Paul Reed Smith Guitars CE 24

1998 Maple top I won't go over the features everyone knows what these are and the features I'll be reviewing my 98 and a new one a 2007 simultaneously, so this will be a funky review. but the numerical rating scores will reflect my 98. my 98 was converted to the 3 way toggle... alot better that way IMO. I bought my 98 well used so I'm not sure what it was like brand new.

I play in a rock cover band and my 98 does everything i need it to, and sounds awesome doing it. I didn't keep the 07 for very long as I felt it was junk compared to my 98! I know... A junky PRS? how can that be you say? I'll elaborate in another section.

I bought my 98 used but I could tell that the finish wasn't perfect as you could see the flaws in the "natural binding" style look but I didn't care about that as the guitar fit in my hand so awesomely... (Is that a word, awesomely? It is now...) and sounded so sweet It's pretty much the only guitar I play now. completely differnt experience with the 07 that I bought and quickly returned, the finish work on a brand new one was just okay, and the b string had a wierd buzzing, and some of the screws were in crooked... WTF

my 98 has been beat to hell and still keeps ripping, I trust this guitar to hold up on me but i don't like to go without a backup but have been forced to a few times. I didn't keep the 07 long enough.

I've rareley delt with the PRS customer support but the few times i've talked to anyone over at PRS they seem to have a "our S@#t don't stink" kind of attitude over there... (kind of like the dingleberries over at Line 6) I don't dislike them or feel that they don't know what they're doing. Just don't like thier attitude.

I've been playing long enough to know the difference between a quality guitar and a over priced, over hyped boat anchor... it just blows me away to get 2 totally differnt guitars that essentially have the same build process. who knows what was going on when they built that 07.

Let me start by saying I have bought 2 used CE 24s one is a 1996 ($1500) with the regular carve short heel neck (slight dead spot on g-12 but nothing to cry about) and a 1999 ($1150)with a wide thin neck. In the past 6 months. The tremolo works great, but doing serious dive bombs will put it out of tune in my experiences. The 5 way rotary control is great, I thought I would switch it out for the mccarty style, but realized this suits me much better. both guitars have solid locking tuners, the only gripe i have is that they are very sensitive, d and e tunings are about half a turn away. the 96 has a beautiful faded purple quilt top and bird inlays and the 99 has a less-figured turqouise top with dot inlays.

I tried most other models, customs, mccartys, singlecuts, sc250, sc245, korina mccarty, hollowbodies, and nothing but the CE could get the agressive rock sound i was looking for, most likely because of the hot pickups (HFS and Vintage Bass) and the maple neck. I run it through a 2 channel dual rectifier and a 4x12 cab with vintage 30's, for effects i use a ts808 clone, a compressor, and a delay/reverb pedal. the sounds i get are amazing, it does very will with all styles, using treble pickup only i get a great heavy rhythm sound, i can get a creamy lead on the neck, the middle position is great for santana-ish sounds, and the 2 parallel positions sound great combined witha compressor pedal for cleans. there is no noise in any of the positions. it is a fairly bright sounding guitar with lots of attack.

Its a Paul Reed Smith... not much else i can say other than the 96 has an amazing quilt top (it was signed on the electronics plate by prs himself saying "congratulations on the killer top CE") the 99 has a slightly better than average top for a CE

very reliable guitar, i would bring a backup just becaseu it has a tremolo and stuff can go wrong, these guitars will certainly take a beating though. i replaced the strap buttons with straploks, mostly becasue thats what i have on all my guitars.

no repairs or anything but they answered my questions about some of the writing codes under the pickups and things like that.

its a great prs, they are made just as well as their $3000 brothers, do not let the bolt on neck and low price fool you (it fooled me for a while and when i finally picked one up and played it... well i have 2 now) i have been playing for about 5-6 years and this series is definitely my favorite out of anything i have played. if it was stolen i would do my best to recover it or buy another CE

