Next MA Pete NGD: Custom 24 in Fire Red Burst

MA Pete

Pattern Thin Convert!
Joined
Apr 27, 2012
Messages
1,653
Location
The Windy City
I promised another NGD this week, since I had sold a guitar. :)

It was an adventurous week! I had my eye on a Private Stock Custom 22 that was spec'ed with a Pattern Thin Neck. But it turned out it had an 11.5 Radius. I didn't want a different radius, my whole point was to have the necks the same. So I passed.

Also I got in a Wood Library Custom 24 that was very cool. It had a Maple Neck, which I wanted to try in a Custom 24. It was a great guitar, it was visually quite stunning and played great, it had a Satin finish. But the tone with the Maple Neck was not for me, I was reminded yet again that when I stray from the traditional wood formula, 95 times out of 100 I am not satisfied. So I returned that one.

Fire Red Burst has been one of my favorite finishes over the years, and somehow I have never owned one, except a Fire Red Glow Private Stock DC 594 that I owned in 2017. That one looked quite different to the standard Core Fire Red Burst, so I won't count that. I had been looking at Fire Red Burst and Fire Smokeburst Custom 24's, and I pulled the trigger on one.

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It is quite stunning! Killer Top. I prefer my flames to have a slight "V" in them like this one, versus a Chevron or straight across. I always have.

This one is a little on the heavy side for a Custom 24, just a hair over 8 pounds. I forgot to ask the weight when I ordered it, LOL! I don't mind though, I think it contributes to the great tone it has. My Faded Whale Blue Custom 24 has been the #1 daily driver, I think this one will give it a run for the money for that title. I will probably just leave the FWB in Drop D and have this be the Standard Tuning Custom 24, I do the same with the two Tremonti's.

I won't waste my time with a silly comment like "this will be my last one for a while" - as I also sold my Custom 24 Private Stock, and have another Core guitar coming in. :) That Private Stock was amazing! It is the guitar that led me down the path of Custom 24's, Pattern Thin Necks and Trem-equipped guitars, and I will always remember it fondly for that. The tone on it was quite amazing and unique, but right now I am sort of obsessed with dark or Black Backs and Necks and sort of a matching collection in that regard, and also that guitar was so precious and special that I wasn't playing it day to day, I didn't want to put any wear on it. (Which is an issue I have run into with the Private Stocks previously, for me that is a conundrum of Private Stocks in my collection.)

The Back and Neck on this one is Cherry, as seems to be standard with "Fire Red Burst". There is another color that is similar but different called "Fire Smokeburst" that has a more prominent Black Burst and a a Black Back and Neck, and most often the Faux Binding is stained Red. I like both finishes. The Fire Red Burst is more prominent out there in dealer inventories. The Fire Smokeburst is a standard color for the Custom 24 (and the Tremonti) in the 2024 Model Lineup - so who knows, maybe I will eventually end up with one of those too! I seem to be centered around Blue, Purple and Red for my colors for my collection these days. :)
 
Congratulations Pete, flamin’ hot.

Ha-ha! Pardon your pun. ;)

I watched this the other day, it came up in my YouTube "Recommended" Feed, no doubt because I had been searching on Reverb for "PRS Fire Red" for weeks.


I find that to be fascinating! Makes sense with regard to the Charcoal Base finish to get the dark flames in there. I am surprised about the Orange Tiger second coat, because that really doesn't show through in Orange tones in the finished result...
 
Another beautiful find! I have never even looked at a PS in person, but I can kind of relate to your comments about not wanting to wear on them. My core has a satin finish and I left a pick mark next to the switch on the first day. When I noticed it, I had a day of regret and denial, until I realized that I bought this guitar to play the heck out of. I guess if I am ever going to spend the $$$ on a PS, I better make sure I can accept the wear and tear as well, or go full "MA Pete" and use the same $$$ to buy several cores. :p
 
Ha-ha! Pardon your pun. ;)

I watched this the other day, it came up in my YouTube "Recommended" Feed, no doubt because I had been searching on Reverb for "PRS Fire Red" for weeks.


I find that to be fascinating! Makes sense with regard to the Charcoal Base finish to get the dark flames in there. I am surprised about the Orange Tiger second coat, because that really doesn't show through in Orange tones in the finished result...

I am teaching myself how to build guitars, by starting with kits in order to get the finishing, fret dressing, electronics and set ups dialed in, before I start carving out my own bodies and necks. I have been fascinated with the staining process, and there are some good tutorials on youtube about it.

Here's a video where I am pushing a watered down orange into a quilted maple top on a tele. I dyed first with a "Chocolate" brown and then sanded that back to leave it only in the deeper grain. Then I hit it with a "gold" brown color, which was much lighter but missing the pop I was looking for. I decided to hit it with that Orange and man it came alive. It's darn near magic!

 
Ha-ha! Pardon your pun. ;)

I watched this the other day, it came up in my YouTube "Recommended" Feed, no doubt because I had been searching on Reverb for "PRS Fire Red" for weeks.


I find that to be fascinating! Makes sense with regard to the Charcoal Base finish to get the dark flames in there. I am surprised about the Orange Tiger second coat, because that really doesn't show through in Orange tones in the finished result...

Love that vid. Yeah I’m surprised by the orange under coat too. Must be something that brings out the “fiery” tones.

No pun intended this time.
 
What are your feelings about blade vs. toggles?

Good question!

I greatly prefer a toggle over a blade, especially a 5-Way blade. Especially when playing out with a band. But I am not doing that now, haven't since 2015, and don't plan to in the near future. So I really don't have a very strong preference.

I had the 2408 style switching on my DC 245 Signature (408 Pickups) Private Stock, which had a good run of a couple years as my primary gigging guitar. I liked that live, and used a lot of the switching and pickup splitting for the single-coil sort of tones.

I think part of that is from a history perspective, I lean heavy toward the Gibson side of things, much more so than Fender, I feel like the Blade is a Fender thing.

I use the Bridge Pickup about 90% of the time at home. Given that, I am considering doing just a bridge pickup on the next Private Stock, with just Volume and Tone knobs. LOL!

But they look kind of wacky, we are all so used to seeing 2 pickups! ;)
 
Pete, I love this idea and really thought hard about doing the same thing, but with just a volume knob.

Phil X is a 1 pickup guy. I saw a video of him and Tim Pierce discussing some of their past projects together, and Phil X was saying that he working with Gibson right now for a 1 pickup SG style signature guitar. See the link below at around the 13 minute mark.

He also noted that he thought that having the pickup route at the neck sounded better than just solid wood. Obviously that is pretty subjective.... but an interesting thing to note. I don't think my ears are that sensitive. lol

 
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