Paul Reed Smith PRS Private Stock Custom 24 Spalted Maple Guitar

Music Store Live is proud to offer up another unique and beautiful creation from our friends over at the Paul Reed Smith Private Stock department. There's never any question as to the quality of the instrument you're getting when you get any PRS guitar. But there's something magical with these Private Stocks and, at the end of the day, they're unique and simply unlike any other PRS guitar out there.

This one has a decidedly meaner aesthetic to it. We love the way it came out. The asymmetrical claw spalted maple top is a thing of beauty. And you'll find more spalted maple throughout the guitar. The tonewoods are African ribbon mahogany for the body, roasted flame maple for the neck, and ebony for the fretboard. Mahogany is the traditional wood used for Custom 24's, but the figured African ribbon mahogany is reserved specifically for private stock guitars. To add some brightness to the sound we went with the maple neck and ebony fretboard. This guitar will sound just as mean as it looks if you throw anything from light to heavy gain on it. You can definitely rock hard on this and retain all of the articulation you need in your notes. Of course, as is well known about the versatility of the Custom 24, it has a gorgeous and angelic clean tone as well.

PRS Private Stocks are true works of art, but they aren't just for looking at. This guitar will sound incredible and play like an absolute dream, should you so dare to! This is definitely a "one of a kind" sort of piece.

Private Stock represents the highest quality of materials, the most personally crafted instruments, and the greatest level of customization available from PRS. Whether you choose one of our Private Stock models or spec a Built to Order instrument, every Private Stock is carefully conceived and built with a “one-off” mentality. Through this program, we strive to deliver heirloom-quality, musical instruments. All woods for this guitar were hand-selected by the dealer during a trip to our Private Stock vault in Maryland.

"I have never seen anyone playing guitar in a bad mood. There’s something magic about guitars because they are simultaneously art, musical instruments, treasured possessions, and tools to joyfully spend time with. If you get an extraordinary instrument from Private Stock that is equally as good as a family heirloom and a musician’s tool to make a living on, we have done our job." - Paul Reed Smith

Unique features to this PRS Private Stock guitar are:

- The dealer hand-selected all of the woods used
- The top is a "claw" spalted maple top
- Bird inlays with spalted maple fill
- African ribbon mahogany back and roasted flame maple neck
- Dark ebony fretboard and headstock veneer
- Spalted maple binding on fretboard and headstock

The Custom 24 is the quintessential PRS guitar. This iconic instrument was the first model that Paul Reed Smith brought to the public at PRS Guitars’ first Winter NAMM show in 1985 and has been a top seller ever since.

The Custom 24 is the original PRS. Since its introduction, it has offered a unique tonal option for serious players and defined PRS tone and playability.

Pickup Switching Positions:

Position One: Bridge humbucker
Position Two: Bridge humbucker with neck singlecoil, in parallel
Position Three: Bridge and neck humbuckers
Position Four: Neck singlecoil with bridge singlecoil, in parallel
Position Five: Neck humbucker

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. 

“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.”

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.