silver sky… meet your CHALLENGER

[@jamesners6197]

I bought an NF3 not too long ago, and it is EXACTLY what I have been looking for. The pickups do such a good job at being single-coil humbuckers. I have also never felt more comfortable on a guitar before. 10/10. Would recommend.

[@Roy_Gaber]

I recently bought an NF3 SE and it absolutely rocks! Thanks for the video Mike.

[@JpeterZoom-gt3pn]

I love this guitar and have a silver sky se and can hear the nf3 se has different warmer sound...I really like...

[@Ndo_sanz]

I just got one, and it’s a game changer. The price, feel, look, tech, and pickups make it absolutely worth it

[@tomaslopez2940]

What I like about the NF3 is that it's a true strat-inspired guitar and not a straight strat rip-off like the Silver Sky is. The Silver Sky just copy-pasted Fender looks and performance on PRS specs, but the NF3 took the strat idea and upgraded it in an original way so that it was familiar yet innovative and new.

[@JesusMowsMaLawn]

I actually just unboxed one of these at the guitar shop I work in as you posted this video. The timing is incredible lol

[@azmike3572]

I actually unboxed one of these at the guitar shop I DON'T work in, and a nearby clerk said, "Sir, what're you doing?" 😊

[@brettdinelli3116]

"What Paul has to say about the Strat" is exactly right and why I'm interested. I love that PRS is always tinkering and trying something new. Looking forward to playing one of these.

[@FRCMoto]

I agree. That was so well said by Mike.

[@vincemarco]

I'm loving the NF3. Every pickup combination is usable. Clean, crunch, and lead all sound great. Not quite a strat or P90, but properties of both.

[@siegriedroy6467]

Your blue Highway One strat was exactly the model which Cory Wong played for the last 120 years! Best regards from germany/sweden, i love your videos and always keep laughing if you smile like you have some great jokes on the start!

[@TheOtisdb]

I just picked up a PRS NF3 SE (gun metal) from my local guitar shop today! It's my 2nd guitar. Love it so far!

[@MrMfalzone]

These PRS guitars have me playing again and I can’t put them down. That says it all.

[@jo-sway6368]

You should definitely put it up against the se swamp special

[@rick00770]

Very interesting, I haven’t tried one yet. Now I’m interested. I know the American silver sky really impressed me, the se was okay and grew on me. But yea , great points . Thanks brother.

[@thomashalley7258]

I like that you can get a sub 1k prs with a maple fret board now.

[@jlepre752]

OK so now I'm finding an issue with my NF3 that I got today. I noticed that as soon as I turned the volume down to around 7 or 8, the volume dropped off dramatically and the treble dropped off as well. It stays about the same volume all the way down to 1.

[@johnd9357]

Same for me.

[@NotMyName-q2v]

I bought Ice Blue Metallic w Maple board. Bruh,,,, It is NOT a strat, but to me it corrected my problems with my strat. No cringe bridge, warmth, more feel. Build quality does not look rushed. My pro 2 strat,, eh. I feel this guitar, from indonesia, is built better, plays a tad easier, has a better switch, and did I mention the warmth. Its doing its own THANG, and doing it quite well

[@cmonsterz]

Cool video! To my ears, the NF3 seems like a cross between a P90 and a mini humbucker. It really IS its own thing and not really a Strat. It fits perfectly between the Silver Sky and the Custom 24.

[@DavidFeilyMusic]

I’ve got an OG NF3 as well as a few swamp ash specials and swamp ash studios and they are amazing guitars. Super versatile and great sounding! About time people started to catch on! Some of the best super strats out there!

[@Jamaicangurl81]

An se version of that tele nf53 would be amazing for me 😍😍 I'm hoping it will come out at some point soon

[@skye7690]

That’s the one I’m waiting for too.

[@redfurydubstep]

Ahh the pearl white one…me likey 😍

[@Jeremya74]

All you had to do was wait a little..ive seen many silver skys for 1,800 like new lately..the price of guitars are going way down and will probably continue to drop

[@MayeenNaomee1984]

Soundwise, I still like the Silver Sky SE sound that this.

