PRS SE Custom 24-08 Electric Guitar - Vintage Sunburst Reviews

This guitar plays great. But it just looks nice too. The new orange finish is pretty rad, but I still say the vintage sunburst is the best looking. People compliment mine all the time. Oh yeah, it's a really great guitar too. Awesome support from Sweetwater on this purchase.

So much I can say about this model, but I'll get straight to the point and say this guitar ROCKS! The specs are outstanding, but the surprising factor for me with this guitar are the pickups it comes with. They're very harmonically rich in a musical way for stock pickups. Granted they are fine tuned to the specs of PRS for this model, however they still hold their own for cleans and definitely distorted tones. I'm a Jazz and JB guy through and through, but I honestly have no desire to swap out the pups in this guitar. I also have several drive/distortion pedals in my collection including the Revv G3 & G4, and the Diezel VH4 dual channel pedal. This guitar sounds great with them ALL through a custom 2X12. Huge shout out to Alex Roderick my Sweetwater rep and his team for helping me pull the trigger on this. Holding on to this one for a lifetime. With over a decade of music experience I can confidently say this guitar is very much worth the price tag compared to what's out there. If you still need more convincing please watch the Youtuber Leon Todd's review of this model. I feel he really nails the essence of what PRS is trying to offer with this model.

I was switching from an acoustic ovation to an electric guitar to widen my skills. spent years looking for and trying different on the rack guitars and hated them all. Ordered this guitar to take the plunge after looking at reviews forever. It was so smooth and in fact felt better than my acoustic safe place. I gave my ovation elite to my son so he can start and never looked back. I have never been so pleased with an instrument. I had a marshall amp i hated using because i couldnt control it. Now its my best friend. Thanks sweet water for sending me a dose of happiness. Im in love with my prs custom. I would suggest that as soon as you can get one. I paid more for my acoustic and did less musically

Outstanding guitar. If you are not a PRS fan, buy one and you will be. The quality built into the SE line is incredible. I'm so impressed with this guitar, I ordered an SE Hollowbody II piezo to add to the collection. Once again, special thanks to my sales engineer, Joe Schafer for being a part of this journey.

PRS is one of the Gold Standards for a guitar addict like me.

I have been playing all of my life and I finally got my bounty.

As 2023 started I ordered from my guy (Shelby Shrunk at Sweetwater) the PRS Standard in tasty dark blue. Awesome.
Following closely with another Sweetwater order. The PRS custom in Sunburst. Eye candy really. Why? Because the lower prices
made sense. PRS land is a pricey neighborhood. The SE level can make dreams come true.

At 11 I started my interest with a very cheap Sears Silvertone acoustic. Yikes! It was like driving a truck trying to play along
with my Wes Montgomery records. Then I self-taught with 'The Ventures' records. Very cool! I bought many of their albums
and finally saved enough to buy my 'Candy Apple Red' Ventures Mosrite guitar.

The PRS reminds me of the old Mosrite. Fast and slick.
I have bought and sold many guitars. The PRS is a real keeper. This adds to my collection of jewels.

Thanks, Shelby.

This guitar is so effortless to play. The fit and finish are remarkable, and I don't mean just at this price point, but by any standard. I ordered locking tuners and will install them myself. I probably do very little to this instrument beyond maintenance regarding upgrades. It sounds and plays wonderfully—big props to the sales department. I must have driven crazy with questions and swaps until I finally pulled the trigger. Starting with Damian Hyde, who got the ball rolling and a team that must keep many balls in the air simultaneously.

Purchased this guitar 3 weeks ago and promised myself I would give an honest review, on Sweetwaters site after thoroughly spending some time with it. I am an average guitar player who plays for my personal enjoyment, and have purchased several,17 guitars from Sweetwater. I don't know what it is but I enjoy different brands and styles of guitar. My wife thinks I'm a nut,maybe so! Regardless I have gibsons,fenders,Gretsch, and several other brands of guitars, so many of these guitars cost sometimes 2 or3 times as much money as the PRS Custom 24-08. This guitar plays fantastic,the tones it can produce all on its own are really impressive. You get 8 combinations of single coil and humbucking pickups and after you add the tone control you really get one of the most versatile guitars being produced today. When I first took back up the guitar, after a brief hiatus, I didn't know what people meant about a guitars playability,after a few years you learn what it means. The only guitar I have that I feel like is a little easier for me to play is a Les Paul Standard I purchased last year. It may be the neck because I would say I have small hands and I think the PRS has a little wider neck but to be as close to the Les Paul as it is, is remarkable! It's 1/3 the price of the Les Paul, how can you go wrong with this guitar! I just can't say enough good things about this guitar, I really feel like I got a bargain.if you get one you'll know exactly what I mean.and thanks to Geoff Allen my sales engineer, he went out of his way to get me the prettiest guitar of the bunch to choose from. He is also a big fan of PRS AND NOW I KNOW WHY. After the last 10 years of reconnecting with the guitar,not once have I had any complaints about Sweetwater, they really want you to be delighted with you purchase and get your gear to you in a quick safe manner. Thank you very much! John S.

