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PRS SE Custom 24

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Electric Guitar

PRS SE Custom 24

PRS · SE Custom 24 Electric Guitar

Price: 559 EUR – 1.454 EUR

Price history 04.09.2026 19.09.2026
Cheapest seen Most expensive seen

Availability: 9/10 (Common)

PRS's Custom 24 formula built to a genuinely accessible price: mahogany back with a carved maple top, 24-fret bound rosewood fingerboard with bird inlays, and 85/15 'S' pickups with a push-pull coil-tap for six switchable tones. The line exists because Carlos Santana - the same artist whose 1980 custom guitar helped launch PRS in the first place - personally asked Paul Reed Smith for an affordable version, and the result carries the low-key official name Student Edition.

Where available? Go to the best price – 559 EUR About this instrument

About the PRS SE Custom 24

Underneath a name most players never spell out, SE stands for Student Edition - a detail PRS doesn't hide but also doesn't advertise loudly, since the guitars themselves are built to be taken seriously rather than treated as toys. The Custom 24 SE follows the core model's recipe closely: mahogany back, carved maple top, 25-inch scale, 24-fret bound rosewood board with the brand's signature bird inlays, and a Wide Thin neck carve.

The genuine construction difference from the USA Custom 24 sits in two places. The 85/15 'S' pickups are the SE-specific version of the core 85/15 humbuckers - built to the same tonal concept but manufactured to SE-line tolerances - and the tremolo bridge is a molded unit rather than the precision-machined system on USA Core guitars, the same bridge type found on the US-built S2 line. It's a genuine dive-only tremolo without the additional routing some core PRS models get for pull-up bends, a real functional difference worth knowing rather than a cosmetic one.

Where to buy

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Source: https://reverb.com/item/85410351-2021-prs-paul-reed-smith-se-custom-24-electric-guitar-bonni-pink-w-gig-bag

Sound character of the PRS SE Custom 24

The 85/15 'S' pickups deliver a rich, warm, clean tone that never turns thin, with the thick, boomy low-register response reviewers associate with PRS guitars generally - distorted power chords carry real chunk and bass weight, while clean open chords sound full and smooth rather than sparse. The push-pull coil-tap adds genuine single-coil-adjacent textures across six total combinations between the two pickups, giving the guitar real range beyond straightforward humbucker duty.

Compared directly with the USA Core Custom 24's 85/15 pickups, the SE version is honestly described as not quite reaching the same high-output, richly detailed voice - a real but not dramatic gap, the kind of difference that shows up most clearly in back-to-back comparison rather than on its own.

Warm Full-bodied Resonant Crisp

What owners of the PRS SE Custom 24 say

Reviewers consistently frame this guitar as punching above its price rather than merely acceptable for the cost - the tonal richness and the genuine playability of the Wide Thin neck draw repeated specific praise rather than generic budget-guitar approval.

When directly compared with the USA Core Custom 24, owners and reviewers are honest rather than defensive about the gap: the Core line's pickups and hardware are generally acknowledged as genuinely superior, and wood selection on Core guitars is described as more carefully chosen - but that comparison is consistently framed as the SE losing to a guitar costing several times more, not as the SE being a poor guitar on its own terms.

Playability & handling of the PRS SE Custom 24

The Wide Thin neck measures roughly 20mm at the first fret and 22.5mm at the twelfth - reviewers describe it as neither a baseball bat nor a razor blade, with enough substance in hand to avoid fretting-hand fatigue on long sessions while staying fast under the fingers.

Weight is a genuinely open question rather than a fixed spec: one tested example came in at 7.5 lb and felt light and nimble, while other owners report guitars over 8 lb - real, documented guitar-to-guitar variation rather than a single reliable number, consistent with the natural density variation in mahogany already noted for the USA Custom 24 elsewhere in this research.

Recommended accessories & strings for the PRS SE Custom 24

The guitar ships with .009-.042 strings and a gig bag - genuine standard equipment rather than a bare instrument, worth knowing since not every guitar in this price range includes a bag by default. Because the molded tremolo is dive-only without extra routing for pull-ups, players wanting more aggressive upward pitch-bending should check that limitation before assuming full Floyd Rose-style range.

