Your dream guitar can show up in your life in a myriad of ways, and for virtuoso Sophie Burrell, an early presence on social media – coupled with a Facebook group of PRS aficionados – led her to hers: a 2014 PRS Custom 24 Wood Library, which has since become her go-to instrument.

“The back story as to how I acquired this guitar is actually very special and quite unique,” Burrell tells Guitar World.

“I've been playing guitar for a very long time, since I was like nine years old, and I started creating content when I was about 14. I was a member of this group on Facebook called PRS Guitar Owners Worldwide, and I used to post little videos of me playing in there.”

Turns out, someone had spotted her videos and instantly saw her potential. “I was just playing an SE and [he] said, ‘I want to support you. You're great. I think you deserve to be playing on a USA model, not just an SE.’”

The guitarist-turned-patron, Al, gave her the choice of several models from his own collection before ultimately deciding to give her the very guitar she still owns today.

“I was like, ‘Whatever you want, I'll take it. It sounds good.’ I could not believe my eyes when it actually showed up. I'm endlessly grateful to Al, who gifted this guitar to me, and I believe I would not be the player I am today without that.”

Burrell notes that the PRS now feels like an “extension” of her – as soon as she picked it up for the first time, she “immediately clicked with it.

“I come up with my best ideas on this guitar,” she explains. “At this point, it kind of feels like it's part of my soul.”

“If [and] when I get a signature guitar, it would be this [one] in a different color.”

Controversially – or perhaps not so controversially – Burrell refuses to name her guitars. “I've never done that, and I probably never will. I'm just not much of a name-your-guitars type of person,” she admits.

“I name motorbikes, but not guitars.”

PRS is teaming up with Jon Jourdan – the touring guitarist of Wolfgang Van Halen’s Mammoth – on a single-pickup, single-control guitar, modeled after Jourdan’s main touring instrument.

While PRS has launched a few single-pickup models over the years – most notably the LP Junior-style PRS SE One, which developed a cult following – these are much rarer releases for the brand. In fact, Jourdan’s signature is a limited run, as just 200 guitars are up for grabs.

Featuring an all-mahogany guitar with a single PRS Metal pickup in the treble position, Jordan had the volume control moved to the tone pot's traditional location, as he typically plays with the volume wide open. This tweak ensures he won't accidentally hit it when going all out on stage.

When asked why he opted for scaled-back specs, Jourdan says, “At the end of the day, my guitar is a tool. I want it to do exactly what I need it to, so we took out all the ‘extra’ stuff I don’t need. This guitar sounds huge and is incredibly fun to play.

“There’s something about taking out any unnecessary wiring and removing the neck pickup so its magnets aren’t pulling on the strings that makes it feel alive. I can’t imagine anyone playing this guitar having a bad time.”

Other specs include a 22-fret Pattern Regular mahogany neck, ebony fretboard, and PRS adjustable stoptail bridge.

PRS’ quintessential bird inlays have been eliminated – as well as any other inlays, for that matter. However, the guitar does feature green Luminlay side dots so players can easily mark fret positions.

Priced at $4,200 (SE version, please!), there are two attractive finishes to choose from, Gunmetal Metallic and Platinum Metallic – which Mammoth fans can expect to see first-hand at the band’s ongoing The End Tour shows.

Head to PRS Guitars to find out more.

John Mayer is one of the greatest Fender Stratocaster players of all time. Ironic really, considering he rarely actually play a Stratocaster. At least, not anymore.

Instead, he plays the Silver Sky, the signature guitar he developed with PRS, after he famously left Fender in 2014 and took his ideas for an elevated S-style to a company that he felt was willing to turn them into a reality.

It was a huge move. Mayer leaving Fender sent shockwaves through the industry that are still being felt today.

Not only did Fender lose one of its biggest endorsees, it also paved the way for the arrival of the Strat’s biggest rival – one that Fender appears to be seeking to remove from the picture after hitting PRS with a cease-and-desist, ordering the brand to halt production of the Silver Sky.

Mayer moving to PRS came as a shock to many, but for the man himself it was anything but. Before he left Fender, he began dreaming up an instrument that would put a new spin on the Strat – something he maintained that Fender wasn’t interested in executing.

“I tried to do something like this with Fender, but I couldn’t create enough enthusiasm within the company for my vision,” Mayer told Guitar World upon the Silver Sky’s release in 2018. “I’m not hurt by that. No- one is obligated to be enthused about an idea of mine.”

“I wanted to go somewhere where they would take my ideas,” he added in an interview with Jeff Ross. “It was like, ‘Hey, let’s freshen up the electric guitar,’ because the electric guitar is still always this vestige of 1950s and ’60s car and surf culture. 60 years later, you’re still putting out these tributes to the station wagon.”

Mayer’s frustrations with the static nature of Fender’s designs and his desires to take things in a new direction were compounded by the departure of Mike Eldred, the Custom Shop director with whom Mayer had established a strong working relationship.

His absence meant Mayer no longer had a direct contact to go to when he wanted to experiment with his guitars. That stifled Mayer’s ambitions.

“When Mike Eldred left Fender, that was the beginning of the end of that era where artists really had people to talk to at that company,” he told Ross. “One day you’ll call up and you’ll go, ‘Can I get one that’s got a rosewood neck?’

“They’ll go, ‘It says here you already got two this year, and our contract was for two.’ [Whereas] Mike would send me a thing and then we would do something together off of that.”

There were no hard feelings with Fender, but Mayer needed to find a new collaborator who could match his energy. Enter Paul Reed Smith.

At PRS, Mayer found the freedom to go beyond the usual ‘artist signature guitar’ model, working with Smith to develop something grander in its design.

“I wasn’t looking to create a signature model,” he explained to Guitar World. “I want to go a step deeper into the genetic code of things. I’m looking to create a series of instruments that represent my point of view – and have a little desk next to Paul where I can bring some of my ideas to life that, over the years, will tell a story.”

Having that little desk next to Paul’s was key to the whole project. Working closely with the man who started the company meant Mayer could dive headfirst into developing this instrument. It was a far cry from the situation he’d encountered at Fender.

“I'm not talking shit. It's just musical chairs,” Mayer expanded in an Instagram livestream explaining his move. “[At PRS] I get to call the guy whose name is on the guitar, and we get to build stuff together.”

Two years after starting the project, Mayer unveiled the Silver Sky, inspired partly by his 1963 and 1964 Strats. The internet was quick to ridicule the design, dismissing it as an expensive Stratocaster knock-off and slating it for a lack of originality.

But public opinion U-turned once guitarists got their hands on them. That changing tide was emphasized following the launch of the SE Silver Sky, which brought the once-controversial model to the masses at a more affordable price point.

“I knew the Silver Sky would take years to take its place in the world,” Mayer said to Guitar World in 2025, after we named the Silver Sky one of the most important pieces of gear of the 21st century. “And I say this cautiously, but it feels like it’s become pretty widely accepted.”

The sales figures would certainly back up Mayer’s observation. In its end-of-year round-ups, Reverb has continually identified the SE Silver Sky as one of the best-selling guitars of the past three or four years. Indeed, it topped the list in 2022 and 2023, and gave Fender Strats a run for their money in the following years.

Over time, it’s been updated with new finishes, offered in rosewood and maple fretboard configurations, and converted for southpaws. It’s no exaggeration to say it routinely rivals Fender for the best mainstream S-style on the market.

Indeed, there was no getting away from the Stratocaster comparisons – but Mayer wasn’t exactly running from them.

“If you ask someone to draw a guitar, nine out of 10 people are going to draw a Stratocaster,” he told Guitar World back in 2018 by way of explanation. “So, when it came time to work with Paul, it was like, I just thought it would be an easier path to get people to understand that this is a Strat-based body.

“This guitar is based off of the Strat,” he added in the Instagram livestream. “I'm admitting that. I have played a Strat for such a long time in my career that it didn’t make sense to me personally to look down and see a different shape.”

The S-style design, then, was a no-brainer, but it wasn’t all that simple. There are tweaks to the body shape. There’s a three-a-side headstock. Some of the finer details, such as the hardware, have been refined. There are bird inlays.

But overall, it is Mayer’s take on an idealized, elevated S-style – the very thing he was trying to achieve with Fender. Yet he wasn’t concerned with the Silver Sky out-Strat-ing the company.

“I want you to understand that I embrace the Fender thing,” Mayer said in that livestream. “I want to see people play the Silver Sky through a Fender amp. This guitar is made to coexist with Fender amplifiers, with Fender guitars.”

Of course, that co-existence has come under strain recently, and with Fender serving PRS a cease-and-desist letter in May 2026, it seems Mayer’s sentiments aren’t shared by the Big F’s legal team (though they may well be taking note of them).

The butterfly effect of Mayer’s move is significant. If Eldred had stayed at Fender, and the company had accepted Mayer’s brief to build an updated Strat, would the Silver Sky have ever been made?

By extension, if such a monumentally successful S-type hadn’t emerged in the wake of the fallout, would Fender feel the need to assert its ownership of the Strat design so zealously?

It’s impossible to say. But whatever the legal outcome, the Silver Sky will continue to reshape the guitar market – and the modern-day history of the electric guitar itself.

What is it?

I can’t imagine many people had an Ed Sheeran baritone guitar on their bingo cards after he hooked up with PRS back in 2019, but that’s exactly what we’re looking at today with the PRS SE Ed Sheeran Hollowbody I Piezo Baritone. It’s Ed’s first signature electric guitar ever, never mind his first with PRS, and it has certainly taken the guitar community by surprise.

If you’re a racing fan, you may have spied Ed using a Rosso Corsa baritone in the video for his song ‘Drive’, a guitar which he had custom-built specifically for that song by PRS. It’s a pretty different instrument in terms of spec, but the interest in the guitar from that video is what led to the development of the SE model we see today.

The SE Ed Sheeran baritone features a hollow body design with a flat back composed of a maple top and a flame maple veneer, and a mahogany back and sides. It features a center block, and the top is a shallow violin carve with a cream binding, accompanied by dual f-holes that don’t feature the binding of the popular Hollowbody II models.

The neck is maple, shaped to the usual PRS Wide Fat profile. It’s got a rosewood fretboard with a 10-inch radius, cream binding that matches the body, and the classic PRS Bird inlays. It’s a set neck with a 27.7-inch scale length to ensure it can handle the lower tunings of a baritone.

The tuners are PRS-designed and feature ‘winged’ buttons that are wider than the usual ovals I’ve come across on PRS guitars. The bridge is a PRS adjustable stoptail with a PRS/LR Baggs piezo under the saddle, and the pickups come in the form of two 85/15 “S” humbuckers.

Separate volume controls for the piezo and magnetic pickups are combined with a master tone control and a 3-way toggle switch selector. There are two output jacks that offer a mix of piezo and magnetic pickups or magnetic pickups only.

Specs

• Launch price: $1,499 | £1,499 | €1,799
• Made: Indonesia
• Type: Six-string hollow body baritone guitar
• Body: Maple top with flame maple veneer, mahogany back
• Neck: Maple set neck / Wide Fat profile
• Fingerboard: Rosewood
• Scale length: 27.7", 703mm
• Nut/width: PRS synthetic / 43mm
• Frets: 22, PRS standard fret wire
• Hardware: PRS-designed tuners, PRS adjustable stop tail piezo bridge
• String spacing at bridge: 52mm
• Electrics: 2x 85/15 “S” humbuckers, magnetic volume, piezo volume, tone control & 3-way toggle pickup switch
• Weight: 6.6 lbs / 3 kg
• Left-handed options: N/A
• Finishes: Orange Tiger Smokeburst (as reviewed), Kaleidoscope, Pink Ombre
• Case: PRS gig bag
• Contact: PRS

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

As with every PRS SE guitar I’ve come across over the past few years, the build quality here is close to faultless. A close inspection reveals a very small spec of black in the binding on the bass side, where the neck meets the body, and on the treble side at the same point, there’s what looks like some paint bleeding over onto the binding. That aside, I can find nothing out of place in terms of the aesthetic.

It’s got a decent heft to it, even with the hollow body construction, coming in at 3kg on my scales. It all adds to the feeling of solidity, though. On the lower cutaway, there’s some sculpting to help you get at the upper frets more easily, while on the reverse of the guitar, a very slight belly cut aids the comfort factor. The knobs are well applied, and the toggle switch moves with a firm and satisfying click through its three positions.

Looking at the output jack, unusually, there are two outputs, with one marked ‘mix/piezo’ and the other marked ‘mag’. Both are marked so that when you look at them from the playing position, the writing is the right way up, which is a nice touch. There’s a compartment that houses a 9V battery which powers the preamp of the piezo system, although this is only engaged when plugged into the ‘mix/piezo’ jack, so you can use it as an entirely passive instrument with the other output jack.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★½

Sitting down to play the Ed Sheeran Hollowbody baritone on the sofa, the neck feels pretty hefty compared to the standard-scale guitar I’ve been playing before it. It’s not quite a baseball bat, but it’s not far off either, feeling very full in my hand as I strum some open chords. It’s certainly not giving me the ‘shredders’ part of the marketing material around this guitar as I try some legato and three-note-per-string runs.

Trying out some lead work, I can get around pretty quickly, but it’s not quite slinky enough for proper shred stuff. Jumbo frets might have helped here, allowing me to get around the fretboard a bit quicker, but as it is out of the box, I’d be hesitant to call this a shred guitar. Getting my ruler out to quantify that feeling, the action measures around 2mm, so there’s definitely potential for improvement here in that regard.

Bending isn’t as hard as on some of the baritones I’ve played. It’s pretty easy to get a full tone out of it with a supporting finger or two, and I don’t feel as though I have to really fight to eke those out. It does take a bit of adjustment to nail that 22nd fret bend, as my hand naturally hits the non-sculpted part of the cutaway. A little tilt as I reach for that fret solves this, however, and it doesn’t take me long to start accurately hitting it on a consistent basis.

Changing the tuning to drop A and pulling out some ‘Ashes of the Wake’-era Lamb of God riffs, it’s very satisfying indeed to play. The thicker neck profile makes for a nice anchor when alternate picking and digging in with palm muted riffs, and it’s super satisfying to chug along with. Although the scale is comparatively long compared to a normal PRS, it doesn’t feel ginormous, offering a nice balance between length and string tension with the 14-68 gauge strings that come on it from the factory.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

Keen to try the piezo pickup, I plug it straight into a Fender 64 Princeton reissue to see what the clean tones are like. Starting with just the piezo pickup engaged, it sounds great on the treble end of the fretboard, with very little of that ‘plink’ you might expect from this kind of pickup. The low stuff isn’t quite as nice though. It feels as though the piezo struggles to pick up the low string, which results in it getting drowned out when I pick some arpeggiated open chords.

Bringing in the magnetic pickup adds some more of the low end back in, giving it a fuller sound overall. When I switch to the neck humbucker with the piezo and both volume knobs on full, it’s an absolutely delightful tone blend of high-end from the piezo and warm tones from the neck humbucker, that leave me picking arpeggios for a long time. With some spring reverb and a gentle touch of tremolo from the amp, it’s clean tone heaven.

The tone control only affects the magnetic pickups, and rolling this off when combining with the piezo adds huge versatility to the guitar. Switching back to just the neck humbucker makes it feel almost dull in comparison, but that’s also partially because adding the piezo in also increases the overall volume of the guitar, and for the human ear, louder equals better.

Sticking my Joyo Klon clone in front of the amp and dialing up the volume, I find a very smooth lead tone from the humbuckers. Even with some drive applied to chords, they ring out very clearly, but that changes when I add in the piezo. Here, it feels a bit overwhelming, with the individual strings getting lost thanks to the extra high-end the piezo adds. It also makes itself a bit too present on lead work, with that piezo pluck enhanced by the addition of overdrive in the signal chain.

Turning up the gain on the amp and on my overdrive pedal, slow, doomy power chords sound really powerful, and here adding in the piezo gives them some more clank that really suits that particular type of sound. Excited to see if this thing can djent, in lieu of an actual high-gain, metal amp, I switch to my audio interface and Nolly’s Neural DSP plugin.

With the 5150 model selected and the bridge humbucker engaged, there’s a definite metal rhythm tone available here. The low tuning naturally helps some, but the mid-gain of the pickups means it stays pretty articulate. I have to mess with the settings a bit to get it as tight as I’d like, but it’s more than usable for tracking chugs. It works great for leads, too, maintaining that smooth sound and feel when I add some reverb and delay.

Dropping the low string all the way down to an octave below ‘E’ (like a standard bass), it stays surprisingly stable for some djent tones. With the humbuckers on their own, there just isn’t the definition for this type of riffing, though.

Adding the piezo in brings back some clarity, with that clankiness that marks the sound of a lot of down-tuned modern metal. While it can handle these tones, I don’t think it’s all that usable, as it doesn’t have the natural compression of a set of active pickups, making it very difficult to control any extraneous noise with a high-gain amp.

Verdict

I can see the PRS SE Ed Sheeran baritone finding fans across different genres, provided you can get past the name on the headstock. If you’re willing to look beyond your prejudices, you’ll find a very well-made guitar with a playable neck that’s capable of a wide variety of different tones.

While the marketing speak of singer-songwriter to metal head holds true to some degree, it’s not quite capable of proper djent tones and super shreddy stuff, thanks to the pickups and the neck profile. That said, for pretty much any style, you’ll find a sound here, and perhaps some truly unique ones once you start blending in that piezo pickup.

Guitar World verdict: It might be the guitar that no one expected, but the PRS SE Ed Sheeran Hollowbody I Piezo Baritone is a very capable machine indeed. From the typical quality PRS build to the added versatility of the piezo bridge, it’s a guitar that can indeed be a singer-songwriter’s tool, or a guitar for chugging metal. It may stop just short of being a shred machine or a true tool for djent riffing, but it still allows you to cover a lot of ground.

Also try

Hands-on videos

John Nathan Cordy

Andrew Baena

What is it?

PRS Guitars might have just celebrated its 40th anniversary, but you still can’t help but smile when you open one of the company’s now-moulded guitar cases.

One of the true classic designs of the modern era, the PRS is defined by its elegant double-cutaway outline, its carved and vividly curly maple top and, typically, those bird inlays that pepper the fingerboard.

This writer remembers falling for its charms in the late ’80s at a far-from-glorious period for the electric guitar. It seemed like a reminder of a bygone time, a beautifully made musical instrument, not just a garish plank to support a Floyd Rose and a hot humbucker.

Just over four decades on, little has changed outwardly, although – of course – every detail has evolved to improve function, playability and, most importantly, sound.

Plug in an early mid-’80s PRS Custom and compare it with one that’s rolled off the production line in 2026 and you’ll see, hear and feel a colossal difference. Battling fad, fashion and economic upheavals over these past decades, PRS has stuck to its guns: ‘good’ is not good enough, and there’s always a better way to eke out another micro-percentage of improvement to better serve the musician.

David Grissom is one such musician who knows that better than most. A PRS player since the late ’80s, David was instrumental in the development of the crucial, more vintage-aimed McCarty Model, launched in 1994, which subtly changed the original PRS flavour and recipe.

His own signature model (with its working title of ‘McCarty II’) launched in 2007, and the DGT (as in ‘David Grissom Tremolo’) has been in production ever since – a real player’s PRS that has spawned an all-mahogany Standard version and (after a 200-piece limited edition announced in late 2024) this new full-production DGT Semi-Hollow.

In its Charcoal gloss nitro finish – one of seven offered including a Gold-Top – our new single f-hole model is priced the same as the solidbody DGT. Either DGT is the lowest-ticket maple-topped Core model in the 2026 line-up if you go for the less opulent-looking moon inlays, while a bird-inlaid version adds $/£320 to the full retail price.

Note that the DGT is the only Core PRS model still offered with moon inlays, which date back to the very first mid-’80s guitars. The third option comes with bird inlays, a 10-Top maple cap and hybrid (gold and nickel) hardware and will cost you a cool $/£5,540.

Specs

• PRICE: From $/£4,420 (inc case)
• ORIGIN: USA
• TYPE: Double-cutaway, carved-top solidbody electric
• BODY: 1-piece mahogany with figured maple top
• NECK: 1-piece mahogany, DGT profile, glued-in 
• SCALE LENGTH: 635mm (25”)
• NUT/WIDTH: Brass-infused, friction-reducing material/42.4mm
• FINGERBOARD: Rosewood, moon inlays, 254mm (10”) radius
• FRETS: 22, jumbo
• HARDWARE: PRS Gen II vibrato, PRS Phase III locking tuners (w/brass posts and faux bone buttons)
• STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 52.5mm 
• ELECTRICS: PRS DGT Treble and Bass covered humbuckers, 3-way toggle pickup selector switch, individual volume controls and master tone (with coil-split pull-switch)
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.12/6.86
• OPTIONS: The DGT starts at $/£4,420 w/ moon inlays. With bird inlays it’s $/£4,740; with bird inlays plus 10 Top/hybrid hardware it’s $/£5,540
• RANGE OPTIONS: The other semi-hollow 2026 Core model is the Special Semi-Hollow ($/£5,060)
• LEFT-HANDERS: No
• FINISHES: Charcoal (as reviewed), Dark Cherry Sunburst, Tiger Eye, Faded Blue Jean, McCarty Sunburst and McCarty Tobacco Sunburst 
• CONTACT: PRS Guitars

Build quality, usability and sounds

The DGT builds on the McCarty recipe that was noticeably different from the Custom on its launch in 1994. Always a 635mm (25-inch) 22-fret (not 24) guitar, its primary difference was a slightly thicker mahogany back, covered humbuckers (a first for PRS), and a toggle-switch pickup selector with master volume and tone (that later added a pull-switch coil-split for both pickups). Originally, the McCarty featured the then-new PRS Stoptail bridge, although a vibrato option followed.

David Grissom custom-ordered his first PRS in the style of what was to become the McCarty in around 1991, and his signature model was the result of playing his McCartys for some 15 years. It came with his own neck shape, “somewhere in between a Wide-Fat and an old Regular shape,” said David at the time. “We compared my ’93 McCarty and my ’87 Standard and shot for something in between those, as they were both my favourite ‘feeling’ guitars.”

Obviously, the DGT came with the PRS vibrato, while another difference remains the control setup: a volume for each pickup (the control closest is for the bridge) and a master tone with a pull-switch to engage coil-splits for both pickups simultaneously. Grissom’s model also introduced the partial coil-splits that have subsequently been used on many PRS guitars.

What else? Oh yes, bigger ‘jumbo’ frets based on the Dunlop 6100 gauge that Grissom preferred, and 0.011-gauge strings (with a plain third string, of course). Then, the stuff of legend, a signature DGT pickup-set originally voiced from listening to 40-plus prototypes – with the help of tech Ed Reynolds’ pickup-swapping test guitar.

That initial recipe is the basis of the current DGT, both solid and semi. Of course, plenty of tweaks have occurred since 2007, not least the full nitro-gloss finish – the original DGT introduced nitro to the PRS guitar but only the top coat over a thin acrylic basecoat.

Another change is that both 2026-spec models stick with the original-style Gen II vibrato (not the latest III version) that was briefly offered on the DGT, according to PRS specs, certainly from 2022. Also, instead of the previous bone nut, here we have the Core-standard brass-infused low-friction type.

As ever, the DGT doesn’t feature fingerboard binding like the current McCarty, or a headstock facing like most Core models. The DGT pickups and the control circuit have evolved, too (see Under The Hood, right).

As to the hollow bits of our subject here, it’s primarily the bass side that’s hollowed and behind the bridge, too; both the mahogany back and some of the underside of the maple top (around the f-hole area) are machined away. Like the solidbody, the thickness is 52mm in the centre of the body (the Custom is 49mm), just over 30mm at the rim, and you can expect a slightly lighter weight – ours was a nicely trim 3.12kg (6.86lb).

It’s rare to find a USA solidbody PRS that’s very much above 3.6kg (8lb), Singlecuts excepted; closer to 3.4kg (7.5lb) is a rough average in our experience.

The lighter weight here is very engaging from the off. PRS’s specs tell us that the DGT neck is slightly narrower at the nut than the Pattern profile, but the same as the Pattern Regular (42.06mm); ours is fractionally wider. It’s fractionally narrower than the others at the top fret, too (56.4mm), which is bang on what we measure.

Depth-wise, it feels pretty fulsome with the same 1st-fret depth as the Pattern and Pattern Regular (21.4mm), and by the 12th it’s the same as the Pattern (24.2mm); again, ours is fractionally deeper.

Comparing the neck with an older Pattern profile, well, they’re very close, although there does seem to be a little less shoulder in upper positions as it’s subtly more V’d.

But the most noticeable differences are the bigger and taller frets (measured at 2.74mm wide by 1.4mm high) and the bigger 0.011 gauge strings. There’s plenty of fight if you’re used to a lighter gauge, although David won’t hunt you down if you drop to PRS’s standard 10s.

Exactly what the semi-hollow construction brings to the table, sound-wise, is not easy to define. David believes it “has a bit warmer top-end, a little less bottom than the solidbody, and I can get more controlled feedback” – and he should know.

The guitar does have a very vibrant ring unplugged, though with quite defined highs, a lively ringing response and a little more volume than any of our solidbody references. It feels and sounds very alive.

Plugging into a clean amp, we were in coil-split mode and the voice we hear is rather like that unplugged character. Kick in a delay and it’s classic-era The Edge, but these splits are very good; musical with character and depth. Having been a little sidetracked, we headed back to humbucker mode and with some crunchy, rootsy light gain we’re right into that Grissom-style voicing and there’s plenty to enjoy.

Even without touching the controls, bridge to neck is really balanced with a nice bite to the former and a big plummy depth to the latter. It doesn’t sound over-hot, though, but there is a fullness to the voice that frankly makes our reference Patent Applied For-style solidbodies sound a little bright and thin.

Pulling back the volumes a little and the subtlety and versatility begins to come through, slightly smoothing the high-end but not losing any clarity, and sitting nicely for classic rockier rhythm duties.

In the mixed-pickup position, those controls seem almost interactive and take on a faster taper; a slight adjustment of either volume yields another nuance. It’s the way these controls work, not least with the coil-splits, that is the key to this guitar.

With little more than a couple of different, light drive pedals, the guitar just delivers, nodding to a good Les Paul but with seemingly more definition. In this sort of environment, the single-coil voices give a really valid texture: lighter with more present high-end that cleans for more strummy and arpeggiated rhythms, particularly with a slight volume reduction. Jangle? Oh yes.