Mahogany double cutaway body painted in Dupont "Hot Hues" metallic Indigo Blue. Lovely carve to the top and ribcage comfort cut around the back. Treble side cutaway makes hitting the top E a breeze. Quarter sawn (grain runs perpendicular to the fingerboard) 24-fret, Wide Thin profile, 25" scale, satin-finish maple neck - showing quite strong tiger-stripe flame on the back. Rosewood board with abalone dots. Phase II locking tuners, PRS floating trem. HFS (bridge) and Vintage Bass (neck) pickups. Vol, Tone, 5-way rotary selector. Hardware chrome, plastics all black.
Neck plate indicates built 2006. Plush lined, black Tolex oblong case.

Five of 'em - all great!
My live rig is as follows Digitech ToneDriver, keeley Java Boost, Marshall Vibratrem, Boss BF3 Flanger, Boss CH1 Chorus, Boss DD6 Delay straight into the -6dB input of an EL84 Class A Laney VC30 valve combo with 2x10" Jensen speakers.
I play in a rock covers band, doing a diverse set of classics and crowd pleasers. I was using a maple neck bitsa Tele and a PRS SE Soapbar before trying the CE24.
I wanted a trem-equipped guitar with 'buckers for some more varied sounds. I'd sold a Lonestar Strat earlier in the year because it didn't record or hold tuning well, but missed the versatility when playing live.
The CE24's Bridge pickup does exactly what it says. It's Hot, Fat and it Screams! Not Les Paul fat admittedly, but it makes a bloomin good fist of Classic Rock raunch. Pinch harmonics and pick squeals are an absolute doddle. The 3 "mixed" positions mimic 1 Tele and 2 Strat tones. They don't hum through my gear and I'm a fan of all 3, clean or overdriven. The Neck pickup is the peach though - Clean, it's rich and full without any muddiness. Dirty, it sustains forever and has so much clout. This isn't a dark sounding guitar by any stretch of the imagination. The smooth pots are nice and linear, so there's no nasty leap in volume or treble. Doesn't have a coil split version of either 'bucker - but that's the trade off for those 2 "in-between" tones.

I'd heard and read about PRS finish quality, but was a little sceptical. IT REALLY IS GOOD. Even inside the control cavities, everything is pukka. The wiring harness is first class.
A couple of minor niggles - the action was set a tad high with 9's, I assume this is to get a full tone upbend on the trem. A couple of turns on the bridge screws was all the tweak it needed. The nut is some black man-made material (unobtanium?), but was cut to perfection. After sorting the action, I fitted 10s and the intonation was still spot on, even at the 2nd octave - that's the sign of a well sorted neck.
The 5-way rotary switch takes some getting used to after a toggle or lever switch, but once you're comfortable with where it is and what it does, it's second nature. Took me a couple of rehearsals to work out which grip worked best with it.

I've gigged the CE24 as my main live guitar and have had no major gripes. The tuning takes just as much time as anything else I've played to settle down to a room's temperature and humidity, but once there it's solid. The tuning holds up even after repeated dive bombs and behind the nut bends. I have yet to break a string playing this guitar!
The 5-way and the tone pot worked loose by the third gig I played with it though. Removing the knobs to get at the retaining nuts was quite a chore. They put 'em on to stay! 3 dabs of PTFE and all is well. The chrome on the bridge is starting to dull from palm-muting after only a month or two - I must have acid sweat.

12 month warranty through my dealer. PRS had a stand at the Music Live Show at the NEC, so I stopped by for a gaze and a wonder.
I liked the clear knobs on the Z06 Custom, so asked how much? ??15 per knob! ??22 each pickup ring if you want to change those. Gulp! As far as I can tell, Gibbo knobs won't fit, 'cause the pot shafts on the PRS are longer, so anything non-PRS stands proud. the rings are shallow and flat, so if you fancy something different be prepared to dig deep folks. The guys were friendly enough, but seemed more interested in selling me another PRS. You can't knock a salesman for trying!

