PRS Private Stock Modern Eagle V Limited Run

PRS’s Private Stock is the place to go for a custom-specification one-off instrument built to the highest quality imaginable. Increasingly, PRS also uses its Private Stock to test the water for a new model, such as this 120-only limited run. It’s the latest and most switch-tastic version of the Modern Eagle (which originally appeared back in 2004) and the latest version of the ‘Swiss Army knife’ 513 and 509.

Switching aside, its stunning specification includes a curly maple for its neck, rather than the more-frequently used mahogany; a Brazilian rosewood fingerboard and headstock facing; top-grade European curly maple top; and a one-piece mahogany back. All in all, it’s the epitome of guitar-making opulence.

Aside from being the sort of heirloom piece that would make you unsure as to whether to play or put it in a glass cabinet, the 635mm (25-inch) scale ME V bundles in the sort of sound potential that leaves most in the shade. We certainly expect to see this in a more affordable Core level format because to tone tweakers everywhere it’s not just about sound switching, it’s about the subtleties of the single-coil and humbucking pickup presented here in a seemingly limitless fashion. In basic terms, it takes the 408-style ‘TCI’ pickups we’ve already seen on this year’s Paul’s Guitar and adds a PRS single coil in middle position, a slightly smaller design with flush magnetic poles designed to keep out of the way of your picking hand.

The three pickups are selected by the five-way lever switch, but it actually offers 17 different sounds thanks to the true single-coil switching of each humbucker and a pull switch on the tone control that voices neck and bridge simultaneously in positions 1 and 5 on the five-way selector. In the other three positions, all three pickups are voiced. Then there’s the subtle flavouring of the 500k/250k switch, which technically doubles the combinations up to 34!

Numbers aside, it’s the true single-coil voices – not least in combination with the rare-for-PRS middle pickup – that produce the most Strat-like sounds we’ve heard on a PRS glued-neck platform: bell-like and balanced. The ‘hot vintage’ humbuckers purr or roar and the seemingly endless mixed pickup voices provide distinct shade. We can’t wait for the Core version!

3 3. Like the fingerboard and tuner buttons, the headstock facing is Brazilian rosewood. The finish of our sample is Tiger Eye gloss nitro with ripple abalone bird inlays. The headstock eagle is always used on Private Stock models

1 1. As with Paul’s Guitar, the neck pickup is reversed so the slug poles face the neck, another small tweak to increase the accuracy of the single-coil voice. In full coil mode it has a measured DCR of 8.03kohms; when split it measures 4.04k

4. This PRS Gen III vibrato is currently only available on Private Stock models. Each string is locked in the saddle to offer ultimate pitch stability. Slightly narrower than a standard humbucker, this 408-style ‘TCI’ humbucker splits to produce a very true-sounding single coil. In full coil mode it has a measured DCR of 9.50kohms; in true single-coil split mode (which voices the slug coil) it measures 4.79kohms 4

2 2. Complex? Not half. Aside from the five-way pickup selector, there are humbucker/singlecoil switches for each pickup, a pull switch on the tone control to voice both humbuckers simultaneously, and the 500k/250k switch, which “takes the amplitude [of the resonant peak] down; it doesn’t alter the frequency”, comments Paul Reed Smith