After playing strat and tel styles for 30 yrs
I finally broke and bought a set neck 24 fret
guitar
This axe is 100% a beast
And the extra switches allow some fairly decent single coil sounds
But most importantly these switches allow humbucker and single coil mixed in the center position
Love this guitar

I own expensive Gibson's and Fender's. I always wanted to try a PRS. After viewing on YouTube and seeing the positive reviews, I decided to try the import version. The construction was extremely good. Fret sides did not have any rough edges. I have the action set perfectly. I gigged with it and was extremely happy. I kept the 9s. I had no tuning issues. The pickups are probably the weakest part but in no way are they anything that would cause concern on a gig. The tonal choices are good. I was really amazed at this guitar. Maybe I lucked out but after reading and seeing reviews I do not think so. This guitar has a tone of it's own.

Now for a non American made guitar, these things are fantastic. The price is still steep for being an "entry level" PRS, but you 100% get what you pay for. Plays fantastic, sounds great, especially with the volume controls, looks great too. An extra thanks
goes to Adam and Loui from the Sweetwater team for their fantastic customer service.

If you like how the Custom 24's handle, but need to save a few bucks, I would absolutely recommend this guitar.

This guitar has everything the CE had and more for much less the $$$. It is lighter but still have the mahogany body. once I got it I realized I would not play my USA PRS CE. So I sold it. Haven't looked back. It's an amazing guitar. Arrived well packing and in excellent condition. Finish detail is actually slightly better that the CE. Stays in tune. Can't say enough! Own an older PRS SE single cut and a PRS SE one. All excellent guitars.

Everyone knows about the exemplary customer service offered by Sweetwater. That held true when i bought this guitar. Ashton Vaudt was very helpful, as usual. Thanks, Ashton!

The guitar arrived on time and it was in perfect condition.

I'm used to playing 10s and this came with 9s. At first i kept accidentally bending the strings, but i'm used to them now.

The guitar is great. Plays well, stays in tune, sounds great and is comfortable to hold.

I have zero complaints.

I'm not suddenly a good guitar player, i feel really goid playing it.

Great looking, too!

I purchased A PRS Starla from Sweetwater before..Great guitar.. Decided to buy the custom 24 0 8...My sales engineer Chris came in on his day off to assist me. My drive is 4hrs.one way...That is above and beyond customer service..Sweetwater and the staff are no.1 in my book...And the 24-08...An amazing guitar....Definitely a customer for life.

Fit and finish is flawless. Fretwork impeccable. Neck feels fast and comfortable. All the knobs and switches feel high quality. Pickups sound great with clean tones and extremely high gain. Very happy with my purchase. Great value!

At first I wasn't thrilled, but after getting it setup properly by my luthier, it plays and sounds great!! Fit and finish are wonderful. A lot of guitar for the money.

It's only been a little over a week since this arrived, but it's been on two gigs already; and I'm impressed. When the guitar arrived, it did need a tweak of the truss rod (normal for a change of climate), but then the guitar just fell into place, no other tweaking needed. Perfect fretwork (better than some guitars costing 3x as much), lovely neck, unbelievably good playability. Fit and finish were also perfect. The pickups are bright and clear, yet have some warmth and power. The switching makes this the most versatile guitar I've ever owned. You can take just one guitar and cover any musical style. Also, I must say the guitar looks absolutely gorgeous, not that that is important (or is it? Hmmm?). Comfortable sitting or strapped on. Included gig bag is very high quality, protective, and has a cool hanger. Couldn't be happier with the guitar. This is my second SE model, and both are exemplary.

Great feel and sound... first with 24 frets!

What a beautiful guitar that just feels so right in your hands! This is my first PRS guitar and the SE quality is OUTSTANDING! The frets were impeccable and standard set up from factory was very good. And the versatile 85/15 pickups...sound great. The wide thin neck feels so smooth and nice. I would have preferred a satin neck but so far no issues with the high gloss neck. I can move around the fret board with ease.

I read some reviews about tuning stability. I have not had any issues after STRECHING the strings several times. I bend those strings and use the trem and go several days without needing to be re-tuned. I am currently playing through a Bugera V22 tube amp and this guitar sounds so sweet and smooth on the clean channel. I throw on a dirt pedal and the bridge PU is splendid.

I have had several guitars including Gibson and a fender like (G&L) and this PRS definitely has its own sound which I love. For the price this is a tremendous value. Not cheap but a lot cheaper than a USA made PRS custom. Some day maybe!

Lastly, a big shout out to Nick Reedy! Simply great customer service during the order process since I had to wait a while for it to come in stock. I am a Sweetwater customer for life!