I've been playing over 20 years. Fenders, Gibsons, Epiphones, Martins and Takamines have all come and gone. I tried this CE24 along with 5 or 6 others (22 and 24 fret) at Sound Control Birmingham over a couple of hours and this one just about nudged it. To be fair, they were all extremely well made and for under ??1k, great value too. I wouldn't hesitate to replace it as I love the way it makes me feel when I play it. I'm sure my playing has improved since buying it as well. If it loaded itself in and out of the car at gigs or made the tea, maybe it would get a 10

2006 carved solid mahogany, blazing copper finish, 24 fret bolt on maple neck with rosewood fretboard with abalone dots, locking tuning pegs, tremolo, HFS bridge and Vintage neck pickup, 5-way rotary switch, tone and volume controls. The PRS tremolo is by far the best one I have used to date! You can't dive bomb it but it is the most stable I've encountered.

The sound of the HFS is what sold me on this model. I have one installed in my Deluxe V-neck strat with the Deluxe fat strat neck and middle pickup. The HFS is a great sounding, well rounded pickup. Almost has a vocal quality to its tone. Great output, a little on the high side, not much more than you would expect from a good bridge pickup. Cleans up nicely by rolling of the volume. Awesome when driven. Just enough highs and great midrange that really cuts through Vintage bass pickup also sounds great. It is a great match to the HFS. The thing that gets me regarding these pickups, or any other PRS pickup, is the clarity when the are driven. I am all about sounding unique but am not willing to compromise on tonal quality to sound different. I've played numerous guitars and used several different pickups and configurations. Tonally, this guitar does it for me. The only thing I will change is the rotary switch. Some guys love it and for the versatility you get it can be useful. I will be converting to the McCarty switching to get the true coil tap which is an area that other pickups can't touch. I believe that PRS specifically designed his pickups to be tapped, not just wiring them for that option, except for the #7 pickup which cannot be tapped.

Bought it "used" but there was not a mark or scratch anywhere on it. This is my third PRS (1998 CE-22 and a 2003 McCarty Brazilian, both of which I have sold at different times for different reasons). The reason I am writing this review is because of the attention to detail and the consistency in quality PRS puts into their guitars.
This guitar was setup great! As with all guitarists, I have my own preferences as far as action, pickup height etc.... It was setup very neutral and I did not have to do anything to make it playable. The blazing copper finish is incredible!

There is nothing about this guitar that I would cause me to be uncomfortable about it that would require me to have a backup. The only thing I have done to this point is add Schaller straplocks, I have them on all of my guitars and wouldn't use any other system. However, the stock strap buttons are a little larger than most and would probably do a better than average job of keeping the guitar around your neck.

Asked them about the tuning pegs for my McCarty at one time and they responded quickly giving me all of the information I needed. Very professional, not like they were looking for a new friend or anything, just to the point.

I had played primarily acoustic for my first twenty-five years and only started getting into electric the last ten. I got serious about my playing when I joined the worship team at my church four years ago. We play progressive, contemporary music and is very guitar driven. I use the PRS, Deluxe V'neck strat and a Gretsch Powerjet as well as a Breedlove acoustic. I play through a PODxt Live which is another fantastic piece of equipment once you figure out how to use the parametric EQ.
The more I play PRS's, the more I am tempted to find other models that could replace my other guitars. I would not hesitate to buy another PRS, they blow away any other guitar I have heard or played.

Features were already described here extensively. Mine is a '96 model with the mahogany body. It has a nice flame top and a cherry red finish with a black back. I replaced the 5-way rotary switch with a 3-way toggle and a split on the tone control. Basically the McCarty conversion. That gives me a total of 6 sounds and the toggle switch is easier to use live than the rotary switch.

