PRS NF3 SE | Review

PRS NF3 SE | Review

MSRP: (UK) £799 / (US) $799

Nick Jennison reviews the PRS NF3 SE — the new standout in the PRS lineup. Featuring three PRS Narrowfield pickups (a first for the SE series), the NF3 SE's poplar body, 22-fret bolt-on maple neck, and rosewood fretboard ensure versatile playability. The Narrowfield DD "S" pickups deliver a focused, powerful tone with taller bobbins and extra metal pieces between the magnets. Anchored by PRS's patented tremolo, it offers smooth bending and fluttering. Perfect for rock, blues, gospel, country, or jazz, the NF3 SE is a versatile workhorse that's hard to put down.

Before we go any further, allow me to address the elephant in the room. As avid GI readers will be aware, I'm a PRS artist. I love PRS guitars, and they're very good to me. That said, no guitar maker is perfect, and I've never shied away from criticizing things I don't like about PRS guitars, and if I'm not into a guitar I won't say otherwise.

One such guitar that I've been critical of in the past is the original PRS NF3. As much as I wanted to love this guitar, it just felt like "neither nowt nor summat". The tone struck me as having the worst aspects of single coils and humbuckers: a rare "swing and a miss" from PRS.

So I approached the SE NF3 with a cynical mind, expecting another guitar that didn't do it for me. I am very happy to report that this instrument proved me very, very wrong. In fact, it might be the best SE guitar I've ever played.

The SE NF3 is a bolt-on design with a maple neck and a body style that's in the vein of the older EG guitars which informed the Silver Sky (among others). It sports a PRS SE floating tremolo, and a trio of Narrowfield DD "S" pickups - the "DD" meaning "Deep Dish", while the "S" refers to the East Asian construction. These pickups are fully hum-canceling, but PRS claims they sound just like single coils. We'll get to that, but what I will say is that they are unquestionably this guitar's biggest strength - in the same way that they were the biggest letdown in the original NF3. Whatever PRS has changed between the original Narrowfield pickups and the "Deep Dish" versions, it worked!

Do they sound like traditional single coils? Honestly, not really. In a direct comparison to an SE Silver Sky, the SE NF3's tone is significantly fatter and louder, with a robust low end that's similar to a good PAF, combined with a bright and sparkling high end that is very "single-coil-esque", but a little smoother and more refined. If I had to liken the sound to anything, I'd probably compare it to Andy Timmons's "Strat but bigger" tone. All five positions sound beautiful and elegant when played clean, powerful and characterful with overdrive, and completely noiseless. It's trivially easy to coax throaty blues, spanky funk, country twang, and punchy high-gain tones out of this guitar, despite the minimalistic control layout. It just works.

Playability is exactly what you'd expect from PRS, in that it's flawless. Notably, the factory setup is significantly more "friendly" than you'd find on PRS guitars from a few years ago. I could never understand why PRS would opt for a fairly stiff action from the factory, given how immaculate the fretwork is on their instruments, but I'm pleased to see them moving away from this spec toward something more immediately playable. The neck has a great feel that's listed as "Wide Thin", but feels just a hair fatter to me, putting it in a sweet spot for a wide variety of playing styles.

The PRS tremolo is one of the best in the business, and the one on the SE NF3 is a great example of this. It's set up floating, but with only enough room to pull up by about a semitone. That's not a huge issue though, since there's still plenty of travel for chord shimmers, bar vibrato, and even Jeff Beck-style flutters. Tuning stability is predictably excellent, even without locking tuners (although PRS does sell drop-in locking tuners to fit this guitar for a relatively small price).

Available in four attractive solid finishes, each with the option of maple and rosewood fretboards, the PRS SE NF3 is a guitar for all seasons. It's perfectly at home in just about any musical setting, plays beautifully, and looks sharp as a dart. Is it the best SE that PRS has made to date? I think so.

For more information, please visit:

prsguitars.com/