In terms of the sounds we conjure and the playability, it’s really so responsive. Needless to say, this guitar is extremely stable and in tune, too, with or without the vibrato in play. It’s stellar craft but with a tremendous lived-in and vintage-y feel, and it’s very, very hard to put down. We don’t want to stop playing.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★★

We all know if you put in the hours you’ll become a better player. David Grissom has certainly done that, but those countless hours have really informed this guitar.

He’d already been a PRS player for more than 15 years before his signature model launched in 2007, and since that time he and PRS have continued to tweak and improve a guitar that – nearly 20 years ago – was already exceptional.

The DGT was always pitched as the workingman’s PRS, a more vintage-y, rootsy vision, and this semi-hollow version amplifies that reputation. It’s lighter in weight, ridiculously alive in our hands, does full-throttle with ease or, conversely, works effortlessly in cleaner environments where those coil-splits provide really usable single-coil textures to our ears.

Guitar World verdict: It certainly nods to the classics, the benchmark designs of our industry. And yet, especially in this semi-hollow guise, it manages to add another level that seems to enhance lower-volume cleaner styles or, by contrast, screaming musical feedback at stage volumes as you lean into your amp. No guitar does everything, but this comes dangerously close.

Hands-on videos

Guitarist

PRS Guitars

• “There’s more ‘Fender’ to Fiore and more ‘Gibson’ to the SE DGT… Inspiring guitars from inspiring players”: PRS Fiore HH and SE DGT Standard review
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Hello, and welcome to Guitar World’s weekly gear round-up, your one-stop-shop for keeping up to date with what’s been happening in the big wide world of guitar gear over the past seven days.

From new electric guitars to amp modeler updates, the guitar industry is never short of fresh releases, and it can sometimes be hard to stay in the loop with every new launch.

To make things a little easier, we’ve put together an essential must-read guide that will cover the major releases, the boutique drops, and everything in between.

Vote for your favorite new release in the poll below...

Jackson Misha Mansoor Pro Plus Series Juggernaut ET8

The Jackson Misha Mansoor signature guitars are coming in thick and fast. We had some new-look Juggernauts late last year. We had that Surfcaster a few months ago. Now, we have another long-awaited Mansoor model – the Juggernaut ET8.

This one has been a long time coming. Not only is it an eight-string, it’s a hardtail eight-string with an EverTune bridge. It is the first time this combo has been used on a Jackson guitar, and it’s one fans have been asking for for quite some time. It’s been worth the wait.

Ernie Ball Music Man John Petrucci Majesty Premium Select

Ernie Ball Music Man and John Petrucci have rekindled their ever-productive partnership for another addition to the hugely popular Majesty line: the Premium Select.

Premium by name, premium by nature, this new iteration has been shaped by decades of Petrucci’s playing expertise, leveraging the Dream Theater virtuoso’s preferred composition.

In other words, that means there’s a mahogany neck-through-body design with alder wings, as well as a thick maple top, a 24-fret ebony fingerboard with stainless steel frets and signature DiMarzio Rainmaker and Dreamcatcher pickups.

It’s available in six-, seven- and eight-string iterations, and lands in five otherworldly colorways. My favorite has to be Ka’anapali Dream.

Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Bass Mig Muff Pi 2

We’re starting to lose track of all the Big Muff pedals that have been flying online over the past few months – we’ve had the Big Muff 2, Big Muff 2 Pi, Bass Big Muff Pi 2 – and now we have another to add to that list: the Deluxe Bass Big Muff Pi 2.

Honestly, you can never have too many Big Muffs, and this one looks to be a great option for bassists. We called the Pi version the “best Big Muff there’s ever been for bass”. This could very well take that mantle.

Gretsch Jim Dandy Vintage White

Who doesn’t love a Jim Dandy? They are, by and large, Gretsch’s most beloved acoustic guitar. That short-scale parlor size is a dream to play, they sound awesome, they look killer, you can travel with them… there’s nothing not to like about it.

And Gretsch has just given us another reason to love the Jim Dandy with a new limited edition Vintage White model. Sure, it ain't quite up there with the sunburst finish in my mind, but it's very sleek nonetheless. The sunburst model gives campfire vibes. This is giving evening dinner sing-song.

Ibanez x Citizen Tsuno Chrono Custom Tube Screamer watch

Okay, not a piece of guitar gear strictly speaking, but we simply can’t ignore it: say hello to the Citizen x Ibanez Tube Screamer watch. Yes, that is a thing now.

It certainly caters to a specific clientele, and it’s quite subtle – it’s a darker shade of green used here – but we love it. No notes.

Donner HUSH X LIVE

Donner has expanded its HUSH series of silent guitars with the HUSH X LIVE and HUSH X LIVE PRO guitars – both of which feature an innovative new design that is characteristic of Donner’s quest to explore new avenues of guitar building.

The feature in question is a detachable speaker, which can be attached to the bottom of the HUSH X’s exo-skeleton frame. Pretty handy for a silent guitar, when you want it to be, ya know, not silent.

It’s not just a speaker, though. With the detachable module, it gives you access to amps, effects and Bluetooth connectivity for playing to backing tracks. Playability-wise, it also has a new neck profile, improved pickups and elevated amp models, all of which were refined with the help of Donner’s Creative Director, Miyavi.

Ibanez AZ Premium, Standard, Iron Label

The Ibanez AZ range has six new models to shout about, with the firm adding guitars to its Standard, Premium and Iron Label collections. Expect plenty of sweet colorways, some premium appointments, and a variety of hardware and pickup configurations.

Notably, the Iron Label catalog get its first hardtail guitar, the Premium line has a seven-string, and the Standard range gets two new finishes.

And, I'd be remiss not to say: S-styles? In this climate? Does Ibanez know what's going on over at Fender HQ? It's been a helluva week for the S-style market. The company probably couldn't believe its timing. Or maybe it could...

PRS Ed Sheeran SE Hollowbody I Piezo Baritone

Ed Sheeran is becoming an unlikely guitar hero and ambassador for PRS, with the loop-loving, chart-smashing singer-guitarist releasing yet more signature baritone guitars, designed in partnership with the Maryland brand.

Sheeran got his flagship SE Hollowbody I Piezo Baritone at NAMM this year, which was released as part of a limited run. This one is far more accessible, and comes in a smattering of eye-popping colorways – including Pink Ombre, Orange Tiger Smokeburst and Kaleidoscope.

Epiphone x Lee Seung Yoon LSY-200 Studio EC

Epiphone welcomed Lee Seung Yoon to its ranks this week, making the superstar singer-songwriter its first Korean signature artist.

The pair celebrated their new partnership in style with a signature guitar – the very nice LSY-200 Studio EC, based on the foundation of the J-200 Studio EC Studio Jumbo cutaway model.

Guitar Center Mitchell Silver Creek Folk Instruments

No, this isn’t the new Guitar Center in-house guitar brand that we’re all patiently waiting for. It is, instead, a collection of folk instruments from GC’s existing Mitchell brand. There’s a banjo, a mandolin, and a resonator. They’re all pretty affordable too – the resonator starts from $349.

Chaos Audio AI FX Builder

You can’t get away from AI in the gear world, and artificially intelligent effects creation is certainly a popular thing at the moment. We’ve seen Polyend put this tech in a pedal. Positive Grid has added it to a plugin. Now, Chaos Audio – the brains behind the Stratus pedal – has unveiled its own AI FX Builder.

It acts as you’d expect. Chuck in a prompt, get an effect. Refine it if you like. Use it in your recordings. It’s one of the most palatable and usable forms of AI in the gear world, and this writer had moderate success with the Polyend Endless, so it’s worth a look-in. The key will be whether it can do the AI effects creation better than the competition…

Boss PX-1 Model Pass May 2026 Update

When Boss launched the PX-1, it promised regular updates and improved access to a greater pool of effects. It’s making good on that promise with the May 2026 model pass pack, which adds the PW-2 Power Drive, XT-2 Xtortion and CS-2 Compression Sustainer. There are some nice lost classics in there that will no doubt please Boss aficionados…

PRS Guitars has announced its second baritone guitar for Ed Sheeran, via the SE Ed Sheeran Hollowbody I Piezo Baritone.

The Maryland guitar makers collaborated with the loop pedal whizz on the limited edition 27.7” scale length SE Cosmic Splash earlier this year. While that was limited to just 1,000 pieces, this latest elongated six-string is far more readily available.

Ostensibly, this new guitar is the same as its cosmic predecessor, save for now being offered in “catalog colorways,” including Kaleidoscope, Pink Ombre, and Orange Tiger Smokeburst.

That means its hollow body also features a maple top and a mahogany back, and is complete with a center block for added resonance.

It is also saddled with PRS 85/15 ‘S’ pickups and a PRS/LR Baggs piezo system for plenty of tonal versatility. The pickups can be blended together or operate in isolation.

Meanwhile, PRS’s trademark bird inlays return to the fretboard after the SE Cosmic Splash nodded to Sheeran’s new Stereo series of albums.

“Metal guitarists will absolutely shred on this; jazz guitarists will love this, and it will be able to fit into so many great scenarios,” says Sheeran.

“For all the guitar people out there who look at me as not an electric player, don’t let the person behind the guitar fool you. This is an incredible instrument and will fit in many, many guitar players’ collections.”

After celebrating its 40th anniversary last year, 2026 sees PRS firing the confetti cannons for 25 years of its wallet-friendly SE Series, which includes last year’s platinum-rated SE NF 53.

“The relationships we have with new artists are one of the amazing, energizing, motivational, inspirational things that we get to do as a company,” says COO Jack Higginbotham.

“Developing this guitar with Ed Sheeran is a great example of what these types of relationships are, and how we can collaborate with a world-renowned artist to create something new. Further, it highlights how the SE Series in general is studio and stage ready for even the biggest artists.”

The PRS SE Ed Sheeran Hollowbody I Piezo Baritone is available now, priced $1,499.

For those who find the guitar’s extended scale daunting, a 25” scale model, the SE Hollowbody I Piezo is also available for $1,449.

See PRS Guitars for more.

PRS has introduced a range of six limited-edition electric guitars that showcase the latest unorthodox wood choice that the brand is currently championing.

Paul Reed Smith has a solid track record for pushing the boat out when it comes to experimenting with specs, and has in the past championed various appointment changes that have sought to elevate both sound and style.

This is, after all, the man who previously dabbled in chaltecoco – a wood traditionally used for fence posts in Guatemala. From the reinvention of its tuning machines to the development of its Narrowfield pickups, PRS has never rested on its laurels as far as innovation is concerned.

Now, it’s flying the flag for a new wood choice that will be used for a limited run across six of its models, Mangifera Indica – aka mango wood.

Mango wood is rooted in sustainability and traditional instrument woodworking, and has a history in ukulele and percussion instruments. In recent years, it’s become increasingly popular in the guitar, with Faith using it to produce a range of acoustic guitars.

But for electrics, mango wood is a rare sight. For this new run, PRS has elected to use mango tops for both their visual style – which offers a unique figure variety often referred to as ‘bee wing’ – and sustainability as a farmed tree.

As PRS explains, when a mango tree gets old and declines in fruit production, it is then harvested and its wood salvaged. It’s said to be similar to maple, but a bit lighter in weight and less dense.

The result is, in true PRS style, a collection of guitars that look rather stunning indeed. Six variants have been made available across the Core Series: Custom 24, Custom 24-08, Studio, Special Semi-Hollow, McCarty 594 and Paul’s Guitar. Each model is limited to just two colorways and 200 pieces.

It’s causing a bit of a buzz in the PRS factory. Not only is it already one of the firm’s favorite woods to work with, artists are taking note – and it’s already made its way onto a signature guitar.

“The exciting thing for me is to start to witness artists playing it,” says Bryan Ewald, PRS Product Specialist. “Mark Holcomb has adopted the mango wood for his signature model. So Mark will be out there, he's gonna be playing on stage on tour everywhere, and people are gonna be like, ‘What is that?!’”

“Right now we have a lot of these running through the shop,” adds Paul Miles, Director of Manufacturing, “and every day there's usually a crowd around one of them.”

Other specs include ziricote headstock fretboards and headstocks veneers, and assortment of PRS pickups and hardware that would come as standard on the respective models. An array of appropriately eye-catching colorways – from Faded Blue Whale to Cobalt Smokeburst – are available across the range.

Head over to PRS to find out more.

Mastermind. Visionary. Trailblazer. Just a taste of the descriptions Opeth leader Mikael Åkerfeldt will see any time he Googles his name. It’s entirely warranted too, when you take into consideration the fearless ambition, ferocious intelligence and majestic flair at the heart of progressive metal landmark albums like Blackwater Park – which celebrates its 25th anniversary and silver certification this month.

With sprawling 10-minute-plus symphonies like The Leper Affinity, The Drapery Falls and its concluding title track, it’s the kind of record stacked with enough mold-shattering detours for most bands to happily make a career out of.

But the Stockholm-based singer-songwriter has no reason to be precious, given that he seemingly sits on a mountain of gold-standard concepts that uncover a common thread between the death metal brutality of Morbid Angel, the heavy prog of King Crimson and the folky brilliance of Nick Drake.

Perhaps what makes these labyrinthine and bewildering overtures even more astonishing is the fact that he made a lot of them up on the spot, having turned up to Studio Fredman in Gothenburg during the summer of 2000 armed with a handful of rough sketches.

“That’s how we did it in those days,” Åkerfeldt coolly shrugs, pulling up a chair next to the piano and acoustic guitars in his living room. “Mainly because I didn’t have any means to record at home. When I was writing Still Life, I would demo riffs on a four-track at [Katatonia founder] Anders Nyström’s house to help remember the ideas.

“Then just before Blackwater Park, I had another friend who had gotten an early version of Cubase, so I’d program some basic drums. I made demos of Harvest, The Drapery Falls, Bleak and the title track; but they were far from finished.”

He says the final recordings ended up sounding “completely different,” with many ideas and sections – and in some cases, entire tracks – casually made up on the spot. If it felt good enough, the band would move on. With no outside feedback until producer Steven Wilson got involved later down the line, they had no way of knowing whether they’d struck gold.

In the end, it worked out for the best, proving Åkerfeldt was right to stick to his guns. “I guess I’m lucky when it comes to the instincts I tend to follow, because more often than not they’re spot-on,” he says.

Is it true you were robbed at knifepoint just before heading into the studio?

We were rehearsing in a rough neighborhood. We didn’t even own amps at this point. Peter and I were getting the subway back early in the morning. This guy came up to us, sat down next to me and put a knife against my groin – down there.

“He was clearly on something and asking for money. He started going through our stuff. We could have tried taking him down, but with a knife to my groin I was petrified. When he got off the subway he went for my guitar, and I shouted, “Fuck, no!” There was a bit of a struggle.

Was it the black PRS CE24 that you ended up using on the album?

It must have been. That was my main guitar around then. Not an instrument you’d want stolen! The weirdest thing was he said he played the accordion and tried to be nice while he was robbing us – as if to say, “I’m a musician, too!”

You loaded almost every track on Blackwater Park with a wealth of ideas. The title song is watertight as far as world-beating extreme metal heaviness goes.

It has some cool riffs! It’s a bit droney, because it sticks to the same dropped D key. It’s quite punishing to play, even more so for the drummer because half the song has double bass drums. I got a bit lazy with the songwriting for the second half. I wish I’d experimented more to make it less predictable.

But lots of people love that track. Some of it’s a bit meat-and-potatoes metal compared to the other tracks, which ebb and flow. I’m proud of the spacey bit in the middle; it came out pretty cool and odd. I remember thinking of songs like Oh Well by Fleetwood Mac when I wrote the acoustic sections.

Speaking of acoustics, you unveiled your new Martin OM series signature acoustic last year.

I’m the first Swedish musician to have a Martin signature. I have number one right here next to me. I used to work in a guitar shop selling Martin guitars, so it was a huge full-circle moment, particularly for the younger me who had nothing going for him!

Fast-forward 30 years, I’m walking through the factory in Nazareth with the CEO asking me if I wanted a signature. I don’t deserve a signature model of anything, to be honest! But I’ve been doing this music for a long time and we have a fanbase that loves the odd type of shit we do, so I can understand why it made sense.

What made you choose the OM series in particular?

I prefer recording with smaller guitars. Jumbos and dreadnoughts can be harder because the bass is boomy. What I love about the orchestral models is that you can just stick a mic in front and nothing needs to be EQ’d. They have this top-mid that cuts through, which is helpful when you have shitloads going on, like in our music.

For that reason, I prefer how they ring. They also sit easier in your lap. I wanted something with a big sound if you’re sat around a campfire, which is the kind of thing I might do. I’m still happy to play larger acoustics at home, though.

You played some pretty legendary guitars at the Martin museum, including the haunted Grandpa 1953 Martin D-18 that belonged to Kurt Cobain.

There were guitars in glass cabinets, and any time I’d ask, “What’s that?” they’d ask me if I wanted to try it, and then hand over one of these priceless guitars. I’d be sat there saying, ‘Oh my God, take it away from me!’

Some of them belonged to important musicians like Kurt Cobain, Johnny Cash or Joan Baez. It was amazing to see all these artifacts. There was a ’40s D-18 that belonged to Hank Williams – It was so light, it felt like a helium balloon. It sounded so good. On the other hand, Kurt Cobain’s guitar didn’t sound good, feel good or look good!

Nirvana aren’t really a band people tend to associate you with.

I love Nirvana! I remember listening to the song Polly a lot because “I think I should get off her first” is a misheard lyric here in Sweden. You get these hardcore fans who say Nevermind was too polished. People can become a bit elitist when bands get big later on, saying stuff like “Bleach is so much better.” Maybe it’s human nature.

But I would say Nevermind is a great record. It’s the same with Metallica and the Black Album. Some older fans said it was shit because of the success that came with it, but I still love that record. The ’90s had some great music.

You covered Would? by Alice In Chains in 2008.

David Isberg, the guy who originally formed Opeth, came to my house in 1991 with three new albums: Nevermind, the Black Album and Facelift by Alice In Chains. We sat down drinking beer while listening to those pivotal records, and I fell in love with what I heard.

Nirvana became huge and influenced a new generation of guitar players. Yes, they were popular – but that doesn’t mean they weren’t great. And to this day, Alice In Chains are one of the groups I cherish the most out of all the bands in the fucking world. That’s why we covered that song.

Have you ever met them?

They had a dressing room next to us at a festival once, so I got talking to Jerry Cantrell and Mike Inez. I’m such a huge fan of their sound. I would say the world still isn’t ready for how good they actually are. Their music is so out there and weird; it’s almost futuristic, in a way.

They are completely on their own. I haven’t heard any other band that can do it like Alice In Chains. When you break their songs down, it leaves you wondering how they came with those vocal lines over those riffs. They’re easily one of my biggest inspirations from the ’90s.

As for prog guitar heroes, we’ve spoken about David Gilmour, Robert Fripp and Andy Latimer in the past. Is there anyone who you feel doesn’t get enough credit?

Jan Akkerman [ex-Focus] is very underrated. If you asked David Gilmour if he knew who Jan was, he’d probably say, “Yeah, – he’s my idol!” A lot of these well-known players were glancing at what Jan was doing back in the ’70s. I know for a fact that Andy Latimer looked up to him, not only as a guitarist but also as a member of Focus.

Jan is quite widdly on his Black Beauty Les Paul. But he’s also a great acoustic player with this right hand technique that resembles a flamenco player. I tried to do that myself and could never get it right!

He also knows when to sit back and play melodic lines nice and slow. He didn’t fight the other players in the band and shared the spotlight with their keyboard player Thijs Van Leer, who is another genius. Focus deserve more credit in general, I would say.

• Opeth’s Blackwater Park 25th anniversary reissue is out now via Music For Nations.

What is it?

Texas bluesman and session legend par excellence David Grissom has a firm and long-standing bond with PRS. Legend has it that company founder Paul Reed Smith attended a gig where David was whipping up a storm and soon snagged him as a tone-advisor for the brand as well as a signature artist.

And, after the completion of his signature guitar in 2007, David set about creating an amplifier in conjunction with PRS head designer, Doug Sewell, tuned to the guitarist’s exacting tastes.

Following David’s penchant for preamp simplicity and power amp saturation, a number of high-quality guitar amplifiers bearing his initials have reached the market with details tweaked to achieve consistent tone in different wattage packages.

Conjuring the characteristics and peculiarities of David’s four favourite classic amps, a magic blend was concocted – the aim was to achieve the top-end of his tweed Deluxe, the midrange of his Hiwatt, and the low-end courtesy of both his JTM45 and AC30.

This single 12-inch Celestion Vintage 30-equipped 15-watt version is the first combo in the DGT lineage and, as such, received a great deal of attention in order to achieve a tight but full bottom-end. With its two EL84 power valves and a valve rectifier, power-stage saturation is clearly a key feature as is needed to achieve the gutsy tones favoured by David.

It certainly looks the part, too, clad in a blond Tolex covering with a black front-panel and salt-and-pepper basket-weave grille cloth. It cuts the dash of a vintage classic without steering too close to any particular brand’s aesthetics, and it’s a reasonably lightweight cabinet that’s definitely not a back-breaker.

Under the hood we find a printed circuit board construction, which is no bar to great tone. As ever, we recommend a reasonable amount of care with board-mounted valves and pots, although this type of build is quite standard at the price point and PRS does back it with a five-year guarantee.

Alongside the amp is a heavy-duty black three-way, LED-illuminated footswitch for boost, reverb and tremolo deployment via the included 5.3-metre five-pin MIDI-style cable.

The front-panel mini-switches modify the footswitching options, allowing the master volume and Bright switch to be instigated via the Boost switch.

Specs

• PRICE: $1,449/£1,449
• ORIGIN: Indonesia
• TYPE: All-valve single-channel combo
• VALVES: 2x EL84, 3x 12AX7, 1x 12AT7
• OUTPUT: 15W
• DIMENSIONS: 622 (w) x 267 (d) x 470mm (h)
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 19.05/42
• CABINET: Plywood
• LOUDSPEAKER: 1x12” Celestion Vintage 30
• CHANNELS: 1
• CONTROLS: Volume, Boost switch, Treble, Mid, Bass, Bright switch, Master, Master switch, Reverb, Top Cut, Presence, Speed, Tremolo switch, Depth 
• FOOTSWITCH: 3-button included
• ADDITIONAL FEATURES: Switching configurability options. Bias terminals
• RANGE OPTIONS: Head-only version $1,199/£945
• CONTACT: PRS Guitars

Usability and sounds

Having had the pleasure of spending some time with the DGT 15 head, setting these controls felt like familiar ground. Perhaps the best way to appreciate how this amp wants to work is to switch the master volume out of the circuit – using its mini-toggle – and set the input gain as if it is the sole volume control.

This gives the output valves priority in terms of supplying saturation and harmonics. While this may be the reverse to how master volume amps are often used, it affords a more muscular and physical experience.

Using the non-master mode described above and with the usual six-string suspects lined up, we opt to begin with our Telecaster. Sounding immediately detailed yet gutsy, it’s a full-bodied tone with an inherent low-end that fills any gaps in the sound of single-coil guitars.

With the input gain set low we still find an exceptional amount of sustain, alongside the bell-like clarity. Switching to the Tele’s infamous bridge pickup, we get a gnarly early break-up with teeth.

Alongside Bass and Mid controls, we are blessed with four ways to modify the top-end: Treble, Top Cut, Presence and the Bright switch – providing the maximum flexibility to dial the sound to perfection.

It’s worth mentioning the chosen Celestion Vintage 30 12-inch speaker in this combo amp is capable of a little extra detail perhaps than the more traditional Greenback. This is a great match for the size of cabinet and amp output and it will compress nicely at higher levels, especially once the speaker has become ‘broken in’.

Time for our Les Paul Custom with Patent Applied For-style humbuckers, and as we push the input gain to halfway, we soon hit an appreciable seam of rich sustain and sizzling chords. With a push of the Boost footswitch, lead fluidity and controlled feedback are accessed, building on the same core tonality but this time with increased gain and sensitivity.

The default nature of the DGT 15 combo is raw, honest and unaffected. It is not about a pristine clean sound or a highly overdriven lead tone; this is very much a ‘set and forget’ platform, where further changes only need come from its three-button footswitch or your favourite pedals.

Utilising the guitar’s volume controls, it’s possible to achieve a huge amount of dynamic and tonal variation for rhythms or solos in the classic manner employed by Grissom and many other legendary blues-oriented players.

The onboard reverb is well tuned to provide a long and transparent halo, though it doesn’t sound particularly springy, despite its classic three-spring format.

Switching in the tremolo effect and we’re met with wobbulations of the smooth and vibey kind. It has a wide range from slow to fast and from mild to deep, something not all tremolo-equipped amps can achieve.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

While for every player there is an amplifier, some amplifiers please more people than others. It’s important to judge this one on its intended function as a bold, classic tone-machine aimed at vintage-appreciating, feel-based players. In this light, armed with a bunch of your favourite tone-bending pedals, this amp really is a people-pleaser.

Matching its tonality and gain to a variety of instruments and styles was effortless, but it’s at its best reproducing the classic sound palette of the ’60s and ’70s, albeit with a more extended and defined low-end and modern construction.

It’s a happy marriage of tone, power and portability and resides at the higher end of the market before reaching the realm of boutique pricing. But its tonal quality is a match for the more boutique offerings from smaller high-end manufacturers by virtue of the extensive research and development it has received.

Guitar World verdict: For those with classic tastes and an ear for the magic that power-section saturation brings, we’d say that you owe yourself a date with the DGT.

Hands-on videos

PRS Guitars

American Musical Supply

• “There’s more ‘Fender’ to Fiore and more ‘Gibson’ to the SE DGT… Inspiring guitars from inspiring players”: PRS Fiore HH and SE DGT Standard review
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

NAMM 2026: PRS has issued its latest aesthetic expansion pack for John Mayer’s Silver Sky signature guitar, and it finally rolls out one of the model’s most sought-after finishes.

Ever since Mayer took to the stage last year with a mysteriously finished, Brown-colored version of his best-selling electric guitar, fans have been asking for a signature production run.

