PRS S2 STUDIO

£1,589

In a year noted for limited-run guitars, PRS’s S2 Studio was an exception. If you can find one, that is. Launched back in January, it took months to arrive and is now absent from the 2019 PRS line-up. Great. So, why did we give it a guitarist Gold award and why are we featuring it here if it’s so exclusive? Quite simply, it’s one of the finest PRS guitars we’ve had the pleasure to play over many years.

As a part of the USA-made S2 line, it’s way more affordable than the high-level Core guitars. It’s also squarely aimed at the considerable number of players who don’t want a guitar dripping in flame maple, bird-inlaid bling. The all-mahogany build (and the first three-pickup S2) uses a Starla Treble humbucker at the bridge and two Type-D single coils at the middle and neck controlled by a five-way lever that swaps the usual middle pickup in the centre position for a bridge-and-neck mix. “Not only does it hold its own, but along with the stable vibrato performance and general in-tune-ness, it offers a different and distinct voice. It’s not a Strat, it’s not a typical PRS, and it’s different enough from the Vela or Starla to have substantial validity.” www.prsguitars.com