Paul Reed Smith CE 22

I recently bought a PRS CE-22 after months of lusting for this guitar. This guitar has a Mahogany body with a maple capped front in McCarty Sunburst and it is the most beautiful hunk of wood I've ever owned. The guitar has the normal wide/fat neck profile, twin Dragon Humbucker pickups, 5 position rotary switch, one tone and one volume knob. This guitar can make single coil and humbucker tones like no other guitar I've owned. This guitar has a satin backed neck and high gloss body finish. It is a trem model and the trem operates smoothly. I like it a lot. Locking tuners are standard. Neck is a 25" scale with medium jumbo frets, I believe. They are comfortable and not too large. The guitar came with all the new items: case, candy and wrenches. It is a 2006 model.

I have not found a thing to dislike about the tones it makes. With the rotary switch, you get warm humbucker in the neck, hot humbucker in the bridge and stratish tones in between. It is not a bit noisy even in single coil mode.

I mostly play this guitar through a 1975 SF Deluxe Reverb and a few Boss effects pedals. The tones are so varied you can play anything from jazz to country to rock to whatever on it. I haven't found anything it could not handle. I'm totally impressed with it's sound.

I would say, this guitar is much brighter than my Les Paul. I like the LP, but this one cuts through a band mix better. It also has the trem the LP doesn't have. It's a keeper and a player.

I purchased the guitar new from Elderly Instruments in Lansing, MI and they set it up for me for free. PRS puts 9's on the guitar when new and they changed the setup to 10's a my request. Can't complain about a thing there. It plays extremely well all the way up and down the neck.

The top is a beautiful bookmatched maple cap. It's killer. I love the McCarty Burst finish and waited months to get this very guitar. There is not one single flaw I can find in the Fit/Finish/Action on this guitar. The frets are shaped nicely, unlike my Gibson that needed work to make them right.

NO FLAWS of any kind.

This guitar is built like the proverbial "Sherman Tank". I can't imagine anything bothering it. I replaced the stock strap buttons with Schaller Locking Buttons and that's the only alteration I would make to this guitar. I just don't want it slipping off a strap and hitting the floor.

Tuning seems rock solid. During a 3 hour rehearsal today I did not tune it after its initial tuning before practice. It held perfectly even with some pretty severe string bending. Darn nice feature: a guitar that stays in tune.

I always take more than one guitar to a gig, but this one could go alone. You can't predict when you'll break a string so a second guitar is a must. But, baring a broken string, this one would not need a second. With so many tones available, you wouldn't need one for variety reasons either.

Though I have not had any issues with the guitar in the short time I've owned it, I believe PRS would stand behind this instrument as would Elderly's. Lifetime warranty. Can't beat it.

Flat out, I've never enjoyed a guitar so much. Being older (58 Years Old), I've owned my share of very good guitars. This one ranks up with the best. I am simply blown away by the quality, workmanship and sound that comes with this guitar. All are top-notched. I could not be happier with this purchase. Expensive, but worth it.

PRS CE 22,
Wide Fat NECK (this neck have a thin nitrocellulous lacker in the back)(AWESOME)
mine is with 3 way toggle switch, and push/pull knob tone
Mahogany Back, Maple top
Dragon II Hums
PRS LOCKING TUNERS...
PRS TREMOLO (the best balanced and trustworthy TREM OUT THERE)
i payed 1,000 bucks for this USED GUITAR (and i just LOVE IT, worth'it every CENT)

ok... this guitar is 2 humbuckers with, 3ways toggle switch and PUSH/PULL knob (for me this option is 100% better than 5way rotary switch)

this guitar can go from one FENDER stratoish tone, to GIBSON LES PAUL FAT TONE !!!

the sound i get is very very warm, and a lot of sustain (sustain for weeks lol)
im using, POD X3 LIVE, Tech 21 trademark60, and PRS CE !!! JUST THAT...
im a guitar player for ROCK/COVER BAND!!! and this is the best, not heavy weight, and cool GIG i ever wanted !!!

