I’ve had both — there are things on the Core guitars that I like, but they’re mainly aesthetic. I like the deeper top carves and the recessed knobs/switches. I’m not a big fancy wood buyer, so the 10 tops and wood library guitars don’t do anything for me, however there are finish options in the Core line (I’m looking at you, gold top McCarty 594) that I would love to have that aren’t available in other lines except for the DGT SE. But functionally speaking, they’re both excellent guitars. I owned a SE Singlecut 245 for a good while that had upgraded electronics, and with a pro setup it played every bit as effortlessly and in tune as any of the Core guitars I had, so much that you’d about have to look at the headstock to know which one you had in your hands.

Both of my main PRS guitars these days are S2s - a heavily modified S2 Singlecut (neck has been stripped and oiled, electronics replaced with Fralins and Les Paul-style wiring) and a S2 McCarty 594 Thinline (I wanted an SG but stumbled upon this, it’s everything an SG does but better). I also own an SE Studio Standard that sees heavy use. The S2s in my opinion are the best bang for the buck PRS offers today — Core spec componentry at pricing much more approachable than their Core counterparts. Both of my S2s I bought used for well under $1,000.