This is a highly unusual NGD and as is usual with me, a verbose one.
About four months ago, I had to travel to India for a family matter and have only today returned to Singapore. Singapore having some of the stricter quarantine laws around require me and my wife to self isolate in a dedicated facility (read four star hotel. It's reasonably comfortable) but parcels are allowed into our room with due process.
Now in the four months I was in India, my love for guitar didn't really abate so I have been busy purchasing guitars. There is the NGD of all NGD's awaiting me when I get home but for now, I got my bandmate to bring across a couple of the new guitars and a little yamaha thr to play them on
With that preamble, let's get into it.
NGD Guitar 1: 2020 Artist Package Custom 24 in Custom Purple Charcoal Burst with Maple Neck and Pattern Regular
With yesterday's announcement of the demise of Pattern Regular in 2021, as well as the demise of the Artist Package announced last year, I am so glad I got this when I did. But there's some background here beyond recent events.
Way back before I got my first ever PRS, I knew exactly the PRS I wanted. I wanted a Purple Custom 24 with a maple fretboard.
Why maple fretboard? Because I love the black strat and a black ibanez rg that looked like the black strat which my university's best guitarist played. Their gig in my freshman year was one of the reasons I started playing guitar.
Why purple? Because I love Paul Allender's original Private stock as well as Nightwish's Emmpu's purple Horizon . Yeah you don't typically see Floyd and Cradle of Filth in the same para but there you go.
I spotted one on Sweetwater in 2015 but it was really Violet not purple and Sweetwater didn't really ship to Singapore. I ended up getting my purple Custom 22 when I traveled to Japan on business, but at the back of my brain, the perfect Custom 24 in proper purple (not violet) and a maple fretboard has always been a desire.
As these things go, after no less than a 6 year wait, the perfect Custom 24 popped up last week. My heart skipped a beat when I spotted it and I clicked on the link gingerly hoping like hell that it wasn't a Pattern thin neck ( I can't get used to Pattern Thin, the main reason I sold my Tremonti). But lo and behold, it was Pattern Regular. You can guess what happened next.
Here are the obligatory pictures and some initial thoughts. Sorry for the mess in the hotel room.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1m8NbKWxqR4rxUeebv5k7ZV6gfDmHw_cw/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mPvIGh30kNYc8WZZ-8iWEe6ofKmCSbZ4/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mKYkc_sZyDcguPkLSwO2gcEb_NofQ7Lc/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mOY-Wf_Uw2wWxixZ7c_GScKjg_DX2fj8/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mPvIGh30kNYc8WZZ-8iWEe6ofKmCSbZ4/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mQrqKCrnI0lmsRds7xSI7VK6uiliBGUU/view?usp=sharing
Observation no 1: PRS's new Nitro over Cellulose finish smells and feels like proper Nitro. This is my first 2020 PRS (since the Nitro and TCI interventions) and I think this intervention is the best thing PRS could have done. Love how it looks as well.
Observation no 2: I now buy into the TCI tale. I was very skeptical about TCI and what it really meant. Also I really dislike the 85/15 S's which I have experienced on my SVN so I fully expected to swap out the Custom 24's pickups. But this guitar has the most balanced set of pickups I have ever experienced. It's almost like someone EQed the damn thing, removed any offending frequencies and just left glorious tone. Oh wait, isn't that what TCI does.
Observation no 3: Sustain for days with Phase 3 Modified tuners for the win. I am shocked by how much this Custom 24 sustains. It sustains like my 594 and that is saying something so my suspicions were aroused. I turned over the headstock and it confirmed that the Custom 24 is using the modified Phase 3 tuners which came out with the first iteration of the 594. I have said in previous threads, these tuners do seem to make a difference to the sustain and I can ratify this 2020 Artist Pack Custom 24 sustains better than my 2008 Private Stock Custom 24 with Phase II tuners. Of course I need to do a proper A/B and a proper video with sounds so watch out for that on my Youtube channel 'Ministry of Guitar'
A last quick note on the intended function of the guitar (Guitarist Self rationalization Warning). This is going to replace my beloved SC594 for my 3 guitarist hard rock covers band, sitting in Eb. I typically prefer the tones of the 594 and 513 and big necks (i.e. wide fat, pattern vintage) for recording my own material (more ambient and metal) but for live use especially in a hard rock application, there's nothing quite like a custom 24's playability (pattern regular, 24 frets) and simplicity of operation (i.e. 5 way blade). My band's other guitarists use a Tele and a 513 so I think this will split the difference well. It's quite a struggle being heard in a 3 guitar band, let me tell you and the 594 sat too similarly to the 513 in the mix. I had been contemplating getting a ME V for this reason but the Custom 24 will do very nicely I hope.
