PRS SE 25th Anniversary Custom 24 Reviewed by Guitarbitz
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| Scarlet Red |
The guitar that Paul Smith took to his first trade show in 1985, the Custom 24 is the model that brought PRS to the party.
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| Vintage Yellow |
Offered in the original three colours from 1985 — Royal Blue, Scarlet Red, and Vintage Yellow — and one of the first SE's to feature old school PRS birds, PRS are proud to offer this commemorative guitar through their Student Edition line.
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| Royal Blue |
The headstock of the 25th Anniversary is that familiar one on all PRS guitars, small and compact, the top and sides smoothly tapered, with a large black truss rod cover and SE Custom in silver script on the front. The front also has a quilted Maple veneer, showing the swirly wood grain through the lacquer.
The back of the headstock has 2 rows of 3-a-side machine heads, PRS designed and branded, they work every bit as well as Grovers. The back also has the manufacturers details and the guitars serial number printed on.
The Maple neck of this model has PRS's 'wide thin' profile, certainly thinner than on some PRS guitars, it feels extremely comfortable, a D profile (maybe a bit of C as well). The top nut is Graphite, and has a width of 43mm.
The neck has a gloss finish, whilst the Rosewood fingerboard is unbound, with 24 well polished and rounded frets. One of the most striking features of the 25th Anniversary Custom is the beautiful pearloid bird inlays, a first on the SE range, only seen before on the US made PRS guitars.
These get smaller towards the treble end of the neck, and feature, amongst others, Hawks, Falcons, Sparrows and Kite's.
Superbly set up by the Korean factory, the intonation is spot on and action about 2mm across the strings at the 12th fret. The fingerboard is a players dream, super smooth and great for solo work, fast runs and inspiring play.
The neck joins the Mahogany body at the 22nd fret on both sides, and the treble side cutaway has a good bit of chamfering, giving comfortable access to all 22 frets.
The back of the body is plain, some rib cage chamfering giving a more comfortable playing position, a black plate to access the back of the tremolo bridge, and another for the electronics.
The front of the body is flat, with a striking quilted Maple top showing off a swirly wood grain underneath the brightly coloured finish.
We have 2 black speed knobs for master volume and tone, and 3 way selector switch, all straight forward stuff. The 2 humbuckers are black open coil types with black surrounds, and the PRS designed tremolo bridge and trem arm are finished in shiny Chrome, with 6 satin steel saddles.
Playing the 25th Anniversary is great fun, it's just so easy to get going and play fast - a shredders delight. The fingerboard is just finished so well, smooth and polished to a high standard, bends and runs are a breeze.
The pickups are responsive as well, a good tonal range, plenty of clarity on the clean channel for brightly tones jingle jangle and pop, but the guitar comes alive on the drive channel, loads of power for ripping rhythm work or piercing solo's alike.
A wonderful addition to the SE range, high specs, superb finishes, great playing and all round, the best far eastern guitar we've played here at Guitarbitz.
Specifications:-
Body: Mahogany, Quilt Maple Veneer
Neck: Maple - Set Neck, wide thin profile
Fingerboard: Rosewood Scale: 25”
Frets: 24
Neck Inlays: pearloid Birds
Tuners: PRS Designed
Pickups: HFS Treble Humbucker, Vintage Bass Humbucker
Bridge: PRS Designed Tremolo
Hardware: Nickel
Controls: 1 Volume, 1 Tone, 3-Way Toggle
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