PRS Custom 24 article
Prs Custom 24 Explained: Features, Types and Tips
Not quite Gibson, not quite Fender, genuinely its own thing — here's what makes the PRS Custom 24 PRS's defining electric guitar.
Some guitars try to be everything to everyone and end up being nothing in particular. This one genuinely pulled it off. Built around a blend of Gibson- and Fender-style thinking, it's become the guitar most players picture the moment someone says "PRS" — and once you know why it's built the way it is, it's easy to see why it's stuck around this long.
What Is the PRS Custom 24, Exactly?
At its core: a set-neck, double-cutaway solid-body electric with 24 frets, a 25-inch scale length, two humbuckers and PRS's own tremolo system. Paul Reed Smith built it around the idea of taking the best bits of two very different guitar traditions and meeting somewhere sensible in the middle — a 25-inch scale sits right between Gibson's roughly 24.75 inches and Fender's 25.5 inches, and Guitar World has called it a genuinely "just right" compromise.
PRS Custom 24 Construction, Bit by Bit
- Body — mahogany, topped with a carved maple cap, often finished in a highly figured veneer.
- Neck — set mahogany on current Core models, with a Pattern Thin profile and a 10-inch fingerboard radius.
- Fingerboard — rosewood, dressed with PRS's signature bird inlays.
- Frets — 24, two more than the traditional 22-fret layout, giving genuinely useful upper-register access.
- Tremolo — PRS's own patented design (Gen III on current Core models), a non-locking vibrato built for expressive movement rather than dive-bomb abuse.
Core, S2 or SE: The Three Tiers
| Tier | What you're getting |
|---|---|
| Core | U.S.-made, premium woods and figured tops, the fullest hardware spec |
| S2 | A streamlined U.S. take on the Core platform, currently fitted with 85/15 pickups |
| SE | Built overseas, the accessible entry point, with 85/15 "S" pickups and a Wide Thin neck |
There are variants within the family too: the Custom 24-08 adds extra coil-splitting switches for more tonal range, and the Custom 24 Piezo bolts on an acoustic-style piezo bridge alongside the magnetic pickups. Deciding which one actually suits you is a whole discussion in itself — our buyer's guide walks through exactly that.
Pickups, Switching and the Coil-Split Reality Check
Most versions give you a three-way pickup selector, master volume, and a push-pull tone control for coil-splitting. Worth being honest about that split sound: it's thinner and brighter than the full humbucker tone, but it isn't a genuine single-coil replacement — the coil geometry and pickup placement are simply different. Treat it as a useful third flavour, not a Stratocaster in disguise.
Living With the Tremolo
PRS's tremolo rewards a proper setup: a well-cut nut, correctly stretched strings, and a bridge balanced to sit at the angle PRS specifies for that model. Get those right and it holds tuning impressively well through normal, expressive use. It's not built for unrestricted Floyd Rose-style dive-bombing, and pushing it that hard is asking for trouble it was never designed to handle.
Why It's Stuck Around This Long
Guitar World marked its 40th anniversary in 2025, and the fundamental blueprint — 24 frets, a tremolo, two humbuckers — hasn't needed reinventing in that time. That's rare in an industry that loves a redesign. If you're just starting out and wondering whether this is the right first "serious" guitar, our beginner's guide covers exactly that.
The Bottom Line
The PRS Custom 24 earns its reputation by refusing to fully commit to either camp — not quite Gibson, not quite Fender, genuinely its own thing. Whichever tier you land on, you're getting a design that's had four decades to get the fundamentals right.
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