theWishlist
Dream gear to beg, borrow and steal for...
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Neither John McLaughlin nor PRS’s Private Stock division need any introduction. Both are masters of their crafts and the only thing we ask is, what took so long for the collaboration? The 2023 Limited Edition – just 200 pieces worldwide – is beautifully understated in its immaculate Charcoal Phoenix with Smoke Black gloss nitro. There is some decoration from that blue Bello Opal Private Stock headstock eagle, while some highly detailed ‘Celtic Knots’ fingerboard inlays replace the ubiquitous birds.
“All of the woods were specially chosen by Paul Reed Smith for their tone, figure and weight,” we’re told, including the lightweight African mahogany back and highly figured, violin-carved maple top. Unusually, the Pattern profile neck is hormigo (“[a hard] tonewood used on marimbas for sound-producing tines,” says PRS) and uses a clear grain filler for a smooth ‘unfinished’ feel. The African blackwood ’board looks like a very dark rosewood. Each guitar is signed by Paul and director of Private Stock, Paul Miles, on the headstock back; each backplate is signed by the artist.
We’ve seen the small, almost mini-humbucking-size TCI humbuckers most recently on the Modern Eagle V, but here the zebra coils match the aesthetic perfectly, with their proprietary shaped light ivory coloured mounting rings. The two small-lever mini-toggle switches introduce a new feature to the PRS canon. Instead of engaging partial or true single-coil-splits, these are “EQ” switches, which subtly reduce the level and lightly thin the sound via a simple capacitor and resistor circuit for a more single-coil-like voice, although they remain fully humbucking in both modes.
This is a guitar with two distinct, diverse voices. With the EQ switches off, the neck pickup’s vocal sustain-for-days tone is very much a hallmark of Paul’s own-style guitars, sounding simultaneously woody and percussive, and smooth and clear. The bridge has thickness and beef – clear but with no sharp highs or honky mids. With a super-responsive control circuit, the guitar handles anything you can muster, clean or gained. Yet with the additional EQ switches engaged, things clean up a little and there’s a less full voice, single-coil-like but without the hum. Of course, you can mix one with the other; those switches are fast in use.
For most, it’s more than we’d ever pay for a new guitar, but if a musician of John McLaughlin’s standing played violin then he’d be paying thousands more for his daily working instrument. We’re just saying…
