513 Reasons to love PRS
By Caleb Hill
| Posted in Guitar
I am pretty stubborn when it comes to liking “jack-of-all-trade” guitars. Generally I prefer having a specific guitar for a specific purpose. That way, in my mind, you can always be sure to get the best result. The PRS 513 may be the first guitar to combine all of the tones that I have come to know, spanning decades of great instruments and players, in one beast. It is at first glance a lovely piece of eye-candy. The flame maple 10-top is always bound to be beautiful. I played it through a JCM 900 reissue. All the tones I usually get from my strat were there: the spanky attack, the warmth of the neck pickup and the really choppy out of phase tones too. Once I got my head around how the pickup switching works (I hate reading guides, just want to play, play, play!) I found it really easy to find the sounds I was looking for.
It all makes sense. I was able to find authentic vintage-style single coil tones and screaming modern harmonics from the high gain humbucker settings all in one! I found the neck profile very comfortable, similar to my 60′s strat. They’ve definitely put a tremendous amount of thought and care into making it. I’d have to sell all of my guitars to get one of these though, and I’ve certainly been giving it some thought…
About Caleb Hill
An early entrant into the musical world, I started on the Piano aged 6, and moved on to the guitar in my late teens. Since then I've spent large amounts of time in bands and recording studios learning as much as I could about guitars and what makes them tick. I currently play for an indie-rock band in and around London. I started at DV in 2007 managing guitars in the Barnet store and now, even though I no-longer work in the store, find myself learning new things about guitars every day.
Tags: Guitars, Humbucker, Marshall, modern, Paul Reed Smith, PRS, Switching, vintage