Opinions on the PRS SE Custom?

I've never owned a PRS but the ones the teachers at my music school used were the best guitars I've ever played..   Gibson Les Paul?  HAH!!  Don't know any details of the model you're looking at but if it's a legit PRS it should be a slinky, great-sounding ax  ..and most tremolo systems go out of tune, it depends how much you want to fiddle with the parts

Well as it's well known, Gibson's quality control has been downhill for a while, and there have been reports of players needing to refret their brand new guitars just to play them from factory, which is just ridiculous, since I would expect to be able to play a guitar straight away for that price.
PRS is indeed nice, and the quality much more consistent than Gibson.
If you're into shredding, to be honest PRS is not the best choice. You do have the Petrucci signature models staring right at you in your sig, amazing guitars, but as you said not enough cash.
It depends on what sound you want and what you want to do with it. If you can answer that more specifically, I can help you out a bit more.

Well if you want to future proof yourself in case one day you want to really work on that technique, I'm afraid PRS is not the best choice, due to the roundish fretboard that has a 10 inch radius which doesn't promote the best vibrato technique unfortunately. I mean, if can afford to buy the PRS SE now and one day down the track afford something for the more technical playing, the PRS would be a nice thing to have.
For your dollar, the best value for money in the 500-750 dollar price range is ESP LTD, Ibanez, Jackson.
I've played a lot of Jap made Jacksons and the fretwork and attention to detail for the price have been astounding to say the least, even better than some Fenders and Gibsons going for 2 to 3 times the price.

Yea see I've tried a few Jacksons, Ibanez, etc, and as they are great guitars, they resemble my Dean too much. I pondered upon the shred factor and figured if I ever felt the need to, like I said have the Vendetta 4.0 w/ Floyd Rose and a Dean Vendetta 3.0 as well, which as an extremely fast neck. I bet with some tweaks to both of these guitars they'd be shred worthy if theyre not already.

Not so much that I didn't like it, just a personal preference, nothing against the stratocaster, sir Brandon.

And + remind me again, you just got a new guitar not even a year ago. Why do you need a new one?

I prefer the mandolin

^Hehe, make your own topic, don't hijack this one!

I agree, PRS is too much to pay for in Australia, and you can get guitars with the same level of quality for half or less the price, so I've never seen the point in paying that much for a PRS, but each to their own.
The ESP LTD 1000, dude, that is a seriously good guitar for the money.
If that's the neck thru model, then that's the same one I remember playing a few months ago in a music store.
Smooth neck, pretty good sound (although I'd personally swap the pickups out for something better), but licensed floyd sucks though so if you really want a guitar with a locking trem, look at Ibanez, their Edge Pro Trems have much longer lasting knife edges, and because of a bigger sustain block, better sustain as well.

Haha, hey no problem, I just mean out of respect to the original starter of the topic it's best not to hi jack, that's all.
What guitar are you using now? Post some details up in the thread about it.

MisterProg2112 wrote: I prefer the mandolin