PRS SE CE 24, SE SWAMP ASH SPECIAL & SE CUSTOM 24 QUILT
With no signature artists involved, the first wave of new PRS SE guitars for 2024 includes a couple of old favourites and a posh makeover for the classic Custom 24
PRS SE CE 24, SE SWAMP ASH SPECIAL & SE CUSTOM 24 QUILT £695, £979 & £1,079
CONTACT PRS Europe PHONE 01223 874301 www.prsguitars.com WEB
For the past couple of years we’ve been treated to milestone additions to the PRS SE line in the form of John Mayer’s Silver Sky and David Grissom’s DGT. For 2024, there’s not a signature artist in sight, but three new additions will certainly be of interest, especially to players who have followed PRS’s near 40-year history.
Two of our Indonesian-made trio are bolt-ons –the CE 24 and Swamp Ash Special –which join the Silver Sky, the first SE bolt-on. If you know your PRSes, you’ll remember that the CE (originally the Classic Electric) was the first bolt-on PRS guitar and also the most affordable on its launch in 1988. With its alder body and maple neck and fingerboard, it was originally amore Fender-like PRS. But the market said no and by the mid-90s it used the standard mapletopped mahogany body with just amaple neck. It’s dropped in and out of production over the years and returned to the USA line in 2016, albeit with a shallower top carve, where it remains today along with its rather fetching semi-hollow variant.
The Custom 24 has a really strong, strident voice at the bridge; it’s clear and powerful
The Swamp Ash Special debuted in 1996 with aswamp ash body, maple neck and fingerboard, vibrato and aHSH pickup configuration. At that point, it attempted to occupy the ‘Fender’ slot in the line-up. It lasted until 2009 and was replaced for 2010 with the 25th Anniversary version, featuring a trio of then-new Narrowfield humbuckers, followed by its last hurrah between 2011 and 2012 as the Swamp Ash Special Narrowfield. More recently, swamp ash has made acomeback into PRS’s USA line with the Fiore and, of course, the 2023 T-style NF-53 and the Myles Kennedy signature. Like the CE 24, it’s the first time the Swamp Ash Special has been offered in the SE line.
Our third model, the Custom 24 Quilt, goes back to the original 24-fret 1985 Custom and has been in the SE line since 2009, while its current style dates back to its last makeover in 2021. To be honest, it’s a cosmetic upgrade of the standard model with a quilted instead of flamed maple veneer body top and headstock facing. Unlike the standard SE Custom, however, the headstock, fingerboard and top body edge are all bound (more like the SE Standard 24-08 or the SE 594 models), plus we get an ebony fingerboard. Whatever, it’s bit of posh to balance the blue-collar bolt-ons.
Similar Strokes
Aside from the neck fixing, our ne
