englishHobbyist
New Member
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2020
- Messages
- 37
My NGD thread. I waited until the strap arrived before taking any photos, so it's a couple of weeks late.
Skip down to the dashed line if you don't care about me and my history or how I chose the guitar, and you just want to hear about the guitar itself!
Hi, I'm Ben, and I'm new to PRS. Some have you might have seen me appear in the Introduce Yourself thread a couple of weeks ago, but here's my PRS intro story in full.
A little about me, I'm a 35-year-old engineer from the UK. I have a history in music, playing the trumpet as a child and reaching a fairly advanced standard with that. I taught myself guitar aged around 16, and had a lot of fun with it. By about 20 I had got pretty heavily into sport (rowing) and had no time to dedicate to music. The trumpet and guitar (epiphone les paul standard) went back into their cases. Also after uni I lived in a terraced house so music would have been quite antisocial.
Now aged 35, my body can't take sport at the highest level, so instead of sitting and watching my gradual decline, I'm taking music as my main hobby once again. I'm starting again after a 15 year break, so anticipate a bit of a learning journey. I'm confident in analogue and digital electronics, music theory and general musicality, but lacking in anything too guitar-specific.
A couple of months ago, I got my Epiphone out, along with my Pod XT live and Marshall MG series. I intended to upgrade, but wanted to have a play for a while to check I did still enjoy making music.
I did.
So, I upgraded the pedal. Boss GT-1000. Spent a few hours in Andertons testing it and a Helix. A Boss demo guy was actually in store that day, and was really helpful.
Forward maybe 6 weeks and I've decided I want to run the pedal with FRFR speaker instead of the horrible GT amp, and give myself a nice upgrade to the guitar, which is what most of you are probably interested in.
My priorities, in order, when choosing my guitar
1) It must make me want to come and practice, as often as possible. So the feel of it in my hands is critical.
2) Versatility. I don't want to be somebody who owns a guitar for every occasion. I wanted to have one setup that might not be the absolute best for everything, but will give it a good go.
3) Sweet tone. I'll be using it for blues, jazz and rock. Nothing too heavy, maybe the occasional AC/DC or Guns'n'roses at the heaviest.
4) Looks. Not for the vanity of how I look with it - I have no immediate plans to play in front of people. This is for me, and goes along with point 1. The sexier it is, the more likely I am to want to come and play.
I have little interest in history, or making sure I'm playing the same guitar as any artist I might like. I'd prefer to find my own tone even when covering somebody's track than to try to clone theirs.
So I went again to Andertons on New Year's Eve, and spent pretty much the entire shop's opening hours there that day, minus an hour for lunch in Guildford. I went in with no real idea of what I wanted, but from looking around, I was planning on trying Les Paul, Strat and PRS custom 24 and custom 22. I knew that my budget would stretch up to the higher models (although only wanted to pay that much if I compared with lower models and deemed it worthwhile), so started with
American Ultra strat vs.
USA Les Paul modern vs.
PRS Core custom 24.
By the fact that I'm posting here, you already know which direction this went.
I pretty quickly discounted the Les Paul. I didn't feel it gave me enough over the Epiphone standard I have, and I just didn't feel too special/comfortable holding it, or feel very engaged by the sounds it was making. I asked for a different higher-end LP to be sure, before taking it out of the mix.
I did really like the feel of the strat Ultra, but did miss the thick, creamy sound you get from a neck humbucker.
At first I didn't actually like the PRS too much - loved the sound, but found it fairly uninspiring to play. For some reason I wanted to like it, so tried a little harder and asked for some other variants. The first one was a Pattern Regular, but then I got a Pattern Thin. The Patten Thin felt totally different in my hands, I loved it from the moment I picked it up.
I tried the equivalent custom 22 model, couldn't discern too much difference in tone, so went with the extra 2 frets 'just in case'.
Finally, I asked to try the equivalent S2 and SE models. I didn't realise until then, that the lower models don't have the single-coil option on the pickups. This was quite a big downside, given the versatility I was after. Feel was still excellent, but not 100% there. Tone again was good, but not up there with the Core. I've been a good boy recently, I deserve a treat.
So now it was just a question of colour. I would have been prepared to wait months for them to order my perfect guitar into stock if they didn't have it already, so I looked across all the PRS models they had for colours. Went for Charcoal Cherry Burst (I liked the reds, but the full reds were a bit too much and would look bad if I wear a red shirt. I liked the charcoal when really admiring it, but it wasn't quite eye-catching enough. Charcoal Cherry Burst seemed to be the perfect compromise.)
-------------------------- The new guitar --------------------------
For those of you just joining at this point, it's a
PRS Core Custom 24, in Charcoal Cherry burst. Pattern Thin neck.
To this board, the choice is probably as vanilla as they come, but to me it's a lovely lovely guitar.
I've owned it since December 31st 2019, and as I hoped with a new guitar, it has been attracting me to come and play it very often. I love the look of it and the tone of it, but above all, I love the feel of it. (I upgraded from epiphone les paul standard)
Since buying, I've accessorised with some Schaller S-locks, and a Heistercamp Bee Tor strap in black. The Heistercamp feels fantastic too.
So, here it is
Couple of close-ups of the front...
