Speaking of which, I have to go now I want to spend a little more time playing these jewels before I button them up and send them back. The binding covers the fret tangs nicely, the body shaping is smooth and consistent, and the neck heel is very comfortable. Neck width at 22nd fret2.5" His shop was in Annapolis, Maryland, but he eventually gained the reputation that would draw all the especially challenging work to him from all over the Washington, DC area. Its simply beautiful. All things considered features, price, quality both of these instruments represent deals that are damn hard to beat. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Im about as likely to play above the 20th fret as I am to transcribe Portrait of Tracy, but the expansive terrain had me venturing into the more upscale neighborhood of, say, the 12th through 17th positions, and finding a higher groove perch from which to swoop back down to the lower playing positions. The neck attachment on this bass is a bit different for a set-style attachment. The Grainger is a whole new thing. Low Group Inc. dba Guitar Girl Magazine 2020. Great playability. The pickups are proprietary GG4 treble and bass pickups, utilizing a bar design (as opposed to pole pieces), and I have to say, they have a lot of output, and look impressive. They grab a strap hard, arent impossible to get through a brand new strap. Help add a description of PRS SE Kestrel Bass, Help recommend alternative or similar gear to PRS SE Kestrel Bass, Ernie Ball Music Man Stingray Bass Guitar. Tested through a Friedman Dirty Shirley Mini and 2x12, a tweed Deluxe-style 1x12 combo, and a Neural DSP Quad Cortex into the studio monitors, the Player Plus Meteora HH reveals a fairly traditional and even vintage-leaning sonic range that contrasts with its moon-shot looks. NeckFive-piece maple and walnut laminate w/bird inlays I thoroughly enjoyed playing this bass, and it just looks good. PRS guitars are borderline boutique if not they are def boutique. Where I feel like Im missing something, however, is in passive mode, you dont have a tone control you can use. The sonic divide between the two pickups isnt major, but the front pickup has more beef, and the back has toastier bun. And while long-gone favorites like Manny's Music (New York) and Black Market Music (San Francisco) came up again and again, there were even more current shops topping readers' favorites list. Add these to your aviary and youll have a lot to crow about. Pros: Order from someone with a decent return policy like Sweetwater and you should be fine. Tone may not appeal to fans of old-school sound. Instead of the matching block inlays youd expect on a 70s-style J-Bass, the fingerboard hosts nine inlays of birds in different stages of flight. HardwareHipshot Transtone Bridge, Hipshot HB6 Shiny Nickel " Y-Key tuners Paul is particular about detail and process. Both volume knobs are push/pull. Cons: Theres kind of a platform which extends under the heel of the neck, much like a bolt-on neck might have, except there are no bolts, of course. The rosewood fingerboard is neatly trimmed with expertly applied white binding and black position dots. If you're wondering where your favorite is, it may be coming next time, or we might not be aware of it, so feel free to leave your faves in the comments section. Thank you for signing up to The Pick. HardwareHipshot Transtone Bridge, Hipshot HB6 Shiny Nickel " Y-Key tuners The latest is the refined, carved-top Gary Grainger Bass, whose ambitious design profile is evoked in the Kestrel and Kingfisher. Both cavities have tidy wiring and are well shielded with conductive paint and foil on the cavity covers, but both are quite compact, so dont plan on any modifications that require real estate. This Article Was Originally Published On: December 15, 2015 #Issue 17. The Kingfisher played beautifully, with a sonic and tactile evenness across the strings and throughout the neck. The Kestrel looks darn sexy. Thank you for your support! A pair of solid solidbodies - one sexy J-style groove machine and a classic spank plank. He has wood buyers whose full-time job is to find wood for his guitars that meets his strict selection criteria. The see details, Heleven use and are endorser for PRS GUITARS see details. While the Kestrel takes on a more classic approach, the Kingfisher we just checked out comes closest to capturing the characteristics of Paul Reed Smiths boutique offerings. With a cranked amp, lead channel, or overdrive (in this case a Tsakalis Six and Wampler Tumnus Deluxe), the Meteora produces sizzling power-chord and rhythm sounds and singing lead tones with ease, with rich, articulate cleans