SE HOLLOWBODY II PIEZO

TESTED BY ART THOMPSON

THE LATEST ADDITION to the SE Hollowbody II line features a piezo-equipped adjustable stoptail bridge that gives what is already a sweet electric guitar more tonal dimension by combining the magnetic and piezo signals. The concept isn’t new, of course, but PRS’s stealthy design has no additional switches or controls to give away the technology involved. In fact, all that outwardly differentiates this model from other SE Hollowbody II guitars is the Piezo inscription on the truss rod cover. A closer look reveals dual output jacks (mix/piezo and mag), a hatch for the nine-volt battery, and a small connector under the adjustable stoptail bridge that links the six piezo saddles to the electronics inside the body, but it’s all so well integrated on this guitar that nothing gets in the way. Operationally speaking, you can either plug into the mix/piezo output and adjust the blend of the humbuckers and piezo transducers using the two volume controls (the forward one adjusts the 58/15 pickups), or the outputs can be fed into separate electric and acoustic amps. Routing the piezo signal direct to the console is another option for recording or stage, and an advantage of using the separate outs is the humbuckers are isolated from the battery-powered electronics, which is a good fail-safe in the event of a battery issue.