PRS Paul Reed Smith Wood Library Custom 24-08 Guitar, Ebony Fretboard, Stained Figured Maple, 10-Top Quilt, Charcoal Purple Burst

Player’s Perspective

We're stoked to bring you another beautiful PRS Wood Library instrument! In a collaborative effort with our team here at the shop, PRS hand-selected the top, back, neck, fretboard, visual appointments, and hardware just for us. Every single detail of this guitar was painstakingly chosen for the perfect aesthetics, playability, and tone. This Custom 24-08 in Charcoal Purple Burst is truly the best of the best, featuring a swamp ash body, a 10-Top Quilt Maple top, a figured maple neck, Ebony fingerboard and Smoked Black hardware!

The neck is absolutely divine from top to bottom and the tone of this guitar is snappy and bright while having lots of warmth and presence in the bottom end. The combination of the figured maple and dark ebony fretboard (and matching veneer!) is simply gorgeous. From top to bottom, and from front to back, there's no shortage of both ear and eye candy built into this guitar.

PRS has opted to use the reworked TCI pickups from the Paul's Guitar for this model, which adds an unprecedented amount of versatility, balance, and tonal identity to this guitar, as well as standing out even further in the best way from the regular Custom 24’s DMOs. The TCI humbuckers maintain a punchy and focused tone in the neck and bridge positions. Paul himself described them as having all the best qualities of a good P90-style pickup, but without the hum. You can still achieve rich, creamy lead lines and get plenty of bass response, but you'll never have to worry about muddying up the mix.

We pour a lot of passion into each guitar that we concoct with the PRS team. The goal is always to design instruments that are not only unique and look beautiful, but also sound absolutely phenomenal. This one fits the bill - it's definitely a lean, mean, shredding machine!

Details

The Custom 24 is the quintessential PRS guitar, the iconic instrument that started it all back in 1985. The Custom 24-08 keeps many of the foundational specs as the original Custom – maple top, mahogany back and neck, 24 frets, 25” scale length, the PRS patented Gen III tremolo, and Phase III tuners with wing buttons – but adds a new level of versatility with its TCI pickups and EQ Mini-toggle switches.

TCI pickups are designed to offer a full, musical sound reminiscent of single-coil and soapbar tones. The dual EQ mini-toggle switches act as tuned high-pass filters when engaged (in the up position), removing shelved low-end and allowing the high frequencies through for more clarity and musical highs.

“The EQ switches were developed with and first featured on the Private Stock John McLaughlin model in 2023. Both John and I felt that they offered a different, but just as versatile, sound that played a significant role in the musicality of that guitar. I am happy that we are now extending this feature into more models.” – Paul Reed Smith

For classic PRS playability, reliability, and tone with ultimate flexibility, check out the Custom 24-08.

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 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.”

Unique to this guitar are the following features:

• Charcoal Purple Burst Finish
• Swamp Ash Body
• Hand-Picked Quilt Maple 10-Top
• Hand-Picked Ebony Fretboard
• Hand-Picked Figured Maple Neck, Stained
• Smoked Black Hardware
• J-Bird (2008 Outline) Inlays, Abalone