PRS SE Custom 24-08

first play
PRS SE CUSTOM 24 & 24-08
18
GUITARIST APRIL 2021
6. The zebra coiled
pickups here are down
on the spec sheet
as TCI ‘S’, although
they’re certainly close
cousins to the 85/15 ‘S’.
A primary difference
is the circuit that
controls them
6
Different Strokes
The construction on both our Customs is
identical; the differences (colour options
aside, see final spec list) lie in the pickups
and their switching. The Custom 24 uses
the PRS-designed/Indonesian-made ‘S’
versions of the more modern-sounding
85/15 humbuckers. These have regular-
shaped humbucker bobbins, unlike the
proprietary rectangular bobbins of the
USA versions – so-called ‘squabbins’
by PRS-ophiles. They sit in standard
mounting rings, too, and look like generic
humbuckers with a single row of slot-head
poles and a single row of non-adjustable
slugs. The Custom 24-08s have zebra
bobbins and are referred to as TCI ‘S’
humbuckers, presumably similar to those
on the SE Paul’s Guitar.
The 24 has a three-way lever switch
with master volume and tone and there’s
a pull-switch on the latter that voices
both slug coils simultaneously. The 24-08
uses a three-way toggle switch for pickup
selection with two small-tipped mini-
toggle switches, so you can coil-split each
pickup independently. The 24 then offers
six sounds, but the mini-toggles on the
24-08 mean we can combine the bridge
humbucker with the neck single coil, and
vice versa, accounting for the two extra
sounds and the name.
GIT470.rev_prs.indd 18 18/02/2021 08:55