The muted-yet-striking version became one of Mayer’s go-to Silver Sky models late last year, when he joined the late Bob Weir and his Dead & Company bandmates for a run for shows celebrating the 60th anniversary of Grateful Dead music.

He would later use it elsewhere on stage, including during a private concert last September at Henson Studios in support of The Heart and Armor Foundation for Veterans Health (as per John Mayer Gear).

Mayer has a track record of producing Silver Sky prototypes with one-off finishes that never see the light of day, so many glass-half-empty fans had believed this particular model would be resigned to the same fate.

However, PRS has answered fans' widespread requests by rolling out the official Mojave Brown Satin Silver Sky. It’s been joined by a Black Plum Satin version, both of which stay true to the original template.

The new-look Silver Sky models headline PRS Class of 2026 guitar drop, which comprises fresh finishes, wholesale SE updates, and all-new drops.

Elsewhere in the lineup for this year, the Maryland brand has issued an Elderberry Burst color for the SE Zach Myers signature, and has introduced new launches such as the DGT semi-hollow Core model and all-new S2 Vela HHT.

The DGT semi-hollow is based on David Grissom’s luxurious Private Stock mode – which has also been launched in limited-edition batches in the past – boasting all the same specs of the original Core DGT with the added bonus of a thinline design with one f-hole.

The S2 Vela HHT, on the other hand, gives the offset double-cut dual DS-01 humbuckers, a coil-tapping push/pull tone pot and a tremolo bridge.

PRS has also introduced some comprehensive housekeeping updates to its SE range. Many in the lineup will now feature PRS' proprietary Wing Buttons tuners – deemed both an aesthetic and tonal upgrade – and sloped pickup rings for a more elevated look.

Head over to PRS to explore the drop in full.

What is it?

Satisfying artists has always been a prime objective of Paul Reed Smith, be it Ted Nugent, Howard Leese or Carlos Santana (back before his production company kicked off), or more contemporary players such as DragonForce’s Herman Li.

However, Herman’s Chleo – a very, very different PRS with its Floyd Rose vibrato Fishman Fluence active pickups and a very un-PRS shape – has been the only brand-new artist signature guitar during this 40th Anniversary year.

Other artists haven’t been totally forgotten, though, and just as the brand’s celebratory year draws to a close, long-running signature artist David Grissom gets a new ‘Standard’ version of his SE DGT, while Mark Lettieri gets an HH version of his Fiore, which was first introduced in 2021.

It’d been rude not to take a look…

Fiore HH Satin

For a guitarist with such impressive credentials, Mark Lettieri and the tools of his trade are anything but show-off. Pulling this new HH model from its gigbag, it may as well have ‘working guitar’ stamped on the headstock.

When we looked at Mark’s original Fiore HSS model, as impressed as we were, it did come in on the heavy side for the style, not least that it employs a typically light-in-weight swamp ash body. The good news here is that, at 3.2kg (7.04lb), it’s been to the gym, which just adds to the ‘pick up and go’ vibe.

Rather like how John Mayer’s famed Silver Sky was a retooling of the Stratocaster, the Fiore’s DNA comes from the good ol’ hot-rod super-S and replicates the longer Fender scale-length with 22 frets. It has sleek horns combined with PRS’s hallmark treble cutaway scoop and the usual body contouring of the style.

The satin nitro Sunflower finish is thin and doesn’t fill the ash’s identifying open-grain wavy streaks, but, those aside, it’s silky smooth to the touch. The actual central top colour looks a little faded; the yellow is less bright than the gloss versions we’ve seen, which adds to the unshowy, almost used-guitar style, and you can see it’s a two-piece centre-joined body.

Like PRS’s other bolt-on models, there is a headstock splice, but here it’s nearly invisible, the slab-sawn maple left quite white with no visible amber tinting.

Another change here is the switch from a maple fingerboard of the HSS model to this dark brown Indian rosewood; the open bird inlays are stylish and less in your face than the solid or posh-shell birds of so many PRS models.

The hardware follows the original Fiore model, though, and you’ll find vintage-style top-locking tuners and a two-post vibrato, which are seemingly the same as the ones used on the SE Silver Sky. The posts are 4.96mm bolts that thread into collars mounted in the body, rather than screws, while the pressed saddles are steel like the top plate and deep-drilled block.

Then there’s a push-in arm, here with a metal tip, plus swing tension adjustment. Unlike Mayer’s guitars, there’s an up-tilt to the vibrato, giving a semitone rise on the high E string, a minor 3rd on the G.

Along with the additional directly mounted Fiore humbucker at the neck, each individual pickup tone control is paired with a master volume and has a pull-switch that changes each pickup from standard series to parallel wiring. The previous model’s five-way pickup selector changes to a three way.

SE DGT Standard

The DGT (David Grissom Tremolo) has its own fanbase within the PRS fraternity and in essence is an evolution of the McCarty model, of which David had quite a hand in. His original signature model appeared in 2007, but it wasn’t until the end of 2022 that the much-anticipated SE version was launched, and this new 2025 addition simply changes the maple-topped body to all-mahogany, hence that Standard designation.

Both SEs are offered in McCarty Tobacco Sunburst, the maple-top level also gets a classic Gold Top, while the other option (as here) is a translucent Vintage Cherry. It gives us a chance to see the wood, of course, and the body is a three-piece spread – and, yes, you can see the slightly different grain patterns up close.

It also features the SE’s ‘shallow violin’ carve, which adds light dishing around the outer edges, although the main face remains flat. It really seems to suit this colour, and there’s no posh figured maple to show off. The glued-in neck is a three-piece longitudinal laminate of mahogany.

There’s no change to the non-locking tuners or the cast steel vibrato that’s used on plenty of SE, S2 and CE models. Over the years, and certainly on its USA models, PRS has moved to proprietary designed hardware from the vibrato, the locking tuners, even the Lampshade control knob and strap buttons.

While the lower-ticket SEs have historically stuck with more generic parts, they’re changing and here we have the new, really stylish proprietary-design humbucking rings as used on the SE Paul’s Guitar and more recently seen on the new-design SE Hollowbodies and the SE CE 24 Standard Stoptail Satin – more will undoubtedly follow. Yes, we get standard speed knobs, but they’re also used on the Core model. David must prefer them!

The DGT’s control setup continues to use a volume for each pickup (the bridge pickup control is closest to the bridge) with the lower control being the master tone, which has a standard pull-switch so you can split the DGT ‘S’ pickups simultaneously, not individually.

Specs

PRS Fiore HH Satin

• PRICE: $2,649/£2,599 (inc gigbag)
• ORIGIN: USA
• TYPE: Double-cutaway solidbody electric
• BODY: Swamp ash
• NECK: Maple (3-piece), Fiore profile, bolt-on
• SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5”)
• NUT/WIDTH: Bone/42.34mm
• FINGERBOARD: Rosewood, outline bird inlays, 254mm (10”) radius
• FRETS: 22, medium
• HARDWARE: PRS-designed 2-post steel block vibrato, PRS-designed vintage-style locking tuners – nickel-plated
• STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 54mm
• ELECTRICS: 2x Fiore-H humbuckers, 3-way lever pickup selector switch, master volume, tone 1 (neck), tone 2 (bridge) each w/ series/parallel pull switch
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.2/7.04
• LEFT-HANDERS: No
• FINISHES: Sunflower (as reviewed), Black Hyacinth, Metallic Midnight, Red Apple Metallic – satin nitro body and neck back 

PRS SE DGT Standard

• PRICE: $899/£779 (inc gigbag)
• ORIGIN: Indonesia
• TYPE: Double-cutaway, carved-top solidbody electric
• BODY: Mahogany with ‘shallow violin’ carved top
• NECK: Mahogany, DGT profile, glued-in
• SCALE LENGTH: 635mm (25”)
• NUT/WIDTH: Synthetic/42.6mm
• FINGERBOARD: Rosewood, ‘moon’ inlays, 254mm (10”) radius
• FRETS: 22, jumbo
• HARDWARE: PRS Patented vibrato (cast), PRS designed enclosed tuners – nickel-plated
• STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 52.5mm
• ELECTRICS: PRS DGT ‘S’ Treble and Bass covered humbuckers, 3-way toggle pickup selector switch, individual volume controls and master tone with simultaneous coil-split pull-switch
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.37/7.4
• LEFT-HANDERS: No
• FINISHES: Vintage Cherry (as reviewed), McCarty Tobacco Burst – all high gloss
• CONTACT: PRS Guitars

Playability and sounds

While both models here are twin-humbucking guitars with vibratos, pretty much everything else is different: the scale length, neck join, neck profiles and fretwire.

The Fiore’s neck feels the slimmer of the pair: 42.34mm at the nut, 21.5mm deep at the 1st fret and 23.7mm by the 12th. The DGT is marginally wider at the nut (42.6mm) but only fractionally, with pretty much the same depth at the 1st fret of 21.2mm, but it fills out considerably to 24.7mm by the 12th – and that’s what your hand really feels.

But both necks are very well shaped with what feels like a very slight ‘V’ in lower positions, which rounds out as you move up towards the body. The DGT’s neck back is gloss; the Fiore’s is satin.

Rather oddly, despite being spec’d with 0.010-gauge strings, our DGT arrived with 11s, like the Core model, which adds to the bulk, despite the shorter 635mm (25-inch) scale. Another big difference is the fretwire: while the Fiore goes with the pretty standard PRS gauge (measured at 2.57mm wide by 1.14mm high), the DGT’s frets are much bigger in both width and height (2.81mm by 1.4mm).

To pigeonhole the builds, there’s obviously more ‘Fender’ to Fiore and more ‘Gibson’ to the SE DGT, from the percussive snap of the former to the more fundamental response of the DGT when played unplugged. That vague observation is not a million miles away from their inherent characters when we fire them up.

There’s not a lot of difference in output clout from either in humbucker mode, but the DGT piles on the creamy midrange, which is far from honky at the bridge; there’s gutsy Les Paul-like push with just enough clarity. The neck is perfectly balanced output-wise, thicker and chewier, and there’s a good sparkle with both on. Three impressive sounds.

Switching to the Fiore and it slightly pulls back the bluster and seems to clean up those lower-mids a little. And with this leaner sound, there’s a touch more clarity for those of us who prefer the slightly brighter side of the tone tracks.

Don’t be fooled, though; it still rocks out, and the neck pickup is pretty thick and actually does a superb Santana with just a little tone roll-off.

These different characters are enhanced by the secondary sounds of both. The DGT’s partial coil-splits certainly sound very single coil-y, hollowed with a percussive attack and plenty of high-end detail.

Pull up the individual tones on the Fiore and the parallel humbucker sounds are in the single-coil realm, too, but a little smoother, a little steelier but extremely usable, coming across rather like a well-behaved Telecaster.

These sounds really seem to love a pedalboard, too – the no-hum smooth clarity almost sounds post-produced. We might suggest that the DGT comes across as a really rootsy rock bar-room brawler, and the Fiore nods a little more to a smoother ‘LA studio’ tool – it’s just so classy.

We mentioned the up-tilt of the Fiore’s vibrato earlier on and, as ever, the DGT’s bridge sits parallel to the top, producing slightly less up-bend. The Fiore’s arm sits a little lower, too, while the DGT’s angles up a little more. Also, the DGT uses four springs and the Fiore three, so yet again – like virtually every other feature – the vibratos are subtly different.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

Once upon a time, the PRS guitar came in just one flavour with an additional topping of curly maple and a sprinkling of birds if you fancied. Today? Well, we’ve honestly lost count of the number of new models we’ve seen this year alone, and in terms of style and price point the PRS range has choice aplenty and then some.

Our two signature additions here illustrate that breadth: very different guitars with zero bling and very different price points. While the higher-tier Core guitars are now in what many of us would consider ‘Custom Shop’ territory in terms of cost, this Fiore is priced more like a USA-production Fender.

Guitar World verdict: The Fiore might be less classic PRS in style, but not so in build and detail: it’s superbly done with sounds and feel to match. The SE DGT Standard not only trims a fair bit off the maple-topped version, but plenty might prefer its earthier tones, and there’s nothing cut-price in the build. It’s also a guitar you could happily upgrade with some success as the ‘chassis’ here is so good. Inspiring guitars from inspiring players.

Hands-on videos

PRS Guitars

• “A supremely versatile platform that blurs the line between solidbody and semi”: The PRS 40th Anniversary Special Semi-Hollow Limited Edition
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

With new releases coming virtually every month, 2025 was a very busy celebratory year for PRS Guitars.

Alongside additions to the standard Core, Bolt-On, S2 and SE ranges, we’ve seen six specific 40th Anniversary Limited Editions of which we understand this latest Special Semi-Hollow is the seventh and final piece.

At the time of writing, it’s the ninth Semi-Hollow PRS offers (five of which are three-pickup Specials), alongside five full Hollowbody models. Clearly, there’s something in the air.

The Core-level Special Semi-Hollow is the base platform for this limited edition electric guitar of just 280 pieces. The primary difference is the wood choice. The mahogany back and neck of that model are swapped for black limba, the darker streaked wood we also know as korina or white limba.

Colour aside, it’s the same tree species, and PRS has already featured it on the CE 24-08 Black Limba Limited Edition this year. There’s no change in the top wood, but this figured maple is what PRS calls ‘Artist grade’, and the striping is quite fine and remarkably even, the contrast in the grain accentuated by the Yellow Tiger colour of the top (Whale Blue is the other option).

The fingerboard and headstock facing remains rosewood, but here’s it’s Honduran, which is becoming quite a well-used back and sides wood for many higher-end acoustic makers.

Visually, it’s quite different from the darker, more evenly coloured Indian rosewood used on the standard Core model, with a lighter mid-brown colouration and a vivid darker figure – a stormy ‘sky’ for the ‘old-school’ outlined bird inlays.

The McCarty III humbuckers are a 40th-year introduction (a long time coming but worth the wait), and the switching system and dual ‘coil tap’ switches provide 12 sounds.

But that’s underplaying what we have here: the volume and tone controls colour the voices we hear, and even ‘well-behaved Patent Applied For pickups’ doesn’t do the Alnico II ’buckers justice.

As with the standard model, the misnamed ‘coil tap’ switches engage PRS’s partial coil-splits, which primarily voice the slug coils of each humbucker with very little volume drop compared to the humbucking voice.

This model might be a relatively late addition in PRS’s 40 years, but it’s a supremely versatile platform that blurs the line between solidbody and semi.

• Find out more at PRS Guitars.
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

40 years ago, Maryland native Paul Reed Smith took a chance on starting his own guitar company with no idea how things would pan out. It’s a good thing he chose to roll the dice.

He’s since become one of the world’s most respected builders – someone whose creations encapsulate the very notion of a well-crafted and custom-made boutique instrument.

Early on, he’d made guitars for Peter Frampton, Al Di Meola and Carlos Santana, and having witnessed firsthand how well his innovations had been working out for them, he launched PRS Guitars at the 1985 NAMM Show, debuting the newly designed Custom 24.

It’d be fair to say a lot has happened over the four decades since then, with top-shelf musicians like John Mayer, Orianthi and John McLaughlin signing up to become signature artists, as well as the more metallic players from bands like Alter Bridge, Opeth and Periphery.

While it’d be fair to say Smith’s output has taken some degree of influence from the classic formulas pioneered in the ’50s, models like the Custom 24 are notable for having their own kind of identity – from the 25-inch scale length that sits right in between the original Gibson and Fender designs to the custom bird inlays, jaw-dropping flame finishes and highly dependable tremolo system.

With the U.S.-made Core line retailing for several thousands of dollars, there were many years where these guitars were generally regarded as instruments for doctors, dentists and lawyers. That all changed in 2001 with the launch of the overseas-produced SE Santana, which kick-started a whole line of models marrying quality with affordability.

Since then, the line has expanded with various semi-hollow, extended range and piezo options – building up a fierce reputation as the best guitars you can find within their price range. It’s been one hell of a journey, says Smith, whose company now stands as the world’s third best-selling brand.

If you could go back in time and talk to the young man just starting out, what would you say?

“Don’t stop – it’s going to take you longer to mature than you think, but you’ll survive, so don’t worry about it too much!” I had a dream once, and I’ve never told anyone this, but I heard this loud voice and woke up in a cold sweat. The words I heard were, “It’s 10 times more complicated than you ever imagined.”

And that’s been true, from finally getting the pickups right for John Mayer, getting our necks to remain stable and our finishes to not injure the tone. I decided not to be a hermit – like “Nobody gets to talk to Paul!” – and instead, be the kind of person who talks to everybody.

What do you think has helped separate you from every other brand?

Guitars are tools for a job. I remember watching Carlos Santana playing the Oscars, and all I wanted was for the guitars to stay in tune and do what he needed. I just want my guitars to do their job.

I don’t sit there and feel this sense of pride, like, “I made that.” I just hope the performance goes well. You only get one shot when you’re on the Oscars. You break a string? You’re dead. That’s it – sharp bridge saddle? Done. It only takes one thing to go wrong.

How’d you get into building?

There are two kinds of people. One will say, “I’ve got nothing to offer” and people will say, “No kid, you come with me.” Then you’ve got the other kind who keep shouting about what they have, and everybody is like, “You’ve got nothing. Shut up and go home!” I was in group two.

Some of the musicians I’ve worked with are in group one. They’d go to the studio and get told to sit in a chair and not move. Brent Mason is that way. He’d send in demos of himself singing, because he’s a great singer, and they’d ask, “Who is on guitar?”

When they found out it was him, the deal was done. I’d show people my guitars and everybody would say, “No, no, no!” But nice people like Carlos Santana would say, “What have you got?” He didn’t care about what anyone else thought.

You had to make your own luck, to some degree.

Well, I didn’t get invited to make Eric Clapton a guitar at 13. I started my journey because I wanted to play guitar, but like oil and water, it ran away from me. But if I opened a case on the counter of the biggest music shop in Washington, D.C., it would draw a crowd. The world was saying, “This is what you have to offer,” but it still wasn’t “Come with me.”

I was told my whole life that if you make something magical, the world will beat a path to your door. What a load of bullshit. If you make something magical, you might be able to get an appointment for 15 minutes.

Guitar makers come around once every 30 years, and I’ve studied them all. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve put guitars in cases and said, “Go do your job.” I don’t need to be there when the case is opened.

I also realized you can be a nice guy and get no orders, or you could be a difficult human being and the world will give you tons. It’s nothing to do with how you are, it’s to do with the caliber of the art you make. Guitars will sound good and play well regardless of how nice the builder is.

You were a custom builder for high-profile artists before launching your own company.

I made a deal with all of them saying if they didn’t fall in love with the guitar, I’d give them their money back. Carlos would say, “You mean, if I don’t love it, I don’t have to buy it? Under that deal, I’ll take it!” At that time, asking $2,000 for a guitar was outrageous. I think $900 was the ceiling. When we came out with a guitar at $1,000, it was pretty out there.

I remember having a meeting with our reps and all of them telling me we can’t do this. It’s not that I wanted to charge more; it cost more to make because it took more time and the parts cost more money. That’s just the way it was – and is.

Ted McCarty was an early mentor. What do you remember about him?

He wasn’t famous when I met him. He was a forgotten man, and I love that he got put back on the map. The last time I took him to NAMM, I rolled him around in a wheelchair and everybody came out to say goodbye to him, knowing it was the last time. He was cool, a real champion.

He’d fall asleep and then I’d wake him up saying, “Ted, you’ve got an interview,” so he’d do that and go back to sleep. He was kinda like the grandfather I never had. He trusted me. He handed us the baton, like in a relay race.

The SE line felt like a long time coming. It’s incredible how close they can be to your Core models.

That was our goal. At one point, the SEs were going to go away; we were having trouble with sales. And all the guitar teachers in America made their students buy SEs because they couldn’t teach kids how to play guitars that wouldn’t stay in tune. The teachers saved the line and we were back at the races. But it was almost done. That happens a lot in the guitar business.

Your guitars are no longer just for doctors, dentists and lawyers. Did that perception ever bother you?

No. The reason people would say those things is because doctors and dentists would have enough money to buy early Private Stocks and 10 Tops. When the S2 and SEs came out, that was over. Did it bother me? No. What bothered me was that one time I saw a catalog that said, “Best fit and finish in the entire industry” on our page, but on the Gibson page it said, “The sound of rock and roll.” I thought to myself, “Wrong comment on the wrong page!”

Frankly, there’s a new sound we’ve come up with on our TCI guitars that doesn’t sound like a Gibson, Fender, Les Paul, SG, Strat, Tele, Ibanez or anything. It’s a humbucker that sounds like a single coil, and I couldn’t be happier.

There’s a lot of speculation out there about where tone comes from. You’ve always seemed to be on “team wood”.

According to the internet, the only thing that’s important when you play a Stradivari violin is the Neumann microphone hanging over the top of it. People say the same about guitars. I don’t buy it. That means dead strings mean nothing. I mean, really? Put Vaseline all over your strings, pluck it and tell me your guitar sounds the same. I just don’t buy it.

What I do buy is that the pickup is half of it, but it ain’t all of it, no way. For some people, if a guitar has no sustain, they buy a compressor. If it has no after-ring, they buy a reverb pedal. I understand that. I mean, Jimi Hendrix had a Uni-Vibe, a wah-wah, this and that, but I’m sorry, if you listen to the rhythms on The Wind Cries Mary, that’s just him playing a new guitar and amp and he sounds gorgeous.

I don’t buy the simplistic view. You can’t take one of the only pieces I have away from me, saying it makes no difference. Alright then, make a guitar out of balsa wood and rubber, then add your pickup. I just don’t buy it.

What’s the greatest sound you’ve ever heard from a PRS on an album?

Smooth by Santana. I went to Japan when that song was a hit and it was the sound of Tokyo. You walked down the street and every store with speakers outside would be playing that song. I was in a grocery store yesterday and that song is still playing. Out of all the PRS guitars I’ve made, the one used for that song had the most impact.

He got something like 10 Grammys for that song. He walked into my office after that, slammed the door and said, “I swear to God I haven’t changed,” basically telling me the fame hadn’t gone to his head. And he said thank you to every single person in my factory. In the Jewish world, we call him a mensch, the very highest level of human being. He was spectacular that day and has always been.

Who would you love to work with that you haven’t had the chance to yet?

Jimmy Page, except I did make a guitar for him. He used one of our guitars on the Outrider tour, and it was some of the best tremolo work I’d ever heard. I did make a guitar for Eddie Van Halen, but that’s a long story and he’s gone.

People don’t know this, but Jeff Beck had a PRS at home and he loved it. He told me I’d never see him with it but he used it to record. We’ve been trying to get it back; it wasn’t part of the auction this year, but I know he loved that guitar. Of course, he’s not with us anymore either – and the same goes for Stevie Ray Vaughan. I could say Eric Gales, but he’s played our guitars plenty of times.

Joe Bonamassa told me that the first guitar he bought with his lawnmower money as a kid was a PRS McCarty. I like Joe, but I don’t think we are in his destiny right now. There are an awful lot of people playing PRS guitars that you don’t know about, but I do know they do. So I’d have to say David Gilmour.

I’ve met him, he’s a sweetheart and was really nice to me. The way he plays guitar is very written and intentional. American players are more like wild Mustangs – they just go for it. English players look for more beautifully written parts.

Apparently, David spent two weeks on the Comfortably Numb solo. That’s the story. I don’t know if it’s true, I don’t even care if it’s not true, it’s just a good story.

What can we expect from PRS over the next couple of years?

I’d like to see the McCarty IIIs and TCIs accepted. It’s staggering, the amount of artists playing the Silver Sky, which came out of us retooling an old 1963 pickup. I played a Charcoal Phoenix at our 40th-anniversary party. That went well. The new John McLaughlin went well. I’d like to see this stuff establish itself.

You have to remember Les Pauls were out of business until Slash picked one up. Strats were out of business until Hendrix picked one up. Then people like Danny Gatton, Roy Buchanan and Bruce Springsteen brought Teles back.

The guitar market is slow to move. I want some of our new products to get their feet more grounded in the longterm evaluation. I would like to see more acceptance across the board.

• Find out more at PRS Guitars.
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Paul Reed Smith has opened up on the origins of PRS Guitars, admitting that initially, he wanted to build for other companies, rather than have his own business.

In a new conversation with Zak Kuhn, Smith asks his interviewer to “come out swinging,” and so Kuhn obliges. He hit the matter straight on: is it true he pitched a guitar to Kramer and that, originally, he was going to sell the PRS guitars to other manufacturers?

“That was the idea,” Smith nods. “And you’ve got to remember, at that time, Kramer was one of the largest guitar companies in the world, and the Floyd Rose tremolo was their thing. So, I had to make a prototype that they would consider, with a Floyd on it.”

At the height of its powers, Kramer was the king of the shred scene, thanks to its association with Eddie Van Halen. Smith felt he’d be better working with established manufacturers rather than going solo.

“I went to Ovation, I went to Yamaha, I went to almost everybody and said, ‘Do you want to do this?’” he continues. “And one guy says to me, ‘I like the locking tuners, you'll do well with that.’ I said, ‘That's not what I'm after!’ And so we ended up having to do it ourselves.”

Smith has always been a self-made man. In his formative years, he’d build a guitar by hand, and hang around arenas, waiting for his chance to give his electric guitar the hard sell to a big-name player. Carlos Santana and Al Di Meola were two of his first customers. That only bolstered his confidence.

“I was kind of stunned,” he says of his series of manufacturer rejections. “I thought we had a good thing. I had Carlos Santana, Al Di Meola, and Howard Leese as endorsers. Of all things, Al Di Meola was trying to help me. He would call Yamaha, or this company, or that company, and say, ‘I think you need to pay attention to what's going on here.’”

But every avenue turned out to be a dead end.

“I didn't get accepted by Yamaha and Kramer; the offers were either non-existent or weak,” he explains. If I was going to make enough money to put my kids into college, I had to make a living. Carlos Santana and Al Di Meola playing my guitars was a big deal; I thought my ideas were legitimate.

“I remember, Walter Cronkite of all people. He was in my shop, and I was trying to get him to invest. And he goes, ‘I don't know. I just sold a guitar company.’ And I looked at him, and I realized that he was on the CBS board, and he had just sold Fender. I was like, ‘Well, I guess I can't ask him again.’”

