Which Core model would you get in these circumstances?

I'm going to vote for a Custom 24 piezo. It will do a decent job for any of the sounds the OP mentioned, plus a pretty darn good acoustic tone, at least with the right processing. I can get through an entire rehearsal with that one guitar and not feel compromised, if I'm feeling lazy about switching guitars.
 
Utkarsh said:
Firstly not a DGT. Bridge pickup doesnt do metal well. Believe me , i have tried to make it work.

Secondly you need a 22 fret guitar. 24 frets doesnt get you the classical Les Paul sound. Again i have tried.

Also solid single coil sounds removes the Tremonti (no split coils) and even the Custom 22 where the 5 way doesnt given you exact single cpil sounds. The 594 doesnt have a trem.

Amongst your choices, based on specs, the Special 22 fits your brief the best. The caveat is that i havent played it. I own all the other guitars i talk about above.

The dark horse, and my recommendation is the now discontinued 513. In a nutshell it does all the sounds you want and does them well. In particular the heavy humbucker mode deserves calling out as it does a brilliant thick les paul neck tone despite the scale length and the single coil tones give my strat a run for the money . The only watchout is that i have experienced that the older 513s experience a bit of noise in studio/stage lights but the later 513s seem better. There's an entire world of 513s which I wont delve into but try out one if u can get your hands on it.
Click to expand...

The older 513s had a circuit board, maybe that's why they have more noise??
 
To be honest, I would go for a CE-24. I can get some pretty killer single coil tones, it can easily cover funk, rock, metal, etc. Has a trem too!
 
Update: I spent some time today checking out every model recommended here that I could get my hands on. This included: the SSH, DGT, 594, Custom 24, 24-08 and 408. Unfortunately there wasn't a 509 or 513. All were wonderful out of the box; a real testament to PRS design and build quality. Any of them would be nice additions but I did have some favorites. Below are my thoughts:

Custom 24:
The quintessential PRS guitar. Has a lot going for it and I understand why so many recommended it. However, there is too much overlap with my Suhr Moderns.

Custom 24-08:
Love the switching system and resulting tonal flexibility. Same comment as above though.

408:
Sweet guitar. Love the switching system. Really versatile. May buy one one day. However, it lacked the Les Paul type tones I am wishing for from the neck.

DGT:
Another great guitar, as they all are. Like the neck pickup but didn't love the bridge. Good vintage tones but a little too harsh for metal, consistent with what was mentioned here. The neck, while nice, was my least favorite of the bunch due to the slightly narrower width.

594
Tied for first place. Great Les Paul style tones. Worked well for metal. Nice neck. My favorite visual look. Only real downside was that it wasn't as tonally flexible as the other guitar it's tied with, as split sounds were usable but not great.

Special Semi Hollow
Tied for first but may actually have the edge. The most flexible and best feeling guitar I played today. Could get into the Les Paul territory I want, great switching system, nice single coil sounds, no volume loss, light weight. Only unknown is its ability with metal and other high gain as I didn't get a chance to put it through its paces there.

That said, I'm now debating between the 594 and SSH. The last bit of information that I need is really the SSH's ability to handle metal and high gain. To those of you with one, can you elaborate on how it handles those sounds? Also, any experience with how it handles something like Van Halen?

Thanks all for your help!
 
Last edited:
The SSH can do metal! The 58/15's are great Pick-ups and the same family as the 594 - the 594 has 58/15 LT's (standing for Low Turn) whilst the SSH has 58/15 MT's (standing for multi-tap). It handles high gain well and 'Van Halen' wasn't particularly 'high gain' and would do that job well too. Its currently the most versatile guitar that PRS make. The 513, so called because it has 5 pick-ups and 13 different Pick up options and the Special has 12 different pick up combinations - 2 each for positions 1, 2, 4 and 5 (depending on whether the Humbucker is split or not) and 4 for position 3 (the same 4 you get on a 408 or 594 in the middle position). The double humbucker guitars - like the 594 have a 3 way with individual coil split options but the Special has a 5-way because of the Narrowfield in the middle. The extra 2 positions (2 and 4) are the Humbucker (or split) + Narrowfield.

Unless you can find a 513 , although if you want to go from a Bridge humbucker to a neck SC, you have to use both the 3 way and 5way blade to do so. The 3 way goes from split coils, to a 'clear' humbucker to a 'heavy' humbucker. As such, this does give you 1 more pick-up selection BUT these are also no longer made by PRS so you would have to try and find a used one for sale to try it out. The 509 is a bit like the 513 but crossed with a 408. You lose the 'heavy' humbucker option (although the 509 is different, the pick-ups are closer to the Clear option) but gain the option to split coils individually so you can just use the guitar in a HSS configuration and use the 5-way for quick swaps between the single coil neck and humbucker bridge. Neither of these though can give you the two outer pick-ups (both humbuckers together like a Les Paul can) - the middle option is just the middle single coil on it own. Both of these also have a 25.25" scale - closer to a strat than a Les Paul.

With the Special 22, you get the 3 Les Paul options the neck, the bridge or both humbuckers together. You also get all the individual split options that a 594, 408, Paul's and 24-08 offer. However, you also get the humbucker (split and full) with the narrowfield giving you 4 additional combinations. A traditional Les Paul only has 3 options - at least the 'standard' does and this has 12 - plus its lighter thank's to it being a semi-hollow.