It took a while for me to decide whether to get more tonal flexibility with this 8 pick up configuration guitar, or the "limited" to 6 config of the made in the USA CE 24, which also has locking tuners by default. The worry was about lower construction quality and tone of the SE made in Indonesia, but I thought I could return it if not satisfied and went for the SE. Well, I have a Gibson Les Paul standard with PAF and a Swiss guitar (Blade RH4) which is like a sweet strat, better finished and tonal flexibility, to compare with my new SE. This PRS is a joy. You can read all about the 8 configurations, which allows you to switch from tele / strat sound to Les Paul and hybrids unheard before, but I think my surprise was the dynamic range of the pickups. You can literally modulate the volume and power of your notes with the force you put in your picking, without touching the volume. From a gentle and sweet arpeggio to strong picking... it's like a turbocharge progression, the more you push the more the kick. Other surprise, although I asked to install the locking tuners, the tremolo is the best I ever tried. The bridge is not sitting on the body but floating. I thought this would have been good for tremolo but bad to keep the intonation when using the bridge as a pivot for your right hand. Not at all, you can sit there without worries, use the tremolo and rest assured you're not going to lose the tuning! It's simply sweet. Only caveat... I have stretched the strings at least 5 times (stretch tune, stretch tune...) to get to that point. Which is normal in any guitar and still, many go out of tune anyway. Another great thing is the volume: it doesn't change much the tone of the configuration you select, it doesn't attenuate the high frequencies. I also read about satin finish neck being better than this gloss one, the type of neck being thicker than expected and so forth... I love this neck and the ease of playing compared to the Les Paul is majestic. I never played a PRS before but if this is what you get for less than $... I can't imagine what kind joy you can get with the US made ones. Not only, in my opinion you get way more value than any strat, tele, Lp or Sg in quality, tone, weight and overall comfort, neck playability, finish, hardware... highly recommended is pretty much conservative. This thing is a must have.

What can I say...this guitar is amazing. Color, fit, finish is flawless and the Flamed Maple Veneer is unreal. Love the tonal options available with the mini toggle coil tap switches. The neck is lightning fast and the fret work is impeccable.

I can afford a PRS 10-top if I wanted one, but why would I when the SE line is such an incredible value? I'll add a set of locking PRS tuners and PRS hard case and put the extra $5k in the bank. Or buy a few more SE Custom 24's.

My salesperson, Adam Vaughn, came through again big time for me and helped me pick out the perfect guitar. Adam's customer service and product knowledge is unequaled. I'll never buy instruments or music gear from anyone but Sweetwater and Adam. Thanks again you guys!

I was talking guitar **** one night with a few fellow musicians. Was spit balling idea the of a new guitar. I've been playing over 35 yrs now, and have become a die hard Ibanez fan. I know some will scoff at that, but to each his own. That being said, my buddy asked me if i ever played a PRS. I said no, scoffing myself slightly lol. Then one day in a random music store i tried one. Ummm...i was wrong The guitar was thicker all the way around than what i'm used to, but the feel, build quality and finish blew me away. Played it for a bit, then left. Kicked it around for a week or so than pulled the trigger and traded my Jackson soloist SLX in for a PRS SE Custom 24. Took it home, installed new strings, set it up and began drooling. This guitar will never leave my collection and every time i play it i love it mor. Super versatile and solid as a rock!

This is my first PRS -- I have owned it for a year. Action is great, but there are some things about my particular PRS. I have repeatedly considered selling this guitar many times over the past year. Maybe, if I can get over this experience, I'd think about owning another PRS, but I will be sure to play it first before I buy it.

First -- strings intone properly when open tuning, but once you start fretting notes, intonation is off. This drives me (and my ear) absolutely mad. I know it can likely be fixed with adjustments to the nut and/or bridge, but for a $ guitar?

Second, the volume knob location: I strum quite a bit and I consistently clip the volume knob with my strumming hand -- look at a picture of the guitar and notice how close the volume knob is to the bridge pickup. Because my hand is always hitting the volume knob, volume settings are always getting hosed. Additionally, the edges on the knob are "sharp". Once again, this on a $ guitar?

Finally, I'm not really impressed with the voicing of the pickups -- they just don't mesh with my ear.

I find myself wanting to throw this thing out the window half of the time. To make things right I would have to pay a luthier to make the necessary adjustments so that it intones properly and consistently Then I'd have to pay the same luthier to swap out the pickups -- the Seymour Duncans (Pearly Gates) I like are $ PLUS labor. Man, I'm looking at another $ to make this thing right. Forget it. If I could buy a new guitar in the $ price range, I'm almost reaching the price of the Music Man Valentine.

99% sure I'm listing this on Craig's List. I'll take the money and get a (Music Man) Sterling Cutlass for my "strat-sounding" guitar.