at the ready when I backed the guitar volume down. The entire preamp has a pre-emphasis of 2.5dB of bass boost and 4.5dB of treble boost. Flight of the KingfisherIts always a positive sign when you unbox an import instrument and find it protected in a high-quality gigbag. PRS makes fantastic guitars but the last couple times he tried to make basses nobody was impressed. David Lee Roth's new single is a paean to Van Halen, Bass Player meets Metallica: Robert Trujillo salutes our cover star Cliff Burton, Dave Young: When you were forced to transcribe stuff from records, that taught you something. Despite some slight fret buzzing, the tone impressed the engineer. In fact, when I left the studio, he asked me to bring the bass back and play it on my next session. The Grainger is top-of-the-line PRS, meaning all the little things people ogle PRS guitars for, theyll do the same for on this model. When it comes to design and construction theory, he says his body shape is essentially a combination of the Gibson Les Paul, Jr. and Fender Stratocaster, and that he was essentially inspired by anything that went through his repair shop that sounded good. He even went to violin makers for input. To use both pickups in passive mode, you have to pull both knobs. Both Kestrel and Kingfisher offer a variety of colorful tone plumage for rockin in the treetops or diving into the deep. We compiled the 20 most mentioned stores and quickly realized there were too many great photos we'd have to cut in order to get them all in one gallery. A recreation of George Harrison's '61 Sonic Blue Strat, hand-painted in psychedelic Day-Glo colors and affectionately named Rocky.. NutBlack plastic It borrows from a traditional Fender Jazz Bass in that the controls are strictly passive. You have entered an incorrect email address! The neck profile is pretty svelte and is a proprietary GG4 shape. Given the quality of venues someone who could afford this bass might play, noise may not be an issue. At 9.5 pounds, his bass felt a little on the heavy side for a 4-string with a slightly more compact body shape than a J-bass, but not bad. The volume knob also functions as a push-button switch to split the coils of both pickups. What exactly does "boutique" mean in this context? Guitar World is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Designed by Elegant Themes | Powered by WordPress, Bergantino Audio Systems is Proud to Welcome Dave Hope to Our Family of Artists. Since then, it has headed in both upscale and affordable directions within the Fender lineupreaching the heights of master-built Custom Shop quality in the hands of Ron Thorn, and now in this much more egalitarian guise as the Player Plus Meteora HH. PRS employs a pair of proprietary humbucking pickups for the bridge and neck positions, and the passive control system consists of a volume/volume/tone configuration. There was very little to no stickiness to impede left-hand shifting. Be the first to add a review of PRS SE Kestrel Bass. This is also a 34 scale bass, though it has 24 nickel frets. Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, The Hipshot Transtone bridge on both instruments allows for throughbody or through-bridge stringing. It developed your ear and your sense of songwriting, Bassbaba Sumon on overcoming relentless setbacks, studying Stu Hamm and bringing Bengali scales to rock bass, Placebos Stefan Olsdal: The moments we shared with Bowie, the titbits of advice theyve all stuck with us. Fingerboard radius7.5" Frets 22 jumbo frets Street$800 He said it made his job easier since he only had to add a touch of compression and very little EQ. ?. Through our test Kingfishers luscious translucent mahogany Tortoise Shell stain, I could clearly see all five neck laminates sandwiched between the wide grain of the swamp-ash body wings. So here's the first installment in no particular order. The real versatility comes in varying your plucking position and technique. The resulting Grainger basses, introduced at the 2013 Winter NAMM Show, are full-on, top-of-the line PRS. I initially found the spacing between the front pickup and the end of the fingerboard to be a little snug for slap and pop, but I got used to it, and I loved the fingerstyle feel and sound at different playing positions. Orangewood Guitars Oliver Acoustic Giveaway! Its slim neck profile and 22-fret range felt like familiar J-Bass territory, and the trad-style binding and bird inlays looked sharp. This bass is PRS take on a budget J-bass. The two things I like best about this bass are its overall look and feel as well as the effortless well-rounded tone it gives right out of the box for the money. PickupsTwo 4B S proprietary single-coils The top has whats known as a scraped binding around the edge. He designs and makes his own pickups so as not to be restricted from his desired level of experimentation and continuing to push the tone bubble forward. