I Never Thought Id Say This...But I Love It (PRS NF 53)

[Music] thank you [Music] so some of you probably know I am traditionally not a fan of PRS guitars but I feel like I need to explain myself as to why I don't think they're bad guitars I actually think they're great they're some of the best guitars out there I think PRS does an excellent job of building guitars at a major scale on a mass scale that are incredibly well made the fit and finish is amazing and they offer a lot for what they are my problem with PRS guitars though traditionally has been that I don't feel very inspired when I play them that's a completely subjective thing there's a lot of you that love your PRS guitars and you love to let me know how wrong you think I am about this in the comments section but I've tried I've tried dozens of PRS models I've tried dozens of examples of the same model trying to find the PRS that I like and I never really have and I think the reason why is because the PRS thing just doesn't really speak to me that highly consistent every guitar essentially being within one or two percent the same as the next guitar is great and I understand the value and I understand why people love that but for me it's not very inspiring for me traditionally PRS guitars have felt just kind of sterile until I played this yesterday this is the new NF 53 this is the swamp Ash model and this is essentially prs's version of a Telecaster [Music] foreign [Music] this I think shows everything that PRS does well without any of the drawbacks that typically turn me off to a PRS guitar although it vaguely looks like a tele it's not a tele clone like the silver sky and I understand why PRS made the silver sky the way they did they were bringing in John Mayer he had very specific needs for that guitar it needed to be a strat and I understand why but this the nf-53 they didn't need it to be just another Telly and to me I think it's a really fresh take on the traditional tele guitar which I love there's elements of the Telecaster here that they have sort of ported over but made uniquely their own like this bridge for example this is a tele style Bridge you've got the brass Saddles here but instead of just having the three adjustment screws like a traditional tele ashtray Bridge which means you can never quite intonate the guitar fully they've gone to this four screw system which actually lets you intonate the guitar the way it should be and then these pickups admittedly I don't know much about these pickups other than they are tele-esque without being exactly like a Telecaster if you want to straight up Telly pick up sound there's a million different tele options you can get out there and I like that PRS went for that sort of ballpark of sound without directly just doing the traditional tele pickup configuration but this model has the three-way toggle switch master volume Master tone so the control layout is very tele-esque which I love I think it's one of the best things about the Telecaster it's simple it's utilitarian it's easy to use and it works also I really dig the shape again it's familiar it's tele-esque but they did their own thing with it it's PRS and it's the things that I like about the PRS shape like the the carve here and the lower cut out it's a little bit offset and it's comfortable and it's ergonomic and it just works but interestingly I don't feel the same way about the Miles Kennedy version of this guitar I played the Myles Kennedy version here at gear Fest compared it to this one and I don't like it I don't like that it has the five-way switch I don't like the pickups as much I don't like that it can do the Strat thing it can kind of do the quacky two and four position thing I don't like that you can coil tap the pickups to me that's like pulling it farther away from what a Telecaster should be which is simple meat and potatoes reliable one guitar to do everything to me the Miles Kennedy version is is farther away foreign [Music] y Maple cap on this with some goofy color burst thing that PRS loves to do sure there's plenty of people out there that love that you know you have the Dragon green burst or whatever with all the flamey stuff that's just not me I can't stand guitars that look like that I love the neck shape it's big and beefy but it's not too big it's not like some you know R8 or R9 less pulse where it feels like you're playing a baseball bat with Frets attached to it it's comfortable it's easy to play but it's not too thin fit and finish is phenomenal as prses are the Fret work is really really great playing wise it does the thing that a lot of prses do which kind of like it almost has this like piano quality to it I mean the thing just rings and the entire guitar is resonating it's loud unplugged [Music] foreign this has all the things that I like in a guitar and it's a PRS which is something that I admittedly never really thought was going to happen but they did interestingly it's a top loader not like a traditional Telly so they did deviate from the tele design in multiple ways other than just the shape and the pickups it's a top loader tele you know Jimmy Page is Telly for example you're not going strings through the body which is an interesting choice and then having the traditional PRS headstock three and three instead of six in line like a fender this I think is what many people wanted the silver sky to be which was prs's version of the Strat whereas what they gave you with the silver sky was just a strat arguably a really great Strat but it's just a strat this is prs's version of a Telecaster and I genuinely like it I would absolutely buy this guitar and uh feel really good about the money that I spent on it and it just looks good like it actually looks good which I know I'm gonna ruffle some feathers but I don't think most prs's look good this does it's a really great shape the Finish is excellent it's a really nice piece of swamp Ash the proportions are right I think this guitar will age very well I think it'll look good 25 30 40 years from now which when it comes to guitar design I think is actually a really difficult thing to do to design a new shape that will look good decades down the road I think they did a really good job so this is the nf53 I really dig it I finally found a PRS that I actually like I'd love to know your thoughts let me know in the comment section down below a huge thanks of Sweetwater for having us out here to gear Fest and thanks as PRS for letting me steal this from their booth and jump here in the focal room to film this video if you want more information I'll have some links in the description box down below those will be Sweetwater affiliate links which is a great way to support the channel if you like what I'm doing here and if you're new here please subscribe my name is Rachel thank you so much for watching foreign [Music]

Channel: Rhett Shull

Views: 224,368

Keywords:

Id: mKyo3WyQ0Xg

Length: 7min 54sec (474 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 25 2023