Paul Reed Smith Guitars Custom

1986
Vintage yellow quilt maple top
Red stain mahogany back and neck
Bird inlays
24 fret model
PRS tremelo
locking tuners
volume control, sweet switch, 5-position rotary pickup selector
Two PRS humbuckers
Graphite nut 1 11/32", rosewood fret board, 25" scale, 10" radius
Contoured back
Carved top
natural wood body binding
Light weight and well balanced
Standard rectangular case

Unspectacular sound. Lack of definition in the bottom four strings and disproportionate volume on the top 2 strings. You can hear this when strumming unplugged. The pick-ups just translate this electrically. The guitar has somewhat of a natural reverb quality when strummed acoustically. This is probably due to the srings in the tremelo bridge. This affects the amplified quality in a negative way. The Pick-ups are sterile. The 5-position rotary switch gives you the neck humbucker full, neck and bridge single coils in parralel, neck and bridge single coils in series, neck and bridge single coils funky out-of-phase (completeley useless sound), bridge humbucker full. The most musical position is with the rotary selector in the neck and bridge-single coils-in-series position.
The sweet switch is a passive resistive and/or capacitive type filter that replaces the standard pot./cap. tone control. I'd rather have a conventional tone control and 3-way switch with push-pull pots for coil-cutting. I've tried replacing the pick-ups with SD Pearly Gates and Jazz pick-ups with only a marginal improvement in amplified sound. The guitar can be used for any style of music, really, but it lacks vibe. It's a fairly dismall guitar sound-wise.

Finish was great. Not a 10 top but still an absolutely beautiful guitar. Let's face it, I (mistakenly) bought the guitar on looks alone and I now realize and regret it. Set-up was/is excellant for 9-gauge strings. Action is good. Great tremelo and locking tuner design. String change is a snap. I Don't care for the style of frets. These are a narrow, tall, train-rail type of fret wire. Frets are not crowned or polished. The rosewood fretboard is waxy feeling. The control cavity is coated with shielding paint but, there is no ground wire connected anywhere! Pick-up cavities are not shielded. The neck pick-up route is too shallow and if you want to replace the neck pickup you will have to route it deeper, which could affect the neck joint, cut off the bottoms of the new pick-up screws, which could affect the sound, or ,drill six holes into the cavity for the bottom of the pickup screws.

The guitar will stand-up to the rigours of live playing if you're sure you really want to take a $1400 guitar on the bar and club circuit. The case will get beat long before the guitar shows wear. I would use the guitar without a backup. You can change a broken string in seconds. Replace the stap pins with strap locks. This is a must.

N/A

I have been playing on and off for 34 years. I own or have owned Gibson, G and L, PRS, Ibanez, Epiphone, Washburn, Takamine, Fender, Ampeg, Kustom, and Taylor products. This guitar was eye candy and I regret buying it. I will sell or trade this guitar. I don't care if it is a 1986 and a pre-'95 with the small neck heel or whatever and it will be worth megabucks someday, blah blah blah. I am against collectability and buying or keeping guitars just because someone says they might go up in value. Solid body guitars are planks of wood with pickups stuck in them and pickups can only do so much. The guitar either has a vibe to it or it doesn't and this one doesn't and that's why I'm giving it a 5 overall rating.

This one is a '81 Custom, Cherry Sunburst,nickel hardware, 24 frets no birds or 10-top. Still one of the oldies, with the Brazilian rosewood fingerboard and the sweet switch. Vintage Bass and HFS pu's.
I thought about changing the 5-way rotary switch to a 3-way + coil tap.Then it could produce some more single SC sounds, other then the SC combinations sounds of the 5-way rotary.(Paul himself says you can produce these sounds by turning the volume down on a HB setting. It works, but it's not the same). But I think this would make it less value if I ever sold it again. (There are so many complaints about the newer models that the old Customs are becoming collectible.)
The hardware, wood, finish and electronics are all first class.
The sweet switch is a great feature.

The guitar can produce an amazing array of sounds, going from VERY sparkly in between SC sounds to warm, fat HB sounds. It has a distinct character. Don't be a fool and buy this guitar to have a Gibson and a Fender all at once. This won't work. The Custom has a (bunch of)sound(s) of its own. The HB sounds have more definition and clarity than a Les Paul. It's more focused and a bit more resonant, where a Gibson is fatter and chunky. However, using the sweet switch produces tons of growl and low mids. Great for jazz (vintage bass clean) or grinding power chords (HFS overdriven). The SC sounds go from a bit warmer than a Strat (series combination) to very twangy Tele style sparkle. I use the PRS for blues to rock to metal, mainly on my Mesa Boogie Mark IIc and a Fender Super Reverb.