[@eduardofergusson]

Because it is the one you own

[@TheBbtlegit]

Me too

[@theretrosquad4293]

Please make a review for Sire Larry Carlton S7

[@myriad860]

live the Sire series but impossible to find and support! lol

[@jaymurray4910]

I hate having to plug in the jack on the bottoms of my prs custom 22 always feels more uncomfortable when playing sitting down opposed to a strats typical input jack position

[@karatehippo7869]

I hope people keep watching your vids so you can buy more gear like this! 🙏

[@TheSuperspyk]

Honestly I’d really like to try one. On paper it sounds like an interesting take on versatility, but I’d need to hear what my fingers can get out of it as to whether it’s for me 😂

[@Vern859]

Reminds me of the G&L Legacy Special pickups. Those were designed with single coils in mind. 👍

[@tonytaormina4759]

my man does a lot of "realizing," lol

[@usmc5541]

New subscriber here. Great channel, by the way!

[@bryandc4l]

PRS SE NF3 or PRS SE Custom 24? Which is better

[@Smoothtlknwhtboi]

I wonder if you would like the Ibanez ATZ100 Andy Timmons guitar

[@sikobiko6446]

Try to check for dc3

[@Sadtiric]

Oh, I love that this is getting out! I got mine in orange with maple! ^_^ 💚

[@siegriedroy6467]

And many thanks that you are the first on that show some chords on the bridge pickup with gainy stuff!!! I think now the guitar can also do rock/metal stuff on the bridge which the Silver Sky can not do!

[@PikaStu666]

My biggest issue is deciding which colour combo to get! The white / black / maple one you have is stunning, but they’re all pretty stunning and I can’t choose just one!

[@imbwal]

Thanks for the video, @mikecole4489! I was pretty stoked when I first read about the NF3 SE. What? A pseudo-single-coil guitar, sans hum? That'd be awesome. Then I remembered: wait, I have a G&L Comanche …

[@Sinkovc3]

I was looking to buy the NF3 but I would preffer them with some of the clasic PRS amazing colors

[@sundaytone]

I've been wanting to try one of these. I have the SE DGT and love it.

[@Robstafarian]

I am stuck on the SE DGT until PRS releases the Pattern Regular neck in the SE series. What I really want is the Pattern Vintage neck with the Pattern Regular nut width, but I know better than to expect that ever to be offered with an affordable price: that simple change is not even available as Private Stock.

[@skye7690]

Please give us an SE NF53. The big question is does the NF3 really sound like single coils?

[@joegriffin3623]

No it doesn't. It has a beefier tone. I have both.

[@unabonger777]

you opened up what? your labtop?

[@JacksonWright-2006]

so this is what its like to be the first one to a mike cole video

[@IsraelVasconcelos]

so it seems that the NF3 is something like a silver sky with less spice

[@picksalot1]

I think any time a guitar has noise cancelling/humbucking type pickups that retain some flavor of single coil pickups, it's a win.

[@bks252]

I love my Michael Kelly guitars. I think I have 4. No one can touch their quality for the price.

[@pastormike396]

MK is a great axe!!!

[@sfkimrush]

My NF3 just arrived. I need to resist opening the box until it has a chance to acclimate.

[@joshtorresfdu6621]

If PRS did a silver sky in hss it would game over

[@ABeautifulCrash]

I put a Seymour Duncan jb junior in mine.. definitely a game changer!

[@SeemoreDunkan]

Dude what camera do you use? Looks amazing

[@escargotomy]

About 15 years ago I was on the look for a "silent Strat" and it came down to the G&L Comanche and PRS NF3. I loved both of them even though they sounded quite different from each other and from a traditional STrat, but both checked all the boxes for me. It finally came down to weight and the PRS was over a pound lighter so that's the one that came home with me. No regrets to this day, the NF3 is super versatile and does the familiar clean rhythm thing so well, but with tasteful amounts of dirt it really is its own animal and sounds like nothing else. I'll never sell it.

[@Robstafarian]

Comanche pickups sound a lot more stratty with the knobs lowered; I preferred to set up my amps with the Comanche's knobs toward their mid points such that I could roll down for strattiness and roll up for hugeness (before I sold that Tribute Comanche because the neck was too small for me).

