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Electric Guitar

PRS SE Swamp Ash Special

Name: PRS SE Swamp Ash Special
Brand: PRS

PRS · SE Swamp Ash Special

Price: 600 EUR – 1.547 EUR

Price history

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Availability: 9/10 (Common)

An HSH-loaded take on PRS's SE line that trades the brand's usual humbucker-forward voice for a twangier, Stratocaster-adjacent character, pairing a resonant swamp ash body with two 85/15 "S" humbuckers flanking a single-coil in the middle position. A push/pull tone control unlocks coil-splitting on both outer pickups, giving the guitar six distinct tonal combinations that owners describe as equally at home in blues, country-leaning clean tones and classic-rock crunch.

Where available? Go to the best price – 600 EUR About this instrument

About the PRS SE Swamp Ash Special

The SE Swamp Ash Special pairs a lightweight, resonant swamp ash body carved with a shallow violin-style contour with a bolt-on maple neck in a Wide Thin profile, topped by a maple fretboard with a 10-inch radius across 22 frets - a Telecaster-indebted body/neck combination wearing a PRS tremolo and HSH pickup layout borrowed from the superstrat playbook. That layout is the model's defining feature: two PRS 85/15 "S" humbuckers in the neck and bridge positions sandwich a dedicated PRS AS-01 single-coil in the middle, giving the guitar a genuinely different tonal palette from PRS's more common HH-loaded SE models.

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Source: https://reverb.com/item/99707647-prs-se-swamp-ash-special-electric-guitar-vintage-sunburst

Sound character of the PRS SE Swamp Ash Special

The combination of a resonant swamp ash body and HSH pickup layout produces a tight low end with bright but not harsh highs, landing in genuinely twangy territory that owners and reviewers trace from hot country through blues toward light jazz tones. Run through both humbuckers at once, the voicing comes across as warmer and slightly deeper than typical superstrat rivals; pushed hard with gain, the swamp ash body's midrange bite comes forward, giving the guitar a grittier edge that still cuts cleanly through a mix rather than muddying it.

Bright Punchy Woody Midrange-forward Vintage-voiced

What owners of the PRS SE Swamp Ash Special say

Reception runs strongly positive, with one long-time owner calling it the best SE-series PRS to date and praising how the 85/15 humbuckers interact with the swamp ash body to produce distinctly "fendery," twangy tones rather than the brand's usual thicker voicing. Fretwork and finish quality draw repeated praise relative to the price, occasionally compared favorably to USA Core instruments. The split middle-neck pickup position draws a more mixed response - some find it softer and jazzier than they expected rather than the brighter single-coil snap they anticipated - and a handful of early units arrived noticeably heavier than the advertised weight, prompting exchanges for lighter examples.

Playability & handling of the PRS SE Swamp Ash Special

Reviewers describe the neck as smooth and easy through lead runs, with the guitar overall feeling lighter in hand than PRS's heavier mahogany-bodied models - a profile reviewers position as suited to lead playing and clean rhythm work rather than heavy riffing. Forum owners single out the fretwork and fingerboard-edge finishing as standout for the price point, with one comparing the build quality directly to a USA Core McCarty. The one recurring complaint concerns ergonomics rather than build: the 5-way blade switch sits close enough to the tremolo arm that quick pickup changes can require working around it.

Recommended accessories & strings for the PRS SE Swamp Ash Special

The guitar ships with a set of PRS Classic 9-42 strings and a gig bag, and several reviewers recommend swapping the stock strings early to dial in personal feel and tone rather than treating them as a long-term choice. Given the twangy, Stratocaster-adjacent voicing on tap through the single-coil and split positions, the guitar pairs naturally with Fender-style clean amp tones, while the full humbucker settings give it enough headroom for rock amps with moderate gain.

Technical data for the PRS SE Swamp Ash Special

Type	Bolt-neck solidbody electric guitar, HSH with tremolo
Production	PRS SE series, built in Indonesia
Body	Swamp ash, shallow violin carve
Neck	Maple, bolt-on, Wide Thin profile, 13/16 in. depth at 1st fret / 57/64 in. at 12th fret
Scale length	25 in.
Fingerboard	Maple, 10 in. radius, 22 frets
Nut width	1 11/16 in.
Pickups	2x PRS 85/15 "S" humbuckers (neck/bridge), 1x PRS AS-01 single-coil (middle)
Controls	Master volume, push/pull tone control (coil-split), 5-way blade switch
Tremolo	PRS Patented Tremolo, nickel hardware
Hardware	PRS-designed tuners, PRS double-acting truss rod
Weight	Approx. 3.4-3.7kg (7.6-8.1 lb), varies by finish
Included accessories	PRS Classic 9-42 strings, gig bag

Price history for the PRS SE Swamp Ash Special

Cheapest seen: 600 EUR · Most expensive seen: 1.547 EUR

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The history of the PRS SE Swamp Ash Special

The Swamp Ash Special name dates back to the main USA PRS line of 1996, where its Telecaster-inspired swamp ash body and bolt-on maple neck, paired with an HSH layout and tremolo, stood out from PRS's usual set-neck, mahogany-and-maple formula; it stayed in various forms of the catalog through roughly 2009, resurfaced briefly in 2011-12, and was reintroduced again in 2025 as part of the brand's 40th-anniversary lineup. This SE version carries that concept into the SE line for the first time, making the Telecaster-adjacent, bolt-on, HSH formula available at SE pricing rather than exclusively as a pricier USA model.

About PRS as a manufacturer

Background on the broader SE line and its position relative to PRS's hand-finished USA Core instruments is documented elsewhere in this project's PRS SE research rather than repeated here.