PRS SE Mikael Akerfeldt (Tortoise Shell)

Quick Facts:

Neck Material: Maple
Neck Type/Profile: Standard
Fingerboard: Ebony (24 Frets)
Body: Extra Thick Single Cut-away Mahogany
Neck Pickup: PRS HFS Vintage Bass Humbuckers
Bridge Pickup: PRS HFS Vintage Bass Humbuckers

Make: Made in Korea

PRS SE Mikael Akerfeldt Review

Once every couple of years, constant aimless visits to a guitar store pays dividends. I spotted this guitar by chance on one of those days where I had nothing better to do, decided to visit the guitar store to see "what's new" without any idea that this guitar even existed. Upon visiting this store, I was at my usual hotspots of Ibanez and Fender, when I was told by a then person I knew who worked for the store, that they received a new shipment of PRS guitars. Now previously, I was hardly swung by PRS guitars sold in Malaysia, as a certain store used to bring sub-par models in and jack them up for premium prices. So I did not expect much....until I saw this baby.....

Being the huge Opeth fan that I am (and I still regard Mikael Akerfeldt as one of the few "genius" musicians currently active and alive today), I was immediately taken in by the design of the guitar, and especially the beauty of its color (described as a "tortoise shell" finish) and the nicely parked Opeth guitar behind the bridge. I've read some reviews which have complained about how ugly the guitar looks, but I could never understand why they believe so. Listening to Opeth for more than 10 years now made me think that I could not imagine this guitar any other way. In my opinion, it exudes the same mental upbringing of its signature artist, and also portrays the wry, autumn type melody which is synonymous with Opeth's music. I was blown away by the design itself, and was honestly not prepared for what I was going to get when I plugged it in.

I'll put this forward immediately - playing on this guitar is absolutely effortless! With an extremely comfortable neck, and highly responsive pickups, the guitar was built to play bassy rhythm lines, as well as thin fuzzed up retro leads which Mikael himself is known for producing. Playing around with the tone knob can produce some amazing results - and at one point if one were blind and just listening to the tone, you would almost think that a Telecaster was being played. That sums up the versatility of the guitar, which is absolutely what an artist such as Mikael Akerfeldt would demand. Opeth is well known for their melodic death metal music, as well as their penchant in creating melodic masterpieces which switches between dirty and clean within a blink. Further on, their album Damnation brought out a different side of Mikael's song writing process, one which will forever seal his "genius" title in my mind. The way the guitar is made, and the way the tone of the guitar can seamlessly switch between bass heavy dirty tones and crystal clear clean tones all begins making sense if you're familiar with Opeth's music.

To add further to my amazement of this guitar, the price point was unbelievable for the quality you are getting. For below RM3k, you are able to obtain a Korean piece of wood, tricked out and suited towards any particular genre. I'll be bold enough to say that this guitar can play musical styles ranging from pop/rock, blues, country, heavy metal and jazz. The mahogany body provides enough depth for heavier forms of music, or even clean jazz which calls for more bass tones, and the tone knob cleans up the tone, and thins it just right for thinner lead lines required in both clean and slight over drive. Once again I cannot express how amazed I was at this guitar overall, with a great price point to go with also.

It took me many visits before I finally brought mine home, as everytime I was ready to bring it back with it, it was sold out (and was forever kicking myself for not getting it on the first visit). Finally, after 3 different "shipments" in and out of the guitar store, I finally got my piece, brought it home and was thoroughly satisfied with it! If you want to get a slight feel for how it sounds, tune in to some of Opeth's newer material, and you will hear this PRS make its apperance in its tracks.

Overall Rating: 9