I play it through a Mesa Mk III and a few pedals, it is the most versatile guitar I've ever owned. I used to bounce back and forth between Gibsons and Fenders but this guitar covers all bases and it has its own unique voice as well. The HFS pickup is a little on the bass-y side but sounds really good. I've been thinking about getting a SD Custom Custom for the bridge position, which is my favorite pickup. But this would basically be personal preference as there is really no need to change anything. The vintage Bass pickup is incredible, it is my favorite neck pickup ever.

I bought it used and it has set up with 12s and tuned down when I got it. I put a nice set of 10s on it, tuned to pitch, did some minor adjustments on the trem and truss rod and the guitar was ready to go. The tuning stability is impressive even under heavy trem use. I decided to buy the CE over the set-neck models because I hate the way a painted neck feels, its gets too sticky when you are playing live and sweating. I prefer a "raw wood" or satin finish in the back of my necks, and the satin finish on the CE felt much better than the high gloss finish of the Custom. But I still sanded down the finish and then applied a light coat of tung-oil to make it even smoother. There is no way to do that on a painted set-neck without ruining the appearance of the guitar but on the CE you can't even see it.

I think it is very dependable. I never broke a string or had any problems with it. I would gig without a backup if I had to. I normally take a backup to gigs just to be safe but so far I haven't needed to use .

I bought it used so there was no warranty. I called PRS once to get a truss-rod wrench and they gave me the information I needed real quick, but then again it was an easy question. Since my experience with their customer support team is very limited, I will not rate this category.

I've been playing for 28 years and I am a professional player. I spent most of my life I was switching back and forth between Gibsons and Fenders and sometimes Ibanezes as well. I always had in the back of my mind I needed to try a PRS, but never did until recently for some reason. I'm glad I finally did, because this guitar covers everything I used to get from the my others guitars. It has a fast 24-fret neck, fat humbucking tones and nice clean tones when the pickups are split.
This is one the few guitars that fit in any gig you may think of: shred, pop, blues, country etc etc, this guitar looks and sounds at home in all kinds of situations. Ever since I bought this guitar my collection went down from 6 electrics to 3, because this guitar covers so much sonic ground. I recommend this guitar for professional musicians who need a variety of high quality tones into a single guitar. This is truly a professional instrument and it is clear that the mr. Paul Reed Smith listened to a lotof pro musicians and created guitars that address their needs.

finish- flamed top, cherry sunburst
bridge- trem
tuners- prs locking tuners
neck- rosewood
accessories- hard case
year of manufacture- 1990
controls- 5 way selector
pickups- hfs bridge, vintage neck.
body- alder, neck rosewood, top maple.

this is one of the early ish 1990 models, and i have to say that it sounds and plays so much better than any of the new guitars (2 us strats and a gibson les paul) i have owned in the last few years. in fact, this one is the nicest electric guitar i have ever played. I HAVE NEVER WRITTEN A REVIEW BEFORE, SO THIS TELLS YOU SOMETHING ABOUT THIS GUITAR!! i am only reviewing MY GUITAR and not prs models in general! you gotta try a few before you buy remember!

i love the way this guitar has been built, it is exactly the way it was when it left the factory, apart from strings (!), and the set up is amazing. no buzzes, easy to play, pickups (hfs bridge and vintage bass) are superb, full and articulate, and very well defined. this guitar is extremely versatile, i cant imagine any style of music you couldn't play with it. tone is fat but not flabby like my les paul, lovely raunchy overdrive and a sweet clean.

set up is perfect, hence the reason no one has messed with it in the last 17 years. action is low but doesnt buzz, more than could be said for my last strat which buzzed like a tea trolley being pushed down a flight of stairs. finish after 17 years IS SUPERB. and, thankfully, this guitar has been played, so the wood is nice and vibrant. DONT BUY A GUITAR AS A COLLECTORS ITEM. buy it cos you wanna play it!!
top bookmatching is very good, very little oxidisation on the bridge, everything looks good.