Despite his best intentions and ever-fierce determination, Smith was forced to go solo, and 40 years on, PRS is killing it. John Mayer’s Silver Sky is one of the most popular signature guitars built in recent years, he’s prized Herman Li from Ibanez, and is dropping some serious sub–$1K guitars. Kramer, Fender, and Yamaha, meanwhile, are left to eat their hats.

Elsewhere, in a new interview with Guitar World, Smith has revealed that the firm's affordable SE line nearly went extinct. It was saved from the brink by one wonderful quirk.

When PRS dropped its USA-made Core Silver Sky in 2018, they weren’t just releasing a John Mayer signature six-string, and they weren’t trying to break the internet; they were reinventing the wheel, to speak.

The wheel in question was the Fender Strat, a guitar brandished by everyone from Jeff Beck to David Gilmour to Mayer himself. But Mayer – and Paul Reed Smith – wanted something different, something fresh, new and inventive. This would require forward thinking, painstaking effort and, to be frank, balls. Of Mayer’s general mentality toward the Silver Sky, Smith says, “He’s not messing around. If he had a guitar that he liked better, he would use it.”

The Silver Sky, be it the Core or SE model, has been a sensation since its release. But beyond its favored status, it's a guitar that Mayer actually plays.

“I’m so glad I don’t have to pretend to love them,” he says. “I’m not playing something else in the studio, because this is the guitar I always wanted to own. I can’t outplay it. That’s the dream.”

Now that Mayer’s dream has become a reality, has his appreciation for the Silver Sky grown? “Let me answer it like this: I love guitar players. I adore their minds – they’re closed until they’re open, and when something opens it, they tend to give respect to whatever it was that could manage to change it.”

Mayer knew that changing – and opening – minds would take time. “I knew the Silver Sky would take years to take its place in the world,” he says. “And I say this cautiously, but it feels like it’s become pretty widely accepted. You can accept it and still not dig it, but what’s happened over the past several years is that people have kind of agreed it has a right to exist.”

The Silver Sky has continued to be a bestseller. PRS now offers an affordable yet high-quality SE version, making the guitar accessible to a broader audience.

The Silver Sky is on our list of the 50 most important pieces of gear of the last 25 years. What does that mean to you?

John Mayer: It’s definitely one of my proudest accomplishments in my life. I wanted to design – or redesign, to get ahead of any objections there – an instrument that players can use to make their music on. The guitar is usually referred to as a Silver Sky without my name attached.

I love that, because my favorite thing is to see how other guitarists use it to express themselves. The ultimate dream is to see it in the hands of people who don’t even consider themselves a fan of my music. That’s how you know you’ve created something worthwhile.

Paul Reed Smith: It’s an honor. Watching John get the tones he gets out of it has been fascinating. He said, “This is what I need it to do when I play it. I don’t want to look down and try to find where I’m at.” I thought he really did a great job when we released it.

After playing Strats for so many years, John, what led to the guitar's creation?

Mayer: It’s been a dream for many years to have more input on the design of a guitar than simply having a signature model. I was looking to create something based on the past but fully updated to have a modern-day ethos. And PRS saw the vision there.

As you were retooling an iconic instrument, the Silver Sky’s general specs were important. What went into them?

Smith: We spent a huge amount of time on the headstock shape, pickguard shape and body. We retooled the knobs, jack plate, pickup covers, bobbins, magnets and windings. The way we finished the body, how we leveled the necks, frets and nuts we used was different from anything we’d done before. There wasn’t anything that was left untouched until John was happy.

What was your goal for the pickups and their voicing, John?

Mayer: I wanted to sound like I’ve been known to sound, but with a little less midrange dip. As I get older, I understand and enjoy a little more midrange. It’s pleasant to me now.

Those deep EQ carve-outs are super-fun, but after thousands of hours of playing, certain frequencies have made permanent grooves in my brain, and I want to cut new ones next to, but not on top of them. Maybe that’s the definition of evolution, I don’t know. [Laughs]

Paul, what went into voicing the pickups?

Smith: We went to a soundcheck with a Silver Sky prototype at this huge indoor arena in Washington, D.C. I was standing on the stage, and John had his ’64 Strat that he played Gravity on, and he compared it to the Silver Sky prototype. And the Strat’s pickups had 6dB more bass and 6dB less harsh high-end – they were louder.

Everything about them was different. I had wound the Silver Sky pickups exactly the way you see on the internet, but they were off by 6dB in every direction. I said to him, “If I can measure the Strat’s pickups on my pickup machine, I can do it.”

John said, “I can live without it for one day.” His tech, René Martinez, gave me the Strat. I put it in the back of our car and said to my wife, “Whatever you do, don’t get in a rear‑end accident.” [Laughs]

What did you find while evaluating the Strat’s pickups?

Smith: I did the sacrilegious thing: I unsoldered the bass pickup, which I don’t think had ever been done before, took it out, and put it in my pickup machine. What came up on the screen was something we’d never seen the likes of. I was like, “Whoa!”

We soldered the bass pickup back in, put the guitar back together, took it back to John, and I started calling electrical engineers about why I was seeing wildly different results. It was that bass pickup that Gravity was recorded on, right? And we got it.

Not only did we get it, you’re talking about having to do it exactly the same – it’s not easy. The magnets, wires and bobbins are from different factories. But we got it. It was very difficult, but it also was joyful.

You also reworked the neck profile, correct?

Mayer: Before creating this guitar, I didn’t understand what neck radius meant. I just looked at the guitars I loved the most, and they were 7.25”. That was my measuring stick.

Now that I know the math behind it, I still don’t think about it. The difference between 7.25” and 9.5” is less significant than your strap being an inch higher or lower. I’ll fight anybody on that.

The reason I believe this is because every guitar is different and has about 100 points of variation. Neck profile helps sort out neck profile, which is only one of many details. So the only way to truly compare radii is to build two molecularly exact copies of the same guitar with just that difference.

But we have to try and organize these details in some less-chaotic way, which is why we debate 7.25” vs 9.5”. I can do everything on this neck that I could do on a 9.5”. If the guitar is set up correctly, if the frets are level – which these are – you can do anything you want in regard to bending strings on this neck radius.

Why has the Silver Sky resonated with so many people?

Mayer: I think it’s because I really play them. I designed a guitar that I track-tested. It’s like a sports car that can hug a turn at 100 mph – whether you’re on the track or just driving down the coastline, you know the performance capability is there.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

"We had someone recently describe us as 'Appalachian soul,' and I really like that," says Maggie Noëlle, chief singer and rhythm guitarist for Magnolia Boulevard, a Kentucky-based quintet making waves with their unique blend of Southern rock, folk, and soulful vocals.

The band has an unlikely mentor, as Paul Reed Smith, the mastermind behind PRS Guitars, is the one to thank for setting them on the right path. "There's a local guitar shop here in Lexington called Willcutt Guitars, and it's a really small shop, but they're one of the largest PRS sellers. It was their 50th anniversary, and we were asked to play a show to celebrate," Noëlle recalls.

"Paul was actually there and saw us perform. He immediately loved our sound. A couple of weeks later, he invited us to perform at an Experience PRS showcase at the factory in Maryland. That was huge!"

Paul clearly knew how big the show was, too, giving Noëlle a few words of… encouragement. "Right before we get on stage, [Paul] was like, 'Maggie, baby, I don't want to discourage you, but you've got 4,000 people in the crowd – and a worldwide stream.' He was telling me the number of people who were watching, and I was like, 'Oh, thank you,' she says with a nervous smile."

But this was more than just a gig; Paul took the band – which also features lead guitarist Austin Lewis, and keys player and occasional guitarist Ryan Allen – under his wing, offering to let them record for free in his home studio, assisting with mixing their previous EP, and even connecting them with industry professionals.

"After that, he just really helped. I think he just loved our sound. He believed in us and took us under his wing, and helped us on the business side of things," discloses Noëlle. "He helped us find our first manager and a booking agent. He's been a really, really good friend".

Naturally, the band would also receive some PRS guitars, with Noëlle now rocking John Mayer's SE Silver Sky.

"This band is the first one I've ever played electric music with. I'm still learning a lot about the tech side of things, but I figured out what I like in terms of tone," she says. "I played my Vela for a while, then they sent me the Silver Sky, and it just changed everything. I really liked the pickups on it, and it's just easy to play."

Austin, who plays two PRS McCarty models, admits he wasn't very familiar with them before getting his hands on one.

"I just got this one right before our last tour," he says, showcasing a stunning sunburst model. "It's basically just a Les Paul setup with a PRS body. I didn't play many PRS models until Maggie had that one," he adds, gesturing at a white McCarty. "It kind of changed my life personally when I realized factory guitars could be amazing."

Along with their collection of PRS guitars, Paul gifted Maggie a striking paisley-print amplifier, which she now considers her go-to on stage. "They kept sending me those Sonzeras, and I don't know what it was, maybe, I didn't have a road case, but they just kept shitting out on me," she says, laughing.

"Long story short, I come home and find a package on my front door. It's a 50-watt combo! She's big and beefy, the heaviest piece of gear we've got in the van, but I love my amp!"

It appears that the amp is inspired by the now-discontinued PRS HXDA, boasting 50 watts of power, onboard reverb, and a funky paisley covering. Tonally, Maggie describes it as "super warm-sounding and loud." Coming from an acoustic background, Maggie says she used to battle with using gain, something that is less of a concern with her new amp.

"I've struggled with [gain] in the past with electric music. I like the loudness. I like the warmness, but struggle with the gain. I don't really like a whole lot of gain - but thankfully [this amp] is loud and it's warm and I love it."

Magnolia Boulevard wear their influences proudly but believes their grounded Kentucky spirit is what truly sets them apart. When asked about the difference between their brand of Americana and that coming out of Nashville, Maggie explains, "I think it's authenticity."

Ryan chimes in, "People in Kentucky are a lot less worried about getting popular than people in Nashville." He continues, "We really are just making the music that we like, and we're not trying to fit into any kind of boxes. The music we're listening to is from our friends' bands. It's not really the bands on the radio because we're not trying to be like that."

• Magnolia Boulevard's debut album is out on November 28. For more information, visit magnoliaboulevardband.com.

Orianthi has been brandishing PRS guitars since she was just 11. “I was a very obnoxious kid, and I was like, to my dad, ‘I want a PRS,’” she recalls in an interview with Premier Guitar. “I mean, they're expensive here in Australia. [I] got one, and I still have it, so I just love them.”

It is therefore a no-brainer that the acclaimed guitarist would get her very own signature PRS – the Private Stock Orianthi Limited Edition, based on her personalized Custom 24, which was first made as a one-off artist build by the Private Stock team a couple of years ago.

“Paul [Reed Smith] made me a guitar quite some time ago as a purple guitar, and it was painted, like, four times, and I used it a lot. I really wanted one as a backup,” she explains. “So he made me one as a backup, but it actually turned into a signature because everyone was writing saying, ‘I wanna buy this guitar.’ We made it available to everyone. They're not cheap, but they're very much worth it.”

Its distinct finish – dubbed Blooming Lotus Glow – has a pink center glow that fades outward to a similar purple found on Orianthi's original build.

Further customization comes by way of the inlays. Instead of PRS’ iconic bird inlays, Orianthi opted for a “Lotus Vine” pattern. “These lotus flowers down the neck here [are] like my tattoo,” she says, referring to the inspiration behind the inlays. “I just love flowers. My name means flower in Greek.”

The Private Stock Orianthi Limited Edition followed Orianthi's previous signature team-up with Paul Reed Smith's brand, the PRS SE Orianthi Signature Model, released in 2010.

And if you're hoping for an SE version of her $11,000 Private Stock signature model, Orianthi previously revealed she’s in talks with PRS to make it happen.

When John Mayer and PRS unveiled the Silver Sky, the reception was divisive. Some praised it for taking the Strat into the modern age. Others dismissed it as yet another Stratocaster clone.

The truth of the matter is that the Silver Sky was the result of two years of research and development, during which Mayer and Paul Reed Smith worked to redesign and retool the classic S-type template.

Their success developing the Silver Sky paid off, and it has been one of the best-selling electric guitars on the market for the past few years. It not only speaks volumes of how public opinion towards the model has warmed in recent times, but also how highly players rate it.

A lot of that is down to how good it sounds – largely thanks to its specially voiced pickups, which were inspired by one of Mayer’s prized vintage Fender Strats.

To land on that winning formula, Smith turned his attention to Mayer’s 1964 Fender Stratocaster – the famed vintage sunburst model that ranks second only to the Black One in the list of Mayer's most well-known Fenders.

It is the model that's most closely associated with Slow Dancing In a Burning Room, and one that became a mainstay in Mayer's pre-PRS guitar rotation. When it went under the microscope for inspection, though, Smith ended up stumbling upon something he’d never come across.

“We went to a soundcheck with a Silver Sky prototype at this huge indoor arena in Washington, D.C,” Smith says in the new issue of Guitar World. “I was standing on the stage, and John had his ’64 Strat that he played Gravity on, and he compared it to the Silver Sky prototype.

“And the Strat’s pickups had 6 dB more bass and 6 dB less harsh high end – they were louder. Everything about them was different. I had wound the Silver Sky pickups exactly the way you see on the internet, but they were off by 6 dB in every direction.”

Tapping into the Strat’s sounds was a critical part of the process. They had to get it right. Smith needed to go deeper.

“I said to him, 'If I can measure the Strat’s pickups on my pickup machine, I can do it.' John said, 'I can live without it for one day.' His tech, René Martinez, gave me the Strat. I put it in the back of our car and said to my wife, 'Whatever you do, don’t get in a rear‑end accident.'”

The Strat arrived in one piece at PRS HQ, where Smith made an unexpected discovery after performing some rather heinous surgery on the single-coils.

“I did the sacrilegious thing: I unsoldered the bass pickup, which I don’t think had ever been done before, took it out, and put it in my pickup machine,” he remembers. “What came up on the screen was something we’d never seen the likes of.

“I was like, ‘Whoa!’ We soldered the bass pickup back in, put the guitar back together, took it back to John, and I started calling electrical engineers about why I was seeing wildly different results.”

Smith plays it coy on what exactly made the bass pickup so special – a magician never reveals his secrets, after all – but the lengthy process was worth it. They ended up nailing the design brief.

“We got it. Not only did we get it, you’re talking about having to do it exactly the same – it’s not easy,” Smith says. “The magnets, wires and bobbins are from different factories. But we got it. It was very difficult, but it also was joyful.”

As for what he wanted those pickups to sound like, Mayer explains to Guitar World, “I wanted to sound like I’ve been known to sound, but with a little less midrange dip. As I get older, I understand and enjoy a little more midrange.

“It’s pleasant to me now. Those deep EQ carve-outs are super-fun, but after thousands of hours of playing, certain frequencies have made permanent grooves in my brain, and I want to cut new ones next to, but not on top of them. Maybe that’s the definition of evolution, I don’t know.”

Pick up the latest issue of Guitar World at Magazines Direct to read John Mayer and Paul Reed Smith’s full recollection of the Silver Sky’s origins, along with a list of the best guitar gear of the 21st century.

Hello, and welcome to Guitar World’s sparkly new gear round-up, your one-stop-shop for keeping up to date with what’s been happening in the big wide world of guitar gear over the past seven days.

From new electric guitars to amp modeler updates, the guitar industry is never short of fresh releases, and it can sometimes be hard to stay abreast of every new launch that may be of interest to you.

To make things a little easier, we’ve put together an essential must-read guide that will cover the major releases, the boutique drops, and everything in between.

An affordable take on the Gretsch White Falcon? A new take on Charvel's classic So-Cal Superstrat? A urn that fits the cremated remains of your loved ones into your acoustic?! That, and more, can be found below...

Gretsch Synchromatic Falcon + Nashville

An early contender for guitar release of the year? Admirers of the classic Gretsch White Falcon – who may previously have been priced out of a move for the iconic design – will certainly agree.

As Gretsch itself explains, the new Synchromatic series looks to make the dreams of those particular guitar fans come true, with two Falcon and Nashville models that look to make "next-level Gretsch style and sound more accessible than ever before".

Custom Shop White Falcons can weigh in at as much as $12,000. The Synchromatic Falcon, by comparison, is $1,469. This is a pretty big deal indeed...

For more: Gretsch

PRS S2 Mira 594

An unsung model from the annals of PRS history but one widely loved by fans of the Maryland brand's deep cuts, the Mira – a distinct Santana-flavored double-cut first launched in 2007 – is officially back.

It returns as part of the S2 collection with a new name – the S2 Mira 594, specifically – and early signs all point to this being yet another winner from Paul Reed Smith and his merry band of guitar makers.

Guitar World issued it a glowing five-star verdict in its day-one review. It looks great, sounds killer and, apparently, plays like a dream, too. We suspected nothing less.

For more: PRS

Jackson Pro Origins 1985 San Dimas

Jackson has also been in a rather reflective mood lately, and this week channeled that energy into the retro-inspired Pro Origins 1985 San Dimas series – a new collection of electrics that pay homage to "that golden era of guitar innovations".

The headline here is those J90 and J50 pickups, which have been directly engineered from original Jackson humbuckers that, as the firm states, helped shaped the sound of 1980s guitar music. One for those looking for something that merges old-school Jackson style with modern specs.

For more: Jackson

Charvel Pro-Mod Plus So-Cal Series

Speaking of throwback electrics, Charvel has also leant heavily on nostalgia with its Pro-Mod Plus So-Cal Style 1 model – which looks to bring the classic Superstrat into the modern era.

This is achieved through some Seymour Duncan pickups, player-friendly appointments such as compound radius fretboards and Floyd Rose tremolos, and super-comfy neck profiles.

They look the part and, judging by the demo video, they also sound the part. As a Strat player myself, my eyebrows have been raised...

For more: Charvel

Gibson Murphy Lab acoustics

The Gibson Murphy Lab is widely seen as the finest big-brand institution of artificially aged acoustic and electric guitars out there, so it's no shock that the firm's latest crop of vintage-inspired acoustics are borderline works of art.

Sure, the 1942 J-45 and 1957 SJ-200 are nice, but we've seen those before. What we're really intrigued by is that 1929 Nick Lucas Special Reissue parolor. That Argentine Grey finish is giving us hot flushes. 'Nuff said.

For more: Gibson

Kiesel Kyber Headless

You might remember the Kiesel Kyber – a guitar that launched earlier this year and took the fight to the likes of Strandberg and Abasi Concepts with a design that promised headless comfort from a guitar with a headstock.

Now, Kiesel has thrown caution to the wind and decided to cut out the middle man by making the Kyser completely headless.

It follows roughly the same specs apart from the fact it (obviously) doesn't have a traditional headstock. It does, however, have what Kiesel is calling a 'headpiece', which means it will fit nicely in your wall hangers with no issue. Very convenient...

For more: Kiesel

Solar Marzi Montazeri signature guitar

A week on from launching its first headless guitar, Solar has now experimented with another gnarly guitar design with its new Marzi Montazeri signature model. Montazeri – the renowned metal player formerly of Superjoint fame – has been nicknamed "The High Priest of Distortion", according to Solar, so his signature is spec'd appropriately.

It has a none-more-metal E-type body, a Sustainiac Stealth Pro humbucker, and a Floyd Rose 1000 tremolo.

For more: Solar Gutars

KapSoul

Every once in a while, a press release lands in the inbox and nothing can prepare you for what lies inside. This week, we heard about the KapSoul – an urn that you mount inside the soundhole of an acoustic, so that the cremated remains of your loved ones can be with you every time you play guitar.

It's certainly a novel idea, but we won't judge. For some, it's poignant and meaningful. For others, slightly morbid. We don't even want to think what would happen if your KapSoul-equipped guitar gets knocked over...

For more: KapSoul

Yamaha Revstar

Full disclosure, I absolutely love the Yamaha Revstar, and before I pulled the trigger on my Telecaster, I was seriously considering making a move for a Revstar. Chris Buck makes them sing. Matteo Mancuso has taken over the guitar world with one. They sound great, they play effortlessly, they look incredibly cool... there's so much to like.

Well, there's even more to like now, because Yamaha has introduced some new colors for two of its Revstar variants. That Sonic Blue model made me audibly groan. Back into the Revstar rabbit hole I go. Time to start saving...

For more: Yamaha

Vola OZ ROA Luminous

Since it was first established in 2015, Vola has cemented itself as a force to be reckoned with in the progressive and metal guitar market, producing a range of contemporary electrics and well-received signature guitars for a diverse range of artists.

The brand has truly been going from strength to strength, and now it has welcomed back the return of one of its most eye-catching designs: the OZ ROA Luminous.

In the light, it looks pretty darn great, but if you turn the lights off, it looks even better. that wasn't a cheap jibe, either – the OZ ROA has a glow-in-the-dark treatment thaat "truly comes to life in the shadows".

For more: Vola

Blackstar St. James 112 cab

Blackstar's St. James range just got that bit larger with the arrival of the 112 cab, which joins a lineup previously comprising a pair of 2x12s and a sole 4x12. For many players, 1x12 is the perfect cab configuration for home playing and small gigs, so this launch is very welcome indeed.

It's a St. James product, so it is incredibly light at just 28lbs – that's the whole USP of the range – and comes fitted with an exclusive G12Z Zephyr High Power speaker to help with the weight and tone. The lightest 1x12 ever? Quite possibly.

For more: Blackstar

Mooer GE150 Plus and GE150 Max

With every passing week, there seems to be a new multi-effects. This week, it's Mooer's turn. The GE150 Plus and GE150 Max both build on the brand's standard GE150, adding expanded interfaces and tone-tweaking controls for a more thorough playing experience.

The GE150 Plus has three footswitches, while the Max version has eight. These are paired with improved memory for a greater number of presets, and 55 preamp models that utilize Mooer's "intelligent nonlinear sample technology".

Mooer has previously shown its pedigree in the multi-effects world, so we imagine these two new units are more of the same. Not only that, prices start from less than $200, so they're very competitively priced, too...

For more: Mooer

PRS Guitars has announced the return of its S2 Mira electric guitar, with the all-mahogany favorite returning with a new scale length and the same genre-bending versatility.

Now named the S2 Mira 594, it’s received some choice tweaks that the firm says help unlock the double-cut's full potential – making it better than ever.

The original Mira launched as part of PRS’ S2 series in 2007 and drew comparisons to a 1960s SG in Guitar World’s original review of the instrument. In later years, the Mira formed the basis of the USA S2 line in 2013, before it was parachuted into the SE range. It was discontinued by 2023.

Fast-forward 18 years from its first launch, and its spec sheet now reads a little differently. Its 25” scale length has been shrunk to the Maryland firm’s oft-preferred 24.594” construction, a Pattern Thin neck features – as opposed to Pattern Regular – and PRS 58/15 LT vintage-voiced pickups replace its predecessor's S2 Bass and Treble humbuckers.

Its mahogany body and neck pairing, and rosewood fingerboard, have been retained, although its moon inlays have been usurped for the more familiar Bird inlays, and its fret count is up two to 24. Its newly appointed ‘buckers are also paired with two mini-toggle switches, allowing players to coil-split both pickups individually.

Available in a host of colorways – Matcha Green, Mavis Mint Metallic, Metallic Midnight, Dark Cherry Sunburst, Red Apple Metallic, and Cloud Burst – the latest iteration is also built to be easy on the wallet, and has left Guitar World equally impressed.

“Check one out before someone realises they’ve miscalculated the price,” writes Dave Burrluck. “It’s a stripped-down, bare-bones guitar but doesn’t cut any corners that matter and has a wide range of pretty classic humbucker and single-coil voices that ooze quality.”

“The S2 Mira 594 combines our 24.594” scale length with a Pattern Thin neck shape and a very straightforward feature set that provides an incredibly lively, simple-to-use tool to create music,” explains PRS Guitars Director of Sales, Jim Cullen. “The Mira has had an interesting history, but I don’t think it found its true voice until now.”

The PRS S2 Mira 594 is available now for $1,899/£1,699/€2,039.

Head to PRS for more.

For those who’ve been living under a rock, PRS is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2025, with new models being launched each month. Notable drops include Herman Li’s long-awaited signature guitar, an axe with a 207-piece Dragon inlay that came to Smith in a dream, and its affordable Tele rival, the NF 53.

What is it?

Most of us think of PRS guitars and see the beautifully opulent looking flamed maple-topped masterpieces that the Maryland company has built its 40-year-old reputation on. We also don’t need to tell you plenty of those cost a pretty penny too. There have been plenty of attempts to produce more stripped-down and affordable options, while still being USA-made electric guitars, and the original Mira, which joined the now-called Core line-up in 2008, is a prime example.

The all-mahogany 24-fret guitar featured a thinner body with SG-like chamfering, the outline re-drawn from the PRS Santana guitar which itself isn’t a million miles away from Gibson’s double-cutaway Les Paul Junior, Special and TV models from the late fifties. It also formed the basis of the USA S2 line back in 2013 then dropped into the SE ranks before being discontinued by 2023.

Now it's returned…

Specs

• Launch price: $1,899/£1,699/€2,039
• Made: USA
• Type: Solidbody electric
• Body: One-piece mahogany
• Neck: Mahogany (scarf construction), Pattern Thin profile, glued-in
• Fingerboard: Bound rosewood/12”
• Scale length: 24.594” (625mm)
• Nut/width: Friction reducing/43.5mm
• Frets: 22, medium jumbo
• Hardware: PRS Stoptail bridge w/ brass inserts, PRS Phase III non-locking tuners w/ wing buttons
• Electrics: 2x PRS USA 58/15 LT humbuckers, 3-way toggle pickup selector switch, 2x mini-toggle coil split switches, master volume and tone controls
• Weight: 6.32lb (2.86kg)
• Left-handed options: No
• Finishes: Matcha Green (as reviewed), Metallic Midnight, Red Apple Metallic, Mavis Mint Metallic, Pearl White, Cloud Burst – satin nitro
• Cases: Premium gigbag
• Contact: prsguitars.com

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★★

While you can’t see any wood under the opaque satin open-pore – or ‘sinky’ as PRS call it – finish, like the Core models the Mira uses a one-piece mahogany body but with a thinner depth of around 43mm.

The top face is chamfered most obviously under your forearm in playing position, plus we get a subtle rib-cage cutaway on the back. While the Core models use a one-piece neck too, S2 use thinner stock but with a spliced-on headstock and a heel stack although the neck slots into the body in the same fashion: the full-width continues under the neck pickup and, like all S2s, it’s glued-in, not screwed.

