PRS launch three new models

PRS are unveiling six new electric guitars that will be included in the company’s 2011 product offering. Also featured are a very cool set of limited run amps and ground-breaking new guitar model appointments including an all new “V12” finish, new neck shapes, new pickups, and a high tolerance two-piece adjustable bridge.

PRS ME Quatro
When you think of PRS Guitars’ new “V12” finish, think very thin and hard, non-weather cracking, crystal clear, thinner-impervious, and a great feel. “PRS models with this new finish feel and sound like old instruments,” said Paul Reed Smith.

The finish spent about 12 years in development, and is halfway between nitrocellulose and acrylic with a classic feel all its own – some say “a pleasure to touch.” PRS’s six brand new electric guitar models, the JA 15, ME Quatro, SC 58, McCarty 58, NF3, and DC 3, all feature this new finish.

Previously only prototyped on Private Stock guitars, the new two-piece adjustable PRS bridge now comes standard on two new PRS models – the SC58, and the JA-15. Bridge specifications include triple weight saddles, triple weight thumb wheels, large posts, and extra mass.

The added weight increases contact points and creates a more resonant, musical instrument. Machining rather than casting give the brass and aluminum bridge a stronger sound, and the quick-change style stoptail doesn’t fall when the strings are removed. “I am calling it the ‘New 2-piece adjustable sound transfer bridge’—We are very happy,” said Paul Reed Smith. The JA-15 and the SC 58 both feature this new bridge.

PRS SC 58
From the early days at Paul Reed Smith Guitars, neck shapes have always been high priority and a hallmark of PRS quality. A guitar should feel comfortable (like “home,” as soon as you pick it up). The neck is a very important part of that connection. Perfected after years of prototyping, the new “Pattern” neck (a name derived from an old wood working term) is an updated wide-fat PRS neck style based on Paul’s pre-factory design.

This neck is also based on theories used to make the instruments custom-made in the late ‘70s and mid ‘80s for Carlos Santana, Peter Frampton, and Howard Leese. The new “Pattern Regular” neck shape is similar to the traditional PRS regular neck found on guitars made in the late ’80s at PRS’s former Virginia Avenue location.

PRS DC3
The 53/10™ pickup is the latest in the series of humbucking pickups that already includes the full-sized 57/08™ and 59/09’s™ (and the smaller aperture 57/08™ Narrowfield). First debuting as part of a limited run in the summer of 2010, the distinct 53/10™ has scorched nickel covers (scorched covers only featured on the original 53/10™ limited run model) and sounds similar to the original 57/08™ but with a “sweeter” high end.

The 53/10™ coil wire is made on the same machine that supplied legendary guitar makers in the fifties and is the warmest-sounding of the vintage themed bunch. “The old machine is cranking out wire, and we’ve got three types from it — one for each of these three pickups,” said Smith. Wire specifications for the 53/10™ are different than the others and are made using a special process reserved for a single-coil bridge pickup circa 1953; however, the 53/10™ is a humbucking pickup.

During the 53/10’s™ prototyping phase, Paul Reed Smith wound a pair of 57/08’s™ using the new 53/10™ wire for Derek Trucks, and “He fell in love with them,” Smith commented. “There are single-coil guitars from that era that are beautifully big, fat sounding guitars.” The new JA 15 and the ME Quatro models both come standard with 53/10™ pickups.

Source: Press Release and http://guitarinternational.com/