well...
this one(mine) is ROYAL BLUE with black knobs... so i dont like too much this finish...
the action was setted originally for .010 strings, y use .009... i lowered the action (.030" and thats one of the lowered action you can take, more than that, will be fret buzzing), set the trem, and adjusted a little bit the trussrod neck (take care with the truss rod, it is dual act, and is more sensitive... so DONT OVER ADJUST THE TRUSS ROD)
and now, play just like BUTTER...

i'll give 9 cause i dont like the color of mine... :D

well this guitar is very very SOLID... it is bolt on... BUT IS ROCK/HARD MAPLE NECK!!!
so you will not have any problems with it, i use D'addario strings (for me the best strings)
PRS harshell case included... so this guitar for 2,200(new) or 1k - 1.5k (resale-used price) it just an AMAZING PRICE... i just prefer this guitar, over the les paul (better sound and more versatile), or Fender strat (because you get the best of both worlds)

i dont use any back-up live !!! (im not a guitar-string breaker) LOL

ok...

in this case... i'll give an 8!!!
why... EASY !!!

LIFETIME WARRANTY (only for the original OWNER)(it cant be transferable)and for me, thats not cool, how i said the guitar is solid as ROCK!!! but you need a warranty... ALWAYS with any equipment, gear, guitars, TVs etc etc (im warranty-guy)!!!

im 25, and ive been playing since i was 14... theres 11 years of...
1 Ibanez Jem, 1 Gibson LesPaul, PRS Custom 24, 3 Fender American Strat, 1 ibanez prestige 2120 and 2 warmoth guitars !!!

so i know what im talking about when i said this guitar is AWSOME, because, IVE OWNED/PLAYED THE BEST GUITARS OUT THERE !!!
SO IF YOU CAN GET ONE !!!!

GO AHEAD !!!

Made in 2000 so it is out of the factory, and not individually made. Has many good features like the five way pickup selector, although 2 and 4 sound the same, locking tuners, Dragon II humbuckers which are very versatile for almost all styles of music, and a weight that isn't too heavey or too light. The only bad feature that I've found with it is that where the neck meets the body of the guitar, it is thicker than the rest of the neck for about four inches which makes it harder to get to the higher frets at times.

Absolutely perfect.

Guitar was ready to be played from the first day that I got it. Action is very low all the way up the fretboard and itonation is perfect. The finish is one of the best looking finishes I've ever seen.

I've had the guitar for over 3 years and I've bumped it many times but I've yet to get a dent in it. The knobs feel a bit too easy to turn at first but they are solid and they have never

Never needed it.

If it was lost or stolen I would cry then steal another one because I couldn't afford it again. I love everything about it, except the fat neck where the body meets the neck. It has the perfect weight, look, feel, and sound to it. I wouldn't trade it for anything (well maybe another PRS)

Great Top, nice neck, very versatile...top notch build.

Humbucker sounds are as good as any maker. Split coils are a little weak but usable. A strat that stays in tune!

Cant find any defect

Cant beat a PRS.

Very good at customer service.

Great guitar at a fraction of the price you'd pay for another makers gear. Takes the placve of dragging around several diiferent guitars.

I like the tuning locks, and the neck size. I couldn't get used to most gibson necks, liked fender necks, and adore PRS neck size.
2 dragon II HBs are pretty hot, more then I'll ever need.
Best part of this guitar is the quick neck, very easy to move up and down the fret. A noticeable difference from comparable gibsons.
I prefer the 22 over the 24 frets because I'm a harmonic freak and you lose alot with the 24th fret and don't gain a whole lot with 2 more frets.

Absolutely versatile. I still switch out to a gibson for real heavy thrashing just because I'm scared to damage the finish on the PRS. Spot on for blues IMO, I pretty much use it for everything.

