My PRS CE24 has landed!!! She's a beauty...

Well, after months of GASing hard for a CE24 I am finally an owner. Got her home and plopped it on a stand and snapped some pics while I admired her beauty. She's got more bumps and bruises than the seller eluded to in his auction but they sure don't hurt the tone or playability! This thing screams! PRS pickups have more clarity than any other pickup i've ever heard.

I'm not a fan of the 5-way pickup selector, but i'll give it more time before I install a 3-way switch with p/p tone pot. I'll most likely change the tone controls around so they are the same as the JP - pup switch closest to bridge, then volume and tone. I've just grown accustomed to this setup and it is brilliant if you have control of your picking hand.

It was setup for a non-floating 'flush with body' tremolo so after taking the pics and playing a little I set it up to float like I wanted. It plays even better now and the trem feels amazing! Tuning stability so far is not rock solid like my JP, but maybe it will get better as it settles in to it's new setup. I've not messed with the intonation yet - conditioning the fretboard, shimming the neck, changing the strings, and adjusting the bridge was enough for one night... I just wanted to play the dang thing!!

Ok, ok... I know most of you just popped in this thread to see the pics. There is a tad bit of green and a little purple on the back in person, but those colors don't show up in the pics.

So.... without further adieu.... the pics:

NICE! Congratulations

I've been watching for a 24 on ebay lately. I used to own a couple singlecuts both with wide fat necks but found to me they were just a little too fat for my taste so wondering how much difference the wide thin necks are because I also don't like those real thin guitars like the Ibanez or Jacksons even some fenders I find too thin I really like a soft v neck. What kind of neck is on yours? How do you like the pickups, are they dark sounding or do they have plenty of highs and how about when you use them as single coils? My PRS,s both had the toggle switch with the push/pull tone pot which I prefer over the 5 way since I could not tell what mode it was in very easy without looking, mine also had #6 pickups that sounded really good both as humbuckers and singlecoils. If I buy a 24 with the 5 way switch I will quickly change it

*Drools*

Beautiful ! Very nice CE, I've always lusted after one.

I'm not a big PRS fan with their crazy inlays but this one has dots. Woot. She's a beauty indeed. I'd love to try one.

JLBoogie said:

I've been watching for a 24 on ebay lately. I used to own a couple singlecuts both with wide fat necks but found to me they were just a little too fat for my taste so wondering how much difference the wide thin necks are because I also don't like those real thin guitars like the Ibanez or Jacksons even some fenders I find too thin I really like a soft v neck. What kind of neck is on yours? How do you like the pickups, are they dark sounding or do they have plenty of highs and how about when you use them as single coils? My PRS,s both had the toggle switch with the push/pull tone pot which I prefer over the 5 way since I could not tell what mode it was in very easy without looking, mine also had #6 pickups that sounded really good both as humbuckers and singlecoils. If I buy a 24 with the 5 way switch I will quickly change it

Click to expand...

The pickups are the best I've heard in a while. The HFS stands for Hot Fat Screams and it is all of those words!!! It is a killer bridge pickup. The vintage bass is awesome too and with it being a 24 fret guitar it is still bright enough to not get too dark but dark enough to sound like a neck pickup. The single coil tones are pretty good, especially the middle position (3rd ont he rotary). I'm very close to replacing the rotary. It's just so awkward! Then neck is really awesome. It's definitely thinner than a wide fat. I bought a CE22 on eBay without doing my research and it had a wide fat neck. I sold it a month later. It also had the Dragon II pickups which are not hot pickups AT ALL so that's another reason I sold it. I think the neck is just a little thicker and wider than a strat neck but not as thick as a Les Paul. I could stand for it to be thinner, but that's because my main axe for the last 3 years has been an Ernie Ball Petrucci!

I give you 5 months before you realize it's not for you and you sell it. :lol:

73h Nils said:

I give you 5 months before you realize it's not for you and you sell it. :lol:

Click to expand...

Heeeeeeey!!!!! In most cases you are right, but this guitar feels, sounds, and plays amazing. If anything I would be trading it for a different CE24...... :wink:

love the blue! mate that with a maple fingerboard and it'll be pure sex!

It looks awesome.

I'd be scared to play it.

Congrats!

