REVIEW: PRS SE Custom 24

People might have gotten bored from hearing another good thing about PRS guitars. And it's sad but true. There is barely anything wrong with any PRS guitar, barring personal preferences. And this review is the same. Except I've owned and been using this guitar since the start of 2012. So I believe I'm a legitimate user to give a review and can chime in on the playability, reliability, long term issuesm etc. So here goes!


The guitar is a PRS SE Custom 24 from 2009. Let's make out the differences between the old pre-2012 SE Custom 24 and the newer post-2012 SE Custom 24.


1. Body. My '09 has a flat top, while the new post-2012 ones have bevelled tops. The body is made from the same mahogany + maple top combo. However, the proportions are different. While the thickness is almost the same on both, the '09 had an approximately 7mm thick maple top while the new one has a considerably thicker one, as one can judge from the bevel and the natural edge binding. It's almost twice the thickness of the old SE's maple top, which may result in a different tone.

2. Controls. My '09 has a master volume, master tone and a 3-way toggle switch. The post-2012 model has a 3-way blade switch and coil split on the tone control. It's a change made in conjunction with PRS's USA line, which has also swapped out the 3-way toggle switch in favour of a 5-way blade switch, which gives the same config as the 5-way rotary switch circuit from the '90's PRSes.

3. Inlays. All standard spec PRS guitars now come with the bird inlays, including the SE line, excluding some signature models. My '09 had the moon inlays, which looked pretty cool, but what I wanted back then was the birds. They did grow on mr eventually. The moon inlays were actually quite unique, as no one else did that, and most guitars had only the regular dots. I applaud PRS for taking this approach instead of rolling with the regular dots on all their SEs. Obviously, it made no difference tone-wise, but it was worth a mention as most people think of them as deal breakers.

Here's the lowdown on the basics...

The weight was medium-light. Slightly heavier than the SE Singlecut I had tried while deciding between these two. The Wide Thin neck profile is possibly the best profile I've ever had in my hands. Either that or the Wide Fat profile. These necks are fine, real fine. The size is just nice, with a perfect blend of thickness and shredability. Rhythm playing doesn't feel tiring, and lead playing is like surfing on the frets. The 43mm nut width is great for most playing style. The lower frets don't feel as cramped up as regular Fender/Gibson neck profiles for people with thick fingers. One downside is the thumb-over-top fretting might be hard for people doing that John Mayer-ish stuff due to the 43mm nut width.

The vibrato system (or tremolo) is a great concept because the bridge mounting screws all have an anchor point for the knife edge of the vintage-style 6 screw bridge. Although the bridge is not hardened and milled like on the USA bridge, they're not too shabby at all. In fact they're still one of the best vibrato bridge I've tried on any standard shop-wall display guitars. No sharp screw protrusions from the saddle, and also the saddles won't budge to the side when forced, due to the "tray" design that fits all saddles perfectly. Vibrato arm is a push-in, as according to Paul, the screw in types tend to break off inside the arm hole and one can never get the other end out without a huge hassle. Paul's design utilised a rubber/plastic sleeve that tightens with a turn on the grub screw located by the side. The arm can be positioned wherever you want it, as well as being easier to remove. I believe the biggest improvement Paul has ever done to guitars, is not the pickups, not the wood, not the tuners etc, but the vibrato bridge.

The stock pickups were PRS SE HFS Treble and SE Vintage Bass pickups, which were manufactured in Korea as well, by G&B Pickups Co. and I gotta say they do sound great. Somehow, G&B was able to sort of nail 80% of that PRS sound, and still have a very affordable price. The HFS Treble pickups sounds just like what the name implies, Hot, Fat and Screams. The bass frequency is somewhat less defined, while the mids are honky fat. Treble frequencies are bright and has a really fast pick response, present in ceramic magnet pickups. Distorted, they do sound like they'll cover most grounds, lots of classic 80's metal/90's rock grind going on, with clarity retained all the way. Sounds like they're in the same tonal ballpark as a Duncan JB, but with less power/grain and also emphasising a different frequency. The Vintage Bass is a surprise. The original USA Vintage Bass had Alnico II magnets and is bright and clear-sounding. Now I doubt the SE version has Alnico II magnets, but it does have an Alnico V edge to it. Deep thumpy bass, less prominent mids and a bright treble. Classic Alnico V sound, so I'm betting it's an Alnico V magnet inside. In fact, it's quite a lot closer to a vintage humbucker tone than most people would believe. Vintage PAFs were brighter than most people would admit (I mean, that's what the tone knobs are for, right?). The Vintage Bass is bright but rounder around the edges. Kind of like a more refined, modern version of the PAF. Amazing cleans, amazing blues tone when distorted, just amazing.

However... My '09 (well, you can call her Cherry...) had undergone many pickup changes. I was looking for different tones all the time. I have replaced them (and also replaced the replacements, a lot!), since my musical taste has been constantly evolving and broadening. I had installed Dimarzio D Activators, Seymour Duncan Custom 5 bridge, Wilkinson Hots, PRS Dragon II Treble(I loved this one the most!) The current set of pickups fitted are Kent Armstrong RagTop/Convertible P90s in line with my current direction... They are KA's take on the Gibson P94 pickups, and boy do they sound good. But, I'm not here to talk about aftermarket pickups, so on we move....

Stock SE tuners were fine, but my D string tuner went bad about a year into owning that guitar. They're made by Jin Ho, which is also another respectable Korean factory. The rest of the tuners work fine, still, but the D string tuner was getting pretty scratchy. No big deal actually, but I replaced the whole set with some Dixon tuners for instant relief of my OCD. I believe those are made in China, but they're really good quality and had served me well till this day.

The nut used is a friction-reducing variant, and drop testing it shows that it is made of a pretty bright-sounding material, which is different from regular ABS nuts. However, it seems the nut slots were cut precisely for up to gauge 9 strings only. I could not put in gauge 10 strings without any tuning issues while using the vibrato bridge. Any off-the-shelf Graphtech nut can fit strings up to gauge 11 without tuning issues, so I can't understand why PRS cuts the SE nuts for 9s only. That's really the only issue in this very good guitar.

Other great features include a very thick padded gigbag, which is a plus for guitars this price. For comparison, a Fender MIM Standard or Blacktop (which is discontinued as of 2015) costs about the same price, but no gigbag. I can't imagine pitting an MIM against a PRS SE for value-for-money.

The dual-action truss rod design is also a plus. It's way faster to show truss rod adjustment effects than vintage single-action truss rods. The neck responds immediately to any turning of the truss rod, unlike some single-action rods which might need a day to show the full effect of the adjustment.

Lastly, I believe the factory-fitted strings were pure nickel strings. That's the first thing I noticed after I got my first string change. The stock strings were still fresh when it was changed, and I can hear a brighter sound as well as having a very slightly different feel.

The verdict is that, the PRS SE Custom really did live up to people's expectations. Great guitar, great value, great tone, great gigbag as well! For this price, there's not much one can complain about, apart from maybe the nut. Otherwise, they're just plain great. Underdogs, in fact, since shoppers would more likely buy a Fender/Squier/Gibson/Epiphone, due to the fact that they're the go-to brands. But for those who has a clear and open mind, who wants nothing but great quality and sound, who wants the best of both worlds in playability and tone, these are what you might be looking for.


This is Bernard, signing out!