So my adventure with my new PRS Custom 24 S2 is quite interesting. Never have I had an experience like this with a guitar.

So far it's all good and I'm finding I like the guitar a lot. There's been some adjustment since it is very different from what I've played before.

I've made some observations that I don't quite understand and I'm hoping others here can help.

1) This guitar is AMAZING through my Zoom G5. Both my strat and lp loose some of their character when run through the Zoom and the sound becomes either too muddy or too harsh. The PRS however shines!! I find I can play with the amp characteristics and get a HUGE variety of tones.

Any idea why the PRS would work so much better with the Zoom than the LP or Strat?

2) I've read that this guitar is not suited for metal or hard rock. My experience has been this guitar REALLY shines with distortion. I was ripping some VH and Rush last night that sounded really good! On the flip side, I found it difficult to find an amp simulation that would give me a super clean tone. Even US Blues and Vox AC30 amps were giving me some breakup with the gain turned entirely down. The only amp sim I could get a nice clean tone was Fender Twin Reverb. In demos I've seen, they would sometimes roll back the volume for a clean tone. I've never had to do that with a guitar. In my solid state (Crate) and tube amp (Peavey ValveKing), with the gain down and volume at max on the guitar, I get a clean tone.

Any idea on why it can be difficult to get a clean tone with this guitar? Are there other guitars where you have to roll back the volume to get a really clean tone?


The PRS has a very "pure" tone. I suspect that's why guitarists complain that is has no "mojo" or "soul". I wonder if that is why I'm seeing the behavior I'm seeing.