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. About the only other thing Id like to see is to add shielding to the control cavity. Body profile and humbuckers aside, the Meteora is very much a Fender, with a bolt-on neck, 25.5" scale length, and that iconic headstock profile with spaghetti logo. The George Harrison Rocky Stratocaster features an alder body hand-painted with a replica of Harrisons famous psychedelic brushstrokes. The midrange is a fixed parametric boost/cut with a wide Q centered at @ 450Hz. It has dual volume controls, one for each pickup, and a single passive tone control. Slight finish flaws on test model. Whether or not the fatter front pickup is engaged or soloed, the sound is always clear and cutting, never muddy or inarticulate, even with the tone knob rolled back. Discussion in 'Basses [BG]' started by rallen, May 23, 2016. Yes, there is a lot of competition at the Kingfishers price point, but the neck-through design and signature features really make it stand out from the crowd. Weight9.55 lbs, PRS Guitars SE Kingfisher The initial growth of the popularity of his guitars was probably best driven by Carlos Santana, though it was fortified by Paul being industrious about taking a guitar to show all the big bands that came to town at the time (not to mention the work put in to make a truly great and obviously worthy guitar). Split-coil sounds are a little on the thin side. Where it differs from the traditional is that it supports through-body stringing, has a high-mass TransTone bridge from Hipshot, and is a neck-through design. But I have to say, for a non-locking design, these buttons work really well. I have a PRS guitar which is insanely great and I'm more confident in the overall consistency of PRS build quality vs a Fender per se but it's still gonna stress me out. Low: Round and full Paul Reed Smith, like some other luthiers and builders, started out doing repair. You will receive a verification email shortly. Both are named for birds known for swooping down on their prey. But for the average clubber, we need the extra protection. Yeah, the Kestrels a pretty basic instrument, but its built extremely well, is based on probably the most popular electric bass model ever made, represents its tone well, and is pretty painless on the pocketbook. It has its own sound, and its a very good thing. Players who have been curious about PRS basses can now get a taste of their sound and style without having to spend a ton of coin. Seeking similar praise from the more budget-friendly crowd, PRS augmented their 2014 SE line by introducing the Kestrel and Kingfisher basses. BodySwamp ash Please refresh the page and try again. Epiphone Jack Casady Signature Model - Metallic G Fender American Professional Precision Bass. Each/either one engages passive mode, but if you only pull one, it not only switches the whole bass to passive, but it solos that pickup (the other non-pulled volume knob does nothing). Players in love with unconventional looks who enjoy a twist on traditional PAF-style sounds will find a lot to like in the Player Plus Meteora HH. The company has recently diversified their bass lines to suit the needs and wallets of a wider variety of players. The pickups are wired through a 3-way toggle switch on the upper horn, with a master volume and dedicated tone controls for each pickup below. Are Sales of Amps and Cabs Slowing Down? The offset, more-angular profile was created by Fender designer Josh Hurst and first saw light of day as part of the Parallel Universe Collection in 2018. The tortoiseshell finish of our tester gives the instrument a walnut-like disguise with a rich look that delivers understated elegance. The SE Kestrel is a J-style instrument with proprietary PRS single-coil pickups and other Jazz Bass aesthetic touches, while the SE Kingfisher has a 24-fret neck and passive MM-style humbuckers with massive polepieces. When I came across the PRS SE Kestrel, I fell in love the first time I played it. The bridge pickup is one of the more full-sounding bridge pickups Ive played, but you add just a bit of bass to it and it gets downright big. I'm really digging this bass based off of a couple reviews and I'm planning on getting a new guitar/bass soon. Be sure to place it on the stand carefully! Its got its own sound, but its an extremely good one! This officially happened in 1985 with the opening of a 5,500-square foot factory located in Annapolis.