1991 Paul Reed Smith CE 24
Color: Heritage cherry

(b)PRS Treble 7
(n)PRS Vintage Bass

Paul Reed Smith guitars have pretty much made a name for themselves over the years. Blending the best features from Fender Stratocaster’s and Gibson Les Pauls, PRS guitars are surprisingly unique guitars.

The CE24 is a solid alder body with a bolt-on maple neck with rosewood fretboard. It was the first 24 fret guitar I ever owned. Combine that with the 25″ scale and I had some adjusting to do being a Gibson 24 1/2″ scale fan. Thankfully, the neck is carved in what they describe as “wide thin” fashion which made adjusting to the neck much easier. It feels slimmer than a Gibson 60′s style neck combined with the width of a Fender Stratocaster neck.

The body was very well crafted and the carved top was what drew me in. It sits well against the body and the guitar body contours are smooth enough to allow different picking arm positions for me, while still having enough mass to resonate well. The finish was equally impressive and it was pretty obvious that a lot of hands-on work went into this guitar.

I couldn’t really find issues with the hardware the CE 24 was equipped with. The PRS Phase I locking tuners weren’t as easy to use as Sperzel tuners, but had a very similar performance. I was able to do big string bends and go crazy on the whammy bar without any tuning issues. I would have preferred a larger fret size (medium-small I believe), but the exceptional fret dressings make up for it.

The guitar’s pickups had a very sweet tone with lots of sustain and seemed fine for a long time with me. But after recording a punk/metal session using this guitar, I opted to go with a pickup that had a bit more punch without changing the integrity of the guitar. After some research, I set out on a quest to find a PRS Treble 7. I was able to find one on a guitar forum I frequent after a few weeks and it was worth the wait for me. It’s a killer pickup that was used in Paul Reed Smith’s first single cut models and fit my taste very well. Nothing to report regarding the other electronics. The switched and pots were all top quality and the soldering was expertly done.

The Paul Reed Smith CE24 is an amazing guitar if you’ve got the budget for one. Even used, PRS guitars go for a stack of cash but have always been worth it in my experiences.