dont like the prs strap butons, they are wierd! too wide to fit my moody strap on, so i put dunlop lockers on and they are great.
finish is superb, this guitar has been played and well loved, and the finish shows no signs of real wear, particularly on the part of the top where your strumming arm rests. on my les paul that part started to go thin after about 8 weeks! would depend on it, but never gig without a backup if i can avoid it. its more professional.... but if i had to choose one guitar to rely on, its this one.

out of warranty, but shawn at prs answered my emails WITHIN AN HOUR! when my s-1 switch on my fender strat failed (after eight hours) it took me and the retailer three days of phoning around to be told "we dont sell the s-1 as an after market part". so what do i do if it goes wrong in 2 years?? prs customer support is EXCELLENT. fenders sucks.

its brilliant. i love it. wasnt cheap (hence the 9), but for the first time in a long time i am happy with my sound and the guitar. i dont look at guitars as works of art, they are tools, and they should do thier job properly. this particular one does, but TRY BEFORE YOU BUY. IF YOU BUY A GUITAR COS OF THIS REVIEW OR ANY OTHER YOU ARE A MUPPET. GET WHAT IS RIGHT FOR YOU AND YOU ALONE. my mate has an old epiphone les paul, with stock pickups, and it is brilliant. nicer than my gibson LP. go figure.

Maple topped, 24 fret bolt on neck, 5 way switching, twin humbucking pickups

Well here we are and this is the reason for my placing a review, I have since owning this guitar gone through something of a sonic experience. I always thought that perhaps they could be more hype than substance and I own high end Fender's, Gibsons et al. I have played for 30 years and well .. now a thing or two !!
The PRS is beatifully designed , built and finished, but the most important factor of all is the sound and the CE is outstanding in sustain, accuracy, clarity, resonance, what more can you need. They are awesome and I now don't seem to play any of my old guitars any longer.

Beautifully set up out of the box, I felt like this had been done by our own band tech. Mine isn't a ten top but so what it looks nice, that said I don't look at it I play it !!

Hard to comment as I have not owned for long. It will get knocked around but hey ho ! its a guitar and I rock, perhaps I'll revise this section in a couple of years.
I'm in the process of buying another just to have a spare, the problem is what to sell as I love all my guitars (yes we are all like that I know !!)

Website is great for setup guides etc: Lifetime warranty. Contacted only once, very helpful

Playing for 30 years (oh God !)I own Fender 50th Ann Strat (wonderful guitar) Fender Double Fat Strat, Fender Strat Plus Deluxe, Yamaha SG700 (the original Les Paul beater), Gibson Les Paul Std ( i never play it but i'll never sell it!) Marshall JTM amp, Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, Boss Delay, Small Stone, Cry Baby, a few other bits not worthy of a mention.
Anything else I'd like to share, YES, if you want to be a really good guitar player, learn the piano at the same time and find your own sound. I'm still learning and i'm 40 odd years old.

CE 24 model coming from the latest gold era of the PRS production, 1991. I Purchased the instrument new for the italian equivalent of aproximately 1500 dollars (but, in Italy, this was really expensive at that time). I was young and not experienced. The instrument looked pretty an comfortable and bought it without knowing so much about the manufacturer.Simply it sounded so good in the shop. Till then, this wonderful thing has given me my best emotions as a guitar player. Color is cherry burst with an awesome flamed maple top, with some un-regular particularities that contribute to distinguish my instrument from the others. Apart from maple top, the body is alder, wine red. 24 fret maple neck with satin finish and bazilian rosewood fingerboard, mother of pearl dot inlays, copper dots on the edge of the fingerboard itself, self locking tuners. PU are regular HFS and vintage bass with the classic 5-way rotary switch.