As its name suggests, this model uses the shorter 24.594-inch scale length, measured PRS says from old Gibsons, and unlike the original Mira this version is 22-fret. The dark rosewood fingerboard is bound, with solid vintage acrylic bird inlays, while the medium jumbo frets are perfectly installed on the 10-inch radiused face.

The new Mira uses the popular Pattern Thin (previously known as the Wide Thin) neck profile with a pretty classic 43mm nut width – and slightly thinner back-to-front depth than the Pattern (Wide Fat) profile – and a perfectly carved shallow ‘C’ back. It might not be a £4k plus Core model but the craft is dangerously close.

This stripped-down but high-quality style is reflected in the hardware and electrics. The open-back Phase III tuners are non-locking but use the new cream-coloured ‘wing’ buttons and unlike other 594 models, which use the PRS two-piece bridge set-up, here we get the machined aluminium PRS Stoptail bridge with its brass inserts, just like certain pukka Core models.

Since 2024, S2’s now feature USA-made pickups with pretty much the same pots and switches as the Core models. The well-respected 58/15 LT (as in ‘low turns’) pickups are based on classic Patent Applied For ‘buckers, tweaked, of course, by Paul Reed Smith, and controlled by master volume and tone and that three-way toggle pickup selector while two mini-toggle switches allow you to coil-split each one individually.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★★

With its slightly lower bass-side horn compared to a standard PRS outline the Mira hangs slightly differently; the neck seems to extend out a little more from the body but not as extremely as an SG.

It’s lightweight, it hangs perfectly on a strap but also makes for an ideal throwabout at-home noodler. Like the neck shape, it’s extremely comfortable, nothing gets in the way and the standard PRS set-up with its marginally slinkier playability thanks to that shorter scale is superb. Don’t blame us if you fall for its charms before you’ve even plugged in.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★★

A quick unplugged strum reveals a typically lively response with a subtle midrange push, and starting with a clean amp there’s jazz warmth at neck, a little more clean blues honk at bridge while the more complex mix adds typical bounce and funk.

The balance in all positions is very noticeable and very musical. You’ll see the neck pickup is flipped so that when you split the pickup the voiced slug coil is closest to the neck while the bridge’s coil split is far from spikey.

Typically these splits employ a small resistor in the circuit, so not all of the screw coil is dumped to ground resulting in a very useable, slightly fatter voice that is far from just an add-on. That balance we mentioned continues with some Americana crunch and even with some pretty high-gain alt.rock the Mira doesn’t disappoint with a real classic mahogany grind. It’s very in-tune and typically very stable too.

Verdict

While many of us have admired the superb craft of PRS’s USA-made guitars over the past four decades, not everyone has enjoyed the inevitable cost, not to mention the often opulent presentation. Well, if that’s you then this new S2 Mira 594 might have your name on it. It’s a stripped-down down bare-bones guitar but doesn’t cut any corners that matter and has a wide range of pretty classic humbucker and single coil voices that ooze quality.

In its satin finish it’s significantly more affordable than the current S2 Satin Standard, and if you want a gloss nitro finish, (which adds about 20% to the price) it still comes in well below the current McCarty 594 Thinline. Our advice is to check one out before someone realizes they’ve mis-calculated the price!

Guitar World verdict: Stripped down to its bare essentials, this new all-mahogany lightweight USA-made Mira channels the feel of classic early sixties solidbodies with a contemporary playing feel and hugely wide-ranging sounds. A bargain at this price.

Also try

Hands-on videos

PRS Guitars

Guitar Guitar

• PRS Special Semi-Hollow, S2 Special Semi-Hollow and SE Special Semi-Hollow review

Hello, and welcome to Guitar World’s sparkly new gear round-up, your one-stop-shop for keeping up to date with what’s been happening in the big wide world of guitar gear over the past seven days.

From new electric guitars to amp modeler updates, the guitar industry is never short of fresh releases, and it can sometimes be hard to stay abreast of every new launch that may be of interest to you.

To make things a little easier, we’ve put together an essential must-read guide that will cover the major releases, the boutique drops, and everything in between.

In terms of quantity, there haven't been too many gear drops this week, but in terms of quality, the ones we did get were pretty darn big. The long-awaited arrival of Noel Gallagher's mystery Oasis reunion Les Paul? Fender's answer to Suhr, Tom Anderson, and other boutique builders? The revival of a cult classic Gretsch? Mk.gee's tone in a pedal?!

All that, and more, can be found below...

Fender American Ultra Luxe Vintage

You may have thought Fender had all angles and price points covered with its comprehensive catalog, but it turns out there was something missing: a high-end answer to Fender's boutique rivals – such as Suhr and Tom Anderson – who have been putting ultra-modern spins on classic S and T type models.

The American Ultra Luxe Vintage looks to address that gap, debuting an Heirloom finish (Fender's own Murphy Lab?) that creates a subtle, 'closet classic' vibe, along with a bevy of premium appointments, including stainless steel frets, expansive switching, top-tier pickups and comfort contours.

All of this modernity and upgraded playability, though, is packaged in guitars that look as though they've been pulled through from yesteryear – and while some traditionalists may balk at the concept, there are others who will no doubt be thrilled by the prospect.

That White Blonde '50s Strat is particularly pleasing on the eye, as is that '60s Telecaster Custom, which we've already reviewed.

For more: Fender

Gretsch CVT Double-Cut

Ever since I reviewed the Jack Antonoff signature guitar last year, I've been waiting for Gretsch to bring back its cult Corvette model – upon which that guitar is loosely based – for a standard production guitar. Now, the long wait is finally over.

Introduced in 1961 as an answer to the Gibson Les Paul/SG Junior, the Corvette slipped into obscurity but still became a firm favorite with some key players, such as Rory Gallagher, Jimi Hendrix and Josh Homme.

This new-for-2025 reissue puts a budget spin on that sought-after vintage gem, and the results are quite irresistible. At $420, is this Gretsch's best-value release of the year? Probably – this will be hard to beat.

For more: Gretsch

PRS CE 24 Special

PRS has pulled out plenty of show-stoppers for its 40th Anniversary celebrations this year so far and the CE 24 Special is certainly no exception, offering – for the first time ever on the CE bolt-on platform – an HSH configuration.

Something reserved for more premium PRS builds, the HSH pickup layout is headed up by the NS-01 middle pickup from the high-end Modern Eagle V, and a pair of 85/15 humbuckers. There's plenty of added versatility thanks to that, with PRS promising scooped tones associated with traditional five-way switch-equipped guitars.

For more: PRS

Gibson Custom Noel Gallagher Les Paul Standard

When Noel Gallagher took to the stage for the hotly anticipated Oasis reunion earlier this year, he took with him a mystery Les Paul that quickly became 2025's most talked-about guitar. Forums theorized and social media fans speculated, and after Gibson finally spilled the tea over what the guitar actually was, it then teased a signature model was on the way.

Well, that signature model is here, but there's a few caveats: only 25 will be made (each representing a classic Oasis song), and they will be made available exclusively through the Gibson Garage London.

It's been touted as the ultimate Oasis fan guitar package, with each guitar replicating Gallagher's OG model with custom nickel P-90s and Light Murphy Lab aging. Whether we'll see a Standard version – or, heck, even an Epiphone variant – remains to be seen. That would be quite something, though, and Gibson has teased more Oasis-themed releases are indeed on the way...

For more: Gibson

Jackson Limited Edition Pure Metal

The 'most metal guitars of the week' award (is that a thing?) goes to Jackson's Pro Plus Pure Metal Series, which has been expanded with its 'Phase II' drop. This time, there looks to be a new bass added to the bunch, which now comprises a Concert Bass, Kelly, King V, Rhoads, Warrior and Soloist.

What you see is what you get: no-frills, no-nonsense metal machines that are built for one purpose and one purpose only.

For more: Jackson

JHS Pedals 424 Gain Stage

It was only a matter of time, wasn't it? After dropping his debut album last year, break-out lo-fi guitar hero Mk.gee sent tone chasers down a wild deep-dive into the ins and outs of his guitar tone, and countless guitar players around the world have since been clamoring for vintage Tascam Portastudios and other pieces retro gear to emulate his sound.

The key to his unique tone was indeed a Tascam 424 – a vintage multi-track recorder used in lieu of an amp – which has now been transformed into a pedalboard-friendly stompbox by JHS Pedals.

To turn one of the internet's most sought-after tones into an accessible pedal is certainly a savvy move, and while independent builders have been doing this for some time, JHS' 424 Gain Stage will no doubt be the most influential.

It does sound great, too, capable of everything from squishy cleans too all-out, untethered blasted fuzz. It's the sound that many people used to work to avoid, but now players can't get enough of it. Funny how tone trends work, eh?

For more: JHS Pedals

Chase Bliss Lost + Found

It might not look like it at first glance, but the Lost + Found is actually Chase Bliss' first true multi-effect – the firm's words, not ours. Its latest stompbox is a compact gadget capable of kaleidoscopically epic proportions, and (in true Chas Bliss fashion) offers up an awe-inspiring array of reverbs, modulations, synth effects, pitch effects, lo-fi textures and more.

Lost + Found looks like the type of pedal you need to get, erm, lost in, in order to truly tap into its potential. Tone-tweak to your hearts content and see where you end up – like all Chase Bliss pedals, the destination will probably sound absolutely superb.

For more: Chase Bliss

What is it?

Not too long back, the majority of new guitars and gear were launched around the USA NAMM Winter and Summer Shows.

Now it seems they’re coming thick and fast every month or so! We’ve already lost count of the new models PRS has released in this significant anniversary year, but its latest five-strong wave adds the original-style PRS HSS Studio to the S2 and SE lines (along with an SE bolt-on Studio Standard), while the S2 and SE electric guitar range also get a Special Semi-Hollow, which has been a USA Core model since 2021.

If you’re not au fait with these different PRS levels, the USA Core range is the top tier before you go into the exclusive Private Stock custom shop. The S2 models are also made in the USA, in the same factory alongside the Core models, but use a simplified production path and, up until recently, the same hardware and pickups as the start-up SE models.

These SEs are primarily made in Indonesia by Cor-Tek and are the entry-level models, starting currently with the bolt-on SE CE 24 Standard Satin at $499/£520.

So, with a three-pickup Special Semi-Hollow in all three ranges, a comparison was too good to miss – not least that, as you can see, our three guitars range from $/£1k to $/£5k. Good, better, best? Let’s find out…

Special Semi-Hollow

Although a PRS Special first appeared in 1987 (a twin-humbucking Standard with a vibrato up-rout and some natty colours) and ‘Special’ has been used over the years to denote three-pickup models such as the Swamp Ash Special, the Special Semi-Hollow has its roots in the Private Stock Super Eagle (2016) and Super Eagle II (2017) limited runs, a design created for John Mayer’s tours with Dead & Co.

These led to a simplified limited-edition version between 2018 and ’19 and a full production version that joined the Core line in 2021.

As befits its price tag, pulling this from its smart moulded case, not only is the guitar light in weight, it’s just a beautiful example of why we’re still writing about PRS after all these years. While all our trio use the same original PRS scale length and 22 frets, really, that’s about all each of the models has in common.

Perhaps surprisingly bearing in mind its Semi-Hollow status, the body is the original depth (49mm overall), not the deeper McCarty spec. The back is one piece and seems mainly hollowed out on the bass side and behind the vibrato, while the figured maple top is machined away under the f-hole area and has the classic ‘violin’ top carve with indents for the volume and tone. There’s very little radius to the top edge, the back edge is more rounded, and we also get a light ribcage cut-out, of course.

Each of our models uses a different 22-fret glued-in neck construction. Here, the Core neck is one-piece, quarter-sawn mahogany, with its unbound dark rosewood fingerboard and the fanciest bird inlays with vintage ivory acrylic outlines and green abalone centres. Each neck profile is different, too; the Core model here has the Pattern profile.

While the Gen III vibrato has been in place for some time, the locking Phase III tuners were upgraded last year with the wing buttons, and virtually every visible part is proprietarily designed. It might not be a cheap date, but the design, craft and execution remain faultless.

Typical of the ever-evolving specification, for this year the Special features the new McCarty III humbuckers (the neck is reversed so the screw poles face the bridge), which are also now standard on the other McCarty models and in the bridge position of the Studio. Visually quite different, but still a humbucker, is the Narrowfield in the middle position with its flush slug poles and a downsized mounting ring.

Control-wise, all three of our models share more similarity and here the five-way pickup selector voices bridge, bridge and middle, bridge and neck, middle and neck, and neck pickup only, while those ‘coil-tap’ switches move between full humbucker and single coil (voicing the slug coil, hence the reason for reversing the neck pickup so that coil sits closest to the neck).

S2 Special Semi-Hollow

The mid-tier Special arrives in a pretty rugged ‘premium’ gigbag, as opposed to that new moulded case of the Core model, and from the off comes across as a little less posh. Through the translucent colour you can easily see that the back remains one piece, but here we have a mainly flat top with the edge chambering – or, in PRS-speak, ‘asymmetric bevel’.

Overall depth is 45mm, the rim depth slightly more than the Core model at 38mm. There are no indents for the controls, and while we have a similar rear ribcage cut, the back coverplates aren’t recessed like the Core’s.

The gloss nitro finish goes over the headstock face, and like the Core model there’s no rosewood veneer facing. Here, the rosewood fingerboard has a decidedly reddish hue, quite different from the almost black fingerboard of the Core model.

The birds are solid (vintage ivory acrylic) and more utilitarian looking, and the signature headstock logo is a raised gold-coloured motif; the Core’s signature is inlaid. Cosmetics aside, the headstock is spliced here, plus there’s a heel stack, but through the dark translucent body and neck back you can barely see those details. The Pattern Regular profile is different, too.

The tuners, however, are now the same as the Core model. The cast vibrato is the same as used on the USA bolt-on guitars and the SEs; it’s all-steel and a very fit-for-purpose piece.

We get the same USA Narrowfield in the middle position, while the brushed nickel-covered humbuckers here are the 58/15 LT units – one of our favourite vintage-inspired PRS designs. Again, that neck pickup is reversed, and the control selections are the same as on the Core model.

SE Special Semi-Hollow

Shaving $/£1.7k off the price of the S2 guitar, the SE looks far from cheap, a real testament to the increasing quality and clever specification of the SE models.

That impression is enhanced by the proprietary pickup rings here (like those used with the smaller 408/TCI-style pickup on the Core Custom 24-08, for example) and the amber lampshade knobs, even though the rugby ball-shaped output jack and the non-locking tuners look more generic.

The top is a figured maple veneer over a solid maple cap, and compared to the USA models, the figuring – while striking and attractive – doesn’t move in the light. The high-gloss finish is faultless, as is the natural edge ‘binding’, and while the inside edges of the f-hole look less neat, it’s far from shoddy.

It’s marginally heavier than the USA models, with an overall depth of just over 45mm. It’s taller at the rim because the maple top is primarily flat with just a little fall away at the edges: this ‘shallow violin’ carve is aptly named, much less dished than the Core model and less stylised than the chamfering to the S2. That’s observation not criticism. Some might simply prefer the SE’s style.

The Wide-Thin profile neck here swaps to maple, though you can’t see that or the body back under the opaque deep brown finish. PRS calls it a ‘multi-ply’ construction, which we understand means a three-piece longitudinal laminate.

Another difference is that the rosewood fingerboard is actually bound with a thin strip of matching rosewood, the fret tangs are hidden (unlike the USA models), while the fret ends sit over the binding. It’s very neatly done, although the fingerboard edges don’t quite have the same in-curve as the USA guitars or as much rolling to the top edge.

Another primary difference is that the SE uses PRS-designed, made-in-Indonesia ‘S’ pickups. At the bridge and neck are these versions of the 58/15 LTs, and the middle pickup is the humbucking Narrowfield DD (‘Deep Dish’) ‘S’. This ‘S’ version of the pickup was developed for the USA NF 53 and was first used on the three-pickup NF3 released last year.

It also features in the middle and neck positions on the brand-new SE Studio, Studio Standard and SE NF 53. Another minor point is that the neck pickup here isn’t reversed, so, when split, the voiced slug coil faces the bridge, not the neck as it does on the USA models.

Specs

Special Semi-Hollow

• PRICE: $5,060 / £5,169 (inc case)
• ORIGIN: USA
• TYPE: Double-cut semi-hollow
• BODY: 1-piece mahogany back w/ ‘violin’ carve figured maple top w/ f-hole
• NECK: 1-piece mahogany, Pattern profile, glued-in
• SCALE LENGTH: 635mm (25”)
• NUT/WIDTH: Friction reducing/ 43.8mm
• FINGERBOARD: Rosewood, outline bird inlays, 254mm (10”) radius
• FRETS: 22, medium
• HARDWARE: PRS patented vibrato Gen III, PRS Phase III locking tuners with wing ‘buttons’ – nickel-plated
• STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 52.5mm
• ELECTRICS: PRS McCarty III Treble and Bass covered humbuckers, Narrowfield humbucker (middle), 5-way lever pickup selector switch, master volume and tone w/ 2x mini-toggle ‘coil-tap’ switches
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.1/6.75
• LEFT-HANDERS: No
• FINISHES: Carroll Blue (as reviewed) from 14 solid and translucent colours – high‑gloss nitro

S2 Special Semi-Hollow

• PRICE: $2,599/£2,899 (inc gigbag)
• ORIGIN: USA
• TYPE: Double-cut semi-hollow
• BODY: 1-piece mahogany back w/ ‘asymmetric bevel’ carve figured maple top w/ f-hole
• NECK: 3-piece mahogany (scarf construction), Pattern Regular profile, glued-in
• SCALE LENGTH: 635mm (25”)
• NUT/WIDTH: Friction reducing/ 42.6mm
• FINGERBOARD: Rosewood, acrylic ‘old-school’ bird inlays, 254mm (10”) radius
• FRETS: 22, medium
• HARDWARE: PRS patented vibrato (cast), PRS Phase III locking tuners with wing ‘buttons’ – nickel-plated
• STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 52.5mm
• ELECTRICS: PRS 58/15 Treble and Bass covered humbuckers, Narrowfield humbucker (middle), 5-way lever pickup selector switch, master volume and tone w/ 2x mini-toggle ‘coil-tap’ switches
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.21/7.1
• OPTIONS: Colour only
• RANGE OPTIONS: There’s only one other 3-pickup S2, the new Studio w/ 58/15 LT at the bridge and 2x Narrowfields (£2,749)
• LEFT-HANDERS: No
• FINISHES: Faded Gray Black Purple Burst (as reviewed) from 6 translucent colours – high‑gloss nitro

SE Special Semi-Hollow

• PRICE: $1,149/£1,180 (inc gigbag)
• ORIGIN: Indonesia
• TYPE: Double-cut semi-hollow
• BODY: Mahogany back w/ ‘shallow violin’ carve maple top, figured maple veneer w/ f-hole
• NECK: Maple, Wide-Thin profile, glued-in
• SCALE LENGTH: 635mm (25”)
• NUT/WIDTH: Friction reducing/ 42.9mm
• FINGERBOARD: Rosewood, pearloid ‘old-school’ bird inlays, 254mm (10”) radius
• FRETS: 22, medium
• HARDWARE: PRS patented vibrato (cast), PRS designed non-locking tuners – nickel-plated
• STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 52.5mm
• ELECTRICS: PRS 58/15 ‘S’ Treble and Bass covered humbuckers, Narrowfield DD ‘S’ humbucker (middle), 5-way lever pickup selector switch, master volume and tone w/ 2x mini-toggle ‘coil-tap’ switches
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.4/7.48
• OPTIONS: Colour only
• RANGE OPTIONS: Other 3-pickup SE models: bolt-on NF 3 (£1,039), Swamp Ash Special (£1,020), Silver Sky (£1,039) and Studio Standard (£999); SE Studio set-neck (£1,125)
• LEFT-HANDERS: No
• FINISHES: Orange Tiger Smokeburst (as reviewed), Lake Blue, Charcoal Burst – high‑gloss polyester/acrylic
• CONTACT: PRS Guitars

Feel and sounds

By the nature of the partially hollow design, all of our trio sit under 3.5kg (7.5lb) in weight; the Core model is the lightest and feels almost delicate. Despite the three different neck profiles, there’s a lot of similarity here and, dimensionally, they’re pretty close, too.

The Core’s Pattern profile is definitive PRS and based on the previous Wide-Fat. Although dimensionally the deepest, it also has that hint of a V that tapers the shoulders and reduces the apparent bulk in your hand.

The S2’s Pattern Regular is marginally narrower in width and feels slightly more rounded, while front-to-back it’s slightly thinner in depth. The SE’s Wide-Thin actually feels a little bigger as it’s quite full shouldered – as we’ve said in recent reviews, it does feel a bit bigger in the hand than the older Wide-Thin.

Don’t forget we have the same scale length and fingerboard radius on all three, the same frets on the USA models (which are marginally wider and lower on the SE), the bridge string spacing is the same on all three, and both USA guitars have the same string spacing at the nut, the SE just a millimetre wider from E to E string. Close cousins? Yes.

Unplugged, the Core model exhibits typical balance and depth without a particularly ‘hollow’ character. The S2 is very similar, perhaps with a little more push and attack, while the SE actually sits closer to the Core model with very marginally less clarity.

But plugged in, the Core Special is just one of those guitars you get lost in. If there’s a bad sound here, we didn’t find it. The McCarty IIIs, in combination with the build, pull back the mid-focus of PRS guitars of old and, played clean, the bridge has a well-behaved honk that sounds, to our ears, like a well-behaved Patent Applied For as you up the gain.

The neck is very well matched in output: perfectly plummy with the volume full up, and nice and snappy with it rolled back. Here, too, the dual-pickup mix in the centre position of the five-way has clarity and edge that nods towards a classic Gibson thinline when played cleaner.

That trio of sounds – especially the clear voicing with the volume pulled back – would get you through a huge range of styles, but pull those mini-switches up towards you and these positions don’t sound like afterthoughts as the character shifts to a much more Fender-y clarity with bite and a detailed high-end that is clear but not oversharp, typical for post-TCI PRS.

Pulling the volume slightly back rounds the response, too, and we’re certainly not reaching for the tone control as we kick in a level boost for a bit more hair.

Tracking the same position, just with the mini-toggles switched, is a great recording trick, creating a perfect texture of thickness and clarity. The neck split certainly heads towards Strat territory with its percussive chop; the neck-and-middle and middle-and-bridge reinforce the illusion, while in the middle position you can play with humbucker/single-coil mixes for more subtle blends.

Perhaps oddly, you can’t voice the Narrowfield on its own, but then again with the expansive voicings as is that might be overkill.

Of course, the S2 and the SE have the same selections but with different pickups – and the S2 doesn’t disgrace itself in the least, the 58/15 LTs displaying a slightly less-refined voice with a little more grit and attack. If you’re working with lower light-crunch gains, this might be home.

And the SE? It doesn’t have quite the clarity of the S2 or perhaps the refinement, but that slightly thicker voicing does add a bit of ‘dirt’, and running in the split-coil modes perfectly captures the two-guitars-in-one vibe.

PRS’s vibrato needs no introduction and all three here worked effortlessly. It’s worth also mentioning that the overall in-tuneness and tuning stability are typically superb straight out of their gigbags or case.

While that should be expected on guitars that cost as much as the USA models here, it’s not always the case with guitars around the $/£1k mark, which often need a little after-purchase work. Worth bearing in mind.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

Three guitars with pretty much the same sonic range: which is best? Well, that could lead to quite a discussion. Assuming we all have $/£5k to drop on a new guitar, the Core model is a stunning, detailed build, hugely refined, and very in tune, stable and musical. It’s a top-line PRS and deliciously light in weight.

The new S2’s streamlined construction produces a more cost-effective guitar that, while far from entry-level, feels a little less precious – in a good way – and it’s the one we spent the most time playing. The neck feels very ‘classic PRS’, not least if you’ve played ’em from day one. And, as big fans of the 58/15 LTs, we can say that its sounds are just as valid.

The SE has a lot to live up to, and while it’s slightly less refined in terms of its sounds and build, we’d take this on a gig any day – it’s a heck of a lot of guitar for the money.

However, the hot-rod modded appearance of the mismatched pickups won’t be to everyone’s taste and, add in those extra switches, not to mention the f-hole and indeed the figured tops, and these are very busy-looking guitars.

And for those of us with more classic tastes, the only Special that has solid colour options is the Core model, which is offered with an opaque Antique White or Black top.

Guitar World verdict: These aren’t the only three-pickup models across the ranges, or the only Semi‑Hollows, but – for 40 years and counting – PRS is still providing a dizzying choice of multi-toned instruments. We doubt these will be the last!

Hands-on videos

Guitarist

PRS Guitars

• Best high-end electric guitars 2025: the finest guitars money can buy
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Eight months into PRS’s 40th anniversary celebrations, which sees the Maryland firm launching new builds every month, it’s turned its attention to the best-selling PRS SE Silver Sky. The result? Four new eye-popping colourways.

The affordable version of the John Mayer guitar has sold in droves since its launch in 2022. That saw it top Reverb’s best-selling guitar list multiple times, although it has since been outsold by Paul Reed Smith’s Tele-like NF 53.

A left-handed model finally dropped last year, following the release of a Faded Black Tee Satin colorway. This time it’s the turn of more vivid options: Derby Red, Trad Blue, Laurel Green, and Dandy Lion (yellow) – the latter of which brings to mind Graffiti Yellow, the color Jeff Beck first introduced to Fender.

The guitar’s recipe, which includes a poplar body, bolt-on maple neck, and 22-fret rosewood fingerboard – complete with signature bird inlays – and three 635JM “S” single coil pickups, remains. As does its 25.5” scale length, 8.5” fretboard radius, two-point steel tremolo, and vintage-style tuners.

The aesthetic shake-up makes them look more like classic Stratocasters than ever before. Plus, anyone wanting a model with a maple fingerboard can now get their hands on the previously rosewood-exclusive colorways of Moon White, Stone Blue, Summit Purple, and Nylon Blue.

“The new Silver Sky SE lineup features four new colors inspired by traditional American fashion,” explains serial Grammy-winning guitarist and cool customer John Mayer. “These are time-tested hues that have been popular through decades, and I’m excited to share them with the world as the latest SE colorways.”

