I been playing for ~16 years. I have one nice guitar and one beater. The nice one is a SE. I can't imagine needing another...maybe a single coil at some point.
I’ve had the 513 for a couple years. Saw the SE on Sweetwater and just had to have it. The neck is WAY different between the two. The 513 has a “pattern vintage” neck of solid rosewood and the feel in the hand is so incredible.
To me, it’s best described as the well worn feeling of a stair hand rail that’s about 40 years old and worn smooth/oiled by countless hands.
The neck on the SE is the new “pattern thin” and it feels more like my old Ibanez RG. Very flat and fast. The scale length is different, and the extra two frets on the 24 make more of a difference than I’d have thought.
You mention the se feels like an Ibanez, and I totally agree. I think they are classified as Ibanez style aren't they? The neck reminds my of my beat up mij Jackson dinky. Super comfy. My only knock is that it's really hard to fret chords up past 12, which is fine cause I rarely do anyway. Overall I love it. Super easy to play, versatile, I might even do some pup upgrades eventually.
Oh I totally agree with chords past 12! I’ve got sausage fingers anyway, and getting even basic triads is a chore. Up that high is single notes and double stop territory. Anything more it’s gonna be a squish.