many users compare or try to couple the sound with that of les pauls and fenders. in my opinion this is an immense mystake. i own stratocasters and les pauls but every time i spend some time playing those instrument, i return back to my CE and every, every time, i fall in love with it. This guitar sings its personal voice whatever style or music you play. In the past i played classic rock, funky, progressive and also metal and troughout the years never thought about selling it. Moreover, the sound is mostly dependent on how you play. Smooth and sweet when you are in the bedroom or in front of a fire in a cold night, jazzy with a groove when you convince yourself of being a good an virtuoso professional, huge, ballsy and cutting edge when on a big stage with a wall of Marshalls behind. In a word, very epressive and touch-mood sensitive. HFS trebe PU is awesome, full and powerful but very ARTICULATED, chords seem to be played as single notes bacause every note is well represented, screams but without the roughness of a LP sound. The bass PU is beautifully balanced, but a good high end that becomes woody if you want of even twangy if you desire...Sounds good with every amp, fenders,marshalls, orange, VHT, no matter, great personality.

never had a problem. Set up made by myself...

I have been playing for about 20 years, my personal music mainly. I own also LP and Strats. Love everything about my baby. My recurrent nightmare is that I brake the neck while sitting down in a drunk night or other similar situations...changed many girlfriends over years but I still have my PRS and never had the idea of selling it. The instrument is a part of my body, of my soul and my mind. I use to compare it as a daughter. Now that she is 15 years old is blowing as a rare flower in spring. And the sound changes, grows continuously, accompanying my experiences and maybe because of them...If it were stolen? You can imagine...seek and destroy my reason of life. Buy again? Yes, but new, like a virgin girl for the marriage.

metalic blue
1996 USA
24 fret

I play a lot of different styles of music but mostly blues and rock. My main amp setup is a Marshall 9100 dual monobloc power amp and a Carvin Quad-X preamp. My effects are numerous but I mainly use Peavy Addverb II processor for reverb and delay etc.. and dbx 266XL compressor/gate. I also use a homebrew distortion and Boss MT-2. My sound is piped to two sets of vintage fender 212 cabs and two 210 homebrew cabs with Tone Tubby speakers. This set up along with this guitar is quite inspiring and quite versatile.

I bought it used and it had minor wear from normal use. The action and feel is why I bought it. It's one of the finest instruments I've ever played. The quality of PRS is hard to beat.

Everything about this guitar is top notch. I'd put it up against any solid body bolt neck guitar on the market. Past or present.

Never failed me. So I would'nt know.

I've been playing since I was eight and I'm forty one now. I own several vintage and custom amps- Fender Vibrolux, Fender Deluxe Reverb, Fender Blues DeVille, Fender Concert, Fender Bandmaster Reverb, Matchless DC30, Sunn Beta Lead, Mesa Dual Rec. If it were stolen I'd do such dastardly deeds to whoever stole it that they'd probably make a movie about me and my efforts to get it back. I like everything about it. It's the guitar I always dreamed of.

Nice and simple mahagony body and maple neck with rosewood fret board. The tremolo arm is wonderful - no nasty screw threads to fiddle around with. Wonderfully balanced and contoured body which makes for a very comfortable instrument. The neck (wide and thin) is very easy to work with and feels 'natural'.

Great variety of tones. The pups via my fender blues deluxe sound very rich and varied. The tone and volume pots are (tonaly) smooth and responsive, as well as the quirky rotary pickup selector - which I'm not entirely sure about. The strangely entitled bass pup produces a rich and full tone, much fuller than my Gibson LP and ESS - a point of comparison and not a value judgement!!

Perfect - though I did have to drop the action from what was set up in the shop. But this was wonderfully easy and could get down very low without any buuzzing much to my delight. The frets are very well finished, so to is the 'paintwork'; in all perfect.

Who knows I've had it a day!

Not yet needed any, but the supplier, Elderly Instruments are to be recommended for their efficiency and support.

I've been playing about 3 years and developing a guitar fetish! I wish I had bought one of these sooner. I have a US strat and a couple of Gibsons. All are very fine instruments but the PRS is highly impressive. I spent a long time debating about whether to get a PRS or not as they are not cheap even for this so-called 'entry level' model. But the sheer quality of the instrument (build, sound, etc) persuaded me to take a chance as opposed to get another more traditonal maker.