Celebrate In Style

One of three special PRS models to commemorate the brand’s 35th anniversary, this S2 offers expanded sounds for half the price of the Core Custom

- Dave Burrluck

As the original PRS guitar, the 24-fret Custom has certainly earned its place in guitar history. For this milestone year there are three celebratory models – all Custom 24s – starting at the SE level then moving to the USA for the S2 and topped off with the ultimate Core version.

While the Custom itself has constantly evolved over three-and-a-half decades and been the start point for the majority of subsequent PRS designs, it remains very much a halfway house between a Les Paul and a Stratocaster. In simple terms, it has the wood choice and construction style of the former but with the double-cutaway style and vibrato of the latter. A perfect hybrid? Its detractors, however, see this duality as its biggest failing: it’s not a Les Paul and it’s not a Stratocaster. While that discussion will continue as long as there are pubs and internet forums, what better way to celebrate this landmark design than with the 35th Anniversary S2 level? The halfway house of the celebratory trio.

At £1,799 and including a perfectly good gigbag, it’s a well-aimed price point – like our trio of S2 McCarty 594s we look at later on in this issue – that puts it nicely in competition between Fender’s American Ultra, Original and Professional ranges and Gibson USA’s pricing on the first ‘proper’ Les Paul in the current line-up, the Classic, especially since the standard S2 Custom 24 has a full retail of £1,699.