The all-new PRS Silver Sky models are available now and priced at $849 apiece. Head to PRS Guitars for more.

Standout release from PRS’s birthday shenanigans includes a wild, tradition-ousting signature guitar for Herman Li, and the gorgeous, and positively reviewed SE NF 53, which might just be one of the best sub–$1K guitars of 2025.

Elsewhere, Paul Reed Smith has spoken about the chances of making a headless guitar, and why the firm's strategy is not to dethrone Fender or Gibson from the top of the electric guitar hierarchy.

In January, as wildfires raged across California, Primus' Larry ‘Ler’ LaLonde was one of the countless individuals and families whose homes were destroyed by the fires, and whose most beloved possessions were lost forever. For LaLonde, this included the guitar gear he had collected throughout the years.

“That’s been one of the craziest components... I haven’t gotten a full count yet,” he divulges in a candid interview with Guitar World.

“The last I looked, I was up to, like, 58 guitars. So yeah, tons. My whole studio of recording stuff… and here’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever done in my life: I had this hard drive, a 12-gig hard drive, just sitting around on the desk. It was just for these situations, and I probably ran past it 20 times while pulling stuff out of the house and into the car.

“I never thought to grab that hard drive. It was just the dumbest thing in the world. I don’t know where that mental block came from because that’s what it was for. So, that’s kind of a bummer. But yeah, that was the craziest thing.”

LaLonde explains how Paul Reed Smith reached out to him and sent him two “amazing” guitars, “because I lost all but one of my PRSs,” to help him replace some of the many instruments that were destroyed.

As for whether there were any guitars lost that were particularly sentimental, LaLonde replies, “There’s one Strat that I had on all the first Primus records, like on Sailing on the Seas of Cheese, that’s the guitar I’m holding in that picture. I had that guitar since high school, and that one was in there [the fire].

“But the first thing that I grabbed when I was like, ‘We’ve got to get the hell out of here,’ was the double-neck that Alex Lifeson gave me. So, there’s some stuff that made it out of the house, but a lot that didn’t. But one that comes to mind that didn’t was that Strat, which I used up until I started playing the PRS.”

Elsewhere in the interview, LaLonde discusses the process of auditioning drummers after the departure of Tim Alexander while he and his family were “scrambling to find a place to live.”

Guitar World's full interview with Larry LaLonde will be published in the coming weeks.

Since its formation, PRS has been at the cutting edge of electric guitar refinement, and to this day continues to push the boundaries of what conventional six-strings can be by fine-tuning everything from upgrading tuner machines to innovating new pickups.

However, despite the firm’s desire to go above and beyond what orthodox teachings of guitar making dictate, the PRS ethos is still firmly rooted in vintage aesthetics and functions – meaning there are some more left-field design avenues it certainly won’t go down.

That includes the headless guitar market – an industry that, in recent years, has absolutely exploded. Ibanez, Schecter and Kiesel have all been flying the flag for headless builds ever since Strandberg set in motion this guitar renaissance, but – perhaps unsurprisingly – Paul Reed Smith has now ruled his own company out of the running.

When asked whether PRS could ever explore a headless build during a fan Q&A on the brand's YouTube channel, Smith dashes hopes by bluntly saying, “No,” before going on to reveal the appreciation he has from an engineer’s perspective on the original concept.

“Basically, the way a headless guitar works is you attach the strings here [at the top of the neck] and the tuning machines are down here on the bridge,” he says.

“Ned Steinberger came up with that headless guitar design and the thing that was brilliant about it wasn’t the headless guitar part, it was the fact he came up with a TransTrem and the whole chord would stay in tune as you move the arm.

“If you listen to Summer Nights, the Van Halen tune, that’s a headless guitar, and it sounded fantastic.”

“Are we going to make them? I don’t think so. I’m way more into traditional design. I understand how this affects the tone. You have to use rollers when you use a headless design, which is something I don’t really want to do because I don’t really want to stick things on rollers.”

It makes sense. Though PRS likes to break out of the box and find new ways to improve upon guitar norms, its developments are deeply rooted in traditional form factors. John Mayer’s Silver Sky, for example, was a refinement of the classic S-type. The NE 53, likewise, was a traditional T-type with a PRS spin.

Indeed, the fact Smith went to great lengths to overhaul the humble tuning peg – saying it could have a huge impact on tone – probably tells you all you need to know about the prospects of a headless PRS build.

Elsewhere in his Q&A, Smith recalled the time he ended up building a guitar for Eddie Van Halen.

What is it?

PRS has duly noted in their announcement of the new Archon Classic amplifier head that it is not a reissue of the original Archon amp, which PRS introduced 12 years ago in 2013.

Although the original Archon has undergone a few changes since then, it still remains pretty faithful to its original tonal characteristics, so a reissue simply isn’t needed.

The new PRS Archon Classic is actually a new amp circuit based on the Archon design but revoiced to offer “classic” tones based on the character of hot-rodded amps of the ’70s and ’80s.

Like the current PRS Archon 50 head, the Archon Classic is an all-tube 50-watt head featuring two fully independent channels. The Classic’s Clean channel is hotter than the Archon 50’s Clean channel.

Meanwhile, the gain of the Classic’s Lead channel is dialed back a bit and it has a different tonal personality than the Archon 50, which we’ll discuss in more detail. For players who lean more towards timeless, traditional tones over cutting-edge textures, the Archon Classic offers a compelling alternative.

My personal experience with guitar amps is that the more features, controls and switches put into the design, the more they take away from the guitar’s natural tone. The Archon Classic is about as simple as a two-channel amp can be while still providing useful tone-shaping capabilities and versatility.

The Clean and Lead channels each have their own independent sets of treble, middle and bass EQ controls, a Bright switch and volume and master volume controls. Global presence and depth controls are shared by both channels. Dialing in sounds is about as simple as it gets, with the controls doing exactly what you expect them to do.

While the Archon 50 can be ordered with either 6L6 or 6CA7 power tubes, the Archon Classic is only offered with a pair of JJ 6CA7 tubes. These “American” versions of the EL34 tube have similar tonal characteristics but don’t compress as easily as EL34 and provide slightly tighter bass and glassier treble.

Four of the Classic’s six ECC83S tubes are dedicated to the gain stages, while the fifth drives the effects loop and the sixth is a phase inverter.

The Classic comes with a single-switch footswitch controller for channel switching. The effects loop is a simple affair with mono ¼-inch send and return jacks – no level control.

Speaker jacks consist of a pair of parallel 4-ohm jacks (for connecting one 4-ohm or two 8-ohm cabs), a pair of parallel 8-ohm jack (for one 8-ohm or two 16-ohm cabs) and a single 16-ohm output. Bias jacks and a bias adjustment trim pot make it easy to bias the amp after changing tubes without removing the chassis.

Specs

• Launch price: $1,149
• Type: Tube amp head
• Channels: Two
• Controls: Volume, Bright Switch, Treble, Middle, Bass, Master Volume (per channel), global Presence and Depth
• Output: 50 watts
• Tubes: 2x JJ 6CA7 power tubes, 6x JJ ECC83S preamp tubes
• Connections: 2x 4 ohm parallel, 2x 8 ohm parallel, 1x 16 ohm, series footswitch, 1/4" mono footswitch input
• Dimensions: 546 mm x 254 mm x 254 mm
• Options: Archon 50 Head ($1,149), Archon 50 Combo ($1,349)
• Contact: PRS Guitars

Usability and sounds

Plugging into the Archon Classic amp, it’s easy to see why PRS decided to stick with the Classic name despite the potential for confusion. The Clean channel provides punchy, full-bodied clean tones with generous headroom, but the channel can also be pushed into overdrive with harmonically rich grit.

With the Clean channel’s master volume cranked up and the volume turned up from 0 to 5, the tone is crystal clear with a bold voice that is simply sublime – among the best clean tones I’ve ever heard from a multi-channel high-gain amp head.

The Lead channel’s gain is quite aggressive and goes into distortion territory pretty quickly when the volume control is increased. This channel has an attractive upper midrange emphasis that delivers singing, voice-like lead tones and chords that cut through a mix with precision and clarity.

At the volume control’s upper range the amp provides super-saturated tones that will please more modern-minded players, but the EQ’s range is not as aggressively voiced.

Having said that, the presence and depth controls are highly useful for shaping the upper mids/treble and low-end body, respectively, beyond the range of the traditional British amps that the Classic’s tonal signature is built upon.

These controls are particularly helpful for, say, making a Strat or Tele more full-bodied or dialing in more clarity and precision from a guitar with high-output humbuckers. The Archon Classic pairs well with a very wide variety of guitars, preserving their individual character while also refining the tone for assertive clean and aggressive distortion textures.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

Guitar World verdict: The PRS Archon Classic offers impressive value for guitarists seeking rich clean/overdrive tones and timeless distortion tones that range from classic crunch to hot-rodded high gain.

Hands-on videos

PRS Guitars

Riffs, Beards & Gear

The Neurotic Guitarist

• PRS Mark Tremonti MT 15 Head review
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Paul Reed Smith makes for all kinds of high-profile players. He pretty much launched PRS Guitars on the back of Carlos Santana’s endorsement. Forty years on, players such as John Mayer, Mark Tremonti and Zach Myers swear by his electric guitar designs.

But he was asked an interesting hypothetical the other day, one that all guitar makers will have pondered at some point: if Eddie Van Halen knocked on your door and asked you to make a guitar, what would you make him?

It’s a tantalizing prospect, not least because of how the PRS high-end electric guitar aesthetic might have jived with EVH’s DIY Mcgayver approach, guitars hot-rodded with power tools and bicycle paint. It would have to be something from the bolt-on series, right? Surely, as on Herman Li of DragonForce’s limited edition Chleo, it would have a double-locking vibrato.

But it is kind of a trick question. Because as Smith reveals, he did actually make Eddie Van Halen a guitar – and he made him one of his most famous S-styles.

It started with a panicked phone call from the top brass at Kramer. They needed his help. “What was going on was, Kramer at the time didn’t have a guitar maker, Eddie was coming. So they called me,” says Smith. “Dennis Berardi called me, and said, ‘Paul! Paul! I need your help. Eddie’s coming up. We need you to put a guitar together.’”

They called the right man. Smith had some ideas.

“I came up and we assembled this Kramer guitar for him. I made the pickup for it,” he says. “It was set up with pieces of aluminum in the back and he could set it like this [like a lap steel] and play it like a piano. But that guitar, eventually, those pieces of aluminum got removed and that was the 5150 guitar.

“At the time, Kramer was making necks and making bodies, so we were assembling parts. But I did get a chance to make Eddie a guitar.”

Those are life goals right there. But Smith had another fun anecdote. Where were you when you first played a guitar with a Floyd Rose? Was it, say, a Jackson Dinky in a now-defunct Glasgow guitar store? Was it at NAMM?

When Smith first tried a Floyd, it was backstage at a Van Halen show, and it was on Eddie Van Halen’s touring guitars. The enquiring mind of the engineer in him would have been fascinated by the Floyd’s architecture, but that wasn’t his takeaway from the whole experience. It was Eddie Van Halen’s greatness.

“We had never seen a Floyd Rose, and I was able to try the guitar backstage at a Van Halen concert,” says Smith. “What was interesting about it was the crew was excited to hear their own musician play.

“They were literally talking from 12 o’clock, all day, ‘Oh my God! This guitar player!?’ And he would prance across like a pony and play… Just musical. It wasn’t fast. It was just so musical and powerful. What a guitar player.”

PRS Guitars is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, doing what it enjoys best – releasing guitars, at least one a month. Just a few days ago Mark Holcomb’s signature guitar was added to the Core US-made lineup for the first time. It had previously been available only as a limited edition model.

The Maryland-based brand also announced that it would be selling its electric guitar pickups, so you can mod your electric with some US-made pickups from Smith. Which, y’know, were good enough for Eddie Van Halen.

Released in February on Paul Reed Smith’s birthday, the Charcoal Phoenix is a highlight of this year’s 40th Anniversary celebrations for PRS.

With a limited run of 150 pieces, it’s the guitar Paul himself plays, having road-tested it over the past year, refining its design and tone. If you caught the PRS 40th Anniversary concert at this year’s NAMM, you’ll have seen Paul in action with this guitar, demonstrating more than 40 years of craft in one instrument.

Although based on the Paul’s Guitar model, it seems the 2023 Private Stock John McLaughlin Limited also paved the way for this new guitar.

“I was inspired by its exceptional sound and playability,” says Paul. “For the Charcoal Phoenix, I wanted something as remarkable but with a Stoptail bridge. Using chaltecoco for the neck and ziricote for the fingerboard, I achieved an instrument that sustains beautifully and rings with clarity.”

Here, the Private Stock-grade two-piece centre-joined figured maple top is spectacular with its fine fiddleback grain-striping, finished in dark black/grey ‘micro burst’ high-gloss nitro (including the top’s edge).

The one-piece mahogany back and Pattern-profile chaltecoco neck – a wood related to Brazilwood/pernambuco – are a translucent deep-cherry that nods back to PRS’s past.

Another example of 40 years of progress is that every visible part (with the exception of the Switchcraft toggle switch) is a proprietary design.

This includes the latest TCI mini-humbucking-sized pickups, which date back to the original 408 model’s neck pickup and were also used on the various Paul’s Guitar models.

We also get the mini-toggle EQ high-pass filter switches, as first used on the John McLaughlin guitar and now featured on other 2025 models.

Typical for classic PRS style, the ziracote fingerboard is unbound and has a mottled colouration resembling a dark stormy sky behind those birds in flight.

As with the original ’94 McCarty Model, the Charcoal Phoenix also features a thicker ‘fat back’ body compared with a Custom.

Alongside our reference and well-gigged 1994 Custom 22, the Phoenix brings into focus the constant evolution in parts and craft that’s become the hallmark of the brand.

Consider its excellent 3.53kg (7.7lb) weight, the strong unplugged ring, through to the fat, rich and huge-sounding sustain‑for-days humbucker voices that clean up beautifully with the EQ switches, and the volume control (a whisper to a roar)… and we have to ask: can the electric guitar get any better?

• Guitarist would like to thank Wildwire Guitars for the loan of the featured guitar.
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Back in 2022, Shinedown's Zach Myers turned heads when he showed off perhaps the most eye-catching PRS Silver Sky ever created – a pink variant that predated John Mayer’s official Roxy Pink signature guitar, and that had been given a crazy relic job.

For whatever reason, it proved to be controversial, most likely because it flipped the Silver Sky’s sleek design ethos completely on its head, merging together the worlds of vintage Stratocasters and pristine PRS guitars.

It went against everything that the Silver Sky was seemingly conceived to be, and the fact it got the jump on the firm’s official Roxy Pink version merely stirred the pot further. In fact, his custom Silver Sky ruffled so many feathers that Myers is tempted to throw it into a fire and “let it burn to death”.

Speaking to MusicRadar, Myers looked back on why his Silver Sky sparked such outrage at the time, and traced it back to the unfortunate fact that both he and PRS had decided to build a pink six-string at the same time.

“The thing is, as John was making a pink guitar, I did not know that,” he explains. “I was unaware. And I made that guitar pink. It was white.

“There are pictures of me playing it from 2018 to whenever I relic’d it. It was just a white guitar, and I painted it pink, and I didn’t know John had a pink one coming out, so it looked like John had given me a pink guitar and I’d relic’d it. I don’t know who was mad. But people were mad.”

Though Myers’ own model seemingly stole the Roxy Pink’s thunder – and threw in a wild relic treatment to boot – Paul Reed Smith himself was seemingly unmoved by the whole episode.

“He didn’t say anything! He notoriously doesn’t like relics,” Myers adds when asked if Smith had an opinion on his custom guitar. “It’s well documented, his hatred of relics, and it’s fine. Hey, I would never relic a flame-top guitar – I just felt the Silver Sky lent itself to that kind of cool thing.”

Whatever the case, the pink six-string has been more trouble than it’s worth, and Myers suspects it will eventually meet a fiery end for all the issues it has caused over the years.

“I’ve got to be careful what I say,” he says with a chuckle. “Dude, I told Drew [Foppe, guitar tech] one day, I was like, ‘One night I’m just going to throw that thing in the fire and let it burn to death because I’ve had more drama around this guitar…”

When Myers first relic’d his pink Silver Sky, he revealed he’d taken inspiration from another John Mayer guitar for the experiment.

PRS electric guitars are widely praised for their form and function, boasting unparalleled build quality and surgical-level precision, as well as elegant aesthetics that are headed up by some truly eye-popping finishes.

Emerald Green, Charcoal, Sub Zero Smokeburst, Tiger Eye, Faded Whale Blue… these are just some of the colorways present across the Maryland brand’s catalog, but as Paul Reed Smith himself has recently revealed, not all were created by design.

Instead, many of these finishes – including the one found on Smith’s own favorite electric guitar – were happy accidents, discovered and developed from off-cut pieces of wood that would otherwise have been destined for the scrapheap.

“I don't think I've ever told you this story,” Smith says in the first episode of a new YouTube series that charts the PRS principles of guitar making. “Very early on, we were getting wood that had a green stain in it. That's where Emerald Green came from. We had some wood that had black stain in it. That's where Charcoal came from.”

The seemingly serendipitous nature of stumbling upon finishes is indicative of Smith’s design ethos, and the firm’s desire to adapt and make the most of the material available to them.

That’s no more apparent than in the Charcoal Phoenix – Smith’s current go-to guitar, which starred on stage alongside John Mayer, and which benefitted from a ‘less-than-ideal’ cut of wood.

“Of all things, I'm playing a Charcoal Phoenix guitar,” he continues. “That the wood was completely brown when we bought it, and the wood buyers didn't think we would be able to use it. I went, ‘Oh no, that's going to turn… the charcoal is going to turn into this ridiculous color.

“So a lot of these colors that you're talking about, some of them actually came from not wanting to throw the wood away.”

PRS’ finish discoveries came as a natural extension of its approach to treating its guitars. As Smith’s colleague, Body Team Manager Max Elcik, explains elsewhere in the video, the color of the natural wood itself dictates what finish it will receive.

“If you try put Carroll Blue on a darker piece of maple, it's not going to look blue anymore,” says Elcik. “You want to put it on something that's nice and bright and light. If you put something like a Black Gold on one of those darker pieces of woods, it's playing into its strengths a little more and really using the characteristics of the wood.”

During the video, Smith reaffirms his view on the importance of tonewood – something he has spoken about at length in the past, when he revealed he made guitars using a wood commonly used for fence posts in Guatemala.

Keith Urban has given the world the first close-up of his forthcoming signature guitar that he is developing with Paul Reed Smith – and while it might be inspired by his favorite Telecaster, this looks like it is going to be something completely different.

Come on, how could it not be? It is a semi-hollow electric inspired by a Custom Shop three-pickup Telecaster named Clarence that survived the Nashville floods, and its f-hole is inspired by Urban’s tattoo. That’s right, in September 2024, Urban told Guitar World that he actually sent Smith a picture of his tattoo and asked him to design the f-hole from that.

“I like a little bit of a hollowbody, so it’s got a little bit of that in there,” he said. "We have a customized f-hole shape that is modeled after the phoenix tattoo on my forearm.”

In a new video interview with Premier Guitar, Urban lets us see exactly what he meant – and it’s pretty cool. His prototype also has its own custom tint and floss finish, and we’ve now got some firm details. It will have a swamp ash body, figured maple top, with a maple neck and maple fingerboard. Urban says it feels good. The weight is bang-on. The neck, however, remains a work in progress.

“Everything about it on the whole has been quite good, but the neck, we just haven’t quite got that right yet,” he says.

So what’s Urban looking for from an electric guitar? In short, everything. After seeing John Mayer with his ‘Dead Spec’ Silver Sky, he wanted something similar, i.e. a guitar that is versatile enough to handle an entire set.

“This PRS is an ongoing project. It started from me wanting to see if I could get a guitar that I could lean on most of the night,” says Urban. “So it had the versatility I needed, and a better tonal response than my Telecaster that I’ve bonded with.”

It sounds like there will be a few more revisions before it is signed off and sent to dealers. But Urban assures us that this will be a production model. If it sounds better than his Clarence Custom Shop Tele, well, it’ll be in no small part down to a set of pickups that Urban likens to a PAFs, and the 500K volume and 250K tone pots from Riboloff Engineering.

When describing their sound to GW, Urban said the magic “D” word, and it’s all we could think about.

“They’re humbuckers but have an amazing, almost Dumble harmonic range,” he said. “I can get squeaks and squawks out of them; unlike any other guitar I’ve got. And the playability is just beautiful.”

We can’t wait to hear it when it’s done. This has been a big week in what has been a big year for PRS Guitars, as the company celebrates its 40th anniversary with monthly releases, from limited edition shreddable doozies to finally giving the NF 53 the SE treatment. And it was worth the wait. Be sure to check out our five-star review of the PRS SE NF 53.

The latest season of America’s Got Talent is well underway, and serious electric guitar talents are coming out of the woodwork in droves.

Indian rock band Girish and the Chronicles already brought the house down with a heavy take on an Adele classic, and now it's the turn of 10-year-old Bay Melnick Virgolino, who has lit up the stage with a Lenny Kravitz cover brimming with confidence.

Arriving before the judges – Simon Cowell can’t help but note “My gosh, that’s a big guitar” – the young shredder jokes proceeds to blow them away with a performance belying his age.

The youngster holds his own on the stage before he’d even played a note, bantering with Cowell before taking his gold top PRS electric guitar for a ride. Even though the axe practically dwarves him, his soulful voice and slick fretboard skills have the crowd in full voice. For the gear nerds, his weapon of choice looks to be a PRS SE DGT for its lack of bird inlays.

Of course, he had to rip a guitar solo, and the tasteful pentatonic whirlwind he unfurls rounds out his audition in style. He even gets a standing ovation for his efforts.

“I think Lenny Kravitz would be so proud of you,” beams Mel B. “You got so into, I really felt it.”

Unsurprisingly, Virgolino – who sounds like a shred master right out of the box – got four votes of approval from the judges. We’ll be seeing more of this small-sized superstar in the future.

Last year, another 10-year-old, Maya Neelakantan, put her name up in lights with a series of impressive performances on the show. Since then, she's been gifted one of Jeff Hanneman's rare prototype guitars, hung out with Jason Becker, and joined with Alex Skolnick and Testament on stage. Virgolino's future may be just as exciting.

Paul Reed Smith – the man behind PRS Guitars – is not only one of the greatest living guitar makers, but he has also etched his name into history with a boatload of electric guitar and acoustic guitar innovations.

It's safe to say that the brand's patented tremolo system (developed after Carlos Santana wanted a guitar with a vibrato that also stays in tune), the compensated nut (which Smith invented in 1981), the introduction of the first piezo-equipped guitar, and, of course, various inventions in the pickup space has changed the game for the guitar space as a whole.

Smith's secret to his ever-burgeoning empire? “I'm not chasing Fender [and] Gibson. I'm chasing the history of guitars,” he says matter-of-factly, perfectly encapsulating his ethos.

“We don't think of it as innovation, we think of it as better guitar making. The problem with innovation is [that] it's like a catch-all phrase. But I wasn't thinking of trying to innovate. I was trying to think of solving problems,” he tells Reverb.

“Our innovations would have been this double-cut body shape – it's not a Fender shape, it's not a Gibson shape – splitting the difference between [the] old, beautiful, Fender neck shapes and old Gibson neck shapes and some of these Martin neck shapes, and having our own neck shape that would be an innovation. They're not copies – they're inspired-bys.”

Another key highlight from his career is PRS Guitars' prominence in the session space. “We had a room full of Nashville session players, and they said, ‘Paul, if we don't use your guitars on the tracks, we get fired,’” he recounts.

“And I went, ‘What are you talking about?’ They said, ‘Well, if we don't use your guitar for the track when the vocal is done and they tune the vocal, [and] the guitar is not in tune with the vocal, they have to replace the guitar tracks. And your guitars are staying in tune with tuned vocals, and we're having to use them because they're in better tune than what's happening.’

He continues, “It was intentional on our part to put the frets in the right place and put the nut in the right place and the bridge in the right place. But I didn't think I'd get that piece of feedback.”

As for what we can expect from PRS moving forward, well, Smith's answer is simple: “I don't want to change anything [but] I'm tinkering with everything, not because I want to tinker, but because there's something that isn't talking to the artist.

“Look, if you got a boat full of guitars, the rock star's gonna go for the guitar that does the job the best for him. And if they didn't go for our guitar, in my world, we've done something wrong.”

Last year, Smith shared what may be considered a (piping) hot take in the guitar world – that he doesn’t think where a guitar is made matters.

Very few classic guitar guitar models have remained in continuous production for 40 years since their initial introduction. Gibson’s Les Paul Model/Standard lasted only eight years from 1952-60 before its original design was temporarily discontinued and later revived in 1968, and even the venerated Stratocaster narrowly escaped the chopping block in the early Eighties during the final days of Fender’s CBS ownership.

The PRS Custom 24 (originally just called the Custom) has recently joined this rare class of long-lived classic instruments by celebrating its 40th anniversary. Introduced in 1985, the Custom was Paul Reed Smith’s first production model, and it made an immediate impressive first impression, thanks to its deft combination of skilled craftsmanship, high-quality materials and blend of classic features with modern upgrades.

Making its initial bow during the height of superstrat mania, the Custom provided an attractive alternative for guitarists who yearned for the high-quality standards, tones and classic looks of a vintage instrument but with modern, high-performance upgrades.

Key Custom 24 features include a 25-inch scale length that provides a “just right” balance between the slinky feel of a 24-3/4-inch Gibson-style scale and the twangy percussive attack of a 25-1/2-inch Fender-style scale, 24 frets and the super dependable non-locking PRS Tremolo System with a low-friction nut that keeps the strings reliably in tune.

The original pickups Standard Treble and Standard Bass humbuckers were Smith’s own design, and controls initially consisted of a master volume, five-position rotary pickup selector switch with humbucking and split coil settings and an innovative “sweet” switch that imitated a long cable’s capacitance load effect on treble frequencies.

The materials used for the highly figured flame-maple tops and one-piece mahogany backs come from Paul Reed Smith’s impressive stash of quality tone woods. PRS collectors seek Custom 24 models made before 1991, when the necks featured Brazilian rosewood fretboards. Early examples with “Birds” inlays also command a premium over models with round “Moon” inlays.

