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King Loudness « Versatile and classy »
Published on 08/11/11 at 09:53The PRS CE-24 is designed to be a slightly lower end version of their famed 24 fret flagship, the Custom 24. It features a solid mahogany body with a classy flamed maple top as well as a nice binding that surrounds the top. It also has a bolt on maple neck with rosewood fretboard and 24 frets, PRS locking tuners, PRS designed vibrato unit, PRS designed Vintage Bass and HFS humbuckers, and a control layout of a volume control, a tone control, and a 5 way rotary switch that combines the tones of the full humbuckers with some split coil and parallel wired sounds as well. This guitar was built in the USA PRS factory, same as the higher end Custom 22s and 24s.
UTILIZATION
The PRS guitars have always been considered to be like a blend between a Fender and a Gibson as far as their feel and design. It has the mahogany construction, maple top, dual humbuckers and classic sunburst finish of a Gibson, but the longer scale length, tremolo, maple neck, more versatile switching system and lighter weight of a Fender style guitar. To me it really combines the best of both worlds as far as feel and tone. The guitar is fairly light and sits on the body extremely well. The upper fret access is stellar, and reaching 24 is no problem whatsoever.
Getting a good tone out of this guitar really isn't difficult because of the high quality PRS pickups that are in this guitar. The Vintage Bass and HFS pickups are quite versatile and combined with the PRS rotary switch, the guitar is able to go from great clean jazz or country tones all the way through to searing and soaring "fall to your knees in ecstasy" lead tones. Awesome...
SOUNDS
I've tried this guitar through various Fender and Marshall amps. This particular guitar has the distinction of having the BEST clean sound I've ever heard. I used it at a house gig recently along with a Diamond Compressor and a 1964 Blackface Super Reverb with 4 10s. Song after song I was just marveling at how godlike the tones were... it was unreal. I could go from really smooth jazz textures to some really convincing country tones for chicken pickin' and then finish off with the world's most perfect gutsy blues tone that had me in chills when I dug into it hard enough.
The dirty tones are equally as stellar, though I haven't had a chance to try them in QUITE as nice a setting. The neck pickup is perfect for legato fusion and shred lines. Arpeggios just work so well with that particular pickup and my favoured smooth lead tone. The HFS bridge pickup has long been one of my favourite pickups and in this guitar it's easy to see why. It has that perfect snarl and bite that drives any amp into overdriven mercy and as a result, it just works excellent for rock and metal riffage. Despite this though it still has a spongy vintage quality that makes it sound like an old PAF, just... brought into the modern age.
OVERALL OPINION
All in all I think the PRS CE24 is just a killer example of a versatile giggers guitar. It does every tone anyone could want, and uses top notch parts and craftsmanship to boot. They can be had for about $1,300 used which is an absolute steal for the quality and TONE that you're getting. If you want a super versatile guitar that is a near perfect blend of Fender and Gibson, give the PRS CE-24 (or if you prefer 22 frets, try the CE-22) a shot. You won't be disappointd!
UTILIZATION
The PRS guitars have always been considered to be like a blend between a Fender and a Gibson as far as their feel and design. It has the mahogany construction, maple top, dual humbuckers and classic sunburst finish of a Gibson, but the longer scale length, tremolo, maple neck, more versatile switching system and lighter weight of a Fender style guitar. To me it really combines the best of both worlds as far as feel and tone. The guitar is fairly light and sits on the body extremely well. The upper fret access is stellar, and reaching 24 is no problem whatsoever.
Getting a good tone out of this guitar really isn't difficult because of the high quality PRS pickups that are in this guitar. The Vintage Bass and HFS pickups are quite versatile and combined with the PRS rotary switch, the guitar is able to go from great clean jazz or country tones all the way through to searing and soaring "fall to your knees in ecstasy" lead tones. Awesome...
SOUNDS
I've tried this guitar through various Fender and Marshall amps. This particular guitar has the distinction of having the BEST clean sound I've ever heard. I used it at a house gig recently along with a Diamond Compressor and a 1964 Blackface Super Reverb with 4 10s. Song after song I was just marveling at how godlike the tones were... it was unreal. I could go from really smooth jazz textures to some really convincing country tones for chicken pickin' and then finish off with the world's most perfect gutsy blues tone that had me in chills when I dug into it hard enough.
The dirty tones are equally as stellar, though I haven't had a chance to try them in QUITE as nice a setting. The neck pickup is perfect for legato fusion and shred lines. Arpeggios just work so well with that particular pickup and my favoured smooth lead tone. The HFS bridge pickup has long been one of my favourite pickups and in this guitar it's easy to see why. It has that perfect snarl and bite that drives any amp into overdriven mercy and as a result, it just works excellent for rock and metal riffage. Despite this though it still has a spongy vintage quality that makes it sound like an old PAF, just... brought into the modern age.
OVERALL OPINION
All in all I think the PRS CE24 is just a killer example of a versatile giggers guitar. It does every tone anyone could want, and uses top notch parts and craftsmanship to boot. They can be had for about $1,300 used which is an absolute steal for the quality and TONE that you're getting. If you want a super versatile guitar that is a near perfect blend of Fender and Gibson, give the PRS CE-24 (or if you prefer 22 frets, try the CE-22) a shot. You won't be disappointd!