NGD - SE Custom 24 Zebrawood

W

Will_Chen

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May 19, 2017
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Few months ago I was contemplating an SE Custom 24 vs a used S2 and in almost every case I preferred the SE especially with the discount if going used. The Sweetwater rosewood top caught my eye and I was planning on grabbing one of those but when I saw PRS were doing a zebra top, I went ahead and preordered. Whelp, came in yesterday and man am I pleased. Plays like butter (though the factory strings feel pretty slinky, need to put on a set of 10's), nice weight, but most importantly tonally is exactly what I was hoping for. While the Custom 24 gets a fair amount of love for heavier tones (which it delivers nicely) I'm super impressed with the cleaner side of things. Typically on dual humbucker guitars, I don't use the middle position much but on this guitar it's kind of magical with a nice snap somehow not preset in either the bridge nor neck and actually works great for twangier tones. With the buckers split (and some compression to boost the signal a bit) it totally delivers single coil tones as well.

Only thing I was kinda surprised by is trem doesn't dive quite as deep as I imagined it would due to the angle of the bar (in the stores the bar was never inserted). Also, the bar is just a touch wobbly which makes it a little less responsive than I'd like (this is likely easily fixable, maybe even something I can simply tighten, haven't really done a deep dive yet).

All in all super happy. Below are the Sweetwater provided pix of my specific axe. I have a couple on my phone as well, but not sure how to (or if I can) upload them here.



R26207-body-xlarge.jpg

R26207-angle-xlarge.jpg
 
Congratulations!

I would second your appreciation of the middle position, split or full, on the SE Cu24. Brilliant guitars (for the price)!!!
 
JimmyDee said:
Nice guitar. Congrats.

The bridge is definitely the part of the SE / CE that needs attention...
If you're feeling ambitious, I'd recommend swapping it to a MannMade 2000NOS bridge.
The difference is night and day.

Check my thread on the topic:
https://forums.prsguitars.com/threads/2000nos-upgrade-and-a-few-other-mods.28321/
Click to expand...

Definitely something to consider though I'll be taking some time to really get to know the guitar before I do any mods.

EDIT: Just read I can adjust the arm's fit, so that will likely take care of the slight wobble.
 
Thats a great looking guitar.

I had my heart set on a whale blue 24se. Being in Australia they are typically a special order and we don’t have switched on online retailers such as Sweetwater who go to great lengths to photograph each guitar which you can select via the serial number. As a hobbiest woodworker the visual appearance is super important to me. The figure in the whale blue is always good but the bookmarking of the two veneer leafs isn’t always as uniform as I would like so I wasn’t keen to order one in sight unseen.

Anyway I thought that something may be announced last December with the SE range and was presently surprised to see the zebrawood. The grain looked spectacular and the headstock, banding and sunburst really lifted the appearance. The sunburst helps unify the different timber - we have the limited release natural finish zebrawood here (released earlier last year) but it’s not as refined as the sunburst finish. The black headstock and neck of the whale blue, although looking ok, slightly cheapened the look in my opinion.

As you can tell from my first post I am passionate about this guitar. I placed my pre-order (sight unseen) with a local retailer in December last year and have been patiently waiting for stock. Now they have started landing in the USA I have been Google imaging the various examples in the real world and have yet to see one that doesn’t look smashing. The media release model looked flawless and it’s a testament to PRS to see the quality and matching of the grain so far. Can’t wait to take delivery of mine - fingers crossed it’s not a dog :)
 
Really nice, congrats! I have the same guitar with a spalted maple top on the way :)

I have an older SE CU24 where I decided to block the trem to make the tuning more stable. I'm going to see how the bridge on the new guitar performs though before I decide whether or not to do that again.

FYI I believe the guitar comes with 9s installed. If you move to 10s make sure they move freely in the nut slots.
 
Last edited:
Sir Stinkalot said:
Thats a great looking guitar.

I had my heart set on a whale blue 24se. Being in Australia they are typically a special order and we don’t have switched on online retailers such as Sweetwater who go to great lengths to photograph each guitar which you can select via the serial number. As a hobbiest woodworker the visual appearance is super important to me. The figure in the whale blue is always good but the bookmarking of the two veneer leafs isn’t always as uniform as I would like so I wasn’t keen to order one in sight unseen.

Anyway I thought that something may be announced last December with the SE range and was presently surprised to see the zebrawood. The grain looked spectacular and the headstock, banding and sunburst really lifted the appearance. The sunburst helps unify the different timber - we have the limited release natural finish zebrawood here (released earlier last year) but it’s not as refined as the sunburst finish. The black headstock and neck of the whale blue, although looking ok, slightly cheapened the look in my opinion.

As you can tell from my first post I am passionate about this guitar. I placed my pre-order (sight unseen) with a local retailer in December last year and have been patiently waiting for stock. Now they have started landing in the USA I have been Google imaging the various examples in the real world and have yet to see one that doesn’t look smashing. The media release model looked flawless and it’s a testament to PRS to see the quality and matching of the grain so far. Can’t wait to take delivery of mine - fingers crossed it’s not a dog :)
Click to expand...

I have an old PRS SE Singlecut from when they first came out, and the non bookmatching of the flamed top always bugged me. I liked the look at the Rosewood top one, but the unfinished back looked a little weird...too stark of a contrast. When I saw their approach withe the Zebrawood, it dropped my jaw. The book matching along with the burst was just a beautiful visual.

Anyway...last night I tighted up the trem bar and the action was much, much better...but then it became very hard to pull out! there's a happy medium in there somewhere though I think I may eventually be upgrading that piece. Eventually, I'd like to mod this to 5-way switching to mimic the US Custom 24. But again...going to wait a bit and just enjoy the guitar for now.
 
There is a point between too loose and too tight that you'll find on the trem bar. Trial and error is the only way. You can have the trem bar bent to give you more pitch change down. I always do it on mine when I get them. Enjoy the guitar. You might not need to change anything (says one of the idiot tinkerers). I always live with mine before I screw around.
 
dogrocketp said:
There is a point between too loose and too tight that you'll find on the trem bar. Trial and error is the only way. You can have the trem bar bent to give you more pitch change down. I always do it on mine when I get them. Enjoy the guitar. You might not need to change anything (says one of the idiot tinkerers). I always live with mine before I screw around.
Click to expand...

For now, I actually only inserted the bar around 2/3 of the way and tightened it pretty tight so the extra height adds a little more dive depth and is in a slightly more comfortable position for me. But honestly...I don't use a trem bar very much. Every guitar I've ever had with one has gotten sold at some point but I always like to have one around. The 5 way switch is something I'm for sure going to do, just not for a while.

fender1punk said:
Stunning. Love to know how it sounds compared to a bog standard one.
Click to expand...
The top is just a thin laminate on SE's, the Zebra isn't gong to affect the tone just the looks. My bet is it sounds pretty darn close to most SE Custom 24's. I'll record something with it at some point soon. I've got a track I've been waiting to use a little trem.
 
I just looked at your pics again, this time on my tablet, and I have to say...DAAYYMMNN! That is one beautiful guitar!
 
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