Has PRS gone a little bolt-on mad? Well, certainly in the Indonesian-made SE line, it’s bolt-ons that have been the recent trend in terms of new releases.
Only a little while back we saw the SE CE 24 and Swamp Ash Special, both based on historic PRS designs, then earlier this year the superb stripped-down (both in style and price) SE CE 24 Standard Satin, which added to the bolt-on choice behind the more established SE Silver Sky.
Typically for PRS, those new bolt-ons are all twin-humbucking guitars (although the Swamp Ash Special does add a mid-placed single coil), but this new NF3 introduces a trio of hum-cancelling Narrowfield DD ‘S’ pickups, Indonesian-made interpretations of those units used on the more T-style NF 53 that launched in 2023.
There’s a familiarity about the NF3 that recalls PRS’s first attempt to crack the Stratocaster-style market, the first-series EG 3 (SSS) and EG 4 (HSS), which appeared briefly back in 1990 before they were redesigned into the more PRS-like EG II series, which lasted until 1995. The EG did reappear, again briefly, in the SE range back in 2004 but as a three-single-coil, all‑mahogany set-neck with stoptail or vibrato, and then an HSS variant.
It’s not even the first PRS to use the NF3 name. Another short-lived bolt-on, the original NF3 was produced from 2011 to 2013 and used three 57/08 Narrowfield humbuckers, with a 641mm (25.25-inch) scale, maple fingerboard and a korina body.
Despite these attempts to ‘do a Fender’ – and there have been a few others, such as the alder-bodied DC3 and even the Brent Mason signature – it was, of course, the Silver Sky and John Mayer that finally nailed the job. Thing is, plenty of people (ourselves included) think the very successful Silver Sky is, by design, rather derivative; this new SE NF3 most definitely isn’t.
For example, while it shares the same body wood (poplar) as the SE Silver Sky, that’s about where any similarities end. It does have a similar outline and contouring, but there’s that original EG-like chamfer to the top horn and the output jack moves to the body edge.
The headstock is standard PRS, not reversed, the scale length is PRS’s standard 635mm (25-inch), not the longer Fender scale of the Silver Sky, and the fingerboard radius is standard PRS at 254mm (10 inches), not the 216mm (8.5 inches) of the SE John Mayer design.
The SE NF3 uses the standard PRS-designed SE vibrato, too, not the two-post version used on the USA and SE Silver Sky. Then the controls revert to master volume and tone with the five-way pickup selector with its proprietary switch tip, offering the standard Stratocaster combinations.
At launch, we get four pretty classy colour options and a choice of either rosewood or maple bird-inlaid fingerboards.
Feel & Sounds
Even though we’re primed by previous experience of PRS’s SE bolt-ons to expect a very tidy guitar, pulling the NF3 out of its gigbag surprises us. It’s a very fit-for-business weight of 3.35kg (7.37lb), neither feather-light nor over-heavy for the style. The neck back is a very lightly tinted satin that will typically burnish up with use; our reference SE Silver Sky’s neck back certainly has.
The Wide Thin neck profile here is a PRS classic. The nut width is just over 43mm (with 36mm string spacing), and it has a depth of 21mm at the 1st fret, increasing to a shade under 23mm by the 12th.
The SE Silver Sky is slightly narrower at the nut at 41.8mm (with 35mm string spacing) with a similar 1st-fret depth and slightly deeper by the 12th at 24.3mm. The neck back is beautifully shaped, a classic ‘C’ with no hint of a flat back or over-big shoulders.
Sharp fingerboard edges and fret ends? Not here. The fingerboard edges are nicely rolled; the fretwork from the standard SE medium jumbo stock is faultlessly installed and finished. After some basic new string stretching, the SE NF3, which ships with 10s, is perfectly in tune, and even with some pretty vigorous vibrato wrangling it stays that way.
While Fender players might feel more at home with the Silver Sky, PRS players will definitely feel a little more comfortable here.
Part of that, of course, is the slightly shorter scale length and the fingerboard radius, but the voicing is very PRS-like, too, in that although we have the standard Stratocaster selections, aside from being fully hum-cancelling, it comes across as a fuller, less thin voice that will certainly appeal if you can’t get on with single coils and/or need a little more body.
Pulling back the tone and volume certainly moves to a more traditional humbucking voicing. And that’s key to the versatility: with that volume pulled back you’d swear you’re hearing something more like an SG; pull the controls full up and we’re back to that fuller Fender-like voicing, not least with positions 2 and 4 on the five-way.
As PRS does so well, the blurring of the lines between humbucker and single coil is not only versatile but very musical. Used with a basic pedalboard, the SE NF3 is the perfect driver moving from full-sounding, clear but far from sharp-edged ‘single coil’ that has more than enough body in the voicing to rattle your cages with some high-gain distortion.
Aside from being hum-cancelling, these Narrowfields on this platform are genuine genre hoppers. It’s a real all-rounder.
Verdict
Despite the huge success of both the USA and SE Silver Sky, this new SE NF3 comes across as very much a PRS guitar, not a retooling of someone else’s design. From the more PRS-like body style, to the scale length and pickups, it’s a very credible introduction and it is perhaps a little surprising that it’s solely in the SE line when it could quite comfortably sit alongside the Silver Sky and Fiore, not to mention the NF 53, in the USA Bolt-On range.
It’s a very full-sounding ‘Stratocaster’-type but with huge stylistic potential
But it’s testament to the quality of the build, and the design of these hum-cancelling pickups, that you don’t feel in any way short-changed, irrespective of its origin or price. It’s a very full-sounding ‘Stratocaster’-type but with huge stylistic potential.
If we were to be picky, then the simple ‘seven-sound’ mod would expand your choices, not least allowing you to voice the neck and bridge pickups together. Indeed, installing that simple mod and a set of the SE locking tuners would really bring the NF3 dangerously close to the USA guitars. It really is that good.
What’s next, then? An SE version of the more T-inspired NF 53? Or the SE NF4 with a standard humbucker at the bridge? How about that thin satin finish we’ve seen on the SE CE 24? Who knows what the future holds, but this is a platform with plenty of legs. Long live the EG!
Specs
- PRICE: $799 / £979 (inc gigbag)
- ORIGIN: Indonesia
- TYPE: Double-cutaway solidbody electric, bolt-on
- BODY: Poplar
- NECK: Slab-sawn maple (w/ scarfed headstock), Wide Thin profile, bolt-on
- SCALE LENGTH: 635mm (25”)
- NUT/WIDTH: Friction reducing/43.1mm
- FINGERBOARD: Rosewood, ‘old school’ pearloid bird inlays, 254mm (10”) radius
- FRETS: 22, medium jumbo
- HARDWARE: PRS patented vibrato (cast), PRS designed non-locking tuners – nickel-plated
- STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 52.5mm
- ELECTRICS: 3x PRS-designed Narrowfield DD ‘S’ humbuckers, 5-way lever pickup selector switch, master volume and tone
- WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.35/7.37
- OPTIONS: Maple fingerboard (with grey pearloid bird inlays)
- LEFT-HANDERS: Not this model, though a lefty SE Silver Sky has been announced for autumn 2024 release
- FINISHES: Ice Blue Metallic (as reviewed), Gun Metal Gray, Metallic Orange, Pearl White – gloss body finish, satin neck back
- CONTACT: PRS Guitars
