with no resistance from sticky paint on the back of the neck. Of course, the NF 53 has traditional PRS bird inlays in the maple fretboard, and they look tasteful.
The tuners are PRS closed back vintage styled with wing buttons that grip easily. The strings are top-mount not through body like most T-style instruments and the ball end of the strings is secured to the hardtail PRS steel bridge with brass barrels secured by four bolts. The electronics configuration gives a nod to the past with volume and tone controls only and a 3-blade pickup selector. The biggest variation, besides the extended pickguard, are the Narrowfield DD( deep dish) pickups, one bass and one treble.
The Swamp body is hefty, but PRS has given it curves and rounded edges in all the right places so that the SE NF 53 conforms to your body perfectly. The sculpted cutaway looks great and gives you just a bit more access up the neck when you need it. Plugged in testing out the PRS SE NF 53 with clean and distorted effects, the guitar was articulate and clean when you want it to be and it could bite when you up the treble pickup. The nice thing is that the NF 53 doesn’ t have unwanted ambient artifacts that other pickups imbue, especially at louder volumes. I would compare the Narrowfield DD pickups to a combination of a P90 and Minihumbucker pickup rolled into one. both pickups. The rhythm parts were warm with the tone pot rolled back too. If you have been waiting for a T-style guitar to play in the Praise team that sounds as great as it looks, the PRS SE NF 53, is it. And PRS includes a gig bag to protect your investment. If PS didn’ t put SE on the headstock and the import information on the back of the headstock it would be hard to tell this wasn’ t American made. Great value in a T-style instrument for under a thousand dollars – buy it.
$ 979.00 www. PRSGuitars. com
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The matching of a maple neck and swamp ash body is perfect, and the neck doesn’ t feel as robust as it is thanks to the Satin finish. The body is finished with a gloss poly finish for durability. PRS has done it again with their SE line. I was wowed by the original PRS NF 53 when it launched, but for only $ 979 I would heartily recommend the SE version.
Playability and sound quality are superb, and I couldn’ t find a bad sound when mixing between
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