The guitar found its way to me in 2004.

I had made friends with a guy who owned a local pawn shop. He would call me first.

He had called and sold to me a '92 PRS Custom 24 (CU24) in 2003. I had grown attached to that guitar and loved the wide thin neck profile and the pickups. The 5 way rotary switch, it was okay, but it ended up with a 3 way toggle, different humbuckers (at one time I had 3 PRS guitars all with the same pickups) and a pull push tone control. Pictured at the left after the mods.

The CU24 became my favorite guitar and my 3 pickup Gibson Les Paul Custom (which was my go to guitar for more than 25 years) was hardly ever played unless this guitar was "in the shop". And then I would remember how much I loved the feel and tones available from that Les paul guitar. Nothing else sounds like a Les Paul. The 3 pickup model in the middle toggle position had a quaky Fender Strat tone which is very unique to 3 pickup Les Paul Customs. I used it often.

That Les Paul was the first guitar that ever mesmerized me. I bought it from Bill's Music in Catonsville on my 20th birthday in 1977. Brand new for $775. That Les Paul ended up traveling the globe. I loaned it to my best friend Chris Franklin, who had also fallen in love with the feel and tones of it. He was playing guitar in the Bertie Higgins Band in the 80's. They had a hit song called Key Largo and were on a world tour. Sorry, sometimes I ramble.

My pawn shop guy also sold me a 72 SG Special (with mini-humbuckers), '90's Telecaster, Peavey Strat Style, and a few other things that year.

Anyway, he called me one day in 2004 and said he had something that I may be interested in. He was a mile away so I grabbed by checkbook and headed out.

When I arrived he had a case open on the counter and in it was a like new Scarlet Red Maple Top PRS CE24. Pictured below at the left. It had a wide thin neck and the same HFS and Vintage Bass pickups as my PRS CU24. His price was fair. So I bought it.

I ended up putting original PRS Dragon pickups (high gain) in it. It was a hard rocking guitar after that! It rocked played through my Marshall. But I did not like the color after a while. I played it now and then. It hung in my home studio most of the time. I was playing the Custom 24 exclusively.

Well, my pawn shop friend friend called me a month later with the same "I have something that you may be interested in". So I grabbed my checkbook. I got there and he placed the guitar case on the counter, and opened it. There it was, the only other guitar that ever mesmerized me. He revealed PRS CE24 in Black Cherry finish with a black back with a beautiful wide tiger stripe maple top . My CU24 also had a Black Cherry finish. That CE24 had a wide thin neck and the same pickups as my other two PRS guitars. His price was fair. So I bought it.

Long story short. That became my main guitar. My Number 1. I preferred the bolt on maple neck tone of the CE24 over the CU24 mahogany neck. I changed the factory CU24 pickups and put in a 3 way toggle and push pull tone pot. It sounded great, but I still preferred the CE24. So I sold the modded CU24 and the original pickups. The CE24 Number 1 below in 2007.

I bought Nickel covered GFS Dream 90's (humbucker size P-90 single coils) and a 3 way toggle and had them installed in my Black Cherry CE24. No other pickup has the tone of a P-90. It became the only guitar I ever played. I also loved the wide tiger stripe maple top with the Black Cherry finish. It was officially my Number 1 guitar. At left, playing at the Blue Water Tavern (Pour House Pub) St. Patty's Day 2007 with the single coil P-90's prior to any other mods or changes.

I sold the Scarlet Red CE24 that had the original Dragons.

But the Number 1 was limited in what it could do tone wise. It was a great sounding guitar with the P-90's. I stuck with that PRS guitar with the P-90's for years even though I had plans to someday put humbuckers and coil taps back in. Below right, the PRS with P 90's refinished.

I thought about what my dream electronics and mods would be. For years I pondered. The Dream 90's were replaced and installed in a 2 humbucker Telecaster. I installed Dimarzio pickups in the CE24 with a 5 way switch. The pickups were an Air Norton and a Tone Zone. .I had read many reviews. There was a lot of praise for those pickups, and I based my decision to buy them and have them installed on the reviews. I I don't know what it was, but the result was not the tone in my head for the classic rock style music I play. It may have been the way they were wired to the 5 way. I don't know. So I replaced and sold them after I acquired a free set of PRS pickups. A Free set? Huh? Here is the back story.

After missing several previous years, In 2009 I attended my first }Experience PRS{ the annual event for dealers and Signature Club members) held at the factory. I have attended every one since then but as far as I can tell they have been discontinued.

As luck would have it, Mr. Paul Reed Smith had a seminar and demo at the main stage about the new & very popular 57/08 pickups that were introduced in 2008. They were only available in certain PRS guitar models and were not available for sale separately. He asked a trivia question. He asked who could tell him the story of the desk in his office. I raised my had and started jumping saying, Me, Me, Me! Like a youngster.

As luck would have it, it had worked for a 7 year old boy named Jimmy (whom we had taken along with his older sister Delia to Disney World in 2007) to be selected to sword fight a certain Pirate from the Caribbean named Jack Sparrow. His jumps and yelling ME had worked.

I figured what the heck. I would give it a try. It worked for me!.Paul picked me! I could not believe it. Now all I had to do was remember the details of the story of how his office desk came to exist. I was unsure about an important detail. How many slabs of wood his buddy had shipped to him.

I was halfway through the story of his office desk, and he reached out and handed me a set of 57/08 pickups! With a promise from me not to sell them on Ebay. They were going for $800 a set in 2009 on Ebay.

