Paul Reed Smith guitars need little introduction – the original boutique manufacturer, bringing the now ubiquitous maple capped / high gloss construction to market. Paul started off with the ‘Standard’ – a double cut guitar made of solid Mahogany. The maple top was offered as an option but proved so popular that the ‘Custom’ was added to the catalogue. The Singlecut is an evolution of the custom, and is similar to a Gibson Les Paul in many ways – so much so that on its launch, Gibson secured an injunction to prevent manufacture, citing copyright infringement of the Les Paul design. Happily for the guitar community, the ruling was overturned on the basis that ‘only an idiot could confuse a PRS Singlecut with a Gibson Les Paul’, and the model returned to production.
The review model was a non-10 top with the abalone bird inlays and standard switching. The controls are pretty standard – one volume, one tone, a three way toggle and a coil tap. The Singlecut is only available with 22 frets, has PRS #6 pickups and this review model had a wide/thin neck profile – it’s no wizard II, but it is a comfortable hand full.
The versatility of this guitar has to be experienced to be believed. The neck is smooth like butter and has a light finish, so no snagging when running from one end to the other. The #6 humbuckers maintain clarity even with heavy distortion, and ring like bells through an amp on a clean setting. Engaging the coil tap and selecting the neck pickup gives an acceptable approximation of a Fender tone, and a perfect blues crunch. The bridge is low-rise and even if you’re a hardtail player you’ll find it doesn’t get in your way, and stands up well to the pressure of a palm resting on it for muting. Tuning is incredibly stable thanks to the locking tuners.
This guitar was a perfect addition to my collection, because of its versatility. I use one extensively when recording, and as a backup for performance purely because it will capably fill the gap regardless of style. The hardtail model features slightly different pickups, and has a fuller tone as you might expect. It also has a standard LP two-tone, two-volume control layout. They may be expensive, but PRS guitars ooze quality, arrive out of the box setup like a dream, and are not dogged by any of the quality control issues that many of the other big brands suffer from. Consistent quality is worth paying for, especially for a working musician. There are many variations on this model, including the Satin series with a lighter finish (and lower cost!) and several signature models, of which the Tremonti is probably the best known.
Check out the full specs at http://www.prsguitars.com/singlecuttrem/index.html and go give a PRS Singlecut Trem a test drive at your local dealer. Just try not to sell your car to finance it!
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