The thing is a work of art. Might be too pretty for me b/c I'm completely retentive about damaging it. I hope I get over that.

Grade A construction but too early to definatively say its "durable".

No need to use them!

Worth every hard earned cent. I'm looking to trade or sell my flying V and american strat I never use them anymore. Saddest part is I can't ever buy anything less than a PRS now. I for years ignored the "hype" about PRS but after playing one for the first time about a year ago I immediately started banking money.

2 Things I DONT like about it. String gage is a reccomended 9 whereas I am used to a 10 which I catch myself sharping notes too much. And as I said before its almost too nice to player on, gotta get used to keeping it forever.

I own a PRS American made CE 22 made in 2004. As you probably discovered from the model name, it has 22 frets, and every single one sounds beautiful. There is one volume knob, one tone knob and a 5-way pickup selector knob. The one strange thing about the guitar is that, by looking at it you wouldn't know how to change the pickup because the knob looks like the volume and tone, but I think it looks better without a toggle switch. It has 2 humbucking pickups, Dragon II's I beleive. I love the tuners, because they lock the string in place so no winding is neccessary. The neck is sort of thick, well at least thicker than most fender necks. The whammy bar can be used for a long time without getting out of tune.

On the 1st neck position, with the knob to the front, you get the highest tone, great for leads and distorted riffs and chords.

On the second position, which I find very, if not too similar to the 4th position, it is sort of a thin sound, and fairly twangy. I find it very much like a Telecaster sound. This setting is great for clean chord profressions and soft leads. Doesnt sound great with drive.

On the third position, the sound becomes bassy, and more full than the first two. Great clean. Great with drive.

The Fourth position is almost identical to the 2nd.

The fifth position is similar to the third, and it bassy and great on clean. It also sounds great with drive. A nice setting I like is with the tone turned all the way down and with heavy drive on it.

This guitar has great sounds, but I am giving it a 9 only because the 2nd and 4th position are identical. They still both sound great though.

The action on this guitar is great, and can be adjusted if you desire change. It feels great, not too heavy, not too light. The finish on mine is a beautiful quilt to dark purple. The moment I saw it I fell in love with it and knew i needed it, and the sound matches the beauty. I like the look better than the CE and Custom 24's because the humbuckers have silver covers.

This is a great reliable and durable guitar. I've only had it for a year, but I've never had a single problem with it. It has never fallen from its straps or anything. The only thing is that the black color on the head of mine chips of if it gets hit, but I should probably be more careful with it, and it doesnt take away from the beauty, you can only tell up close.

Can't tell you. . .Hope I will never be able to. . .

Here is my set up:
Paul Reed Smith CE 22>Digitech Whammy 4>Dunlop Crybaby>Boss DS1 Distortion>Boss SD1 Overdrive>Boss CH1 Chorus>Boss PH3 PHase Shifter>Marshall AVT 150 Head>Marshall AVT 4X12 Cab
Overally this guitar through this set up, and any other set up I have tried it with. . .sounds amazing. I also have an American Tele, but this guitar will blow it, and any other competition away.

Standard as with all CE's, Trem, 5 way rotary, Flame maple top, I also installed a LR Baggs X bridge piezo system and ctrl x into it a few weeks ago, Its one of the only ones i have heard about as PRS only have piezo options on thier hollowbodies.
I have the option to blend acoustic and magnetic sounds.

This guitar is great it is a band rock guitar, solid and all notes are very defined and has great sustain.
It isnt a ibanez, you can do great solo work on it but it doesnt quite play like a jem, or sound like one but it wasnt designed to.
Dragon pickups, they sound amazing for any style, funk, rock, metal and prog, jazz, fusion etc.
And did i mention mine has a peizo? and what a system LR baggs make!

