Paul Reed Smith Guitars Custom 22

After 100+ reviews you should know the features. If not, wwww.prsguitars.com.
Mine has a wide-fat neck and a wraparound stoptail. It's in "Dark Cherry Wraparound Sunburst" (which basically means no binding), which is just lovely and very unusual for PRS guitars. It's a non 10-top (i bought this guitar to be played, not hang it in my living room as a piece of art). Dragon II pickups, which PRS claim are amongst the best pickups they build (more on that below).
I also had it modded to the McCarthy pickup switching (3-way toggle switch with push/pull for coil splitting). Much more convenient for gigging.
The craftmanship on this guitar is really stunning. It's a mystery to me how Paul Reed Smith manages to keep such a high level of craftmanship on production guitars. I also own a Private Stock Custom 22, and believe me, the level of cratmanship on this guitar is not far behind. The Private Stock just has more 'fancy' options and better looking woods.
Nothing to say against the craftmanship. It's top class!!

I think that this section is inapproppriately named. It shouldn't be 'features', but 'build quality'.

It doesn't have tons of features, very few guitars do. But it is indeed a very well built guitar. Built from top quality woods with a high level of craftmanship. This guitar should also age really well, just like good wine. It is a very good investment and I'll give it a 10 for that.

Ok, this is the most subjective part. What sounds good to me may sound pretty ugly to other people. I'll give it a try though.

I have been playing for almost 40 years. Started guitar pretty early. I am mostly self taught when it comes to technique, but i have had lessons in theory. I attended Berklee College of Music for a few years and even taught there. My interests have always been in fusion. When I say fusion, think blues/jazz/rock. As people who are inclined to this style of playing will know, fusion is very demanding on tone! You need the warmth of traditional jazz guitars with the overdrive of more modern guitars (ES-335).

I own a few amplifiers, both vintage and modern, but my workhorses are:
- Cornford Harlequin 6Watts Pure Class A all valve combo (for home use and recording).
- Fuchs ODS 30 Watts 6v6 Head with ToneTubbies cab. Awesome Dumble tones (my favorite amp!).
- Germino Masonette 25 head with original Marshall Basketwave 4x12' speaker cabinet loaded with original Celestion Greenbacks (proper vintage Marshall tones).
- Mesa/Boogie LoneStar 2x12 Combo (just lovely).

I have also been buying guitars for 40 years. I own exactly 137 guitars (including this one), both vintage and modern. My 'babies' are:
- Original 1959 Gibson Les Paul (the Holy Grail of Les Pauls).
- Original 1959 Gibson ES-335 (bought at the same time as the Les Paul).
- Original 1954 Fender Stratocaster.
- Original 1963 Fender Stratocaster (rosewood neck).
- Original 1955 Fender Telecaster.
To name just a few highlight (you must be hating me now!). When I bought them, these guitars were just normal production guitars. They gained cult status quite recently. It goes to show how manufacturers cared back then. They are really stunning instruments.

To the PRS now.
Like I said above, I also own a Private Stock Custom 22. I bought this one for gigging as I never take my Private Stock out.
My 'sound' review is based on my experience with playing guitar for such a long time, and the tone i like to hear for fusion.

First of all I'd like to say that the Dragon II sound just UGLY!! You read right, they sound ugly! Absolutely no dynamics or harmonics whatsoever. It's a very midd heavy pickup and i absolutely hate that. It seems to me that the pickups don't reproduce the natural tone of the guitar. They really take the fun away! They are way too powerfull too. I sincerely believe that high output pickups choke the front end of your amplifier, which doesn't really allow you to get the power tubes cooking, which is a real shame. Lower output pickups don't overload the amplifier and allow the power tubes to breath. You can really get your amplifier working with lower output pickups. Don't get me wrong, this even works for hard rock! Listen to Van Halen, that's what I'm talking about: low output pickups = awesome tone when your amp is pushed.

Like I said, I hated the pickups this guitar came with. After a few phonecalls, I discovered that these pickups (and even those on my Private Stock) are in fact cheap $5.00 pickups built for PRS Guitars by Gotoh (believe me, that information came from a very serious source). SHOCKING!!!

