THE LATEST ADDITIONS to PRS’s offshore-produced SE line include two guitars that date back to the 1980s — the Custom 24 and the CE24, introduced, respectively, in ’85 and ’88 — along with a reissue of an outlier model called the Swamp Ash Special, which was originally produced at PRS’s Stevensville, Maryland, factory between 1996 and 2002. I tested these guitars through a Fender Deluxe Reverb and a ’48 Dual Professional, along with a row of UAFX pedals that included the Lion ’68 Super Lead, 1176 Studio Compressor and Orion Tape Delay.
SE CE24
Featuring a mahogany body and a maple top with a shallow violin carve, the SE CE24 is a sharp-looking guitar with its striking Blood Orange quilted maple veneer. The exposed edge shows off the thickness of the maple cap beneath while giving the effect of a binding layer between the top and the tightly grained mahogany back.
Weighing in at 7 ½ pounds, my review guitar felteasy access to the top frets. The PRS-designed low-mass tuners help the CE24 stay in tune, and this carries over to how reliably the silky PRS Patented Tremolo holds pitch when bending strings with the push-in stainless-steel bar (which is adjustable for tension via a small setscrew). The molded, polished unit feels smooth to the touch, and the six adjustable saddles are free of protruding screws to jab your hand when resting it on the bridge.
