A curse many guitar enthusiasts live with is the inability to say no to a great looking guitar. No matter how many you own, or how maxed out your credit card is or even if your girlfriend threatens to leave you, we simply just can not say no. This PRS is a good example of when I was not even looking to buy a guitar, I had gone into the store to grab some strings but when this one caught my eye it was all over. Ironically, the neck on this instrument is very different than those on my Charvels (it is wide and thin) and it didn’t instantly feel comfortable in my hands. This raises the obvious question, why did I buy it? The answer is simple, because I could not resist such a great looking guitar and she sounded phenomenal. Furthermore, I was caught up in the buzz associated with PRS guitars.

PRS is one of the few “new” guitar makers to come in and turn the guitar world on its ear. In the mid 1980’s, PRS arrived with a high quality guitar that was different from the “hot-rodded” super Strat with locking tremolo and wild graphics popular at that time. It can be argued that PRS reintroduced the word “flame top” back into the vocabulary of many guitarists. At the height of the metal music scene where 90% of the guitars were variations on the “hot rodded” Strat concept and sported locking Floyd Rose tremolos and wild graphics, PRS introduced a line of guitars featuring beautiful translucent finishes over heavily figured maple tops without a Floyd Rose in sight. PRS quickly gained a sizeable market share, and with time and many artist endorsements, they have established themselves as one of the major guitar manufacturers. Today (2004) there is considerable interest in PRS guitars (especially early ones) from both players and collectors.

Simply saying the name PRS immediately brings up images of beautifully finished highly figured guitar bodies, bird inlays, carved tops with recessed controls and the unique style headstock design. While this particular guitar is the lower end “bolt-on” model, CE22, it shares the same high quality of workmanship, beautiful figured maple top and an outstanding translucent green finish. This guitar has serial number 4710959 indicating that it was made in 1994 and has the more user friendly [albeit limiting for the number of pickup (hence sound) offerings] McCarthy style wiring, consisting of a volume, tone and a 3 way selector switch.

I purchased this guitar at the Guitar Center in San Diego back in 1998. I tried out approximately 13 different PRS guitars but at the end of the day the best bang for the buck was this instrument that was reduced because of the ding on the face of the guitar. I really enjoy the clean tones I can get from this guitar and the PRS tremolo works great. I am amazed that the guitar stays in tune so well even after some serious tremolo action, thanks in part to the locking tuners which are standard PRS issue. My only complaint is the neck profile but as I stated above it is minor as within minutes she feels as comfortable as a pair of old tennis shoes. Believe the hype, PRS are great guitars and have established themselves next to the big boys, Fender and Gibson.