[@escargotomy]

@@Robstafarian Yes I find the NF3 behaves similarly in that your amp settings can allow you to move quickly out of Strat territory into a sort of P90 thing just with the volume knob and then you can kick in the overdrive and I find it to be not quite filtertron, not quite humbucker but almost in between those tones. Very unique and why I still love it.

[@tomaslopez2940]

Also, when are you going to review '80's style superstrats like the Jackson Soloist, Charvel So Cal, Kramer Baretta, or Ibanez RG550?

[@SixStringShorts-gv5ni]

No other guitar will ever compare to the SilverSky! 😁😁😁

[@tonymarinelli7304]

BS

[@rodanone4895]

I'm more of a 305 kind of player when it's a PRS strat take. but I'm nf3 curious. thanks for the video!

[@IsraeliteBarber]

Check out the PRS 305 it’s dope 🔥🔥

[@KenithCopeland]

i loved the silver sky, thankfully the wife bought me one for my birthday when they were released so im not allowed to sell that ever, but man, this nf3 is peaking my interest because its almost a perfect guitar for me, one vol, one tone, prs scale length and not the 25.5 of the silver sky, the ONLY way it could be perfect was if it was hardtail

[@Robstafarian]

The world needs more hardtail strats (and similar guitars)! Specifically, it feels like most of the industry has forgotten about the low hardtails like Fender used rather than the tall Tune-O-Matic bridges which eliminate the flat neck pitch (i.e. neck angle) which my neuromuscular disorder requires (learned that the hard way). That said, I am moving toward shorter scale lengths.

[@KenithCopeland]

@@Robstafarian i've really been interested in some fender mustangs or duo sonics for the shorter scale, the original mustangs had a 22.5" which will be great for my kid since she wants to learn, but also if she doesnt want to, still usable for me, and they both come in hardtail (winning)

[@Robstafarian]

@@KenithCopeland I would sooner buy an Ibanez MiKro or a Jackson Minion before spending significantly more money on a vintage Fender. When I mentioned "shorter scale lengths", I meant those between 24.5" and 25.25"; currently, I have 24.75" and 25" in that range. I ended up buying a 25.5" scale length guitar because the HILS Next copies the Strandberg body shape (which I really enjoyed) without Strandberg's bridge design (which my neuromuscular disorder refused to adjust). That will be the last guitar I buy with that scale length, regardless of how much I want a Schecter Tori Ruffin signature Freak Juice.

[@Headbutter-Lettuce90]

I'll probably place 6 switches like selectors and call it a red special

[@epilefsiul]

I will wait for the NF53 SE

[@skye7690]

Good review, can’t decide about the NF3 yet, whether it’s good or bad. Strat fan boys may not like it, but who is the market for this?

[@dustylense]

What makes the Silver Sky core a Silver Sky is the 7.25" neck radius. Once you get used to it,....

[@kelsyschoenhaar8717]

Mike... you have an epic voice... literally and figuratively. :-)

[@MarkNuuuuuutt]

My thoughts are kinda weird. I wanna take out the neck and middle pickup, remove the tone knob, make the bridge fixed and make it a metal machine. Something about chugging on PRS guitars is so satisfying

[@frankiechan9651]

I am with you in that I prefer the idea of the NF3 over the Silver Sky. The Silver Sky just apes a Fender too closely (although it is a good entry point to the guitar world for John Mayer fans) whereas the NF3 moves things in a different direction. I've been moving away from Strats for a while, however, if PRS ever bites the bullet and does an SE version of the Starla .............

[@joshdennettmusic]

Hey mate, they do an SE Starla!

[@貝格-k3f]

PRS still try to do new idea , sound great !

[@GabrielGomes]

I'll start counting how many times you "realize" or "quickly realize" stuff in your videos.

[@blink182fan1130]

Dont most strats have a bolt on neck ?!?!

[@Robstafarian]

Mike's friend probably asked him that question as a way of helping him recognize how little relevant knowledge he had. Partsocasters are not Lego sets.

[@GamerPastHisPrime]

Just got my email that my orange one arrived in store. Gonna go pick it up in a few minutes.

[@crimsontower]

If you wouldnt mind, pls tell me the verdict as i am also interested in one.