57/08's are Alinco 2 PAF Style humbuckers using new old stock enamel wire, pickup parts and the same hand winding machines that were used in 1958 at the old Gibson factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan. By then he had become friends with his mentor Ted McCarty who I believe was President or CEO of Gibson in1958.

But how did I know the story of Paul's desk?

As luck would have it, Dee Orr, my wife's friend who was an old room mate of Paul's (way back when he was just starting out, pre factory) had arranged a personal factory tour with Mr.Paul Reed Smith in 2006 for our 10th wedding anniversary. PRS had just moved the factory from Annapolis to Kent Island. The tour began in Paul's office where he told me the story of how he acquired the very large one piece slabs. He said that he went to work immediately to build his Desk. His desktop is a solid 1 piece top.This was before the international ban on certain woods from certain areas. As I said before, as luck would have it.

In 2011 I had the Dimarzios replaced with those 57/08's in my Number 1 with a 3 way toggle and have never looked back. I had found the perfect pickups for me. Then I had an active boost distortion circuit installed. Had it removed soon after. Then had a phase shifter circuit installed, had it removed, it was nowhere near the quality of a pedal. I ended up with a fuzz circuit which was removed. i stuck with pedals.

In 2011, I was talking to a friend who was the Manager of Finish Quality Control about how much I loved the new Bahama Blue Private Stock finish. He asked me if I would like him to refinish my guitar to Private Stock Bahama Blue. I said yes, and how much? He replied for free for a friend. He knew the finish reminded me of the of the turquoise waters in the Bahamas. He asked if I would like a deeper violin carve, heck yeah thank you. So he gave it a deeper violin carve and had it refinished. I had $200 in 1 dollar bills in an envelope. a week later he was heading to a weekend long music festival so I gave the envelope to him.

It turned out great! Beautiful, it really brought out the wide flame of the top. In the light some of the tiger stripe was Navy blue, but slightly tilted the same Navy blue stripes became turquoise! You have to see it in person to appreciate the finish. Pictured below is the guitar with all mods completed ready to handle any style of music, especially classic rock and southern rock.

I had been thinking about the Stellar Tone Tone Styler rotary tone control with 10 different capacitor values. Later, while reading a guitar magazine I came across an ad about a unique passive rotary coil splitter and coil filter Humbucking Control Pot. I was intrigued so I ordered it. That was the missing piece of my customized electronics circuit. It was all coming together.

My CE24 Number 1 electronics:

The HCP tone control is a very cool tool. I recommend it highly. At the right is the completed PRS CE24 guitar with all mods.

I did have to reverse the neck pickup to get the coils right (inner outer) for the HCP. It is not a Peter Green mod.

From the HCP website:

The HCP Humbucker Control Pot is a dual mode coil tap selector that eliminates the additional switches associated with coil splitting a pair of humbuckers.

In TAP mode, rotating the pot counterclockwise fades from HUMBUCKERS to OUTER Coils (HB1 South coil & HB2 North coil).Burt adds Neck and Middle toggle position is a nice warm tone. Toggle bridge provides a Tele type bridge tone when needed. Below is a picture of the completed electronics.

Pulling the HCP control up and rotating it counterclockwise fades from HUMBUCKERS to INNER Coils (HB1 North coil & HB2 South coil) Burt adds: the toggle middle position provides a Quaky Strat position 2 tone which I use often.

Tonal control is expanded with the unique ability to coil tap both humbuckers in varying amounts.

In COIL FILTER mode, turning the HCP control applies varying amounts of a specially tuned high frequency filter to only one coil of the selected coils of the humbuckers (either North or South coils can be filtered). This makes each pickup a single coil at high frequencies and a humbucker at lower frequencies which produces a sound similar to a pair of single coils but with a stronger, fuller tone and 50% less noise than coil tapping.

My PRS Number 1 is a Tone Monster ready for the studio or gigs, and it plays like butter.

But wait, there's more! My neck modifications!

In 2002 PRS still had the long neck heel. Some players called it the neck heel from Hell! I was not a fan of it either.

A buddy that had bought an old modded 70's Fender Deluxe Reverb offered to do something about that neck heel. And since he had the neck, to put a flame maple veneer on the head stock to match the body color, replace the plastic trem and control covers, replace the first 6 frets which were almost to the point of no return, replace the PRS side position markers (hard to see on stage) with either cream or white dots (I chose white), with 2 dots at fret 12 (long before PRS started doing it), and a new nut.

Plus he replaced the fret board abalone dots (also sometimes hard to see on stage) with easy to see 7mm Australian white mother of pearl dots I had ordered. I am very appreciative of his hard work on this guitar neck.

Then I had it set up with a set of 10's.

Since then, I have replaced the chrome tuner buttons with PRS faux bone buttons from John Mann's Guitar Vault in New Hampshire. I had bought a Santana style ohm truss rod cover at one of Experiences and added it. Complete! Well, that Stellar Tone Tone Styler is still on my mind. If I can find room for it. Or I may make my own, I ordered all the parts years ago.

I play this guitar and my others through my go to amp. An old PRS EL34 Archon 50/25 watt 1x12 combo. That thing ROCKS like nothing else can. Now that I think about rocking amps, my Marshall JCM800 50 watt 6L6 1x12 combo did too. I am sorry I let that one go.

Okay, I'll admit it. I play my battery operated Roland Micro Cube or my Cube 30 at smaller lower volume jams and gigs. Both fantastic amps

So there it is, the story of my customized 2002 PRS CE24 Maple Top guitar. Some pictures below.

The head stock before being sprayed with Poly. The body with the Dimarzios and 5 way rotary and the deeper violin carve.

This guitar really is one of a kind. There is no other PRS guitar like it. Anywhere.