I invested into 2 pairs of calibrated Bare Knuckle pickups (1 pair for my Private Stock and 1 pair for this guitar). The pickup model is called 'The Mule' (it is basically a PAF with just a tad more output) but Bare Knuckle can build you anything you wish. I cannot recommend these pickups enough. They are completely hand-build from the best components available. They are quite expensive, but they are worth every penny! They sound awesome! Loads of harmonics. Loads of dynamics. Very very touch sensitive. The only thing I can say is that they really complement the guitar. The tone that comes out of my amplifier is the tone that I hear when I play this guitar unplugged, but with more harmonics and overtones. The guitar now has a very sweet top end and very ballsy bottom end. The midds are just what you would expect from the best PAFs. RE

I get all my guitars setup by a very competent luthier before taking delivery of them. Can't say anything here for the factory set-ups.

Like I said above, This guitar will age very gracefully. All the elements are present for it to become a real classic in a few years.
It seems very solid and very reliable too.
I recon that it can only become more and more enjoyable to play as the years go by! JUST CHANGE THE PICKUPS!!!

Haven't dealt with them!

Been playing for almost 40 years, like I said earlier.

I love the feel of this guitar. I've had it for slightly more than 2 years and it has a really nice played in feel now. I recon that it will get better with age. I also think that it is very well built from some very good quality woods, which can only add to the appeal of this instrument.
It will also age very nicely, which constitute a very good investment.

However I hate the pickups. I think that PRS should realise that people are paying big money for these guitars, and that it is only fair towards them to use the best pickups available.
And when I say good pickups, I don't only mean PAF style pickups. I can see people saying that the Dragon II are suited for heavy rock, not PAF tones. No! I just mean better pickups, whatever style they may be suited for.

My overall rating will reflect the good quality of the built, the good tonewoods used and the bad quality of the pickups, which really takes all the fun away! Shame! 7 seems fair!

22 10 top wide/fat non adjust stop tail, hfs vintage base pickups.5 way rotary

Thru a mesa nomad 55 head this is the best sounding rock guitar I have ever heard in my 26 years playing.Mesa needs all tone presence controls to be @ midnight(read the manual).Also sweet for agressive style of blues.Cleans very nice also.

Had to turn the truss rod the first day due to massive humidity that day but have not had to touch anything since(5 years).Stop tail/non-Adjust tail keeps this in tune always,Gibson needs tuning between sets even if there not used.

The only minor complaint I can think of is I hear a tiny crackle when I switch pickups I wish they would take some advertising dollars and spend on developing more solid switches, only two year warranty on those.

They are big buisness into marketing but they do make the sweetest guitar.Most of these companies won't honor warrantys but like I say I have had no problems.

26 years playing always getting the itch to get new gear but it makes no sense once you find the perfect model.I can't possibly reccomend a guitar more.I doubt I'll ever sell this one.I love it.Blows gibson and fender in my opinion.

This is a 2002 PRS Custom 22. You have already read all the features etc. This does have the fat carve neck which I demand over the standard thinner neck. It does have the 5-way rotary switch which I don't really like all that much for live situations. I'm thinking of changing this over to a 3-way toggle like the McCarty and Santana models. Because of the 5-way switch I give this catagory a 5.

I play Blues, Rock, and Country through a variety of amps. Marshall, Fender, THD, Vox, Mesa Boogie, SMF, and Krank just to name a few. I love the sound of this guitar through any of these amps as long as the volume and tone pots are full on. As soon as I move past 8 on either pot my sound falls into a muddy mess.

This is an amazingly fine piece of American guitar craftmanship.

Rock solid.

No opinion. I have met Mr. Smith on several occasions and if his staff is anything like the owner it has to be top notch. This guy is a class act all the way.

This would be a solid 10 guitar in every respect except for the 5-way rotary pickup selector and the serious tone drop-off. If anyone has solutions for these problems please, e-mail me.

My PRS is a transparent black specimen with a solid quilt maple top on a nice slab of mahogany. It was made in 1999. The former owner had modified it slightly by swapping the pickups for a Duncan JB and a DiMarzio PAF PRO, in the bridge and neck respectively. The five way pickup switch has been swapped with a three way, and the tone knob is a pull/push switch for coil splitting.