Finish is beautiful i always just sit there and look at it. Action is very nice but the only thing that i could ever want to change on this is the neck, it feels great and is easy to play on, but personally i still love the feel of thin necks ala ibanez. But thats the only thing id might consider changing

I have gigged many gigs away from home without and backup, this thing doesnt break strings or anything and i do play hard when i need too. Strap locks are great, it wont fall off! tuning always stays in tune even when i take it around with me everywhere.

Ive never dealt with them

This is my best purchase ever, couldnt be happier. I play thru a Mesa/Boogie DC-10 with boss pedals and damn this thing can sing. Just make sure you buy a decent one cause i have played some that i wasnt that impressed with at first. Its my dream guitar basically.

Mine is a 2001 CE22, purchased used and box stock. The features are well established. This one has the rotary knob pcikup selector. I give it an 8 simply because PRS compared to the market willing to try a provide more bang for the buck and currently delivers better than anyone. figured maple on mahogany body. Fat-wide feels great, neither too fat nor too wide, much better for my hands than the traditional round gibson necks and the current c-shaped fender necks. Woods and caliber of woods and the core parts make for a very nice guitar. Great bang for the buck on the CE line.

Different and that's nice. Covers a lot of ground and does it all very convincingly. These guitars have been a nice addition to the tonal offering in the market. Finally someone did some well and different and put it together well enough to be worth shelling out some decent cash.

For the money new, neither fender nor gibson is doing any better a job at the moment. Any issues I have are associated with this guitar being bought used.

The guitar I purchased was used regularly to gig and has done its part to hold up. The previous owner could have done his job better in looking after it.

Myinteraction w/ them is limited to calls when researching the guitar. I was provided with the help I needed and not hurried off the phone. I also got people, nice.

This guitar has changed a lot of things for me. I have a nice collection of tele's and strat's and a couple a fabulous 70's gibsons. I think I'm done with fender and gibson for now. If PRs would make something that directly competed with the ES-line and a competitive price point, I would buy one tomorrow.

'96 USA CE22 w/trem and case. Red metalflake finish. All the usual accompaniments. My only dislike is the rotary p/u selector.

I play mostly classic rock and 80's metal - this guitar plays & sounds very good. PRS > modded TS-9 > Carvin Legacy halfstack > gmajor (in the loop). I love the tremelo - excellent for subtle to slightly agressive whammy-ness, and stays in tune very well.

Bought used in '98, but only needed a few tweaks to be perfect for me.

Been playin the hell outta it for 7 years and never had a problem with it, but I try to treat it with a little respect (which aint always easy in dark bars after a few beers).

Never had to deal with them.

Great guitar - especially for $500. I would have paid more for it. As the story goes, a friend of mine came across this guitar through a music teacher who purchased it from a wealthy lady that bought it brand new for her son, who was a spoiled rotten punk. The son took a lesson or two, had a fight with his mommy, then enlisted in the army to spite her. She unloaded the guitar on the teacher, who unloaded it on my friend, who, knowing that I was in the market for a PRS, unloaded it on me. Life is good. Kinda wish it had a tobacco finish, but I also wish my Ford was a Ferrari.
Been playin close to 30 yrs. Other guitars I own are a '81 Gibson GGC-700, '86 Schon NS-6, and a '98 Wolfie Std goldtop.

2004, 22 fret bolt-on wide/fat neck, with the usual control set up (volume, tone) and mine came with the 5-way rotory pick up selector. Two high output Dragon II humbuckers. The body is finished in the Vintage Yellow, with the grain showing through beautifully. It's got the standard PRS trem system with the locking tuners at the top, which despite other posts to the contrary are EXTREMELY easy to use. I can change a string on this thing in less than 30 seconds. I know, I have timed it, and see below - I've had plenty of experience with this. When I got this guitar, I was actually shopping for a Les Paul, but the salesman convinced me to pick this up. It's got all the features I was looking for, and then some. In my opinion, it's got all the best attributes of both a Strat and a Les Paul.