As I said in my first post, no other current PRS can match the Special on versatility and can still do the Les Paul like a normal Custom 22 can. At the end of the day though, its your money and your choice.
 
I don't believe all of your desires can be accomplished in a single guitar, except for the 513. You just need to try it and see what you think.

The tonal powerhouse in my opinion is far and away the 594. No trem, obviously, but I can't get classic LP tones out of any trem-equipped guitar at all. All you need for metal is take your distortion pedal du jour and step on it hard. High gain tones out of lower output pickups are clearer and more dynamic. But it's your call. Maybe what you need is a 594 with Bareknuckle Juggernauts. Or a 594 TREM. YEAH, BABY.
 
If you could find a 513, then that would be my choice. I had one and it covered everything you are requesting. Single coils and heavy humbucker. It was made for you.

However, of the current choices, I’d go with either a Custom 24 or 408 with the Custom copping a wide variety of tones (passable in terms of both single coils and LP tone with a flick of a switch). The 408s split tones are more convincing to my ears but the downside is that it doesn’t mimic a LP quite as well.

The main reason I picked the Custom 24 is because of the ‘nice to have’ single coil preference, metal, and trem. This narrows the search down a bit... otherwise you can get closer to amazing single coils and awesome LP tone but you might need two PRS guitars for that and this would probably defeat the purpose of having the Swiss Army knife.
 
jm9239 said:
You're getting married soon and want to add a PRS to your collection before your priorities change and the frequency of acquiring gear slows. Said another way, you don't know when you'll be in the position to buy another guitar.

You already own Strats, Teles and Super Strats (Fender CS, Danocaster and Suhr Moderns). You aren’t thrilled with the split coil sounds on the Suhrs.

You want to cover as many of the following sounds as possible:

*90s rap/funk rock (think 311 and Jimmie's Chicken Shack, each of which use PRS, with Mahoney using a Custom 24 w/ stoptail and Jimi using mostly McCartys.
*Metal
*Les Paul classic rock sounds
*80s hard rock (Van Halen, Def Leppard)

Nice to haves are:

*Solid single coil sounds when split
*Trem

Which PRS would you choose? So far I've been torn between a DGT, McCarty 594, Custom 24 and Special 22 Semi Hollow (though I'm not sure how the last one would handle high gain sounds). Budget is flexible.
Click to expand...
Custom 24-08
 
jm9239 said:
Update: I spent some time today checking out every model recommended here that I could get my hands on. This included: the SSH, DGT, 594, Custom 24, 24-08 and 408. Unfortunately there wasn't a 509 or 513. All were wonderful out of the box; a real testament to PRS design and build quality. Any of them would be nice additions but I did have some favorites. Below are my thoughts:

Custom 24:
The quintessential PRS guitar. Has a lot going for it and I understand why so many recommended it. However, there is too much overlap with my Suhr Moderns.

Custom 24-08:
Love the switching system and resulting tonal flexibility. Same comment as above though.

408:
Sweet guitar. Love the switching system. Really versatile. May buy one one day. However, it lacked the Les Paul type tones I am wishing for from the neck.

DGT:
Another great guitar, as they all are. Like the neck pickup but didn't love the bridge. Good vintage tones but a little too harsh for metal, consistent with what was mentioned here. The neck, while nice, was my least favorite of the bunch due to the slightly narrower width.

594
Tied for first place. Great Les Paul style tones. Worked well for metal. Nice neck. My favorite visual look. Only real downside was that it wasn't as tonally flexible as the other guitar it's tied with, as split sounds were usable but not great.

Special Semi Hollow
Tied for first but may actually have the edge. The most flexible and best feeling guitar I played today. Could get into the Les Paul territory I want, great switching system, nice single coil sounds, no volume loss, light weight. Only unknown is its ability with metal and other high gain as I didn't get a chance to put it through its paces there.

That said, I'm now debating between the 594 and SSH. The last bit of information that I need is really the SSH's ability to handle metal and high gain. To those of you with one, can you elaborate on how it handles those sounds? Also, any experience with how it handles something like Van Halen?

Thanks all for your help!
Click to expand...


How Metal are we talking here? You can get to VH on the SSH. But, how much more Metal are we talking?
 
jm9239 said:
Update:

I ordered a beautiful SSH in McCarty burst. When it arrives I'll share pictures. Thanks to everyone for your help!
Click to expand...

Sweet! I chugged on mine today with a "Dream Theater" preset on the AA-12. It sounded good. A little "air-y" or "open", maybe. For good measure, I pulled out the Majesty. It was a tad tighter as you would expect, but the SSH had more than enough clarity to handle it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Markcarl
How would you compare / contrast the DGT and Studio?
2
Replies
35
Views
2K
JasonE
JasonE
Markcarl
Which PRS guitars have the partial split coil feature?
2
Replies
21
Views
1K
Rod/
Rod/
V
Splitting / tapping pickups 2008 semi hollow which has no coil split
2
Replies
21
Views
480
SinSir
SinSir
M
Viability (and recommendations) of replacing 2016 CE 24 bridge pickup?
Replies
10
Views
225
marmatkat
M
J
S2 and SE “S” & TCI Pickups and Split Coil Tone
2
Replies
36
Views
1K
LaxActium
L
Back
Top