I love the YouTube videos demonstrating all of the different voicing possibilities of a Custom 24-08, but I haven't been able to find any in my neck of the woods. Can anyone who owns a 24-08 tell me how useful they find it over a 24?
If there’s one drawback to the stock Custom 24 switching it’s that there’s no way to get straight up neck or bridge single coil tones out of it. The switching on the 24-08 fixes that.
The regular Custom 24 offers 5 different combinations but you can't use the Humbuckers individually as 'split' coils. The Custom 24-08 has the ability to split each humbucker individually. You get a 3 way switch so you get 8 different possible combinations - BH, BS, NH, NS, BH & NH, BS & NH, BH & NS, BS & NS (where B=Bridge, N=Neck, H=Humbucker, S=Split). How useful you find that will depend on you and what you want. You can effectively run the guitar as a Bridge Humbucker and Neck Split for example and just use the 3 way to switch between them. You could run it as two split humbuckers if you want too. With the Standard, you are a bit more limited in that you can only use it as a humbucker guitar and although positions 2 and 4 do offer a split humbucker in one or both, they are also combining both - more variation on the middle position rather than offering a single split humbucker on its own tone. the 24-08 does offer a few more options (BS, NS, BS & NH effectively) but its really dependent on whether you want or need these options. Personally, I would go for the 24-08 if I had the money and didn't already have a Custom 24. Whether I would use the extra 3 options or not wouldn't factor in to my decision - its better to have and not need than need and not have - its also cheaper than having to buy another guitar if I found I needed those options later. I have the same options essentially with my 594 as that offers push/pull pot splitting so I have the 8 options a Custom 24-08 offers - different guitar and PU's of course but I still have the option. I find I use it like a traditional Les Paul with just the humbuckers and the 3 way - rarely (if ever) ising the option to split. I still appreciate the option though should I ever need it.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't they also do the split-bump thing on the 24-08, where they bump up the output when the humbucker is split, so that the level is similar to humbucker? And correct me again if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that does not occur on the Custom 24. To me, I think that's one of the bigger selling points.
Its possible - not that I have read or seen that info and its not like you can compare a Custom 24 with a 24-08 on its single 'split' as the regular doesn't allow you to play just 1 pick-up split. Both though are using 85/15 PU's - at least the newer Custom 24's anyway so maybe the 85/15 Custom 24 has the same split sounds as the 24-08 but without the ability to play just the neck or bridge split on its own as well as the bridge single/neck humbucker combination. I wouldn't be surprised if there were differences - even if its just the orientation of the pick-ups to get a better 'split' tone when used on its own - but because you can play just the Neck or Bridge as a split coil, it would make sense to have them balanced to ensure there isn't a drop off when split - more so than with the regular as that always has the other pick-up in operation.
