Bold Strokes

PRS has ignored its existing signature artists during most of its 40th Anniversary year, but finally we get two new artist models that illustrate huge diversity and prove PRS does indeed make guitars for us players

- Words Dave Burrluck Photography Matt Lincoln

PRS FIORE HH & SE DGT STANDARD £2,599 & £779 CONTACT PRS Europe PHONE [phone] WEB www.prsguitars.​com

What You Need To Know

1 These look a bit different. Where's the figured maple?

You're right that the classic PRS guitar usually features a figured (or curly) maple top, but plenty of great players - and us mere mortals - prefer a less showy style.

2 For example?

Mark Lettieri's Fiore goes for quite classic bolt-on style using a swamp ash body, as does Myles Kennedy's signature and, of course, John Mayer's Silver Sky. David Grissom's DGT (Core and SE) does feature a figured maple top but not this new SE Standard. Then there's the non-signature Swamp Ash Special, NF 53, not to mention the S2 Standards, the Vela and new Mira and a host of SEs.

3 But these aren't new guitars?

Mark's original Fiore is a close cousin to our review model, but that one is HSS with a maple-only fingerboard; his new model is twin humbucking with a rosewood 'board. There was a short run of all-mahogany DGT Standards back in the day, but the maple-topped SE DGT joined the lineup in 2022. Our new Standard here is all-mahogany.

Satisfying artists has always been a prime objective of Paul Reed Smith, be it Ted Nugent, Howard Leese or Carlos Santana (back before his production company kicked off), or more contemporary players such as DragonForce's Herman Li. However, Herman's Chleo - a very, very different PRS with its Floyd Rose vibrato Fishman Fluence active pickups and a very un-PRS shape - has been the only brand-new artist signature model during this 40th Anniversary year.