New Toy Day!

[tugboat]

Got a new toy today! It shipped FAST too. Shipped out yesterday and arrived today. A lightly used PRS Korina SE! I can't even see any playing wear on it. Haven't had much time to give it a good test run yet but promising so far. The neck and fretwork are perfect. It really is flawlessly built. It's heavier than my Soapy SE but not Les Paul heavy. Probably by a pound or so (my soapy is really light though).

Haven't given it a good A/B yet to my Soapy, at least with apples to apples. The Korina has brand spanking new 9's on it and my Soapy has old crusty year and half old 10's on it (been lazy the past few months since my return from a hiatus and just haven't replaced the strings yet). Gonna change the strings on both to 10's and have at it tomorrow after work! Can't wait!

Initial impressions are that, compared to the Soapy, the Korina is (here we go with the vague adjectives) "rounder" on the wound strings, generally thicker sounding, and has more of a chirp to the mids. It'll be interesting to compare when both have fresh strings. The strings on the Soapy are pretty dead; I bet fresh strings will add some twang to the Soapy; there's not much twang to the Korina.

Obligatory pics below.

Korina SE:


The whole family, including the Tele that's still in the oven:

[Kap'n]

Nice score! I like my SE Korina a lot. Light as a feather.

[Don]

Nice guitar!

[tugboat]

Thanks! Mine is heavier than my soapy but it's not what you'd call heavy either. Can't wait to string up some new 10's on it tomorrow! It inspired me to try my hand at some Freddy King licks tonight.

[Rickenjangle]

If you think that's heavy...my PRS SE 245 (PRS' answer to a Les Paul) is thicker yet and even heavier.

I love it...

[Don]

My Soapy was extremely light for a solid bodied guitar.

[tugboat]

Don, mine is too. Super light.

I got a chance to string 'em both up with 10's and do a quick comparison played clean before heading out again (don't have any pedals yet so no overdrive through a tube amp - thinking about a Red Llama clone though). Need to play them more to decide which I like better. The Korina has more low end and sounds thicker on the wound strings. Can't hardly tell a difference on the high strings. I can squeeze a bigger variety of sounds out of the Soapy though. When you play closer to the bridge you can get some twangier sounds out of it that you can't do with the Korina. Both are nice and sweet and full sounding. The Korina gets pretty chirpy in the mids but so can the Soapy if you play it right. Both really good guitars.

The differences are surprisingly subtle though. If you were casually listening you might not even notice a difference if I changed guitars. We'll see what happens when I stick a pedal in front of them though. It'll be hard to decide which to sell. There's still a lot of test driving to do.

[Gravity Jim]

Dude, you have to keep the Korina... you've got pickups coming for it!

And my Soapy, too, was crazy light.... lighter than my SE Singlecut, which a feather compared to Les Paul. Maybe not even compared to an SG (although it's much better balanced than most SGs). I sold it to a kid who was playing in some kinda punky band... he covered it in stickers and just whanged the crap out of it.

[tugboat]

I was in a hurry to get out the door and rushed my thoughts. the debate will be whether or not the soapy will continue to have a place. The Korina sounds great and should totally fit in with my end vision for my gear. It's whether or not the soapbar sounds different enough to keep.

The Korina sounds better when you roll down the tone knob too.

[refin]

Very nice guitar,congrats!

[tugboat]

Thanks! It's a fun guitar! Sounds great and the workmanship is top notch. I'm really impressed with the quality of these PRS SE guitars. Adjusted the pole pieces and that really fattened things up on the Korina. It's really sounding like a guitar with humbuckers now.

Really, it sounds pretty good bone stock. I'm interested to hear what kind of difference the Zhangbuckers make.

[Gravity Jim]

Yep, I really like my mahogany/maple Singlecut a lot. It's well made, plays great, the wrap bridge intonates just fine and gives it that "keerr-rang" my Soapy had but with the fatter, mellower sound of the humbuckers, and it's light and fun. I haven't even tried adjusting the pickups yet... good suggestion!

[tugboat]

Yep, I really like my mahogany/maple Singlecut a lot. It's well made, plays great, the wrap bridge intonates just fine and gives it that "keerr-rang" my Soapy had but with the fatter, mellower sound of the humbuckers, and it's light and fun. I haven't even tried adjusting the pickups yet... good suggestion!

I'd try it Jim. It's a free mod and you might find that it makes a noticeable difference!

There were a couple pole pieces that I really had to crank up but once I got done adjusting it it made a noticeable difference. When bouncing back and forth between my soapy and my korina there is a bigger difference now. The soapy is brighter, has less bottom end, and has more of the single coil snap. They're both in the same ballpark, but you can tell a difference now.

[tugboat]

The more I play the two guitars, the Korina and the Soapy, the more I realize they're different guitars. They can cover some of the same territory but they have their own voices. The Soapy is nice and fat but they Korina is just that much fatter and has a much bigger, deeper low end. For instance, I was just playing Under the Bridge and with the Soapy it sounds perfect. The Korina is too much for that song.