[@dottorminchiari8748]

I've read, completely randomly, an article about this guitar last week (I was waiting on a sofa while my friends were rolling some joints haha) and since then I constantly see videos about it (it costs 1100 euros please Mike send me one as a present)

[@mannijimenezmusic]

I love mine, it's own thing.

[@GeorgeFloyd2023]

Who's that ... William Brown? Are these his signatures?

[@HK-ib9fu]

Not a PRS guy, but the video was really good!

[@GrifsGuitarlessons]

Hi Mike!

[@matthewgraves495]

You are pretty inspiring Mike, your enthusiasm is infectious. Keep jamming 🤘

[@camerongardner6634]

The only thing less satisfying to play than the average gibson is the average prs

[@metallica3604]

These clickbaity titles are getting really old really quick

[@gloof7630]

I miss the old Mike

[@DalelCampbell]

What is clickbait about this title?

[@devsoter3020]

the entire video literally revolves around the title of the video

[@nharry9763]

And he told 3 stories he’s already told on the channel multiple times to get the video to be exactly ten minutes..putting revenue above your viewers time .. shame

[@mjso]

Along with the cocky snob faces

[@MrMoneyHelper]

The NF3 pickup is something that I want to see taken apart. Is it just stacked single coils? For decades we've known about making stacked single coils into humbuckers. Paul has said in interviews that they have found a way to tune pickups to make them sound any way they want. The James Bay signature Epiphone Inspired by 1966 Century guitar has a quiet P90. That quiet P90 is just a double stacked P90. It did lose some of the frequency response of a regular P90. Are the PRS pickups really so special? They do sound good. Are they more hype than innovation?

[@Robstafarian]

The PRS Narrowfield pickup is a humbucker with a narrower aperture (i.e. the length of the string sensed by the poles) than standard humbuckers; a major factor in single-coil tone is single-coil pickups' extremely-narrow apertures. Numerous examples of narrow-aperture humbuckers exist, including the Wilde Pickups L-500 series (still made by Bill Lawrence's widow Becky and their daughter Shannon) which has several other differences to typical humbuckers. Whereas the theories behind PRS's tuning of pickup capacitance and inductance are not unique to them, their particular process may be. A pickup's inductance is the primary indicator of its output, higher inductance being louder, and its frequency response becomes darker alongside increases in inductance. With that said, a given inductance will sound darker as the pickup's capacitance increases (Eddy currents also factor into this.). PRS tunes inductance and capacitance to create a desired frequency response within a desired output range, while constructing the pickup to support other design goals (like the coil-split sound and output level). The aforementioned Wilde Pickups L-500 series humbuckers were designed according to the same fundamental theory decades ago, and their unique construction minimizes eddy currents (For more information, see US Patent Number 4,364,295 dated December 21, 1982.).

[@supermario2100]

PRS did a couple other 3-single coli guitars around the time of the original NF3, the 305 and the DC3. The DC3 was the most Strat-like, although it had a slab body and fairly ugly pickguard that it shared with the NF3. Now that PRS can get away with making guitars much more Strat-like, the SE NF3 looks a lot better lol. To me, this goes head-to-head with something more like a Firebird VII on sound, with the three mini humbuckers.

[@maxpower975]

Come on guys we need to pump those numbers. 869 likes? Like and share! I enjoy very much your videos Mike. Greetings from Switzerland.

[@GabrielGomes]

Same as @rhettshull dropping his "Remember, there's no plan B" catchphrase maybe you could drop the "It doesn't matter what I think, it matters what you think..." because why the hell did I watch you realize things for 15 minutes if none of it matters? Stand for your content bro

[@reubenrozeyt5716]

3 humbuckers that sound like single single coil Jeez what does the coil splitting sound?

[@Robstafarian]

Parallel humbucking probably would be a better choice than coil splitting for these pickups.

[@temorinkaari]

I can't imagine a lot of people wanting this guitar. Sure, it looks good on paper. Until you realize you're stuck with the NF pickups. If you want to swap them out - you're out of luck. If you want to try the pickups in another guitar - you're out of luck. It's a one trick pony

[@MaxPrehl]

Really? How come?

