Recently, I have been bitten by the PRS bug. I have been watching too much video of the PRS factory tour and being a big fan of figured tops, I have been conditioned. However, I can't afford a PRS. It's expensive for me. However, I know there are good copies out there. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that the copies are as good. The copies themselves are good guitars. Just not PRS quality and workmanship. I headed down to SV guitars and aided by the friendly staffs, I was allowed to try the Rally copy of PRS.
A little history of Rally guitars. Rally used to make Epiphone for Gibson and they definitely know what they are doing when it comes to guitar crafting department. However, we are definitely not expecting a chambered body or top notch bullet fret ends or flames that pop in your face. However, what I wasn't expecting is a real quilted maple top for this price range. It actually has a real quilted maple top instead of a veneer, which is what most guitar companies will do for a guitar at this price range.
Although the headstock is significantly different from a Gibson or PRS, we aren't exactly looking for a direct copy aren't we? The fret ends of the guitar are nicely filed and rounded off. The rosewood (Sonokeling) of the guitar has an impressive sheen, almost flame like.
Instead of the usual Asian Basswood or Poplar in a PRS shape like most Gibson copies out there, the mahogany is pretty evident here and it's a set neck instead of bolt on neck. The mahogany used are pretty nice and has a good weight around them. This overall contributes to the warm tone and nice acoustics of the instrument.
What puzzled me was instead of the typical 10 inch radius which most PRS guitar has, the Rally copy has a rather flat raduis which looks very close to 16 or 16.9 inch to me. This to me isn't a bad thing as I am a huge fan of flat radius, thanks to my Ibanez guitars. This allows super low action without compromising fretting out when doing high bends. Additionally, the chances of the guitar buzzing with very low action is probably next to impossible. This makes this guitar superb for scaling.
The neck is fat. Baseball bat fat. While I am not a fat of baseball bat necks, I was able to break into the neck effortlessly. I have to say that the neck is very well constructed and doing fast runs on the neck is rather easy.
Electronic wise, I believe that these are pickups similar to those that comes with Epiphone units. I might be wrong about this but chances are, they are. The pickups aren't all that bad but they can be better. A pickup swap is highly recommended for the buyer. Tested both clean and with distortion, on clean the tone is fat and rather on the bright side, which is typical of mahogany. Distortion, the tone is fat and punchy. It can get a bit muddy for solos but that is probably just the pickups.
For anyone looking for a good PRS copy on a budget, I urge the prospective buyer to go look for the Rally PRS copy unit. This is by itself a very good guitar and with modification, it can be a workhorse that can serve you very long and even wow the crowd.
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