Family Affair

Another bolt-on PRS guitar joins the ranks, but is it the bolt-on we really want? Oh, yes…

- Dave Burrluck

Even though PRS introduced its first bolt-on back in 1988, the CE (originally classed the Classic Electric) has always remained in the shadow of the brand’s premier glued-in neck guitars, from the Custom to the 594. It had dropped out of production by 2009, and when it reappeared in 2016 it was slightly re-engineered to fill a gap between the newer USA S2 guitars and the start of the upmarket USA Core models. If we’re honest, we expected the revitalised CE to drop out of production after PRS introduced the Silver Sky in 2018, but instead of additions to that John Mayer model (new colours aside), we were pleasantly surprised to see a new CE 24 introduced at the start of this year. If you’re a fan of PRS’s original bolt-on platform, you’re in for a treat.

To be accurate, the ‘new’ CE 24 Semi Hollow isn’t actually new. It first appeared as the ‘Reclaimed Limited’ (along with a S2 Vela Semi-Hollow) with a peroba rosa top and brauna preto fingerboard, reclaimed woods from Brazil sourced by PRS’s senior wood manager, Michael Reid. That run of approximately 600 pieces of both guitars certainly proved that a semi-hollow CE 24 was viable and also meant any design and tooling was in place should PRS choose to offer a standard version. Which is exactly what this is. A more typical PRS: the satin finished peroba rosa is replaced with a figured maple top, slightly less dished than the original CE or indeed the Core guitars, but with natural edge ‘binding’ and solid bird inlays. This is PRS heartland.