The neck is thick and wide (lots of wood means lots of tone, which means lots of goodness, but I'll get back to that later), the fret wire is rather large (which I love and the bridge is of the vintage type that you normally find on Fenders, only in a PRS version. (better in my opinion) The PRS locking tuners are also a nice touch. Mine have a good ratio, and they lock instantly, so if you pull the string hard through the tuner, you get a very stable tuning, albeit some out of tune-ness if you handle the bridge like a chimpanzee.

The guitar came in a rather nice case.

The guitar has all the features it needs in my opinion, thus the ten.

The guitar suits my style fine. I think that has a lot to do with the bridge pickup, though. I play in an extreme metal band, and thus I need a set of rather good pickups for that genre, but at the same time I need a lot of sweeter tones for jazz and blues. What took me by surprise is that both of the pickups handle pretty much all genres in a supreme manner.

I play the guitar through a Marshall JCM2000 DSL100 head, using the same settings for all genres and a Hao Rust Booster for solos. What I really love about the PRS is that it interacts so good with the amp. All you need is to use the knobs and switches on the guitar, and then you can play pretty much all genres.

The guitar is a bit noisy when you use the full volume setting. I think this might have something to do with an old pot or something like that. This doesn't really worry me, as I generally turn down my volume when I don't play.

The sound is very rich. I love it. The thick neck makes the sound VERY thick and defined, even in the split settings. The "normal" settings makes it sound like a Les Paul, while the split settings sound like a souped up Strat. The guitar can growls and squeal like the best.

The only thing I don't like is that it loses a lot of the tone when you lower the action A LOT, but then again, all guitars do that. :P

I don't know how the guitar was set up, as I bought it used. (with all the scratches and dings that comes with a used guitar)

The top is a nice, almost perfectly bookmatched top.

It feels like it will last for a lifetime. The srap buttons felt REALLY solid, but I use DiMarzio locking straps on all my guitars.

I would and do use it on a gig without backups.

The finish WILL get dinged, and it oxidises, but this happens on pretty much all high quality guitars. It lets the wood breathe, thus aging it in a good way.

I haven't dealt with PRS yet, but from what I've heard they are supposed to be good people.

I've been playing for a little over 3 years... I think...? I own the Marshall mentioned before, a Fender Strat, a Squier Stagemaster (major suckage) and a Vox Tonelab with a VC-12 floorboard. (the vox will be sold soon because it gets it's arse kicked by the Marshall)

If the guitar was stolen, I'd hunt the thief down and drown him/her in the tears I cried and then gathered when I realised that the guitar was stolen. Then I'd take back the guitar. If I lost it I would beat myself to a bloody pulp. Then I'd get an Ibanez RG, because I'm now VERY broke.

I love pretty much everything about it, except for one of the dings. (the only ding that I have made myself. Hahahaha!)

I thought about buying an Ibanez RG2550EX-GK, in fact I even ordered one, but I cancelled the order when I found the PRS. The PRS just has much more mojo.

Sometimes I'd wish it had 24 frets, but the tone makes up for it. I just feel that the neck pickup sounds better on 22/21 fret guitars.

Yuo know it!!! Mine has not a 10top-top, but this has nothing to do with tone! and it's still beautifull!

it sounds incredible - unreal!!! while most of the les pauls just sound good in the high gain thing, this baby ist also "very bluesy" and "funky" in the clean modes - not in the single-coil mode , but in the neck and middle - position. It's awesome. i think the split modes are unnecessary, but maybe in the future i have a need for them. In the gain-situations it's also fantastic!!! Deep, hot and screamin' tones with fast response, endless sustain an a percussive attack! It is something of - i call it - a three-dimensional-tone. A "house" if you know what i mean. Much fatter and deeper than a LP with more harmonics - i'm in love with that thing from outer space!!! If it's possible, i give it a 15 in category "sound"!!!

I was a little disappointed about the fretwork - especially the "crowns2 of the frets. i think a 3000-dollar guitar deserves a better fretwork! but it's still o.K. - but not for a 3000$-Guitar.
the action is good, and the finish is incredible! I give it a 8 because of the fret-crowns. the rest is 10.

I still not gigged with it, but i think it's built for a lifetime.

never needed.

