Ruby | soldguitars

1987 Paul Reed Smith Custom 24

"Ruby"

As the title says, this one was a Paul Reed Smith (PRS) Custom 24. The 7-3146 serial (ink-stamped, not written like later PRSs) tied this to 1987, so it's a nice early one. I'd wanted one of these since forever, certainly since way back before I got a salary, never mind before I got a monthly bonus. This one was bought as a project, because, frankly, I'd NEVER seen one quite as f*cked up. Dings, dents, scratches, missing tuners, no rear cover plates, and the original electronics ripped out and long gone. I felt sorry for it really. Underneath all of the shit (and the ACTUAL mould around the neck joint when it arrived!), this was a great guitar. As it was made in 1987, it had the small heel of the early PRS guitars, these were made in the old PRS "factory" (workshop) before the company moved to the new (big) factory in Stevensville. The heels NOW are big on the Custom 24 and HUGE on the Custom 22. I'm sure that Mr Reed Smith likes the tone of bigger heels, but it seems that most regular guitarists want a small heel. I do anyway. What else? It came with no tuners like I said, but the position of the screw holes on the back of the headstock show that it came originally with the very posh "winged" locking tuners ... the ones with the shared grub screw between the G and D tuner. I considered buying some of those, but they're fetching about £300 these days ... screw THAT! So, she would be wearing Grovers. You can't argue with Grover tuners. I thought about treating her to locking tuners, but (really) locking tuners are for folks who need them ... does that make sense? If you string up properly and set up properly, you shouldn't need locking tuners. I also considered reinstalling the five-way rotary switch and sweet switch that this would have been fitted when it was new. BUT, even though the wiring would undoubtedly be a pain in the arse (although I'm pretty handy with a soldering iron) and I'd have to have flipped a magnet in the bridge pickup for the 5-way to work properly, I'm not entirely sure that I would have WANTED a five-way rotary. I left the existing vol - tone - three way switch in there, although I considered adding a push-pull coil tap on the tone pot, but never gor round to it. I thought about a refin too (a nice amber sunburst?) but I was pretty keen to keep this as a "beater" ... I'm most comfortable around guitars that have been knocked about a bit. Or in this case, quite a lot. This was a really easy fix-up, and I suppose that is proof of what high quality these guitars are. Even after all the shit it had put up with, the neck was still poker-straight, and it was a breeze to set up just how I like it. Well ... when I say just how I like it, it would be nice if the neck had been a little wider, as there wasn't much room for my big sausage-fingers, which made it a little less comfortable to play than I'd have hoped. Although my refurb of this led to me trashing lots of the electronics that it came fitted with, I re-wired it with quality bits and pieces. I'm glad I did. Plugging it in and letting rip through a Marshall stack for the first time was quite an experience. This was RAMMED with juicy tone. The Seymour Duncan pups (no idea which models they were) were suited very well to the guitar ... the bridge pup was strong, crispy and defined but not too bright, and the neck was hooty and woody ... wonderful. Any thoughts of replacing the pickups with original PRS pieces absolutely went out of the window. Verdict? This was bought as a beaten-up piece of crap that was going to need LOADS of work to fix up. It didn't. A couple of hours worth of tinkering and £50 of new parts not only brought this back to life, but it was FIGHTING FIT. A great guitar.

Although I had no real plans to get rid of this guitar, I was presented with an offer I couldn't refuse ... a direct trade for "Chisels", my old Hufschmid H7. If the neck on this had been that little bit wider, I might have said no to the deal, but ... well ... its a Hufschmid.