View other reviews for this product:
tjon901 « The new PRS Custom 24 in a classic PRS finish »
Published on 12/15/11 at 13:39The PRS Custom 24 is the flagship of the regular PRS line. This is pretty much a custom guitar you can go out and buy in most guitar shops. PRS is a smart company in that they do not sit on a successful model without ever trying to improve it they constantly strive to make it better and better. This is the new PRS Custom 24 model. You can get it in a variety of finishes and you can also pick the one of the two PRS neck shapes. They use to be called Wide-Fat and Wide-Thin but they are now called Pattern Regular and Pattern Thin respectively. This example had the thinner neck. The guitar has a mahogany body and a mahogany neck. The neck has an Indian rosewood fretboard with ivory bird inlays. Up top you get a set of the PRS winged locking tuners. The bridge is the PRS Fender style Tremolo. I would prefer a hardtail version but they do not make many hardtail Custom 24's. This example had the stock 59/09 pickups still in it. The control layout has pretty unique placement with a volume and tone with a 5 way blade switch that splits coils. The blade switch replaces the old rotary switch that use to come on these models.
UTILIZATION
PRS is like the Apple computers of the guitar world. They are always looking to improve their models and they dont really care if you have grown attached to a certain feature. If the feature can be improve they are going to improve it. They do not sit on a model for 20 years while the rest of the world moves on around it. The tuners on these guitars are some futuristic locking tuners that PRS has come up with. They do the job and also prevent the string from slipping on the peg which some tuners do not prevent. The pattern thin neck is nice and thin. It is wide as well so it has the old super strat feel to it. The pattern regular neck isnt that fat itself but it has more of a traditional Gibson 50s feel to it while this is more 60s. The tremolo unit even if it looks like something off a 50s Fender it is a really modern design and holds tuning well. It is very stable so you can do double stops on it without going out of tune, something you cannot do on a lot of tremolos.
SOUNDS
The 59/09 pickups in this guitar are PRS's take on the old school PAF design. They have a bit more of a modern feel to them and PRS's guitars are modern overall so the feeling fits. Both of the pickups are very smooth. Usually just the neck pickup has a smooth tone to it but on this guitar both pickups have a very smooth classy feeling to it. The switching on this guitar is slightly different. Position 1 gives you the bridge humbucker like you expect. Position 2 gives you the bridge humbucker with a single coil split tone from the neck. The middle position gives you both the neck and the bridge in humbucker and position 4 gives both pickups in single coil mode. The last position gives you the full on neck position sound.
OVERALL OPINION
If you own a PRS Custom 24 it is most likely the flagship of your collection. These guitars are works of art as much as they are instruments. The craftmanship on these guitars is amazing to behold. You havent seen a flamed top until you see a PRS 10 top. The quality on these guitars rivals something you would get out of a custom shop. PRS being on the market and growing in popularity has made other companies advance their designs and overall game in the guitar industry. Competition betters the breed and if more guitar makers adopted a more modernized approach to guitar designs we the player would benefit greatly.
UTILIZATION
PRS is like the Apple computers of the guitar world. They are always looking to improve their models and they dont really care if you have grown attached to a certain feature. If the feature can be improve they are going to improve it. They do not sit on a model for 20 years while the rest of the world moves on around it. The tuners on these guitars are some futuristic locking tuners that PRS has come up with. They do the job and also prevent the string from slipping on the peg which some tuners do not prevent. The pattern thin neck is nice and thin. It is wide as well so it has the old super strat feel to it. The pattern regular neck isnt that fat itself but it has more of a traditional Gibson 50s feel to it while this is more 60s. The tremolo unit even if it looks like something off a 50s Fender it is a really modern design and holds tuning well. It is very stable so you can do double stops on it without going out of tune, something you cannot do on a lot of tremolos.
SOUNDS
The 59/09 pickups in this guitar are PRS's take on the old school PAF design. They have a bit more of a modern feel to them and PRS's guitars are modern overall so the feeling fits. Both of the pickups are very smooth. Usually just the neck pickup has a smooth tone to it but on this guitar both pickups have a very smooth classy feeling to it. The switching on this guitar is slightly different. Position 1 gives you the bridge humbucker like you expect. Position 2 gives you the bridge humbucker with a single coil split tone from the neck. The middle position gives you both the neck and the bridge in humbucker and position 4 gives both pickups in single coil mode. The last position gives you the full on neck position sound.
OVERALL OPINION
If you own a PRS Custom 24 it is most likely the flagship of your collection. These guitars are works of art as much as they are instruments. The craftmanship on these guitars is amazing to behold. You havent seen a flamed top until you see a PRS 10 top. The quality on these guitars rivals something you would get out of a custom shop. PRS being on the market and growing in popularity has made other companies advance their designs and overall game in the guitar industry. Competition betters the breed and if more guitar makers adopted a more modernized approach to guitar designs we the player would benefit greatly.