P.S: Apologies that I am only posting the picture links on Drive here. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why my usual method of uploading photos via imgur is not working, so you may need to click and go directly to see the photos
About four months ago, I had to travel to India for a family matter and have only today returned to Singapore. Singapore having some of the stricter quarantine laws around require me and my wife to self isolate in a dedicated facility (read four star hotel. It's reasonably comfortable) but parcels are allowed into our room with due process.
Now in the four months I was in India, my love for guitar didn't really abate so I have been busy purchasing guitars. There is the NGD of all NGD's awaiting me when I get home but for now, I got my bandmate to bring across a couple of the new guitars and a little yamaha thr to play them on
With that preamble, let's get into it.
NGD Guitar 1: 2020 Artist Package Custom 24 in Custom Purple Charcoal Burst with Maple Neck and Pattern Regular
With yesterday's announcement of the demise of Pattern Regular in 2021, as well as the demise of the Artist Package announced last year, I am so glad I got this when I did. But there's some background here beyond recent events.
Way back before I got my first ever PRS, I knew exactly the PRS I wanted. I wanted a Purple Custom 24 with a maple fretboard.
Why maple fretboard? Because I love the black strat and a black ibanez rg that looked like the black strat which my university's best guitarist played. Their gig in my freshman year was one of the reasons I started playing guitar.
Why purple? Because I love Paul Allender's original Private stock as well as Nightwish's Emmpu's purple Horizon . Yeah you don't typically see Floyd and Cradle of Filth in the same para but there you go.
I spotted one on Sweetwater in 2015 but it was really Violet not purple and Sweetwater didn't really ship to Singapore. I ended up getting my purple Custom 22 when I traveled to Japan on business, but at the back of my brain, the perfect Custom 24 in proper purple (not violet) and a maple fretboard has always been a desire.
As these things go, after no less than a 6 year wait, the perfect Custom 24 popped up last week. My heart skipped a beat when I spotted it and I clicked on the link gingerly hoping like hell that it wasn't a Pattern thin neck ( I can't get used to Pattern Thin, the main reason I sold my Tremonti). But lo and behold, it was Pattern Regular. You can guess what happened next.
Here are the obligatory pictures and some initial thoughts. Sorry for the mess in the hotel room.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1m8NbKWxqR4rxUeebv5k7ZV6gfDmHw_cw/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mPvIGh30kNYc8WZZ-8iWEe6ofKmCSbZ4/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mKYkc_sZyDcguPkLSwO2gcEb_NofQ7Lc/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mOY-Wf_Uw2wWxixZ7c_GScKjg_DX2fj8/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mPvIGh30kNYc8WZZ-8iWEe6ofKmCSbZ4/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mQrqKCrnI0lmsRds7xSI7VK6uiliBGUU/view?usp=sharing
Observation no 1: PRS's new Nitro over Cellulose finish smells and feels like proper Nitro. This is my first 2020 PRS (since the Nitro and TCI interventions) and I think this intervention is the best thing PRS could have done. Love how it looks as well.
Observation no 2: I now buy into the TCI tale. I was very skeptical about TCI and what it really meant. Also I really dislike the 85/15 S's which I have experienced on my SVN so I fully expected to swap out the Custom 24's pickups. But this guitar has the most balanced set of pickups I have ever experienced. It's almost like someone EQed the damn thing, removed any offending frequencies and just left glorious tone. Oh wait, isn't that what TCI does.
Observation no 3: Sustain for days with Phase 3 Modified tuners for the win. I am shocked by how much this Custom 24 sustains. It sustains like my 594 and that is saying something so my suspicions were aroused. I turned over the headstock and it confirmed that the Custom 24 is using the modified Phase 3 tuners which came out with the first iteration of the 594. I have said in previous threads, these tuners do seem to make a difference to the sustain and I can ratify this 2020 Artist Pack Custom 24 sustains better than my 2008 Private Stock Custom 24 with Phase II tuners. Of course I need to do a proper A/B and a proper video with sounds so watch out for that on my Youtube channel 'Ministry of Guitar'
A last quick note on the intended function of the guitar (Guitarist Self rationalization Warning). This is going to replace my beloved SC594 for my 3 guitarist hard rock covers band, sitting in Eb. I typically prefer the tones of the 594 and 513 and big necks (i.e. wide fat, pattern vintage) for recording my own material (more ambient and metal) but for live use especially in a hard rock application, there's nothing quite like a custom 24's playability (pattern regular, 24 frets) and simplicity of operation (i.e. 5 way blade). My band's other guitarists use a Tele and a 513 so I think this will split the difference well. It's quite a struggle being heard in a 3 guitar band, let me tell you and the 594 sat too similarly to the 513 in the mix. I had been contemplating getting a ME V for this reason but the Custom 24 will do very nicely I hope.
P.S: Apologies that I am only posting the picture links on Drive here. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why my usual method of uploading photos via imgur is not working, so you may need to click and go directly to see the photos
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