...and the back
Standing proudly
And, finally, in situ with the full setup:
Skip down to the dashed line if you don't care about me and my history or how I chose the guitar, and you just want to hear about the guitar itself!
Hi, I'm Ben, and I'm new to PRS. Some have you might have seen me appear in the Introduce Yourself thread a couple of weeks ago, but here's my PRS intro story in full.
A little about me, I'm a 35-year-old engineer from the UK. I have a history in music, playing the trumpet as a child and reaching a fairly advanced standard with that. I taught myself guitar aged around 16, and had a lot of fun with it. By about 20 I had got pretty heavily into sport (rowing) and had no time to dedicate to music. The trumpet and guitar (epiphone les paul standard) went back into their cases. Also after uni I lived in a terraced house so music would have been quite antisocial.
Now aged 35, my body can't take sport at the highest level, so instead of sitting and watching my gradual decline, I'm taking music as my main hobby once again. I'm starting again after a 15 year break, so anticipate a bit of a learning journey. I'm confident in analogue and digital electronics, music theory and general musicality, but lacking in anything too guitar-specific.
A couple of months ago, I got my Epiphone out, along with my Pod XT live and Marshall MG series. I intended to upgrade, but wanted to have a play for a while to check I did still enjoy making music.
I did.
So, I upgraded the pedal. Boss GT-1000. Spent a few hours in Andertons testing it and a Helix. A Boss demo guy was actually in store that day, and was really helpful.
Forward maybe 6 weeks and I've decided I want to run the pedal with FRFR speaker instead of the horrible GT amp, and give myself a nice upgrade to the guitar, which is what most of you are probably interested in.
My priorities, in order, when choosing my guitar
1) It must make me want to come and practice, as often as possible. So the feel of it in my hands is critical.
2) Versatility. I don't want to be somebody who owns a guitar for every occasion. I wanted to have one setup that might not be the absolute best for everything, but will give it a good go.
3) Sweet tone. I'll be using it for blues, jazz and rock. Nothing too heavy, maybe the occasional AC/DC or Guns'n'roses at the heaviest.
4) Looks. Not for the vanity of how I look with it - I have no immediate plans to play in front of people. This is for me, and goes along with point 1. The sexier it is, the more likely I am to want to come and play.
I have little interest in history, or making sure I'm playing the same guitar as any artist I might like. I'd prefer to find my own tone even when covering somebody's track than to try to clone theirs.
So I went again to Andertons on New Year's Eve, and spent pretty much the entire shop's opening hours there that day, minus an hour for lunch in Guildford. I went in with no real idea of what I wanted, but from looking around, I was planning on trying Les Paul, Strat and PRS custom 24 and custom 22. I knew that my budget would stretch up to the higher models (although only wanted to pay that much if I compared with lower models and deemed it worthwhile), so started with
American Ultra strat vs.
USA Les Paul modern vs.
PRS Core custom 24.
By the fact that I'm posting here, you already know which direction this went.
I pretty quickly discounted the Les Paul. I didn't feel it gave me enough over the Epiphone standard I have, and I just didn't feel too special/comfortable holding it, or feel very engaged by the sounds it was making. I asked for a different higher-end LP to be sure, before taking it out of the mix.
I did really like the feel of the strat Ultra, but did miss the thick, creamy sound you get from a neck humbucker.
At first I didn't actually like the PRS too much - loved the sound, but found it fairly uninspiring to play. For some reason I wanted to like it, so tried a little harder and asked for some other variants. The first one was a Pattern Regular, but then I got a Pattern Thin. The Patten Thin felt totally different in my hands, I loved it from the moment I picked it up.
I tried the equivalent custom 22 model, couldn't discern too much difference in tone, so went with the extra 2 frets 'just in case'.
Finally, I asked to try the equivalent S2 and SE models. I didn't realise until then, that the lower models don't have the single-coil option on the pickups. This was quite a big downside, given the versatility I was after. Feel was still excellent, but not 100% there. Tone again was good, but not up there with the Core. I've been a good boy recently, I deserve a treat.
So now it was just a question of colour. I would have been prepared to wait months for them to order my perfect guitar into stock if they didn't have it already, so I looked across all the PRS models they had for colours. Went for Charcoal Cherry Burst (I liked the reds, but the full reds were a bit too much and would look bad if I wear a red shirt. I liked the charcoal when really admiring it, but it wasn't quite eye-catching enough. Charcoal Cherry Burst seemed to be the perfect compromise.)
-------------------------- The new guitar --------------------------
For those of you just joining at this point, it's a
PRS Core Custom 24, in Charcoal Cherry burst. Pattern Thin neck.
To this board, the choice is probably as vanilla as they come, but to me it's a lovely lovely guitar.
I've owned it since December 31st 2019, and as I hoped with a new guitar, it has been attracting me to come and play it very often. I love the look of it and the tone of it, but above all, I love the feel of it. (I upgraded from epiphone les paul standard)
Since buying, I've accessorised with some Schaller S-locks, and a Heistercamp Bee Tor strap in black. The Heistercamp feels fantastic too.
So, here it is
Couple of close-ups of the front...
...and the back
Standing proudly
And, finally, in situ with the full setup:
Last edited:
