PRSSE CUSTOM 24-08

The best SE ever?

It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years since we saw the first PRS SE guitar. Where have those decades gone? It took PRS some time before they created their ‘import’ line - their Squier or Epiphone, if you like - and from a slow start with a single Santana guitar, the SE range now outsells the exclusive USA models by quite margin. Do the maths: a USA Core PRS Custom 24-08 will cost you around £3,799; the SE version we have here is nearly three grand less.

Originally made in Korea, the SE line is now built in Indonesia in a special tie-up with Cor-tek who also make for numerous other brands as well as manufacturing their own Cort range. Now, many of us don’t care where our guitars are made but we should all care how well they’re made, and this relatively recent location change has put a real rocket up the backsides of the SE team.

The new SE Custom 24-08 is based on the USA model and the key elements are the same: that now-classic body and headstock outline, the ‘halfway 25” scale length for starters and while the vibrato, like the rest of the hardware and pickups are based on the pucker USA parts, they’re not made in the USA. New here is a ‘shallow violin’ top carve that more closely emulates the USA models though, as ever, the figured maple we see is a thin veneer applied over a plain maple cap. But comparing our review model with a USA made CE 24, it was hard to tell the difference between veneer and solid wood.

Yes, the glued-in neck here is maple, not mahogany, and is a longitudinal laminate of three pieces, nicely grain matched for stability. The Wide Thin profile isn’t vastly different to Fender’s American Pro II Strat HSS we recently reviewed, slightly wider at the nut (42.8mm) with a similar depth at the 1st fret of just over 20mm that fills out to 22.7mm by the 12th fret. The back carve is a wide C, certainly nothing like a flat-backed D shape of a shred axe either. It might be the thinnest depth profile PRS offers but it still feels very mainstream not least with its 10” fingerboard radius and medium jumbo frets: not to big; not too small - the middle ground.

Part of the recent rise in detail of the SE guitars lies in the pickups.

PERFECT FOR THE PLAYER THAT WANTS TO CROSS GENRES

These are not your off-the-shelf Asian fare. The TCI ‘S’ humbuckers here closely ape those of the USA Core Paul’s Guitar and have, we’re told, been tweaked from those used on the SE version of that guitar. As we explain in our boxout, the single coil switching, achieved via those two mini-toggle switches, is slightly different too and with a switch for each pickup you can combine bridge humbucker with neck single coil, and vice versa giving us the two extra sounds over the standard six of SE Custom 24. The drive is simple: master volume (with a treble bleed to keep things clear as you roll the volume down), master tone and a three-way toggle switch to

1 NECK

PRS’SUSA-MADE guitars typically use mahogany for their gluedin necks. the modern se’ s use maple. what doesn’ t change is the 10” radius finger board with the trademark bird inlays.

2 PICKUPS

The ‘s’ humbuckers are made in indonesia but closely follow PRS’S designs. Here, the TCI ‘S’ hum buckers, asu se don the SE Paul’s Guitar, are designed to maximise the humbucker and single coil voices.

3 VIBRATO

Closelymodelled onthevibratoprs introduced with their original custom back in 1985,themodernse version is cast, not machined, from steel. As ever, the arm push-fits and can be adjusted for swing tension.

select bridge, both and neck as usual.

All you have to remember is that pushed away from you those two-position mini switches voice the pickups in humbucking mode, switch them towards you and you’re in true single coil mode. And it’s this duality that makes the 24-08 such a versatile guitar; in fact we started our sound test in single coil mode and where some coil splits sound thin and sharp we’re not hearing that: the highs are clear and clean but don’t rattle your fillings as you turn up to gig levels. Through a Helix into our DAW we’re hearing a classy single coil that loves even quite dense FX yet also sounds very classy and soulful with a clean amp. A bright green axe with bird inlays might not shout old blues but the sounds certainly do if you want. The single coil mix is very Fender-y too; to be honest if this was all we had we’d still be raving about this guitar.

But it isn’t. Listening to the full humbucker voices, gone is the overwound midrange clout of the original PRS sound. These are very different, a more classic P.a.f-like clarity – but again without the sharp edge at the bridge – with a bit of heat. We’d call it hot vintage, classic with a bit of kick.

Impeccably fit for purpose, here’s a guitar for the player that really wants to cross genres, a superb studio guitar and a perfect fit for those function gigs when they return. And, hey, it comes in Vintage Sunburst, too!