The CE22 suits what I'm doing very well. I play a variety of different types of music, from blues, to jazz, to rock, and this guitar is extremely adept at covering all the sounds I need. My band plays a lot of music in the vein of the Grateful Dead and Phish, and so far, for the most part, it's worked out very well. I've been playing for over 25 years, and have used Mesa/Boogie amps for most of that time. Currently I'm using a DC-3. The guitar works in perfect harmony with this amp - it's as if the two were made for each other. One commenter used the word "bloom" - and that's precisely what happens. As you get the amp warmed up and crank up to stage volume, this thing really starts to breathe. Typical effects chain is tuner>wah>dyna comp>Phase 90>chorus>vintage digitech delay>amp. No real noise problems to speak of. Sound is extremely focussed on high gain settings, but tends to lack clarity on cleaner settings. However, with the 5-way switch there's always a sweet spot to be found. You just have to play with this a while to figure out where those sweet spots are. Being a strat player for many years, the 5-way rotory control takes some getting used to. Overall, I love the sound. It's truly a sound unto itself, and can't really be compared directly with anything else out there.

Guitar was set up impeccably from the get-go: action just right for me, pickups voiced just right. No flaws noted. This is an expensive guitar, but you do get what you pay for in terms of action, fit and finish. If you have ever looked at one of these things, it's the finish that really pops out. Meticulous.

OK - so playing live with this thing? Once I got over the initial trepidation of taking a real pro axe out to a gig, I was disappointed. The hardware certainly looks like it'll hold up, so far no blemishes to the finish - despite the smoke, sweat, spilled drinks and so on. The strap buttons are good, once you can work them trough the hole in the strap. Trust me - it'll never fall out of the strap. Having said all that, I would NEVER gig without a backup, and that goes double for this guitar. The gripe I have with this thing is that I am consistently breaking strings, and by consistently I mean that every time I play, if I'm on it for more than 30 minutes I'm going to pop one. I have checked the saddles and there's no burring, and can not for the life of me isolate the cause of the problem. I'm basically a strat/tele player, and I have never had this experience with my other guitars. For anyone considering spending the big $ on one of these, PLEASE think about it carefully. If you are used to a strat, with the contoured body, this is going to feel a whole lot different. If you are gigging and playing sets that last longer than 45 minutes, you will start to wear a rash into your right arm if you let it rub against the body of this thing. I have a feeling that the way I attack the strings (based on the way I play my strats) is causing the string breaks. It takes some getting used to. Overall, I do love the way the guitar looks and plays, but I'm not inclined to give a wholly glowing endorsement because of the string breaks.

I actually have been in touch with the good folks at PRS about my string break problem. They were incredibly courteous, and responded to my e-mail inquiry almost immediately. After discussing the problem, they wanted to send me new saddles - at no cost, no questions asked. Here's the problem. I'm not about to screw around with the set-up on this because it's so perfect in every other respect, so I declined their offer (which they assured me would remain open if I couldn't rectify the problem some other way). What I have done is switched from my ususal strings (Ernie Ball Super Slinkys - you know the old faithful rubber bands), and I'm now onto the PRS strings. They are pricey, but so far so good. I got through a 4 hour rehearsal this week without a break, and I will restring before my gig tomorrow night. I've also transitioned to a medium pick from my usual heavy. If that solves the problem, I am officially an extremely satisfied customer.

As I said - I've been playing for over 25 years. I have two strats (a 1989 strat plus and a 2001 U.S.A. deluxe), and a telecaster. If it were lost or stolen I'd take the insurance money, and think very, very carefully about whether or not I really need 4 guitars. This is a real pro guitar - it sounds, looks and plays great. Compared to a Les Paul, it's a much more versatile instrument, and frankly, I liked the way it feels better. Compared to a strat - well I'm not sure. I love strats, and I have 2 very good ones, but this guitar does allow me to go places tonally that I can't get to with the strats. If I had to do the purchase over again, I think I would get the toggle switch and not the rototy pickup selector.