I'm a semi-prof, that means i play like prof, but get the half of the money for it! But seriously: I play semi-prof for about 25 years now, have teached and played in studios an live and most important on this side: I've play almost every guitar, buit on this earth. i've had them all: Hamers, guilds, LPs, even a tyler studio elite, which is very, very good in the strat-sector, but my custom 22 is one of the best guitars i've ever played. If you want a strat, a tele or a Les paul - don't buy this!!! but if you want a good oustanding-quality-guitar, which is worth every damned penny, then go for it and try a custom 22 - you won't be disappointed!!!

The features were nice. I liked the locking tuners. 10 top with black & grey stain and natural binding. Bird inlay. The 5 way rotary was cool but tended to be a pain to change to a specific position while playing.

Here is where I had the issues. While the guitar is beautifully made I just couldn't get into the sound. When I played it at the music store I switched between several amps and just wasn't completly sold on the guitar. However between the salesman swearing that PRS is top of the line and this is THE guitar to have and the onlookers oggling the axe I caved and dropped $3K after taxes. I'm a sucker for peer pressure I guess. I figured once I got it home and plugged it into my rig I would be blown away like everyone else. Well...not really. When playing clean the PRS sounded like a dream. But when I kicked it into OD, that's where I couldn't get past the muddy mid-range of the PRS no matter how much tweaking I did. Mind you I was playing thru a Triple Rectifier. At first I thought it was because of EQ, after much adjusting I thought I just didnt have enough power tube saturation, so I cranked up the master and brought down the preamp gain. Still the same problem. The next night I played the guitar during rehersal with my band and it sounded like someone cut a hole in our sound. The guitar, while being very versital and very easy on the eyes, was missing the balls that I like to hear in my guitar tone. My other guitar player (who happens to play a PRS CE) suggested changing the pickups to try and find something to fit my tastes better. But why, after spending so much money on a guitar, should I have to switch out the pickups? The next day I returned it.

Action was a bit high for my tastes. Overall quaility was very nice.

did not have it long enough.

The guitar was well built but it was just not for me. I think people get all wrapped up in how cool it looks and who plays them and just look past the tonal issues. It really lacked character. When you hear a LP you know thats what it is. When you hear a PRS you can't tell if its a PRS, or an Ibanez, or a Dean or whatever. I glad I listened to my gut and not my friends and took it back. Again, I am not saying that this isn't a quality instrument, it just wasn't for me and it is certainly over priced.

I bought my prs custom a dew days ago in San Francisco for 2900dollars (guitar center). They had shitty colors in the store so i ordered a black cherry finish with tremolo and birds inlays. When the guitar arrived, i went to the store. The guitar wasextremely elegant : black cherry finish with visible and wild veins, the cover of the pickups, the neck, the shape...
I own a gibson lp gold, a strat US ltd edition, a gibson accoustic J100 and this is the most beautiful guitar i have seen.
For technical information, go the website.

Most of the time, i play rock. I like to play some hard rock tunes but i like jazz sound. This guitar is great : you have some very jazzy tones, you can play some hard rock......It is more versatile than a gibson or a strat even though do not expect to have the srtat tone or the LP tone....Indeed i miss one sound : the funky strat sound...
You can have bright or deep full sound, depending on the way you use the tone control (i am not used to it for the moment)..

The action was perfect for me. the finish awesome

It is a very durable guitar and the tremolo is amazing. My only fear is the table : i do not want to scratch it...

none

I would say 10 but i will give it a 9 because you don't have this funky strat sound. The other thing i dislike is the rotary ickup control...You do not know where you are..
The rest is just amazing : beautiful finish, great sounds....

PRS Custom 22, Black Cherry, mastil gruso,sin pajaros, Dragon II, tremolo, rotary switch. Nueva, impecable, preciosa.

Mi referencia era mi Fender Strato Frankenstein (HSH, piezo y splitadores). La PRS "simplemente" suena a guitarra. No es artificial, es noble. Acepta niquel, acero, 0,10 y 0,11. No trastea y respeta el timbre en cualquier posicion. Rockea de maravilla, se acerca a la Les Paul en las Humbuckers y suena nasal en las demas. Puedo jugar con el volumen, tono y pastillas consiguiendo versatilidad y calidad. Respecto a la Strato, tiene PERSONALIDAD.

Perfecta. Vino con 0,10 y la accion era perfecta. Ningun ara?azo ni toque. EL puente aguanta le?a con soltura.
Destaca el grosor del mastil, pareceria incomodo pero al contrario resulta muy comodo. No tiene la suavidad al tacto de la Music Man Petrucci pero es mas comoda.