The push-pull coil-tap on the tone control genuinely opens up six distinct tonal combinations between the two pickups, so this guitar covers a wide stylistic range on one amp channel the same way the USA Custom 24 does.

Technical data for the PRS SE Custom 24

Type Solid-body electric guitar, double cutaway, glued-in (set) neck, vibrato bridge
Production PRS SE series (Student Edition), launched 2001; built in Indonesia (Surabaya, Cor-Tek) since 2019, originally South Korea (World MI, Incheon)
Body Mahogany back with bound, carved maple top (some finishes with poplar burl veneer)
Neck Maple, glued in (set neck), Wide Thin carve (approx. 20mm at 1st fret, 22.5mm at 12th)
Fingerboard Bound rosewood, bird inlays
Frets / scale 24 frets; 25 in. scale
Pickups 2x PRS 85/15 'S' humbuckers (SE-specific version of the core 85/15)
Controls Volume, push-pull tone control (coil-tap, 6 total tonal combinations), 3-way blade switch; passive
Bridge PRS Patented Tremolo, molded (not precision-machined like USA Core models; same type as the US-built S2 line), dive-only, no additional pull-up routing
Hardware finish Nickel
Strings .009-.042 as shipped
Weight Documented range approx. 7.5 to over 8 lb; real guitar-to-guitar variation
Included Gig bag
Origin note SE stands for Student Edition; the series exists because Carlos Santana personally asked Paul Reed Smith for a more affordable PRS - the same artist central to PRS's own 1980 founding story

Price history for the PRS SE Custom 24

Cheapest seen: 559 EUR  ·  Most expensive seen: 1.454 EUR

1.455 EUR559 EUR 04.09.2026 15.09.202616.09.202618.09.2026 19.09.2026
Cheapest seen Most expensive seen

The history of the PRS SE Custom 24

The SE line traces directly back to Carlos Santana - the same figure central to PRS's own 1980s founding story already covered in the Custom 24 research elsewhere in this project. Santana personally asked Paul Reed Smith to bring a more affordable PRS to the wider public, and the company launched the SE series in 2001 in partnership with World Musical Instrument Co. in Incheon, South Korea, which built the entire line on its own for its first years. The goal PRS states for the series hasn't changed since: the hallmarks of PRS quality and craftsmanship at an entry price point, rather than a simplified or reduced version of the brand's identity.

Manufacturing shifted significantly in 2019, when PRS moved SE electric guitar production from South Korea to Indonesia, partnering with Cor-Tek's Surabaya facility - SE acoustics and hollow-bodies continued through a separate Cor-Tek plant in China. In under two decades, what started as a single Korean-built line grew to more than twenty models spanning electric, acoustic, semi-hollow and hollow-body guitars - one of the more successful budget-tier expansions any major American guitar brand has run.

About PRS as a manufacturer

PRS's relationship to its SE line mirrors, in miniature, the same artist-driven origin story that shaped the brand itself: just as Santana's 1980 custom guitar helped establish PRS's founding credibility, his direct request two decades later shaped the company's entire budget-tier strategy. That continuity is unusual - most guitar brands develop their budget lines through internal business planning rather than a repeat request from the same founding-era artist.

The honest trade-off PRS itself doesn't hide is quality tier: fit, finish, wood selection and hardware precision are generally acknowledged to sit a real step below the hand-finished USA Core line, with the molded tremolo and SE-spec 85/15 'S' pickups being the two most concrete, checkable examples of where the cost savings show up rather than vague marketing language about the difference.

Notable players & recordings featuring the PRS SE Custom 24

No verified professional endorsement ties a specific touring artist to this exact SE model - consistent with its role as an accessible entry point into the Custom 24 shape rather than an artist-driven design in its own right.

The deeper, genuine artist connection belongs to the line as a whole rather than this specific guitar: Carlos Santana's direct request to Paul Reed Smith is why the SE series exists at all, tying this affordable Custom 24 back to the same founding figure already central to the USA Custom 24's own origin story researched elsewhere in this project.

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