the neck and bridge positions, with volume and push-pull tone controls and coil-tap, and a three-way blade selector switch. A PRS moulded tremolo bridge, PRS-designed tuners and nickel hardware rounds out the spec.

SE Custom 24 Burled Ash 2020

The SE Custom 24 Burled Ash continues in a similar vein to its poplar-veneered sibling, sharing the build, electronics, and hardware, with burled ash veneer in Vintage Sunburst replacing the poplar. 

The bound headstock on these Custom 24s is a thing of beauty.

SE Hollowbody II 2020

You have a choice of finishes with the SE Hollowbody II, with this flame maple-veneered electric available in Charcoal Burst [pictured] and Tri-Color Sunburst.

The Hollowbody II shares the Custom 24's wide-flat neck profile, the bird inlay, pickups and tuners, the 25-inch scale, but has 22 frets, an ebony fretboard, and a PRS adjustable stoptail bridge, and lacks the coil-tap. Though we'd expect this guitar to be bright enough without needing a singlecoil option.

It has a bound bevelled maple top and back, with a flame maple veneer on both, and mahogany sides.

SE Hollowbody Standard 2020

The specs for the SE Hollowbody Standard are largely the same as the Hollowbody II, except here we've got an all-mahogany construction. 

There are two available finishes, McCarty Tobacco Sunburst and Fire Red Burst.

SE Mira 2020

PRS's workhorse solid-body electric comes in two finishes for this run, the pictured Frost Blue Metallic with Mint pickguard and Black with a tortoiseshell pickguard.

This mahogany double cut has a wide-thin neck, 25-inch scale, 22 frets on an unbound rosewood fingerboard with bird inlay. The Mira shares the SE Custom 24's electronics set-up – and the coil-tap will work nicely on this – and the Hollowbody's hardware.

SE Starla Stoptail 2020

Think of the SE Starla Stoptail is a singlecut version of the Mira but with a few key differences – the Starla boasting a Grover Two-Piece bridge and a pair of PRS-Designed DS-02 humbuckers positioned and voiced specifically for the neck and bridge positions.

These are controlled by the three-way blade selector switch, volume and tone with push-pull coil-tap, and PRS promises a "bright high-end bark" to complement the warmth from the solid mahogany body.

• See PRS Guitars for more details.