[@ABeautifulCrash]

Pickups are an odd size.. pickguard would need to be cut to fit humbuckers… and single coils to small for pickguard.

[@frederickvondrasek5618]

...this seems like the first Fender-tending PRS (I guess the Core line version was probably the first, really) that seems as though it could be truly rotten sounding--which is a thing all electric guitars must be able to do. All functional Teles can. There's a tendency to P-90 nastiness in the cuts I've heard that make it seem more capable of skronk than even their P-90 guitars. Nice. Scrape the birdies off the neck and I'll shop for one maybe...

[@tfk3160]

Do you play guitar?

[@nicholsjon9472]

I like your videos. Can you do some where you fight some MMA fighters?

[@Kaz999998]

Dude, just do a shoutout with all your S type guitars.

[@michaelmiddlemanmagro47]

How would this compare to the Sire S7

[@oliversteelemusic]

I’m a simple man, I see a Mike Cole video with Silver Sky in the title, I click on it immediately and watch.

[@josephstone9439]

Kinda sounds like a p90

[@Robstafarian]

I will never understand why every guitarist on the Internet suddenly decided last year to start writing and saying the PRS SE model names out of sequence. The PRS SE DGT and the PRS SE NF3 guitars have those model names for a specific reason, common to the other SE series guitars. The only time that "SE" has ever followed the model name is the series which preceded this entire era of the SE series: the Santana SE series. Using the aforementioned incorrect naming scheme would give the current PRS SE Santana signature model the name of the preceding line. Clearly, no one cares.

[@GROCK619]

I still would choose a Fender..leo got it right from the Start

[@crimsontower]

From the strat* hehehe..aight imma head out

[@Robstafarian]

Contemporary Fender has little to do with Leo Fender's work. That aside, why shit on Leo Fender's later work at G&L Guitars which he considered his best?

[@Elienguitar]

The silver sky feels like the fat end of a baseball bat. The Schecter Nick johnson imo has better feeling neck to include locking tuners and roasted maple.

[@Dainty1001]

Trying to compare a $799 PRS to a silver sky? Lol.

[@SethJB]

Strap in for another hour long story about random junk before the actual guitar, boys.

[@diegolatorre6793]

So you hacked the system somehow

[@siamese1414]

Damn....you talk a lot.

[@cmkilcullen8176]

Naahhh!

[@jasonyltan7672]

Got a SS SE, no mojo, sold it in 6 months. Got an NOS Yamaha Pacifica 612, best HSS I’ve ever played, better than all Mexican Fenders and even Indonesian Ibanez AZs, and practically cheaper than everything else.

[@ryanc2465]

This video could have been a 20 second short. Thanks for exposing yourself as a sellout with exactly 10 min long videos filled with the same BS stories you’ve constantly told.

[@flogginga_dead_horse4022]

The pickups are so ugly though :P

[@mykhedelic6471]

Personally opposed to the Silver Sky, but this is a bit more interesting. Like Mike said, more Paul's comment on a Strat than just , "look, now we make one of these, and with a big signature endorsement." I also thought their take on the Tele was interesting.

[@28mmRPG]

The Untold lesson here: if you buy cheap guitars, don't expect a good trade value if you want to trade up! There is a reason why I buy particular guitars that hold or even exceed the purchased value... and they play nicely when you have them. it's too bad YT influencers don't say this and just purchase to sell the latest crap you show off... but that seems to be the gimmick. NF3 is muddy... you want strat, stick with a US made Fender Strat, tho nothing wrong with a silver sky (and don't order unless you know how to set up... the trip the transit the different temperatures during travel and storage effects the wood shrinking and expanding, it always needs to be set up no matter how much you pay... I always buy in-store and after I tried it in my hands)

[@jaywells5283]

Okay, you done fucked up a aron! Sound does not go into the guitar! Thus, it’s not an input Jack! It’s an output Jack! I’m sorry, this bothers me, solely for the above reason! Nothing horrible, but I’m finding out that this is not common knowledge, and people still call it that! Remember; Sound = out of the guitar! Not into the guitar! Keep up the good work though!

[@moxeboy]

Bro’s outta video ideas huh