Your fingers and ears won't be able to get enough of what the Paul Reed Smith SE Kestrel electric bass has to offer. You get everything you'd expect from a PRS instrument: natural and effortless playability, warm, rich, and articulate bass tone, and attractive looks as well. SE 4B 'S' Treble and Bass pickups capture and project a clear and articulate sound, and an alder body and a five-ply maple/walnut neck provides a nice helping of sustain and full-bodied output. A smooth rosewood bound fingerboard sports classic PRS birds inlays, and a Hipshot TransTone bridge provides secure footing for each string.

Vintage-Sounding Alder Body

The Kestrel bass is constructed from alder 00 a classic tonewood. Alder was a popular wood choice for the most in-demand electric guitars in the '50s and '60s -- a time when different musical styles and genres were beginning to emerge. It tends to find itself circling around jazz musicians, but it works well for pretty much any genre. Alder offers a well-balanced resonance, with a nice helping of mids and lows, and it also brings in a dash of brightness that picks up on the attack of your fingers in a subtle fashion. Added to all of that is a nice dose of sustain to help your notes flow naturally into each other -- great for walking up and down the fretboard.

Passive SE 4B 'S' Treble and Bass Pickups

Your set of SE 4B 'S' Treble and Bass pickups do a great job of taking in and projecting the full-bodied resonance your PRS SE Kestrel's alder… read more body generates. The neck pickup produces a traditional vintage inspired sound. Depending on your playing style, the bridge pickup can get close to a fretless jazzy-sounding bass tone that picks up on more of your attack. Use your separate volume controls to find the right blend of each pickup.

Maple/Walnut Neck in Through Design

The PRS SE Kestrel's five-ply maple/walnut neck spans 22 frets over a smooth rosewood fingerboard. Maple is somewhat bright-sounding, while walnut brings in a bit more of the middle frequencies. The neck-through design of this bass not only increases each strings length of sustain, it also provides a more seamless transfer of sound and overall resonance.

A Bridge with Options

The Hipshot TransTone bridge on this bass gives you two locations to anchor your strings: at the bridge, or through the body. Each option has its own tonal characteristics, but many bass players opt to anchor their strings through the body to get a little bit more sustain out of each note.

Features:

- Alder body delivers a well-balanced sound
- Five-ply maple/walnut neck
- Modern neck-through construction
- SE bass neck shape
- 22 frets over a smooth rosewood fingerboard
- Elegant PRS birds inlays
- Scale length of 34"
- SE 4B 'S' Treble and Bass passive pickup pairing -- PRS-Designed Single-coils
- Two volume controls, one tone control
- Attractive chrome hardware
- Hipshot TransTone bridge
- Hipshot HB6 tuners
- SE gig bag included read less