Watch It First
If you’ve spent any time reading guitar forums, you already know the PRS SE Custom 24’s reputation. It’s the guitar everyone points to when someone asks „what’s the best all-rounder under a grand?”
The PRS SE Custom 24 in Black Gold Burst is the SE line’s flagship – the affordable version of the guitar that made Paul Reed Smith famous. And it’s ridiculously good.
Flame maple top, coil-splitting humbuckers, a PRS tremolo and those iconic bird inlays. Let me tell you why this thing is so hard to beat.
A real PRS, at a real-world price
The whole point of the SE line is to bottle the PRS magic – the shapes, the design, the playability – and make it affordable. The Custom 24 is the purest expression of that.
You get a mahogany body with an arched maple top and flame maple veneer, body binding, PRS’s bird inlays and that unmistakable elegant outline. On the wall, it genuinely looks like a boutique instrument.
Owners keep saying the same thing: it looks and feels like a guitar costing several times more. One reviewer flat-out called the quality that of „a 5000 dollar guitar.” That’s the reputation this thing has earned.
The 85/15 pickups and that coil split
At the heart of it are PRS’s own 85/15 „S” humbuckers – and they’re a big part of the magic. Warm and clear, tight low end, sparkly highs, with a really musical balance across both pickups.
But the killer feature is the push/pull tone knob that splits the coils. Pull it up and both humbuckers become single-coils, opening up bright, spanky, Strat-ish tones.
That’s what makes it such a do-everything guitar. Humbuckers for rock and lead, split coils for funk, pop and clean work. It’ll happily handle smooth jazz cleans one minute and crunchy rock the next.
Specs
- Body: Mahogany, arched maple top + flame maple veneer
- Neck: Maple, Wide Thin profile
- Fretboard: Rosewood, PRS bird inlays, 24 frets
- Scale: 635 mm (25″)
- Pickups: 2x PRS 85/15 S humbuckers
- Controls: Volume, tone with push/pull coil split, 3-way blade
- Bridge: PRS-designed tremolo
- Tuners: PRS-designed, nickel hardware
- Finish: Black Gold Burst
- Extras: PRS SE gigbag included
That 25″ scale length is worth a mention – it sits neatly between Fender’s 25.5″ and Gibson’s 24.75″. You get a bit of Fender snap and a bit of Gibson warmth, which is a big reason PRS guitars feel so balanced.
Playability and that Wide Thin neck
The Wide Thin neck is a joy. It’s flat and fast without feeling flimsy, and combined with 24 frets and smooth fretwork, it makes fast playing effortless.
The PRS tremolo is genuinely good too – stable, smooth, and it returns to pitch well for subtle wobble and dive-lite tricks. It’s not a locking Floyd, so don’t go mad, but for expressive vibrato it’s lovely.
Multiple owners rave about the setup out of the box – „frets 100% polished with mirror finish, really low action, perfect intonation.” One even reckoned it was „better than Gibson American series.” High praise at this price.
So how does it sound
Versatile is the word. Through gain it’s punchy and articulate, great for rock and modern lead work. Clean, it’s chimey and full. Split the coils and it gets bright and funky.
It’s not a dedicated metal weapon – if you want tight, high-output, Floyd-and-actives brutality, something like the ESP LTD H3-1000FR is more your thing. But for everything short of extreme metal, the Custom 24 just covers it.
Grab it, split those coils and work through a few easy songs and you’ll quickly see how many styles this one guitar can cover. It’s a genuine jack-of-all-trades – and unusually, a master of most.
Who’s it for (and who should skip it)
Grab it if you want ONE guitar that does nearly everything – covers band, function gigs, home recording, whatever. As a first serious upgrade from a beginner guitar, it’s about as good as it gets.
Skip it only if you want something more specialised – a pure vintage single-cut like a Gibson SG, or a dedicated metal machine. And if you’re comparing mid-price all-rounders, it’s worth eyeing the other options in this bracket too, though few beat it.
The niggles
It’s close to flawless, but not perfect. A couple of owners received one with slightly high action or intonation that needed a tweak – so, as always, budget for a quick setup if it arrives a touch off.
One player also mentioned the PRS-designed tuners had a little play and benefited from a screw tighten. Minor stuff. For the money on offer, these are rounding errors.
The looks, though
Let’s be honest, half the appeal of any PRS is how it looks – and the Black Gold Burst is a stunner. The flame maple shifts and shimmers as it catches the light, framed by clean binding and those famous bird inlays marching up the neck.
It’s the kind of finish you’d expect on a guitar three or four times the price. One owner put it perfectly: it’s „like a piece of art on a guitar.” It makes you want to pick it up, and honestly that’s half the battle with any instrument.
The nickel hardware and subtle PRS headstock keep it classy rather than flashy. This is a guitar that looks equally at home on a pub stage or a studio wall – understated, expensive-looking, and quietly confident.
Verdict
The PRS SE Custom 24 is one of the easiest recommendations in the entire guitar world. Gorgeous flame top, superb 85/15 pickups with coil splitting, a stable tremolo, a fast neck and build quality that shames guitars costing far more.
If you want a single, do-it-all electric that looks stunning and plays like a dream, this is the one to beat. Hard to fault, and even harder to put down.
