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« Paul Reed Smith Santana II »

Published on 04/27/04 at 15:00
Bought on Ebay for $3900.00, 2002 Santana yellow. I bought this after buying a Santana III and finding out this series of guitars are the "Holy Grail".

The guitar plays equally well as my Santana III. (The best playing guitar I or any of my friends have ever held in our hands) I like the artist grade top better than the 10 top on the III. The rippled abalone inlays are beautiful and the body is a bit lighter than the III so it is better balanced. The wide fat neck feels like my 57 LP Goldtop. The Brazilian rosewood headstock veneer and OM symbol on the Brazilian rosewood truss rod cover is very cool. The Brazilian rosewood fretboard plus the super solid set neck and bridge/tremolo hardware give this the longest sustain I have ever heard.

I'm scared to dent, ding or scratch it!
The stock Santana II pickups are a bit edgy for me. They are harsh sounding when compared to the my Santana III so I swapped them for new Santana III pickups direct from PRS. It was the right choice!

I received it "dead mint". There isn't a single scratch, dent or mark on the entire guitar. It came absolutely flawless as inspected with a lighted magnifying loop. The setup was perfect. The fretwork is the best I've ever seen. The wood used is beyond beautiful. The edge of the guitar has the natural wood binding where the flame maple top was not dyed on the edge that meets the mahogony body back. Very nice and classy.

I absolutely love my Santana III, especially the pickups. The II with the III version pickups is the best combination there is yet. My Santana III is now lent to a friend and he is in love with it.
The number of different sounds that are available with this guitar/pickup combination is excellent for rock, blues, jazz. Add a metal zone and you can be a shredmaster-metalhead.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com