PRS Hollowbody II/What's it for?

[PWatrous]

Anybody play/played a spruce top PRS Hollowbody? What's the guitar for? What
does it sound like?
thanks,
p

[Mark Kleinhaut]

I've got the HB-I with maple top. I tried the spruce HB-II with spruce and
didn't think there was much of a big difference between them as this insturment
is fundamentally electric, not acoustic. Great guitar for clean jazz...my
expensive luthier carved top guitar is collecting dust. The sound quality
is in the ES335 family, if that helps.

--------------------Mark Kleinhaut
markkl...@hotmail.com

Info and soundclips about:
"Chasing Tales":
http://www.invisiblemusicrecords.com/Resources/Chasing%20Tales.html

"Amphora":
http://www.invisiblemusicrecords.com/Resources/Amphora.html

"Secrets of Three": http://www.invisiblemusicrecords.com/Resources/SO3.html

[Jonathan Giblin]

I concur with Mark. I've got the one with the spruce top and it too is
just a great, versataile guitar. If I had it to do over again, though,
I'd get the one with the peizo pickup in the bridge.

These guitars are suitable for just about anything, including clean
jazz. They sustain for days and, unlike my 17" archtop, have no
feedback problem at seemingly any volume. In fact, they have this
great, fully controllable feedback thing that you can get going at
high volume, ala Santana.

I love my archtop, but it really isn't usable in a rhythm section
environment because of the feedback. Moreover, if I need to play
anything besides clean jazz the archtop really doesn't make it. The
PRS does it all pretty well.

Jack Zucker always complained that these guitars are neck-heavy, which
is true. That was never a deal-breaker for me, but it was for Jack and
could be for others. It's an issue to be aware of. But if you can live
with that there isn't much to dislike about these guitars. BTW, has
anyone out there found a practical solution to the neck-heavy issue
with these guitars?

"Mark Kleinhaut" <markkl...@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<3dde...@spamkiller.newsgroups.com>...

[Mark Kleinhaut]

cg...@yahoo.com (Jonathan Giblin) wrote:
>I concur with Mark. I've got the one with the spruce top and it too is
>just a great, versataile guitar. If I had it to do over again, though,
>I'd get the one with the peizo pickup in the bridge.
>
>These guitars are suitable for just about anything, including clean
>jazz. They sustain for days and, unlike my 17" archtop, have no
>feedback problem at seemingly any volume. In fact, they have this
>great, fully controllable feedback thing that you can get going at
>high volume, ala Santana.
>
>I love my archtop, but it really isn't usable in a rhythm section
>environment because of the feedback. Moreover, if I need to play
>anything besides clean jazz the archtop really doesn't make it. The
>PRS does it all pretty well.
>
>Jack Zucker always complained that these guitars are neck-heavy, which
>is true. That was never a deal-breaker for me, but it was for Jack and
>could be for others. It's an issue to be aware of. But if you can live
>with that there isn't much to dislike about these guitars. BTW, has
>anyone out there found a practical solution to the neck-heavy issue
>with these guitars?
>
>

John, I think Jack's "neck heavy" quibble was with the archtop model, not
the HB. He had a different balance issue with the HB, however, in that it
tipped outward while holding it. I don't have any problem with balance whatsoever,
so I don't think there is any problem that needs solving. I too, for a while,
wished I had gotten the piezo option, but once I started using the S12-Er
in my rig, I found I could get all the highs I'd ever want. The only downside
to these guitars that I can see is their high price tag.