Are you getting used to the five way switch? Played a custom 24 yesterday with the five way switch and can say it would have to be changed immediately, what was Paul Reed thinking? At least you would think the knob would be labled 1 to 5 instead of the normal 1 to 10 making it even more hard to tell what position your in. I did the demo at Guitar Center and of course the five way was also broken and did not allow the bridge pickup to work as a humbucker, amazing how they allowed a $2500.00 to be distroyed in their own store and act like its no big deal and could not tell me if they had even the paperwork or hangtag for the guitar. Saw where you can buy a kit from PRS that is a drop in to change out the five way to a toggle plus push/pull tone already prewired, quick easy install

Ha! I saw that thread on the JP Forums! When I said 5 months, I really meant 5 days

73h Nils said:

Ha! I saw that thread on the JP Forums! When I said 5 months, I really meant 5 days

Click to expand...

There's one on here now too... What can I say? I have a disease. Haha. In all seriousness though it's just not an Ernie Ball. I have yet to find a guitar that plays and feels better than my JP. The PRS sounds better in all honesty, but i'm just not bonding with it otherwise...

Why is it that the left half looks completely un(book)matched to the right half? Smudged of sorts? Not to rain on your parade, but is it an optical illusion or what? Other than that, she's a babe


Basically, I'm thinking symmetry...

Dersu Uzala said:

Why is it that the left half looks completely un(book)matched to the right half? Smudged of sorts? Not to rain on your parade, but is it an optical illusion or what? Other than that, she's a babe


Basically, I'm thinking symmetry...

Click to expand...

Yea... It's certainly not a 10 top...

I missed this thread originally MM. Very nice PRS. Congrats.

Dersu Uzala said:

Why is it that the left half looks completely un(book)matched to the right half? Smudged of sorts? Not to rain on your parade, but is it an optical illusion or what? Other than that, she's a babe


Basically, I'm thinking symmetry...

Click to expand...

Not to rain, etc., but the guitar pictured above ain't bookmatched, either. "Bookmatched" means the slab of wood for the top is split open LIKE A BOOK. Then, the two halves are glued together (at the book's "spine") so that the grain MATCHES exactly at the edge they butt together. In the guitar pictured, the grain is close, but no cigar.
I have a Ten Top PRS McCarty. Its' still not bookmatched.

Dersu Uzala said:

Why is it that the left half looks completely un(book)matched to the right half? Smudged of sorts? Not to rain on your parade, but is it an optical illusion or what? Other than that, she's a babe


Basically, I'm thinking symmetry...

Click to expand...

Most guitars with flamed tops photograph like that, depending on the angle you take the picture from. It's an optical illusion most likely.
Nice axe by the way! I played one of those a few months ago; definitely a good guitar, but I couldn't get around the pickup selector.

MrMarkIII said:

Not to rain, etc., but the guitar pictured above ain't bookmatched, either. "Bookmatched" means the slab of wood for the top is split open LIKE A BOOK. Then, the two halves are glued together (at the book's "spine") so that the grain MATCHES exactly at the edge they butt together. In the guitar pictured, the grain is close, but no cigar.
I have a Ten Top PRS McCarty. Its' still not bookmatched.

Click to expand...

As the previous poster (MrMason) stated, the light plays tricks on you, and I took the angle into account when it came to Royal Blue CE24. The arch-top in reply is 'bookmatching' executed to perfection as anyone can attest from the photo taken at the correct angle, below. And yes, 'bookmatching' is precisely that which MrMarkIII described in detail. Anyway, the man said it's not a ten top anyway. I'm not on top of (every single one) PRS production model lately, but I was also surprised it was a bolt-on.

Anyway, here we go: same guitar, proper light (milky neon) and angle.




Anyway there's nothing easier than to bookmatch wood, these guys use measured blocks, split 'em open, marks are still everywhere. And wood is a square block at that stage, so you just fold it open in the middle (vertically) and glue the darn thing first. Can't get much more scientific fit than that. It's the treatment after that accentuates the richness of the wood. Anyway, I like that kinda 3-D look to the finished wood. Then again I like J.P.'s Picasso graphic thing as well.


Sorry MMJP6, returning your thread back to you .

Very Nice. I missed this thread too. We picked up new guitars at about the same time. I had been tinkering with the idea of picking up a PRS. Like you I love the HFS/Vintage combo. Most of the new guitars PRS has seem to have the Dragon 2's. Haven't pulled any off the shelf just yet.

In the end, I went with a Les Paul Traditional Pro to Replace a Kalamazo 89 LP standard I had back in the day. The Traditional Pro felt and sounded like the old one so I'm pretty happy.

I'd never rule out a PRS though. Great trems on those things....