PRS Paul Reed Smith Wood Library Custom 24 Guitar, Satin Jade Smokeburst, Brazilian Rosewood

Music Store Live is proud to offer up yet another drop-dead gorgeous beauty from our friends over at Paul Reed Smith! The top is really good on this one and shows off the perks of getting to go to the factory and hand-select the exact pieces of wood we want to be used for the instruments made for our store. Awesome figuring with some cool uniqueness to it!

As one of PRS's top independent dealers, we often have the privilege of heading out to their factory in Maryland to pick out all of the woods and specifications for a unique and exclusive run of guitars that can only be purchased through our shop! Here's the latest offering in our wood library vault.

Sonically, we went with PRS's "metal" pickups, which are certainly a bit overwound, but they are far from being one-trick ponies. The name is almost misleading. They sound awesome with higher gain settings, but can also handle clean tones with ease. Rather than thinking of them as metal pickups, they're really just slightly more aggressive sounding pickups than PRS's 85/15's. The swamp ash body, rosewood neck, and Brazilian rosewood fretboard add some nice brightness to the tone while still maintaining a fullness and warmth that will combine to make your sound a force to be reckoned with in a mix. 

Every vibration is efficiently and effectively transferred through every piece of wood and metal. While this is certainly a guitar that's easy on the eyes, the playability and tone match the looks in every way. This is an instrument that leaves nothing to be desired. The feel of the raw rosewood of the neck is absolutely divine. It's got to be one of the best feeling necks out there, hands down. The Brazilian rosewood fretboard is the holy grail of tonewoods for good reason. It's got the perfect balance of brightness and articulation in the high-mids to really cut through and stand out when you need to.

We fly all the way across the country several times a year to do this so that we are personally going out there and choosing the very best of the wood selection that PRS has to offer. We pour a lot of passion into each design that we come up with together with the wonderful team over at PRS. The goal is always to design instruments that are not only unique and look beautiful, but also sound absolutely phenomenal.

The Custom 24 is the quintessential PRS guitar. This iconic instrument was the first model that Paul Reed Smith brought to the public at PRS Guitars’ first Winter NAMM show in 1985 and has been a top seller ever since. Played by internationally touring artists, gigging musicians, and aspiring players, the Custom 24 features PRS’s patented Gen III tremolo system and PRS \m/ pickups with volume and tone controls and a 5-way blade switch. The PRS \m/ pickups are great for heavier styles of music and were designed with the metal community in mind. Both the treble and bass \m/ pickups are wound in house at PRS and utilize ceramic magnets for full, powerful and crystal clear tones. Whether used with massive amounts of gain or played clean, \m/ pickups are the perfect tool for the player who wants an aggressive and articulate tone.

There are several appointments on this guitar that make this truly an exclusive piece. The following are not available on standard CORE Custom 24 models and were hand-picked while at the PRS factory:

- Quilt Maple Top
- Swamp Ash Lightweight Body
- East Indian Rosewood Neck
- Brazilian Rosewood Fretboard
- Green Ripple Outline Inlays
- \m/ Pickups
- Satin Jade Smokeburst Finish
- Smoked Black Hardware

The Custom 24 is the original PRS. Since its introduction, it has offered a unique tonal option for serious players and defined PRS tone and playability.

Pickup Switching Positions

Position One: Bridge humbucker
Position Two: Bridge humbucker with neck singlecoil, in parallel
Position Three: Bridge and neck humbuckers
Position Four: Neck singlecoil with bridge singlecoil, in parallel
Position Five: Neck humbucker

PATTERN NECK SHAPES

Neck shapes have always been a high priority for PRS and a hallmark of our quality. A guitar should feel comfortable, like "home," as soon as you pick it up, and the neck is paramount to that connection. These new neck shapes reflect modern tooling and programming that allows us to even more preciously shape and consistently reproduce our necks. The "Pattern Thin" neck is an updated version of PRS’s traditional Wide Thin neck.

It’s All in the Details: TCI-Tuned Pickups

Paul Reed Smith is known as a man who studies history, scrutinizes the details, and never stops applying what he learns to his own instruments. It is that passion, care, and tenacity that has permeated PRS Guitars’ culture and led to the constant evolution of PRS products. Last year, PRS announced TCI (tuned capacitance and inductance) pickups on the Paul’s Guitar. But, TCI is more than a pickup, it’s a process. That process has now been applied to all PRS pickups offered on our Core line of instruments, with the exception of a few artist Signature models.

“TCI stands for Tuned Capacitance Inductance. When you wind a pickup, the coils are capacitors, resistors, and inductors simultaneously. Our more refined ability to be able to tune those factors is what we have incorporated into TCI pickups,” said Paul Reed Smith. “To our ears, the results are very musical. We are very proud of how far we’ve come in the understanding and making of pickups. It’s been a fun process.”