Paul Reed Smith constantly improved and refined the Custom 24’s design, including various design tweaks to the tremolo system, tuners and the introduction of evolving pickup designs.

One of the biggest changes came in 2011, when the controls were changed to a master volume, master tone and five-position blade switch configuration. In the early Nineties PRS started offering a stop-tail bridge option, and today, players can choose variations of the Custom 24 with Floyd Rose or piezo bridges.

The list of Custom 24 users is long and spans a wide variety of musical styles. Ted Nugent and Al Di Meola were some of the Custom 24’s earliest adopters.

The model enjoyed a huge boost in popularity during the Nineties and early 2000s via players like Mikael Akerfeldt with Opeth, Mike Einziger with Incubus and Mike Shinoda and Brad Delson with Linkin Park. More recent fans include Adam Nolly Getgood and Mark Holcomb of Periphery and Ryan Knight of the Black Dahlia Murder.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

This year’s 40th anniversary marks the year, 1985, that the Paul Reed Smith company moved into its first factory in Virginia Avenue, Annapolis.

Paul had, in fact, made his first ‘real’ guitar in 1975, and as the decade progressed he went from repairman to a custom builder of some note, creating instruments for the likes of Ted Nugent and Peter Frampton (both in 1976 and the latter was the first with bird inlays), Al Di Meola, Roy Buchanan, Howard Leese (the first curly-maple-topped PRS in 1980) and culminating in Carlos Santana, which involved the beginnings of the PRS vibrato system, also in 1980.

It’s already the stuff of legend, although Paul had not yet created the now-classic outline shape that was fully formed by 1984.

Later that year, he set off on a tour of East Coast USA retailers armed with a pair of his guitars – a maple-topped Custom and a Pearl White all-mahogany guitar, which was originally just called the ‘PRS guitar’ and would become the Standard in 1987.

The aim was to generate orders that would go part of the way to raising the necessary capital to start the production company in 1985.

So while that all-mahogany PRS wasn’t yet a Standard, it was there right at the very beginning. Why, then, isn’t the new Standard 24 a part of the 40th Anniversary celebrations?

“Well, we wanted to bring the Standard back as a permanent model, not just a limited 40th Anniversary run,” explains Judy Schaefer, PRS’s director of marketing.

Back in the day, the soon-to-be-Standard “was just a simple guitar: I didn’t think people wanted complex guitars”, said Paul in an enlightening PRS Archives video, remembering the early instrument you see pictured here.

And today, Paul says that was basically true: “We had the PRS and the Custom. What blew me away was that everyone wanted the curly [maple] top and everybody wanted the bird inlays. I thought the birds were like a one-in-eight option that would be taken up. But people were calling, saying, ‘I’ve got to have the birds.’ I was like, what?

“But the Jimmy Wallace [guitar dealer and founder of the Dallas International Guitar Festival] phone call was the one,” laughs Paul. “He said, ‘Now Paul, you go in the back there and pick me a real nice curly maple top.’ I said, ‘You want me to cherry‑pick you a top?’ He said yes, but I said, ‘Well, I’m charging you.’

“That was the day the ‘10 Top’ thing started. I wasn’t going to go back and pick a special top out of a pile of wood for somebody without charging them extra. Initially, I’d wanted it to be ‘you got what you got’, like in the old Les Paul days.”

Looking Forward

Today’s returning Standard 24 mirrors the current spec Custom 24 in all but that maple top and its gloss nitro finish, and both guitars introduce the new DMO humbuckers, the latest in a long line of pickups offered by PRS over these past 40 years. What’s the deal here?

“You’re not going to like my answer,” offers Paul enigmatically. “The first time I heard the DMO humbucker I went, ‘John Sykes!’ It had that wide open, beautiful John Sykes tone. Except we’ve made the DMOs a little more wide open.

“To me, I always really liked the sound of really early ’70s Les Paul Customs without the covers because they were aggressive, wide-open sounding, they sounded musical, good for rhythm guitar, good for lead guitar, good for a lot of things. Now that’s from a rock point of view.”

We mention that the DMOs sound to us like a hotter pickup than they actually are.

“Look, pickup power is magnet power and turns mixed,” Paul says. “Then the cover is a filter that was designed to get rid of buzz and hum. It was a mu-metal can around the humbucking coil, which is what they put in audio consoles.

“But if you’re getting rid of buzz and hum you’re also getting rid of volume, so it was a balance between having it sweeter sounding but also a little bit quieter.

“So a McCarty III [which is covered and another new pickup for 2025] and a DMO are basically the same pickup, but one has a cover and the other one doesn’t.

“[The cover] makes a huge difference in the tone. If there are wing magnets in the pickups, that makes them even louder – which would make them very similar to our TCI pickups. So the reason it sounds ‘hot’ is because there’s no filter on it, no cover.

“Power comes from magnetic strength and turns, but there’s one other place the power comes from,” Paul explains. “If the pickup has more higher midrange, then it sounds louder.”

And part of the DMO’s and McCarty III’s new blend comes from a slightly different magnet material: “The new stuff we have [American Alnico 2] has more higher midrange and less treble and about the same amount of bass. So it’s got more musical high midrange. DMO and the TCI pickups are very close to each other [in terms of sound].

“We’re also using wing magnets in the DMO Treble pickup only, which makes them louder so the DMO Treble is going to be way louder than the Bass pickup. It’s like two P-90s stacked side by side.”

Fine Details

As we noticed checking over the new Standard, things are a little different in the control cavity, too, not least that there’s a very large tone capacitor.

Paul explains: “In an old Fender Esquire with the switch positioned fully to the right, the tone control is disconnected; it’s significantly brighter than the middle-switch position where the tone control is wired in. Then, fully to the left, that tone control is turned all the way off.

“So that switch on the Esquire is three ways of doing the tone control: no tone control, the tone control is hooked up, and then the tone control is in circuit but fully rolled off. If you put an Esquire into that right position, the high-end will take your head off, so that tone control – even if it’s turned all the way up – is a filter.

“The reason that 600-volt cap is in there is not because of its rating,” Paul adds. “It’s because of its sound. It’s a 600-volt polypropylene capacitor.” Does this mean we’ll see these capacitors in the other Core guitars? “We’re switching over as fast as we can on everything.”

PRS guitars have rarely been fully screened. “But we’re doing it now,” confirms Paul, “because we found a way to get rid of almost all the noise. It’s not just the shielding. We’re also doing something special inside the pickup – there’s a grounding scheme inside the pickup that really helps the noise to drop by another 6dB.

“What had originally happened was that we had started making the TCI pickups with fibreboard bases, and because there was no ground plane between the pickup and the stuff coming in the back of the guitar, we wanted to put a ground plane in the [pickup and control] cavity. When we started doing that we were listening to the noise levels and it was significantly better.”

“The number one reason we did it, though, was that we found a way that, if you do it right, if you touch the guitar then don’t touch the guitar, it didn’t go buzz – no buzz. We know when you touch the guitar in the studio the buzz goes away. That guitar doesn’t do that. The guitar you have should have been very quiet.

“See, we didn’t understand how to do it. Ground planes are very tricky. The people that make audio consoles understand ground planes incredibly well; the guitar industry hadn’t taught me enough about how to do it well.

“But I’ve finally learned how to do it well – to get rid of the noise when you touch, or don’t touch, the guitar. So we decided to do it. We don’t use a carbon-based [shielding] paint, we use a nickel-based paint – the same thing a pickup cover is made of.”

Still learning, still tweaking and still improving. Proving that PRS guitars, despite the name of these latest models, are far from standard.

• “Finely tuned instruments with effortless playability and one of the best vibratos there is”: PRS Standard 24 Satin and S2 Standard 24 Satin review
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

PRS has rolled out two newly spec’d versions of its popular Archon and MT 15 guitar amps – and has notably equipped its Mark Tremonti signature amp with a fresh Dumble-inspired overdrive channel lifted from the hugely versatile MT 100.

Previously a two-channel 15-watt amp head that offered a second clean channel voice, the new-for-2025 MT 15 has now been overhauled with a revamped Lead channel that – thanks to a new push/pull control – looks to deliver one of the most sought-after amp tones in a lunchbox amp format.

Specifically, the MT 15 features the voice of the MT 100’s overdrive channel, and offers a push/pull control on the Treble parameter that removes two gain stages to produce “vintage, crunchier mid-gain tones”.

Tremonti’s affection for both PRS and Dumble amps is well documented, so it makes sense the pair have opted to put such Dumble-inspired tones into the MT 15. Indeed, it was actually Paul Reed Smith who got Tremonti hooked on Dumbles after an all-star PRS jam night.

Last year, Tremonti discussed his then-new MT 100 with Guitar World, and revealed how he had originally worked to get the response and feel of his many vintage Dumble amps into his signature head.

“There’s a certain something that happens when you play a Dumble,” he says. “When the pick hits the string, you hear this certain quality that I tried to replicate with this amp. You can turn the gain down, sit on a note and it will bloom.”

The original MT 100 was highly regarded by Guitar World, and was even badged not only one of the best metal amps on the market, but also one of the most versatile all-rounders – and to have some of that flexibility added to the more affordable MT 15 will no doubt please many.

Otherwise, the MT 15 stays true to its original blueprint. There’s a Clean channel with Bass, Middle, Treble and Volume controls, with a push/pull on the Treble for unlocking a “touch of overdrive”.

Similarly, the proper Lead channel hosts Bass, Middle, Treble and Gain controls. Presence, a Master pot for the overdrive channel, and a Lead/Clean channel toggle switch complete the front panel.

“Seven years ago, we released my signature MT 15 amplifier, a compact powerhouse that quickly became a go-to for players seeking both pristine cleans and crushing high-gain tones,” Tremonti says.

“In 2023, we took things even further with the MT 100, delivering a full-scale amplifier that carried my signature sound to the next level. That inspired us to find a way to fit the 100's third channel into the 15's lunchbox size.

“Today, I’m beyond excited to introduce the next evolution of the MT15, now featuring a push/pull overdrive control on the Lead channel and a half-power switch, giving players even more tonal flexibility to shape their sound with a compact amp.”

As for the all-new Archon Classic, PRS has refined and revoiced the gain structure from the original Archon’s lead channel, resulting in a wider range of gain tones. As per PRS, the Archon Classic was designed to be a “go-to tool for playing classic rock or pushing the envelope into modern territory”.

Elsewhere, some features from the previous iteration are present, including a bright switch, and presence and depth controls. It has been joined by a 4x12 “mega-sized” cabinet – only the second four-speaker cab in the PRS lineup, which features Celestion V-Type speakers.

“The Archon Classic is not a re-issue of the original Archon, but a newly voiced circuit with the lead channel excelling in '70s and '80s rock tones and a hotter clean channel able to go into breakup,” notes PRS Amp Designer Doug Sewell.

“This is the answer for those wanting an Archon with a hotrod vintage lead channel gain structure without changing preamp tube types, and a juiced-up clean channel without having to use a boost pedal, all wrapped up in a retro-inspired cabinet design.”

The MT 15 is available to preorder now for $949, while the Archon Classic is available for $1,149. The matching cab is priced at $999.

Visit PRS Guitars for more information.

What is it?

Think PRS and you probably see a curly maple-topped Custom: an absolute modern classic and the guitar that built the empire. But the Standard is also 40 years old, the original ‘PRS guitar’ as it was called until it became the Standard in 1987, with the only major difference being its all-mahogany body.

Historically, the Standard has always been the less-expensive ‘blue collar’ option. But it’s also been absent from PRS’s Core range for over 15 years. It last appeared as the Standard 24 (or 22) Satin in the 2008 line-up and was gone the following year.

Take a quick glance at today’s Standard 24 Satin and you might ask, ‘What’s changed over 40 years?’ Pretty much everything.

That now-classic outline can’t be anything else but PRS, although the machinery used to make it today is a lot more sophisticated than the bandsaws, planers and Dupli Carver (which created the carved top back in the day) used in PRS’s original Virginia Avenue factory.

It also retains the original halfway-between-Fender-and-Gibson 635mm (25-inch) scale length and 254mm (10-inch) fingerboard radius.

Without the eye-catching maple fascia, a solid colour such as our Pearl White example – a proper pearl that subtly changes shade in different lights – lets you really appreciate the complexity of the top carve with its dished violin-like outer carve, the chamfering to the upper horn and the hallmark deep cut-out to the treble horn.

The top edge has a very small, almost sharp rim. The back’s edges are more rounded, and save for a subtle ribcage contour it’s flat. Both controls sit in small carved dishes, and the overall craft is perfect, including the finishing with its open-pore – or ‘sinky’, in PRS speak – satin nitro. As ever, the mahogany body is one-piece stock.

While later guitars, from the early ’90s McCarty Model, use a slightly thicker body, today’s Custom 24 and this Standard stick with the original 49mm depth, more feline Fender Stratocaster than ol’ porky Les Paul.

The full-width glued-in neck has an extended foot that sits under the neck pickup, and it’s probably changed less than other details, not least the material quality and condition and the way it’s made. Stability is everything; it’s proper craft and always has been.

Originally, as here, the Standard and Custom’s fingerboards were unbound. The rosewood might no longer be Brazilian, but the East Indian variety here has a deep, dark almost black colour that shows off the bird inlays perfectly; they look a lot crisper now and have green abalone centres – about the only bit of bling on the whole guitar.

A first glance, it’s hard to see what’s changed with the vibrato, too. Based on a Fender vibrato with its all-brass construction, walled top plate and block saddles, the overall style is similar to the original design (which was patented in 1984) and it has been constantly refined to this Gen III level with its larger brass pivot screws – to “maximise the transfer of the strings’ vibration through the bridge and into the body of the guitar”, states PRS – and grooves under the height-adjustment screws to provide better saddle-to-bridge contact.

Subtle refinements to eke every drop of vibrational transfer. It pivots on those notched screws and sits parallel to the top using four springs.

At the other end we have the latest Phase III tuners – open backs, unplated brass posts, top locks – and they now feature these larger ‘wing’ buttons, which are a black synthetic to tie in with the smoked black plating. Even the nut material has evolved into the clearly brass-infused low‑friction synthetic currently used.

Along with the 2025 Custom 24 and Custom 24 Piezo, the Standard also introduces the latest PRS uncovered humbuckers, the DMO Treble and Bass.

These adopt the proprietary square-bobbin style and mounting rings, and you realise that every visible part – the black lampshade knobs, the switch tip, the strap buttons, not to mention the tuners and bridge – are all proprietary to PRS.

S2 Standard 24 Satin

Launched for 2014, the S2 line was designed to sit midway between the high-level USA Core guitars and the much more affordable offshore-made SE line.

It’s been the made-in-the-USA home for the Standard ever since it was released as a trio of S2 models for 2016: the S2 Standard 22 Satin, S2 Standard 24 Satin and the S2 Singlecut Satin, each offered in Charcoal, McCarty Tobacco, Vintage Cherry and Vintage Mahogany satin nitro finishes.

Although still made in the PRS factory, the S2 designs employ a simplified, faster production process with chamfered top bodies, three-piece necks and, originally, electronics and hardware from the SE line. As a result, the S2 was a far less expensive USA-made PRS. And that’s still true today.

The S2 Standard 24 Satin now costs $1,750/£1,450 less than the new Core Standard, although it comes with a very good gigbag, rather than the new ATA hardshell moulded case of the Core model.

But while the basic style and construction hasn’t changed, the S2 models were upgraded last year with USA-made pickups and electrics, and this year we get the new wing-button tuners and new open-pore colours – Mavis Mint Metallic, Metallic Midnight, Pearl White and Red Apple Metallic.

As we said, our sample is from 2024, but PRS’s engineering department has confirmed that, finish and tuners aside, there are no other changes for this year.

So we get the slightly thinner-depth body (45mm), which still appears to be one-piece with chamfered edges, what PRS calls an ‘asymmetric bevel’ top carve.

Under these opaque finishes you can’t see the headstock splice or the heel stack of the neck, but how the neck glues in is in a similar fashion to the Core model. Again, the dark rosewood fingerboard is unbound, the bird inlays are solid “vintage ivory acrylic”, and by design there’s a very Standard-like pared back aesthetic.

The major visual difference here is the scratchplate, which holds the brushed nickel-covered 58/15 LT pickups and the controls that function in the same way as the Core Standard, while the output jack is still metal mounted on the side of the body.

The vibrato is the cast (or “molded”, as PRS prefers) steel vibrato, used not only on the SE guitars but also USA bolt-ons such as the CE.

Specs

PRS Standard 24 Satin

• PRICE: $3,500/£3,449 (inc case)
• ORIGIN: USA 
• TYPE: Double-cutaway, carved-top solidbody electric
• BODY: 1-piece mahogany with violin top carve
• NECK: 1-piece mahogany, Pattern Thin profile, glued-in 
• SCALE LENGTH: 635mm (25-inch)
• NUT/WIDTH: PRS Synthetic/42.9mm
• FINGERBOARD: East Indian rosewood, acrylic/green abalone bird inlays, 254mm (10”) radius
• FRETS: 24, medium
• HARDWARE: PRS Gen III vibrato, PRS Phase III locking tuners (w/brass posts and plastic ‘wing’ buttons) – smoked black plating
• STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 52.5mm 
• ELECTRICS: PRS DMO Treble and Bass open coil humbuckers, 5-way lever pickup selector switch, master volume and master tone
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.36/7.39
• OPTIONS: No
• RANGE OPTIONS: Other new satin finish models include NF53 Satin (£2,999) and Fiore Satin (£2,779) along with JM Silver Sky Satin (£3,300)
• LEFT-HANDERS: No
• FINISHES: Pearl White (as reviewed), Frost Blue Metallic, Pearl Black, Red Apple Metallic – ‘sinky’ satin nitrocellulose
• CONTACT: PRS Guitars

PRS S2 Standard 24 Satin

• PRICE: $1,749/£1,999 (inc gigbag)
• ORIGIN: USA
• TYPE: Double-cutaway solidbody electric
• BODY: Mahogany with ‘asymmetric bevel’ top carve
• NECK: Mahogany, Pattern Thin profile, glued-in
• SCALE LENGTH: 635mm (25”)
• NUT/WIDTH: Friction reducing/43.2mm
• FINGERBOARD: East Indian rosewood, ‘old school’ bird inlays, 254mm (10”) radius
• FRETS: 24, medium
• HARDWARE: PRS vibrato (cast), PRS Phase III locking tuners (w/brass posts and plastic ‘wing’ buttons) – nickel plating
• STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 52.5mm
• ELECTRICS: PRS 58/15 LT Treble and Bass humbuckers, 5-way lever pickup selector switch, master volume and tone
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.41/7.5
• OPTIONS: No
• RANGE OPTIONS: The 22-fret Standard Satin (same price) plus 22- and 24-fret S2 Standards are available with gloss finishes at $1,999/£2,135
• LEFT-HANDERS: No
• FINISHES: Antique White (as reviewed). New 2025 colours are Red Apple Metallic, Mavis Mint Metallic, Metallic Midnight, Pearl White – ‘sinky’ satin nitrocellulose
• CONTACT: PRS Guitars

Playability and sounds

Two Standard 24s, quite different in price. Which is best? If only it were that simple… Both guitars are very similar in weight, comfortably below the 3.6kg (8lb) threshold. And both use the Pattern Thin profile (aka the Wide Thin, in old money) with near identical dimensions and feel: a classic C that’s not overwide or that thin, a very mainstream classic handful.

The nut width measures a shade under 43mm (with 36mm string spacing at the nut, 52.5mm at the bridge) with a measured 1st fret depth of 21.1mm and pretty much bang on 22.9mm by the 12th on both models.

As you’d expect, there’s very little difference in the strapped-on or seated feel, aside from that slightly thicker and more domed top of the Core model, though it does have a thinner rim depth compared with the S2. Setups are identical, as are the PRS ‘standard’ frets, approximately 2.54mm wide with the same height of 1.14mm – the definition of medium-jumbo, we’d say.

Playing between the two unplugged, the S2 has a very slightly brighter response and is a little snappier; the Core Standard is very similar but slightly more rounded.

The switching on both is the same, and while it doesn’t give you the versatility of variants such as the Custom 24-08 or the more expansive HSH Modern Eagle V, the five distinct voices here cover immense ground.

You can voice either humbucker individually, plus both together (in position 3), but the single-coil sounds are only voiced in combination: the inner single coils (position 4) and the inner single coil of the neck with the full bridge humbucker (position 2).

Now, along with different vibratos, the pickups are different, too, and provide sounds that have more variation to them than the feel.

We are in a similar ballpark, but the Core’s DMOs have a little more solidity, creating a subtly thicker voice that certainly sounds ‘all mahogany’ – without the addition of the maple top.

Clean, the plummy jazz at the neck is contrasted by the subtle ‘Patent Applied For’ honk at bridge – and that impression of thickness is clear to hear.

To our ears, this Core Standard’s humbuckers sit most happily with some gain from amp and pedals. It instantly sounds huge: perfect for big stadiums, real or imagined.

It’s not that these pickups are actually high output – they’re pretty regular, if we’re honest, and don’t sound overly compressed – but they certainly sound fuller in the midrange than a classic Patent Applied For style.

The subtle high-end sizzle can be lost a little when you pull back the volume, and we barely touched the tone control as there are no spiky highs to tame; full up, it’s dark enough as is.

Well, unless you want to do a Santana that is – pulling back the tone a little gets you there in an instant. All in, along with its big fat rhythm chunk, this Standard is a soloist’s dream.

The S2 doesn’t sound cheaper in the least, but it does sound different and a little more vintage-flavoured, with a touch more snap and high-end.

The bridge captures a more Patent Applied For character with a little more honk and brightness, and a little more clarity; it’s less ‘big’-sounding at the neck. Pulling back the volume reduces the high-end, but it sounds more usable, especially with cleaner, lighter crunch tones.

The two single-coil mixes provide some welcome Fender-like brightness to counter the pretty thick-sounding ’buckers of the Core Standard. They’re a great contrast to the DMOs in humbucking mode.

They’re a little thinner and brighter on the S2 and lean more towards that Fender-y snap and brightness. The sounds we used less on both are the twin humbuckers combined – they lack some bounce and sparkle when compared with our reference Burstbucker-equipped Les Paul Classic.

As players, there is very little difference between the two. Both are simply very finely tuned instruments with effortless playability, they’re superbly stable and in tune, and have quite simply one of the best vibratos there is.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

It’s a bit of a surprise that PRS hasn’t given this new Core Standard a 40th Anniversary shout out – it really is the guitar (along with the Custom, of course) that started the party all those years ago.

It’s grown up a bit and has a big, muscular voice but just enough contrast to pull back the bluster for some of the best single-coil sounds we’ve heard on this classic platform.

The S2 Standard Satin certainly doesn’t play or sound like half the guitar, and there will be plenty of players that will be drawn to its more classic voicing and even aesthetic, courtesy of its scratchplate – especially if you use lower gains.

They’re marketed as different levels, which is reflected in the price, but in reality they’re different tools for different jobs. You could have a career with the S2, no question: it’s a thoroughly professional-grade piece.

Guitar World verdict: There’s a lot more to a PRS guitar than its curly maple top and bird inlays. The fact that the brand is still tweaking and improving even the smallest details after all these years reflects its ethos: very good can always be better.

Hands-on videos

PRS Guitars

• “While Fender players might feel more at home with the Silver Sky, PRS players will definitely feel a little more comfortable here”: PRS SE NF3 review
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Orianthi’s debut solo album, 2005’s Violet Journey, immediately put the guitar community on notice that a major new talent had arrived. Her unique blend of blues-fueled virtuosity turned heads from the very start, leading to countless endorsements from major-league gear manufacturers.

The subsequent years have seen her release four more highly acclaimed albums; in fact, we caught up with her as she was completing work on her sixth album, which is due sometime this year.

This means Guitar World managed to find a spot in Ori’s hectic schedule to discuss the three guitars that have meant the most to her over her career.

“I’ve got so many guitars that mean a lot to me for all kinds of reasons, but I guess – when push comes to shove – these are the three I always return to. I still find myself on guitar-hunting expeditions when I get a day off on tour, but if I could only own three guitars, these are the three that would make the cut.”

Maton Australian EA80C

“This was the first guitar I bought for myself, when I was 14. My dad had bought me a few other guitars before, but I managed to finally get enough money together to buy this. I thought that the fact that Maton was Australian was cool. They’re such a great brand – such well-made guitars.

“I brought it over to America with me, and the wood got cracked during the flight. It holds a lot of great memories for me, sitting and writing with it in those early years. I came up with all the songs for Violet Journey, which got me the deal with Jimmy Iovine, on this guitar. I actually started out on an old, beat-up classical guitar that my dad had, that he was happy to let me play.

“He didn’t trust me with his Gibsons and Fenders at that time. Then, when I was seven, he gave me his Cherry Red Gibson ES-125, on the condition that I only used it at home. He was always telling me to be very careful with it – it was a really beautiful guitar.

“It was a left-handed hollowbody – my dad is left-handed – so we converted it to right-handed, which was actually kind of weird.”

“I would sneak it out to school after my dad left for work, but he came home early one day and saw me coming back in with it. I was busted, and he was shocked at first, but I told him that I’d played a song I’d written at school assembly and I had some friends dancing with me. I think he was impressed that it was like a proper show, so that got me off the hook.

“I was really spoiled as a kid when it came to guitars; after he gave me the 125, he gave me a red Fender Strat and then a PRS. My parents could see how dedicated and serious I was about playing the guitar when I was a child.

“I guess they thought I probably wasn’t going to be able to do anything else except maybe feed the animals in a zoo, so maybe I could become a guitar player. My dad was a real tone freak and guitar obsessive, and I think that’s where I got my obsession from.”

PRS Custom 24 (one-off)

“You can plug this guitar into anything, and it sounds amazing. I’ve played it next to a ’59 Les Paul for comparison, and also next to my ’62 ES-335, and it sounded just as good. It’s got Paul [Reed Smith]’s special pickups that sound really full; it sustains wonderfully. It’s a real workhorse; it never goes out of tune.

“There are so many unique details about this model. It’s got mother-of-pearl all over it – it was specially flown out for the guitar. There’s pink mother-of-pearl and all kinds of extravagant stuff on the neck, and my “O” symbol is also made from the same material. The entire guitar is made from one piece of Brazilian rosewood, so it’s very heavy.