Ningun problema

Mi intencion era pillar la Hollowbody II con piezo pero se me escapaba el precio ( a quien no !!! ). Es una guitarra PATA NEGRA. Despues de esta he tocado otras, y muy buenas, pero no he encontrado la versatilidad y comodidad de mi PRS.

Custom 22 with stoptail, 5-way selector, abalone birds, Old stlye wing locking-tuners, Wide-fat neck, Black and grey finish with cream binding. I installed Dunlop strap locks because I didn't trust the stock PRS ones since they don't lock.I love everything about the guitar except I wish the neck was a Wide-thin.

I have a Gibson Les Paul with seymour Duncans in it and a Fender Strat Plus with lace sensors and The PRS is by far the best sounding at every setting, The Dragon II's are the best pickups I've ever tried. They're perfect for high gain, enough output but still perfectly defined, and the bass pickup is very warm and bassy. When I first got the guitar I figured I would change the pickup config. but I didn't realize how great the 5-way is. First of all some may know that the coil tap with the toggle(McCarty style) isn't an even swap for the 5-way, there is less sounds and it's actually harder to go from a full blown humbucker to a clean jazzy single coil sound. With the 5-way you only have to turn the dial one click from the humbucking bridge pickup position to get a single coil sound, and it's the famous out of phase in between strat setting sound to boot. I not even sure if this sound is possible on the McCarty style electronics but it couldn't be any easier to get to than one click of a dial. I was blown away right of the bat with the sound of the guitar and that almost nevers happens with most gear.

The look of the guitar is incredible and You have to have the bird inlays in my opinion to compliment the beautiful finish. The finish looks like a mirror and the binding was perfect. The setup was a different story since I was the 2nd owner I can't blame PRS since I heard they send them with an amazing setup. I recently got the guitar set exactly where I want it with low action(3/64)both sides with no fretting out when bending or fret buzz.Thanks tough to do and have only achieved it on the less paul which has a flatter radius than the PRS. I really needed the action low however to make up from the huge neck profile that is the wide-fat neck carve. It's great for chords at any setting but I need the action low from exploits higher up the neck. I would love to have a PRS with a wide-thin but that is my only complaint.

Prs takes alot of pride in how they put these things together and it shows in the end product and the price, but believe me it's worth it because they are as close to a perfect instrument as you can find that is mass produced. I have heard that they nick and scratch easy but I'm not sure that it's any more than most guitars, it's just worse if it's a $3000 guitar.

I sent an E-mail with a question about the old style locking tuners and that got right back to me the same day. I not sure if it was just luck because I responded to that E-mail with another question and I never got a response again. I figured out the question I had myself in time but would of liked to see a little better customer support when someone buys a guitar of this price range. They can afford to have someone handle just public relations and get back to you at some point.

The best guitar I've ever played, but having said that I still believe they're overpriced and that has to do with the price Gibson commands for their instruments. It's like $3000 for a Les Paul nowadays and I would rather have a Paul Reed Smith when faced with that option. Way more attention to detail and the sound is much more versatile. Still how many people can afford to actually but one new? I got a steal at $1075. and figured if I didn't like it for some reason I could easily get the money back and probably make a profit. Thankfully I won't be selling this guitar anytime soon.

2002 Custom 22, 3 way switch, locking tuners, stoptail

The most versatile sound you can get out of any guitar, period. The tone is awesome you can play any type of music... rock, jazz, country, metal and have each one sound like the guitar was taylor made for it. I have a 1980 Gibson Les Paul Silverburst that also sounds very good but it weighs a ton and can't do everything the PRS can.

Every PRS guitar I have seen is just about as perfect as you can get.. some tops look better than others but even the worst looking top is still very nice. Some 10 tops are just gorgeous, they look so good they should be in a museum.

Havn't had a problem yet.

Never needed it so I don't know.

I play this guitar through a Marshall JCM 800, JMP, a Diezel VH4, and it even sounds good through this cheesy Marshall MG 30 practice amp I have.. I think this is the best guitar out on the market right now. I can't find a single complaint or anything I'd change. I actually never took a second look at PRS guitars until I picked one up and played it, since then I've been hooked.