DoctorPaul's Guitar Emporium

2011 Paul Reed Smith Modern Eagle ‘Quatro’

"Eddie"

A couple of months ago I snagged 'Desdemona', my lovely PRS Hollowbody, and I'm very glad that I did. During the search for that guitar, I was kinda troubled by the fact that THIS was also for sale, but was quite a lot more expensive than the Hollowbody. What to do. I wanted a hollowbody, so why spend more than I needed to? And the next nice PRS would surely come along before my next suitcase full of money. Anyway, I snagged the Hollowbody, and this disappeared from sale, almost certainly into some dentist's collection. Bastards.

Time passed, I sold a few guitars, I brought in 'Smokey' (My R8), then was set to move on something else. I found something nice, got money together, then arranged to drive to pick that new guitar up. Then, the evening before I was due to leave, I got an email (literally) just before bedtime from the geezer that I bought the Hollowbody from. Was I interested in another PRS? Was I ever ...

Anyway, long story short. Shortly after I bought the Hollowbody, HE bought THIS guitar, presumably (partly) with the money I gave him for the Hollowbody. Given that he's a serial guitar-flipper, something else caught his eye, and he assumed that I'd simply drop everything and take it off his hands (in exchange for a suitcase full of money, obviously).

And he was right.

So. What we have here is a 2011 PRS Modern Eagle 'Quatro'. To my unrefined palate, the Modern Eagles (which were introduced in 2004) have always been a little too close to the top of the PRS food chain for comfort, so I've routinely discounted them. Now that their name has been carried over to the beautiful, awesome, but ludicrously expensive Super Eagle (which is undoubtedly top of the current PRS food chain), my interest was kindled. And, hey ... why ever not ... life's too short not to if the opportunity arises.

PRS say that the Modern Eagle models "embody a tradition of aesthetic and tonal sophistication ... creating an instrument with style and refinement". Gosh. Some seem to think that the Modern Eagle models have been an excuse to force unsuspecting dentists to pay a King's ransom for some nice lumber, and I don't entirely disagree. Although the Private Stock stuff takes that principle to another level, these have always cost a little more than my comfort zone has allowed (and I'm not even a dentist). So, picking this up for a price that didn't (quite) make me cry was a very pleasant experience.

So. The Modern Eagle Quatro. The fourth variant of the Modern Eagle (hence quatro, I guess). By MY standards, this is one fancy chunk of lumber. It has an 'artist grade' flamed maple top, which out-ranks a 10-top, but isn't Private Stock. Either way, it's very, very flamey. That flaminess is accentuated by the 'Black Gold Wrap' finish, which is a rich, browney-burst. Lovely. The 'Wrap' thing means that there is no masked-off 'binding' around the body, which isn't a shame in the slightest ... the lack of masked binding increases the chocolatey lusciousness. The paint (by the way) is their 'V12' finish, which is apparently very thin but very tough and very clear. Whatever ... it's just paint, and it looks just fine.

The body is a one-piece mahogany effort, which (although a decent chunk of lumber) isn't particularly heavy, although it obviously has a trem cavity carved out of the back (... the trem model was optional) which keeps weight down.

The neck? Hmm ... that's where the tingles really kick in. It has a one-piece chunk of 'dalbergia' rosewood, which is a truly wonderful thing. Mr Smith says that "It turns out that God grows trees in India, and we were able to get a supply of extraordinary wood, which we ended up using on the Quatro. Technically, it's an Indian rosewood, but not all Indian rosewood is created equal". So. It's nice rosewood. From a practical standpoint, it's rosewood, it's slinky and lovely, and that's what matters. The grain of the neck feels very nice - Smithy says that "It's got finish in the grain ... It's like a marine jelly that we rub in. It fills in the grain, then we sand it down and buff it up". Whatever. It feels good.

The neck profile is the PRS 'Pattern', which is kinda like a very slightly slimmed down 'Wide-Fat'. Lovely. Frets are larger-than-normal gauge (2.7mm wide x 1.37mm high, apparently). Fret ends sit over the (wonderful) neck binding, which is smoothed off and rounded in. Unlike on any Gibson that I've ever played, the neck binding is perfectly level with the neck sides, so you can't feel it at all. Fretwork is absolutely top notch, so all is incredibly slinky and awesome. Lastly, the bird inlays are very fancy mother-of-pearl and 'paua heart', as is the inlaid headstock eagle. Oh, and the headstock has a veneer of cocobolo, which matches the machinehead buttons ... if it was any more fancy, I might just piss in my pants.

The MEQ was the first PRS to wear 53/10 pickups (which followed on from the 57/08 and 59/09), which all try to do the PAF thing. Smithy reckons that the coil wire in these was created using the machine that made coil wire for 1950's Fenders and Gibsons, saying that the wire is "exactly the same wire from the same machine that Fender put on 1953 Tele pickups". Again, it's just wire, but they certainly sound very nice, so all is well.

The signal goes through a single volume (with a treble bleed cap), and a push-pull coil-split tone ... that split has a couple of resistors attached to it, and apparently only grounds out SOME of the split coil, leaving some of the signal (about 1/4) in the mix. Goodness knows why, but (again) the split tones are very beautiful, so I'm not going to argue.

And before you ask, yes, I've A-B'd it against the R8 and the R9. Truthfully, any attempts at comparisons are pointless ... it would be as easy to compare it to my Strats. Despite the twin humbuckers on maple / mahogany similarity, the PRS is an entirely different animal, as you might reasonably expect. And unlike the more recent (and lovely) PRS 594, this isn't trying to be a Les Paul.

So, there you have it. It looks stunning, sounds awesome, plays like warm butter and is a very grown-up cherry to add to the top of my collection-cake.

All is well.