PRS CE 1998?

[James Pits]

Hello everyone,

New to the forum and would like to say hi and tell you a bit about myself. I have been playing guitar for about 20 yrs now. I currently play in an experimental progressive band and was looking for a new axe. I've been interested in PRS guitars since i was little but never had the income to afford one until now. In the past I used fenders (mainly telecasters and jazzmasters) but in recent years I've been using gibson (les pauls and sgs) Problem is, the first batch of songs we wrote, i was using fenders. The current batch were written using gibsons. When I play the older songs with the gibsons, they lack the cutting and aggressiveness of the fenders, but when I play the new songs with fenders, they lack that beefiness and sustain. Since we have a lot of gear, i'd prefer using one guitar for live and was hoping to find something that could cover fender and gibson ground.
I recently found a PRS CE24 online for 1100 canadian and was wondering if this could be the guitar that fills that gap. Is $1100 canadian a lot for a used CE24 from 1998? It is the cheapest PRS I've ever seen besides SE models. The seller is missing the trem bar, the tuners have been changed to grovers and it has had re fret job done by a qualified luthier. I know there are several different types of these guitars in terms of construction. Since its a 1998 i believe is has a mahogany body but i can't tell if there is a maple top or not. The guitar is black.
Will this guitar have similar thickness and sustain to my gibsons but still have that fender snap? Any opinions or advise would be greatly appreciated. I plan on going to try the guitar this week but would like to know what I'm getting into before I go see it. Also, is there anything i should be checking while I try out the guitar?

 

[veinbuster]

Welcome to the forum.
The CE might work for you covering both spaces, but won’t match them both spot on. You will get plenty of sustain. Much thinner than you Les Paul, and lighter, but it will hold a note for you.
About the Fender snap: maybe. Give it a try. I stopped playing my tele when I got my first PRS.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

Older CE’s are great guitars. No, it won’t sound exactly like your G and F guitars but, it’ll be a nice compromise of both.

 

[InTooDeep]

The CE24 will likely sit nicely between the strat and LP. You can get nice thick rhythms from it, and it can also cut very well. I would say it does lean a bit more towards the LP style sound with the humbuckers though. The guitar you are considering is likely a standard model that is solid mahogany. As long as the re-fret is well done, and everything is functional I would think 1100 canadian is in the ballpark. It would be a bit expensive in USD on a state-side guitar though.

When you try the guitar out my main concern would be the quality of the re-fret. Also, run through the pickup combinations either 5 way rotary or 3-way with a push pull tone knob.

 

[AP515]

I'd say the splits will get close enough to the Strat, just not as much quack. The LP it will cover very well. Then as a bonus, you will get a bunch of new tones that might inspire you to new stuff!

 

[Shizzrock]

80s/90s CEs should go down as one of the greatest guitars of all time

 

[Bill SAS 513]

Older CE’s are great guitars. No, it won’t sound exactly like your G and F guitars but, it’ll be a nice compromise of both.

This...exactly!!!!

 

[James Pits]

Awesome! thanks for the input everyone! Going to try out the guitar in 2 day. Very excited to try this thing!

 

[gush]

You didn't mention what switching it has. That could make all the difference in matching your sounds.

Rotary will get you 2 and 4 positions like on a strat but won't give you single coil neck or bridge.

Toggle will let you split both pickups but maybe not get you the quack of the rotary 2 and 4

 

[James Pits]

its got the rotary switch! what exactly is position 2 and 4?

 

[gush]

Kind of like position 2 and 4 on a strat 5 way switch

 

[AP515]

Positions 2 and 4 are the splits from both humbuckers. they are single coils from both pickups in series and in parallel.

 

[gush]

With rotary you will not have single coil bridge or single coil neck.

If you have an amp that's on the bright side the HFS bridge pickup may be somewhat harsh to you. Time will tell.

I have three 1997 CEs, they rock.

 

[James Pits]

Sooooo.....I didn't end up buying the guitar. It was not in good shape. The intonation was very off, there was a small nic in the wood right between the pickups, it kinda looked like a burn to be honest (the owner claimed it was original and the guitar was made this way????) The re fret seemed like it was done well. It was also very hard to judge the sound of the guitar since the owner did not have an amp. I had to plug through his laptop using guitar rig. The guitar seemed to lack any sustain but i guess that could be due to the setup. The strings on the guitar also hadn't been changed in 6 yrs!! Which contributed to it not sounding great for sure. For 1100$ i wanted to be sure i liked the guitar and i was not...very disappointed. He has since lowered his price to 900.

 

[James Pits]

Also, the tuner were not original (they were gold grovers) and the saddles seemed to be not original either. They are black Ive never seen those models with black saddles.

 

[AP515]

You would think that to sell a $1100 guitar, a guy would put a $5 set of strings on it.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

You would think that to sell a $1100 guitar, a guy would put a $5 set of strings on it.

Dude is obviously challenged if he took the wing tuners off and put Grover’s on.

 

[veinbuster]

Dude is obviously challenged if he took the wing tuners off and put Grover’s on.

Maybe he wanted to put them on eBay for some collector. I hear someone is trying to corner the market.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

Maybe he wanted to put them on eBay for some collector. I hear someone is trying to corner the market.

He’s asking too much for them.

 

[toothace]

Here's the official on the 5-way switch...for when you find a good one!