PRS Paul Reed Smith SE A60E Angelus Acoustic Electric Guitar with Case, Natural

Nice looking and sound good guitar UNPLUG, but has serious problem with the PICKUP. sometimes it sound good and loud enough, and sometimes very weak sound, very unstable pick up sound.

I had a Martin X series, but was looking to upgrade. I was looking at a PRS Angelus, but tried out other Martins, Taylors, Takamine, Breedlove, Yamaha, and a Seagull at the local GC. Ultimately, I did end up gong with the PRS Angelus A60E. The feel, tone, balance of the body (not to mention the balance in tone), sustain, etc. IMO were over and above the ones I looked at. Plus the beauty of this guitar is unmatched with the Ziricote back and sides, the abalone inlays and maple binding. The hybrid bracing on this guitar paired with the woods make the guitar sing and the sound explode out of the sound hole and the action is perfectly set similar to an electric guitar with no fret buzz at all. Super impressed so far!!!

I bought this through an Amazon warehouse stupidly good deal, supposedly superficial damage to everything (including a non-existent pickguard; always read carefully ;D). Came mint, case fresh, probably all the case candy, with three little bearclawing marks in the sitka that could be mistaken for damage and a whole lotta landscaping in the ziricote :D. Real inlaid abalone sparkles like diamonds and gleams like labradorite.Maybe the guitar was a tiny bit dried out (I'll have to oil the fingerboard when I change the still red phosphor strings), but otherwise perfect setup, relief, frets. Playable like it just came from a shop, seriously the best setup guitar I've ever played out of the box. Made in China but by Chinese luthiers. Birth date August '20, US inspection November '20, so as a used item it must’ve been returned almost immediately.PRS branded tuners work as well as my Grovers. Beautiful deep clear bass, balance across the strings. Excellent sound strumming, flatpicking, fingerstyle. Fingerstyle is my least skill, but I can tell you this is a fingerpicker's dream. This guitar will make -- has already made me better at that.So why am I giving this 4 stars? I got this as an upgrade to my Fender Redondo classic (itself an upgrade to my Malibu classic, which I reviewed on here; upgraded mostly for the larger body/sound/cutaway) -- not that the redondo needed to be upgraded, but I thought the PRS, for this price, must be better. And I don't feel like it's an upgrade, even at the stupidly good price I paid. I feel like I paid extra for the abalone, the ziricote, but not for a better guitar (maybe the returner felt the same way?).To me, the Fenders (also made in China by Chinese luthiers) have better specs across the board: all solid wood, onboard tuner, more control over the electronics. Subjective specs are better, in that the Fenders have wood rosette/binding/fingerboard markers/bridge pins, satin finished wider thicker neck, and a unique non-generic looking bridge (c’mon PRS, with a headstock like that, what’s with the bridge design? Huge missed opportunity for a bird shape). LOL, I even like the Fenders’ soft shell cases better than the PRS hard case.This is a good guitar, certainly amazing for beginners if they can afford it (what’s with that question, Amazon?), but I do wish I had just gotten another redondo classic. Or maybe a solid wood Guild, as they’re also cheaper than the PRS and made in the same Chinese factory as the Fender classics and offer similar specs.Maybe I’ll change my mind in a few months after the guitar opens up a bit more. I’ll update if that’s the case.

Sound is great, playability as well after after putting new strings on. But when I first connected to an amp the plug in device fell inside the body because it was not properly fixed to the body and I had the screw nut in my hand, bad.

I wanted to give it an A ... but PRS Quality failed. It is a beautiful guitar ... mine arrived with a flamed mahogany neck, ebony fretboard, spruce top and really nice two piece ziricote bookmatched back. The flamed maple and real abalone trim was a real nice touch. The A60E also has real abalone bird inlays. Seller had pointed out a paint flaw in the back of the headstock prior to sale but that was fine. Except that when the guitar arrived there were more paint flaws all over the neck and the top of the headstock that showed up under bright lights. Bright lights revaeled what looked like mold and water stains under the clearcoat. The neck scarf joint was quite obvious and not well matched as on my Yamaha AC3M which has an almost undetectable scarf joint. And there were two large finish cracks extending from both sides of the nut diagonally an inch through the neck. The cracks continued for a week. The guitar went out of tune for several weeks. The seller had me keep the guitar until a replacement came. That was well over two months ago and I keep getting bumped by customers that got the new "allocated" guitars. A replacement came but it had one major esthetic issue ... a 4 piece mismatched back rather than a nice matched 2 piece. Playability - somewhat high action with string buzz on the low E and A strings. I adjusted the truss rod to provide some relief and some of the buzzing went away. The buzzing was particularly noticeable when the guitar was plugged in. I tried the guitar through a vintage Alembic F2B preamp (Peter Cetera's from Chicago fame). The Fishman electronics sounded very "piezo poppy". As with most acoustics with solid vs. laminate wood the guitar would feedback but far more so than my Taylor 314CE and Yamaha AC3M. I am hoping that the replacement will not have any of these issues. These are made in China. My Korean built PRS SE collection has by far much higher quality standards.So the first A60E had issues with finish contaminations, crack in the neck by the nut (later resold) and case with vinyllifting off. and playability Seller's 55 point inspection then discovered a batch of A60Es that had neck set issues that were all sent back to PRS in March. After waiting two months for a replacement I returned the guitar for full refund to the seller. Late March a few more new A60Es arrived from PRS so I chanced another one that looked nice (specifically sn 7466). First I noted when unpacking after the 24 hour acclimation was that there was a large 2 inch rip in the case. Secondly upon playing the guitar I noticed excessive string buzz on the low E and A and D and a bit on the G string. I was ready to adjust the truss rod for more neck relief however upon inspection found that the action was already quite high and the neck already was relieved quite a bit. Seller's tech support walked me through checking the neck set. We confirmed it was off ... 1/8" low on the low E and 1/8" high on the high E. The case also did not fit the guitar well and was hard to close. The headstock did not rest well in the case. Guitar went back - now being sold as new by the seller. So much for 55 point inspections!

Fantastic instrument! Came earlier than expected. Wonderful, beautiful playing guitar.