All perfect. VERY good set-up. But I bought it second hand, so I can not judge the factory set-up. One golden tip: loose the plastic washers on the tuning mechanisms. They are supposed to prevent friction and smooth tuning, but what you actually want is as much friction as possible! It will keep the guitar in tune for ever! If I don't play this guitar for a month, it's still in tune! It's like having a locking nut.
The tremolo stays in tune better than anything I've ever seen.
You have to learn how to work with the tuning mechanisms though. It's not easy to fit with 10's, but once you know how to do it, it goes well and stays in tune.
The Brazilian Rosewood has a special slick feel. The action and scale length work for me.

I've used this guitar extensively without a backup. The strap buttons and everything is solid as a rock and made to last. I hear stuff about the finish wearing off easy. All I can say is that it seems to age pretty nice. The colour is not the same as it used to be, but the guitar is more than 20 years old. The colour has lost some brightness, but gained in warmth. But it won't scratch or anything.
One thing: beware of alternative / open tunings! The quarter sawn neck produces a very warm and resonant sound, but is a bit sensitive to tension and humidity changes. It will be just fine if you use a normal tuning and strings, just don't go tuning your guitar 1,5 step down ore use super thin strings. It needs some tension.

Don't know. Never needed any.

I've been playing for about 12 years. Own(ed) several guitars: Gibson Les Paul (I sold this one to buy the PRS, and don't regret it.)Charvel 475, Tele, Gretsch, Godin, Epiphone ES335 ...
If it were lost, I would cry. I cannot replace it. I love the looks, the tremolo, the sound. I hate the way people always say that it can't produce a Gibson or a Fender sound. I KNOW.
The playibility is awsome. I think the Brazilian rosewood has something to do with that. Or maybe that's just me being a snob about it. ;o) It does add to the timbre of the guitar.
I fell in love with this guitar as soon as I saw it in the shop. The shop owner actually kept the guitar storde away for 30 days untill I could get enough money to buy the thing! (he could tell by the look in my eyes.)

This PRS is a Custom 24 special ordered from the factory in order to obtain my desire of having a Tobacco Sunburst with a PRS standard neck, a "10" top and birds. This is a one piece mahogany body with a rosewood fretboard. It came factory equipped with the PRS HFS and Vintage Bass pickups.

This guitar is the guage for tone and versitility. It has a very warm, "Since I've been loving you" neck pickup and a great clear, crisp bridge pickup that does not sound brittle or too trebly like a lot of bridge pickups. The 2 and 4 in between settings on the pickups produce a very doable Strat tone that replicates my 79 Strats 2 and 4 position equipped with Texas Specials. I play through a silverface Dual Showman Reverb amp through a 4x12 Marshall cab with Vintage 30's.

Now the bummer. I thought a custom order from the factory would give me a top quality axe. Unfortunatly, PRS used the oppurtunity to give me a "5" top instead of the "10" top I paid way extra for. I have never seen another PRS 10 top on a rack with less flame. There is a piece the size of the palm of my hand with zero flame. Also the gold "Paul Reed Smith" headstock signature decal was pulled half way off. The silver plating on the tuners is also peeling away with time.

This guitar is very reliable to the fact that once it's tuned up, it will stay there despite your best efforts. PRS is supposed to have the very best in finishes. My opinion is that it is a finish that looks great but scratches and wears quickly. This may be a trade off to achieve the great tone, and if that is the case, it's worth it. You can count on this guitar to provide an evenings worth of tone and leave your other guitars at home.

As I stated, this guitar came from the factory with the headstock decal half off. Unfortunatly, I did not notice it when I took delivery but returned the guitar the next day. So after making a custom order, waitng six months for delivery and returning the guitar to PRS they charged me $20 for freight! I wrote PRS and explained the scenario asking them to wave the $20 and they wouldn't even write or call back. The worst customer service I've ever experienced.

This is overall the best guitar I have ever owned. But I would never order a guitar special order from PRS. You would be much better off to buy a used one and take the money you saved and buy a new Marshall half stack! I have no faith in the Paul Reed Smith company after my experience with them. This is a great guitar for a used price (around $1100) I would advise that they are to expensive new considering the total lack of customer service.