PRS Paul Reed Smith Custom 24 Piezo Guitar, Gloss Black

Music Store Live is proud to offer up this stunningly beautiful Custom 24 Piezo from our friends over at Paul Reed Smith. A guitar like this really gets the musical ideas flowing. The tone is everything you'd expect from PRS, which means that this guitar doesn't sound quite like any other. The addition of the piezo makes it a true swiss army knife. We really dig the simple gloss black finish outlined by the natural maple binding, too.

The tone is dynamic and rich, and the piezo offers a shimmering acoustic sound that makes it hard to believe this is a solidbody. The pickups in this are based off of the original pickups that took guitar players by storm when Paul Reed Smith began pumping out guitars in Maryland in 1985, but now they are further refined with the TCI Tuning process. They are a nod to vintage sounds while keeping a bit more of a modern studio-like refinement to them. Sonically they allow you to get vintage sounds while still being able to comfortably navigate through some more modern, higher gain tones. They are crystal clear and have awesome punch and definition. Along with the piezo in this bad boy, you can really dial in a ton of very musical and very usable sounds.

The piezo adds a great deal of versatility to this Custom 24. Designed by LR Baggs for PRS, it sounds wonderful through an acoustic guitar amp or a PA system. Even going through a clean channel on an electric amp you can still get some of that acoustic vibe. Some of our favorite sounds with this guitar are achieved when using a combination of the magnetic and piezo pickups. For example, we love the way it sounds when the magnetic pickups are on at full volume and then you roll the piezo volume in about 30% so it's hardly even noticeable. It gives such a great chime and sparkle to notes. Being able to combine them and not just have it be all magnetic or all piezo pickups allows for some cool and unique sounds. This is an age-old recording trick used to fatten and punch up guitar tracks.

Along with sounding great and playing like an absolute dream, this one's a real looker too in a beautiful finish and a highly figured flame maple top. 

The Custom 24 Piezo is a 24-fret solidbody piezo-equipped guitar that effortlessly achieves classic humbucker tones and authentic acoustic sounds in one instrument. The added versatility of PRS’s patented tremolo gives musicians a new a unique tool to add to their lineup.

The Custom 24 Piezo has two output jacks, allowing guitarists to plug into their favorite electric or acoustic guitar amp or DI into a soundboard. By utilizing the separate blend control, the tone of the 85/15 pickups can also be combined with the piezo acoustic sounds through a single output. With a nearly infinite range of tones and the added versatility and reliability of PRS’s proprietary tremolo bridge, the Custom 24 Piezo is a perfect “go-to” guitar for players of all kinds.

Pickup Switching Positions:
Position One: Bridge humbucker
Position Two: Bridge humbucker with neck single-coil, in parallel
Position Three: Bridge and neck humbuckers
Position Four: Neck single-coil with bridge single-coil, in parallel
Position Five: Neck humbucker

Pattern Neck Shapes

Neck shapes have always been a high priority for PRS and a hallmark of our quality. A guitar should feel comfortable, like "home," as soon as you pick it up, and the neck is paramount to that connection. These new neck shapes reflect modern tooling and programming that allows us to even more preciously shape and consistently reproduce our necks. The "Pattern Thin" neck is an updated version of PRS’s traditional Wide Thin neck.

It’s All in the Details: TCI-Tuned Pickups

Paul Reed Smith is known as a man who studies history, scrutinizes the details, and never stops applying what he learns to his own instruments. It is that passion, care, and tenacity that has permeated PRS Guitars’ culture and led to the constant evolution of PRS products. Last year, PRS announced TCI (tuned capacitance and inductance) pickups on the Paul’s Guitar. But, TCI is more than a pickup, it’s a process. That process has now been applied to all PRS pickups offered on our Core line of instruments, with the exception of a few artist Signature models.

“TCI stands for Tuned Capacitance Inductance. When you wind a pickup, the coils are capacitors, resistors, and inductors simultaneously. Our more refined ability to be able to tune those factors is what we have incorporated into TCI pickups,” said Paul Reed Smith. “To our ears, the results are very musical. We are very proud of how far we’ve come in the understanding and making of pickups. It’s been a fun process.”