PRS Custom 22

I saw this guitar on the Internet at Garret Park guitars. I went ga-ga. I called them and bought it. It was for sale like one day or something. It went for $2340.00 I think list was $3250.00 or something. It was purchased at a time in 1998 that they were not offering the Artist models. That is why this guitar has such an outrageous 10 top, no artist model orders to use the killer tops on. It is definitely an "Artist"( no not him) grade top. The back looks almost as nice with figured mahogany and a perfect cherry red color. It has the wide fat neck and dragon pickups. The neck is a PAF style alnico type while the bridge pickup is a ceramic. I don't really care that much for the bridge pickup but the neck is perfect. They also sound great together but I think the bridge pickup is less than spectacular by itself. I prefer the Seymour Duncan JB for instance or the PAF styles on the Gibson reissues.

Now for the stuff about this guitar that pisses me off. I do not like the fiddly tuning machines.Gimme' some Spertzels or something that do not have that foofy cam system No wonder the McCarty is PRS most popular model. I realize you need locking tuners with the trem but these suck. After you "lock" the cam you can still tug upwards on the string and it will slip out of tune. Way out of tune. Also due to the cam having to lock the string and tune it to pitch within 1/2 turn the ratio of the tuning gears is too low to provide easy accurate fine tuning. They reinvented the wheel and ended up with a log.  The hardware ; pots, jack, the pickup selector switch, tuners, all suck. The pots wiggle back and forth and that stupid pickup selector with the round knob so you can never tell which setting you are using is the dumbest thing I have seen since the switching on the original PRS Santana. ( that engineering marvel was 2 mini toggles to do the same thing as one 3 way switch except for the convenient feature of being able to turn the guitar off during your solo when you thought you were changing pickups. oooops) Simply putting a chicken head knob on the selector will at least show you where it is pointed but just give me a 5 way switch. O.K?And I do not like all the plastic parts (trem cover ,truss rod cover, electronics cover) on a guitar this wood oriented and this expensive. I made some parts for myself out of Rosewood. See photos.

OK back to the really important stuff. How does it sound? It sounds fucking unbelievable. Even without an amp the tone is just singing. It has sustain for days, almost steel guitar like. It sounds almost as fat as the Orange Crusher and would be right in the ball park with 011s but I keep 010s on the PRS to make it a little more supple . This guitar is sheer joy to play. Great neck, fabulous fretwork( although I had to polish them). My picky bass player called it the best sounding guitar he has ever heard in his life.Great Steven you know who tones from the front pickup. He would have loved this thing. It has a sort of strat like tone from pickup positions 2 and 4 but it is not as clucky as a strat, more like a hot Ric or something. Position 3 is both pickups in series and is my favorite lead sound.Fat but cutting a bit. This is perfect for PeterGreen on "Oh Well".The trem is excellent when set up and stays in tune well. This guitar has beautifully even response acoustically all the way up and down the neck. Like the Country Gentleman this guitar has super sustain and is great for chord melody work but the PRS has more high end and snap in the bass. Of course it also has a clearer bass sound due to the wooden bridge on the Gent pushing it a little into the Jazz Cowboy zone.You know, more plonk and less snap. You can think of the Custom22 as a sort of Super nice SG Standard with a carved maple top.That means it is WHO approved for magic bus tours with your Matchless, Hi -watt Vox or Marshall amp(s)  The tone and ease of play make this instrument very hard to put away. It is simply a dream guitar. If it had top quality hardware ( they have improved it )it would be the finest electric solid body guitar I have ever played,new or Vintage regardless of price. This guitar defines " keeper". To quote that idiot Charlton Heston "from my cold dead hands" You could get me to sell you my '56 strat that I have had since 1977 before you would get this guitar from me.