“I love vintage guitars, but taking them on the road causes me anxiety, because I worry about someone stealing them, but this purple PRS has been everywhere with me. It’s definitely my Number 1 guitar. I actually buy a seat on the plane for it. It travels with me everywhere; it stays with me in my hotel room. It is literally with me all the time; it’s a bit psychotic, I guess. I’ve had five guitars stolen from me, and when you love something the way I love this guitar, you don’t take chances.

“I played the national anthem at a football game in Miami in 2009 on a Les Paul with a Floyd Rose. I turned my back for five minutes and it got stolen from behind me. I’ve had four great PRS guitars stolen as well. That’s why I make sure if I’m taking this guitar with me anywhere, it stays right by my side.”

Gibson SJ-200 (signature)

“It was a huge honor to be asked to collaborate with such an historic company. On top of that, to then be told that my model is their third-best-selling SJ-200 ever, after Elvis and Bob Dylan – what stellar company to be in! – is just really amazing. According to Gibson, they’re so popular that they’ve been on back order for five years, which is mind-blowing.

“I’m working with them to produce an Epiphone version, as the Gibson model is a little on the expensive side. Having said that, the expense is justifiable, with the quality of the wood and the extras like the crystals, and we spent a long time developing the LR Baggs pickups. It also has a built-in compressor.

“Basically, if the sound guy passes out drunk or something, you can fix everything from the guitar. Everybody asked me why I picked such a big guitar, but it just sounds like a grand piano. The sound is huge, and the tonal spectrum is so broad, it’s just immense.

“When you’re accompanying yourself, playing an acoustic gig, the worst thing for me is that horrible, thin sound you often hear. You need the sound to be fully rounded out, and the Baggs pickup captures every detail of the full-bodied sound of the guitar.

“I wanted something that had a neck that was a bit more like an electric guitar – I always found regular acoustic necks a bit too chunky.

“I’d played an ES-345 with what seemed like the ideal neck, and that was the inspiration for the neck on my signature model. It’s been really cool to collaborate with Robi Johns at Gibson – he’s an amazing luthier. His wife is into crystals, as am I, so we immediately connected.

“I said I wanted amethyst on the controls, and he just said OK, whatever you want – that was just for my own Number 1 model; the others have mother-of-pearl instead, though there is an option to have crystals. I thought we’d better give people a choice as not everyone is as into crystals as I am!”

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Kirk Hammett has played a huge amount of electric guitars over the course of his career, from uber-expensive vintage Gibsons and Peter Green’s iconic Greeny Les Paul (which he now owns), all the way to his Fernandes Strat-a-like and the Fender Acoustasonic.

Indeed, his personal collection of guitars spans well over the 100 mark (a count in 2017 put it around 150), but as the Metallica guitarist explains in a new interview with Guitar World, he's not interested in playing a PRS guitar.

Over the years, Hammett has used Gibsons, ESPs, Jacksons, Ibanez guitars and more, but never has he warmed to any of Paul Reed Smith's builds, despite the fact they've been adored by the likes of Mark Tremonti, John Mayer, and Orianthi.

“I don't think they're aggressive-sounding,” he tells Guitar World matter of factly when asked why he's never been spotted playing a PRS. “There's a part of me that always wants to scream out. My whole life there's been this inner anger or frustration, I don't know what it is. And it sounds crazy, but that's just how I play my guitar.

“I need the aggression right there at my fingertips,” he continues. “I've never been able to coax a sound that had the right kind of attack or bite out of a PRS.”

There’s another aspect to this, too: “They're basically Les Paul copies, let's be frank,” Hammett suggests. “It's a Les Paul style guitar and I already have amazing Les Pauls. So I will stick with those.”

For a guitarist who owns such a spellbinding Les Paul in Greeny – and many more mouth-watering Gibsons to boot – he simply has no need for a PRS in his life.

Of course, it should be pointed out that Hammett is an official Gibson artist, and has a number of signature Gibson guitars to his name. In fact, he recently worked with Gibson to produce The Collection: Kirk Hammett – a premium coffee table book that charts his guitar catalog.

Not only that, PRS has many other non-Les Paul-style builds on its books, such as the Custom 24 and Santana, to name but a few, that are very much their own builds.

Nevertheless, Hammett's personal style is clearly incompatible with PRS guitars: “I just feel they don't have the right kind of bite," he goes on.

“I will walk into a guitar store and I'll see all these amazing PRS models with crazy finishes with all these dragons and birds and whatnot. They look amazing but they just don't tick that aggression factor that I need.”

Hammett has doubled down on his Gibson love affair in recent years, with a Murphy Lab-aged recreation of his 1979 Flying V arriving in 2023. An “artfully aged” Gibson Custom Shop take on his blacked-out 1989 Les Paul Custom followed in January last year.

Keep your eyes peeled on GuitarWorld.com for the full interview with Kirk Hammett, in which the Metallica man also recalls the time he let Jack White play Greeny live.

PRS has given its humble SE Series a limited-edition aesthetic overhaul by drafting in a handful of elegant exotic veneers to visually upgrade some of the line’s most popular offerings.

And, while on a mission to bolster its SE range, PRS has also introduced an electronics update to its distinctive Swamp Ash Special, making the recently reprised six-string more tonally versatile than before.

The launch arrives as part of the firm’s year-long 40th anniversary celebration, with Poplar Burl, Burled Ash, and Laurel Burl all included in a release that updates four series stalwarts: the Custom 24-08, Custom 24, DGT and McCarty 594.

For the Maryland electric guitar specialist, the Indonesian-made SE range serves as the PRS entry point for players who are keen to try out Paul Reed Smith’s innovations without forking out serious cash for the high-end models.

Some of those high-end models have been treated to similarly exotic – but more exclusive – tops over the years, but now such distinct visuals have been brought back to the SE line for what can only be described as a quartet of guitars befitting the firm's 40th birthday celebrations.

Not only that, they all weigh in just shy of the $1,000 mark – a favorable price point given both the SE’s pedigree and the downright stunning nature of the exotic tops that have been utilized.

As PRS COO Jack Higginbotham explains, the woods were all selected during a recent trip to the PT CORT factory where PRS SE models are made, which lead to the discovery of some rather alluring veneers.

For the launch, the SE Custom 24-08 has been treated to a Poplar Burl veneer, available in Charcoal Cherry Midnight Burst and Lake Blue Midnight Burst. Only 2,500 will be made.

The SE Custom 24, meanwhile, offers a Burled Ash veneer in either Lake Blue and Natural, and only 1,000 will be up for grabs.

Elsewhere, Laurel Burl is used for both the SE DGT (available only in McCarty Sunburst) and SE McCarty 594 (available only in Vintage Sunburst). 1,000 of the former will be made, while only 500 of the McCarty will be produced – making it the most exclusive model of the lot.

All other specs will remain the same across the board, meaning there will be a bevy of rosewood fingerboards, PRS pickups and configurations, nifty switching options and patented PRS tremolo systems.

“We are fortunate to have an elite group at PT CORT focusing solely on the PRS proprietary factory,” Higginbotham explains. “This is a team that enjoys pushing boundaries and exploring new ideas and our guitars reflect that passion and enthusiasm.

“Our visits almost always yield new ideas. When I saw their library of veneers on a recent trip, I knew we could build some really special guitars with them. These guitars are going to turn some heads. The natural designs in the wood create ‘aesthetic arrest’ from the first look.”

As for that SE Swamp Ash Special, PRS has now replaced the outgoing three-way switch with a five-way alternative, opening up more pickup combinations for the already rather-well-equipped workhorse.

For more information on all the new SE models, head over to PRS Guitars.

PRS has truly been celebrating its 40th anniversary in style.

In January, the company hosted a star-studded concert at Anaheim, California's House of Blues featuring John Mayer, David Grissom, Orianthi, Herman Li, Mark Lettieri, and the man himself, Paul Reed Smith. The following month, it issued the Charcoal Phoenix, a limited-edition version of the guitar Smith played at the anniversary show.

Now, the company has kept the party going with the 40th Anniversary Custom 24-08 Semi-Hollow Limited Edition model, an updated version of the Custom 24-08, one of the company's foundational designs.

The updates in question are both visual and sonic; the latter coming in the form of TCI pickups and EQ mini-toggle switches, the visual being a “10-top” grade figured maple top, a ziricote fretboard and headstock veneer, and a special inlay package.

The EQ mini-toggles, which also feature on the aforementioned Charcoal Phoenix, are designed to act as tuned high-pass filters when switched to the up position, “removing shelved low end and allowing the high frequencies through for more clarity and musical highs.”

Built with American alnico, the TCI pickups, meanwhile, aim to blend the best of single-coil and soapbar worlds, without the dreaded hum.

“The Custom 24 is one of the first two guitars I made to launch the company and has been our flagship design,” Paul Reed Smith said in a press release. “Updating the 24-08 version for our 40th Anniversary with a semi-hollow body, EQ mini toggles, and this wood combination really allow the instrument to ‘sing’ in a full, beautiful voice of its own.”

Only 300 examples of the model – which comes in four finishes, Faded Whale Blue Smokeburst, Charcoal Tri-Color Burst, Faded Whale Blue Natural Back, and Charcoal Cherry Burst – will be produced. Each guitar will be accompanied by a certificate signed by Paul Reed Smith.

Coming as it does from the top of the PRS line, the 40th Anniversary Custom 24-08 Semi-Hollow Limited Edition rings up at $6,950.

For more info on the guitar, visit PRS.

It's a truth universally acknowledged that a torn hamstring is no fun – and Orianthi can attest to that. Having had to pull out of Alice Cooper's tour due to the injury, the guitarist has revealed how a torn hamstring and hip have disrupted her immediate plans and touring schedule – forcing her to approach AC/DC's Back in Black from, let's just say, another angle.

“I'm recovering from a slightly torn hamstring and hip,” she explains on the Guitar Hang podcast. “And I had to cancel some Alice Cooper dates, which I felt terrible – really terrible about. But I felt this terrible pain and I was, like, ‘I don't know, holding the guitar for two hours a night and not being able to move around.’

“And I called Alice, actually, when I was in Saudi Arabia, and I said, ‘I'm in a lot of pain. I'm not too sure what's going on.’ So I gave him a heads up and I said, ‘I don't know. I don't know what's happening.’ When I got back, yeah, they were, like, ‘Oh, you can't really do this.’ I'd never canceled anything before. So it weighed heavy on me. But now I'm feeling better and all of that.”

Despite the obvious consequences such an injury has on a musician with a schedule as packed as Orianthi, she's hopeful she'll be able to stand up for the upcoming shows – something she wasn't able to do at PRS' 40th anniversary concert.

“Playing the 40th anniversary for PRS sitting down on a chair, it was so bad,” she admits. “I was, like, ‘Man, this is so embarrassing.’ And I'm, like, in a tracksuit and playing with Dany [Daniela Villarreal] from The Warning – she's awesome. We played Back In Black.

A quick tip from Orianthi? “You should never play Back In Black sitting down. It was just weird because they didn't show me walking out. So my mother saw it. She goes, ‘Did they wheel you out? You just appeared on a chair.’ That was some weird shit. Anyway. What can you do?”

Aside from her link-up with Dany, Orianthi also treated audiences to a performance of First Time Blues – and surprised The Warning guitarist by gifting her the custom guitar she played that night.

Late last month, PRS Guitars celebrated its 40th anniversary in style with a star-studded concert at Anaheim, California's House of Blues featuring John Mayer, David Grissom, Orianthi, Herman Li, Mark Lettieri, and the man himself, Paul Reed Smith.

Those who looked closely at video of the concert may have noticed Smith wielding a striking, charcoal-y PRS model while trading solos with Mayer and others.

According to PRS, Smith has been road-testing the guitar in question over the last year, “refining its design and tone.” Now that model, dubbed the Charcoal Phoenix, has been unveiled to the world.

To hear Smith tell it, the Charcoal Phoenix was inspired by the Private Stock John McLaughlin Limited Edition model PRS released in 2023.

“When we released the Private Stock John McLaughlin Limited Edition in 2023, I was inspired by its exceptional sound and playability,” Smith shared in a statement. “For the Charcoal Phoenix, I wanted to create something equally remarkable but with a stoptail bridge.

“Using chaltecoco for the neck and ziricote for the fingerboard, I achieved an instrument that sustains beautifully and rings with clarity. The deep crimson back and the charcoal microburst top inspired the name ‘Charcoal Phoenix,’ evoking the imagery of a phoenix rising from fire and ashes.”

Aside from those visual appointments, the Charcoal Phoenix comes loaded with a pair of PRS TCI pickups that offer “clear tones from spanky single coils to full soapbars,” the company says.

Controlling these pickups – alongside your usual controls – are a pair of EQ mini-toggles that act as tuned high-pass filters when engaged, in doing so “removing shelved low end and allowing the high frequencies through for more clarity and musical highs.”

The Charcoal Phoenix is also fitted with lightweight PRS Phase III Non-Locking Tuners, and the aforementioned PRS Stoptail bridge, which boasts curved string slots, brass inserts, and steel studs.

The Charcoal Phoenix is limited to just 150 examples, with each guitar including a 40th Anniversary certificate signed by Smith. We haven't exact price info as of press time, but one can expect given those particulars that it'll fetch a fair price.

For more info on the guitar, visit PRS.

On Friday January 24, PRS Guitars celebrated its 40th anniversary in style with a who’s who of the brand’s loyal artists coming out in force to pay homage to the firm’s founder and all-round guitar genius, Paul Reed Smith.

David Grissom, Orianthi, Herman Li and Mark Lettieri were among the stars performing at Anaheim’s House of Blues, but it was John Mayer who brought the house down – and afterwards, the company’s highest-profile endorsee paid homage to Smith, beginning with a few choice words for anyone who paradoxically criticizes his guitars for being “too nice”.

“How did PRS make it to 40 years? Number one, they make great guitars,” Mayer said. “You would talk about PRS and someone would say, ‘They’re too nice.’ Yeah, they’re really fucking nice!

“What’s too nice for a guitar? You want that special vibe that only tuning every song can give you onstage? You want that grit, just like your heroes? Bad intonation?! The guitars are incredible, the product is incredible.”

Mayer went on to detail what has kept him loyal to the firm since he parted ways with Fender to design his own signature model with PRS, the Silver Sky.

“The first time I called PRS was 10 years ago in 2015. What is the sign of a great company? The sign of a great company is that the same people you spoke to the first time you ever made contact are still working there at the company today.”

But ultimately, Mayer says, it’s Smith’s drive to try new things – and succeed, no matter how long it takes – that continues to inspire him. It’s something the guitar hero puts down to the guitar builder’s lack of ego, noting he is “only concerned with innovation”.

“If you share an idea with Paul – I go, ‘What if we could just do this and that?’ And the phone goes dead silent. ‘…Are you there, Paul?’ ‘I’m thinking, John.’

“It's not a guy who's worried about whether he says a yes or a no and what you’ll think about it. He thinks about the problem. He goes dead silent. He’s concerned with innovation.

“He is a genius, which is rare, but he is a subsection of genius, which is even more rare, which is that he is a joyous genius. And he spreads that joy, and he spreads that creative burst and you take it up as well and you bring it on stage with you.

“Dare I say he is the hidden member of everyone’s band all the time, no matter where you’re playing.”

Smith was moved to tears by Mayer’s words – and hailed his performance that evening as “some of the most beautiful guitar playing I’ve ever heard”.

To celebrate its 40th anniversary year, PRS has refreshed and refined several of its lineups, as well as launching a 40th Anniversary edition of perhaps Smith’s most extravagant creation, the Dragon.

Back in 1992, PRS Guitars was just seven years old and plenty of people thought the first Dragon guitar was the beginning of the end.

For a brand in its infancy known for high-end opulent guitars, that Dragon was a ‘love it or hate it’ run of just 50 pieces aimed not for the stage but for very well-heeled collectors. In reality, that particular guitar was more the starting point: a redesign of the recipe.

Up until that stage, PRS’s set-neck guitars were only available with 24 frets. The Dragon introduced a shorter (and stiffer) 22-fret Wide Fat profile neck with a longer heel and a slightly steeper headstock back-angle in an attempt to improve the sound.

“Ralph Perucci and I designed it on my kitchen table at Christmas,” Paul Reed Smith told this writer back in the day. “We talked about the changes, and I knew we had to change the neck. Any time I’d found an old guitar with a short, fat neck it sounded better.”

That first ’92 Dragon also introduced the PRS Stoptail one-piece wrapover bridge and another first was the set of covered humbuckers (Dragons, naturally). This design led directly to the standard production Custom 22 in 1993, followed by the McCarty Model in 1994.

Priced at $17,500/£18,995, today’s 40th Anniversary Dragon is the 10th Dragon we’ve seen since 1992 and it’s certainly a sizeable investment (although the 2005 20th Anniversary Dragon Double Neck cost an eye-watering £32k on its launch). This latest model is limited to 165 pieces, with 40 heading to the UK and Europe.

The new Dragon is based on the PRS McCarty platform and has a mahogany back and Private Stock-grade figured maple top – “the kinda flame maple people dream of,” says Paul. “This is the rare stuff!” The neck is ziricote and the fingerboard is Gaboon ebony with a pale moon ebony insert. It’s all finished in a gloss nitro Burnt Chestnut.

“I don’t want to just make some piece of art,” says Paul Reed Smith today. “I want it to be an extraordinary instrument. It should be able to be used at a recording session, a gig. It should be a helluva guitar. That’s important to me and that’s what I really like about this 40th Anniversary Dragon.”

The production version of that first Dragon (without the inlay) was the 1993 Custom 22, which used the changes in the design and was the first non-limited guitar to feature the Stoptail bridge and (uncovered) Dragon Treble and Bass pickups. The ceramic-powered Treble aimed for a big ‘fat’ voicing “with zero loss of clarity”, said PRS, while the Bass pickup was lower output and more PAF-like with an “angelic” high-end.

Those original first-version Dragon pickups are now highly desirable among PRS aficionados. “We always used Dragons to release new pickups,” says Paul today. “While those Dragon Is were about us dipping into more turns to give it a throatier sound, the new McCarty IIIs are throaty but in a very clear way”

• The Private Stock 40th Anniversary McCarty Dragon is available now, priced $17,500/£18,995. See PRS Guitars for more details.

As 2024 draws to a close, online gear retailer Reverb has maintained tradition by announcing its best-selling electric guitars of the year.

As always, three lists have been supplied – one for overall best-sellers, the best-selling used guitars, and best-selling new releases for 2024 – and, as is usually the case, the results make for rather interesting reading.

Perhaps the biggest headline is the fact that, for the overall list, the once-dominant PRS SE Silver Sky has slipped two places in the rankings to third position, having comfortably held down the top spot for Reverb’s best-selling lists in 2022 and 2023.

As Reverb notes, though, that may have been slightly skewed by the fact that the two guitars that came above it were the Fender Player Telecaster (ranked at no. 1) and the Fender American Professional II Stratocaster (no. 2) – two models that received generous discounts over the year, making them even more accessible to players.

The Player Tele, for example, is to be discontinued in favor of the updated Player II iteration, while the American Pro II Strat – usually $1,800 – has had its price reduced, perhaps pointing to a coming range update.

“The PRS SE Silver Sky, after leading our overall best-selling guitars list for two years, did not come in No. 1 in 2024,” explains Reverb.

“It was nudged out by the Fender Player Telecaster and Fender American Professional II Stratocaster, which were both widely available for discounts this year compared to their previous retail price tags.”

The rest of the list makes for largely familiar reading for those who have been following these roundups for the past few years, but there are some significant movers.

Gibson, for example, has two new entries on the list: the SG Standard and SG Standard ’61. Interestingly, neither of those two cropped up in last year's overall rundown.

What’s more, Squier seems to have a reduced representation this time out (potentially due to those Fender discounts) with only the ever-present Squier J Mascis Jazzmaster retaining its space. The Squier Classic Vibe ’50s Telecaster and Classic Vibe ’60s Jazzmaster both drop off, making way for the Fender JV Modified ’50s Strat HSS and American Ultra Strat, which was absent last year.

The rest of the top 10 is made up of bread-and-butter guitars, with the ESP LTD EC-1000 once again holding down its place alongside the likes of the Fender American Vintage II ’61 Strat, Gibson Les Paul Standard (both ’50s and ’60s variants) and a handful of PRS guitars, including the SE David Grissom signature, SE Custom 24 and Silver Sky proper.

This year, the more interesting list of Reverb’s three is by far the one that pits 2024’s newest releases against one another.

There have been some blockbuster guitar launches this year, so it might come as a surprise that neither the new Player II range nor the Dave Grohl’s Epiphone DG-335 – widely recognized as one of the most anticipated signatures of recent years – didn’t take top spot.

Instead, it is the PRS SE CE 24 Standard Satin that tops the list. However, when you consider that this is the most affordable CE guitar that the Maryland brand has ever produced – and the fact Guitarist gave it a faultless five-star review when it launched – the outcome is less surprising.

It’s followed by Fender’s made-in-Indonesia Tom DeLonge Starcaster, and then the DG-335, which sits in third.

Other notable entries include the Squier Hello Kitty Stratocaster, which has already sold out after it was launched mere weeks ago, the updated Fender Player II Telecaster and Stratocaster, and the Epiphone Inspired By Gibson Custom ’59 ES-335.

The overall best-seller list can all be found below, and more information can be found over at Reverb.

Overall Best-Selling Electric Guitars of 2024

1. Fender Player Telecaster
2. Fender American Professional II Stratocaster
3. PRS SE Silver Sky
4. Fender Player Stratocaster
5. Fender American Professional II Telecaster
6. Gibson Les Paul Standard '60s
7. Gibson Les Paul Standard '50s
8. PRS Silver Sky John Mayer Signature
9. PRS SE David Grissom Tremolo Signature
10. PRS SE Custom 24
11. Fender American Ultra Telecaster
12. Gibson Les Paul Classic (2019-Present)
13. Gibson SG Standard (2019–Present)
14. Fender American Vintage II '61 Stratocaster
15. Gibson SG Standard '61 w/ Stop Bar Tailpiece (2019 - Present)
16. ESP LTD EC-1000
17. Fender American Ultra Stratocaster
18. Squier J Mascis Jazzmaster
19. Fender American Standard Stratocaster (2008–16)
20. Fender JV Modified '50s Stratocaster HSS

Guitars and gear owned by the late Massive Attack guitarist Angelo Bruschini, used on the band's game-changing 1998 album, Mezzanine, are currently up for auction. The equipment is being sold by the guitarist's family following his passing from cancer in October 2023.

The collection, hosted by Gardiner Houlgate Auctioneers, is expected to fetch more than £15,000.

Among the many pieces of gear on offer are a 1968 Fender Telecaster Thinline, extensively used throughout Bruschini's career and modified for specific projects; a stage- and studio-used 1996 PRS Custom 24, which Bruschini discovered in Switzerland and turned into one of his go-to instruments; and a studio-used 1989 Johnny Kinkade Custom Made Montpelier semi-hollow, crafted by one of Bristol, England's most respected luthiers, Johnny Kinkade.

Additional items include two Matchless Independence amps, which were part of Bruschini's main live rig with Massive Attack, as well as various pedals, including stompboxes from the New Zealand boutique pedal company FirehorseFX.

Commenting on the sale, auctioneer Luke Hobbs said, “His guitar work can be heard all over iconic tracks from their internationally acclaimed Mezzanine album.”

He added that Bruschini's death was a “huge loss to the Bristol music scene” and that his work with Massive Attack was a “key component in the explosion of the Bristol trip hop scene during the 1990s.”

The Angelo Bruschini auction is currently live. For more information, visit Gardiner Houlgate Auctioneers.

PRS’ SE NF3 caused a huge stir when it landed earlier this year, bringing something truly different to the bolt-on S-style market – not least, its unique noise-cancelling Narrowfield pickups. It looked like excellent value on launch at $799, but this Black Friday you can get 15% off the PRS SE NF3 at Guitar Center.

In past years we’ve gotten used to some of the more, er, outlandish finish options and odder specs getting reduced for Black Friday – but provided those Kylo Ren style p’ups are working for you – then you’re going to bag an absolute beast of a guitar here for the cash.

Guitarist reviewed the PRS SE NF3 back in June and awarded it 4.5/5 stars, noting “it is perhaps a little surprising that it’s solely in the SE line when it could quite comfortably sit alongside the Silver Sky and Fiore, not to mention the NF 53, in the USA Bolt-On range.”

As I reported last year, the lines have been getting increasingly blurred between US and offshore guitar build quality, particularly post-pandemic, but PRS’ SE range was an early challenger, in that respect.

The firm’s COO Jack Higginbotham explained the rationale behind the SE line earlier this month.

“[It] is incredibly high value for a guitar you can go and buy, and go and gig it,” Higginbotham told Guitarist. “And that’s what I want: it’s not a toy, it’s not for someone to stick in a closet and not use. It has a purpose and that purpose is to make music.”

As such, the SE NF3’s spec walks the walk. There’s a sculpted poplar body, a slab-sawn maple neck with PRS’ Wide Thin profile, albeit with a 25” scale-length (compared to the traditional Strat-like 25.5”).

Then there’s a trio of those PRS-designed Narrowfield DD ‘S’ humbuckers, five-way pickup selector and Master Volume and Tone.

The Narrowfield humbuckers bring something new to the game, too – coming in somewhere between a single coil and humbucker, enabling you to sweep from a Fender voice into Gibson SG-style territory as you roll back the tone and volume controls.

At the time, expert Dave Burrluck posited that as a package it was just missing one tweak, writing: “If we were to be picky, then the simple ‘seven-sound’ mod would expand your choices, not least allowing you to voice the neck and bridge pickups together.

“Indeed, installing that simple mod and a set of the SE locking tuners would really bring the NF3 dangerously close to the USA guitars. It really is that good.”

Now you can scoop one up for $679, all of which leaves you with a handy $120 off the list price – which should make a nice dent in that mod budget.

Shop more epic Black Friday deals

• Amazon: Guitar gear deals
• Fender store: 50% off guitars
• Guitar Center: Up to 50% off
• Musician's Friend: Up to 60% off sale
• Positive Grid: Save on Spark
• Sweetwater: Save up to 80% on gear
• Waves: Plugins just $19.99