Guitarist

The story of Squier, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year (see cover feature, page 68) is one of unintended consequences. Firstly, when Fender first introduced solidbody electrics to a sceptical music industry in 1950, it was probably hoping just to get its upstart designs accepted in the US. How could the company have known that, 30 years later, one of its biggest problems would be competition from cheap Japanese-made clones of the now hugely popular Strat, Tele, Jazzmaster and so on? In a strange way, Fender went from outsider to victim of its own global success in just three decades. But by creating an affordable sub-brand, Squier, to take the heat off the flagship Fender guitars that were threatened by the creations of Tokai and others, the company created…

Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter A musical man of all seasons and session ace supreme, Skunk Baxter talks about his stunning new album, Steely Dan and guitars on p62 Yasmin Williams An extraordinary acoustic artist who has found new ways to summon music from the guitar, Yasmin tells us all about it on p36 Charlie Parr A latter-day bluesman with a feel for the music of the past, Mr Parr is a magician with a resonator or flat-top acoustic. We met him on p56…

Earlier this year PRS released the Indonesian-made SE Silver Sky in trumpet-waving and near internet-breaking style. Another pair of releases went under the radar: the USA-made S2 Custom 24-08 and this little gem, the SE Standard 24-08, which is £30 shy of being the lowest-priced electric guitar currently offered by PRS. The Standard goes right back to the birth of PRS Guitars in 1985, although at that time it was simply called the PRS Guitar: an all-mahogany version of the maple-topped Custom. It became known as the Standard from 1987 and was always less expensive than the Custom – and today it remains the most affordable model in both the S2 and SE ranges, though it’s no longer a top-deck Core model. The ‘24’ suffix was added from 1994 when…

Inside the relatively small rear cavity there’s certainly plenty of wire. It’s all neatly done, though, and the circuit and TCI ‘S’ pickups appear the same as the previous SE Custom 24-08 and the SE Paul’s Guitar we’ve looked at previously. Indeed, Jack Higginbotham confirms: “Yes, this is the exact pickup, electronic/switching rig found in those guitars.” “We imbed the PRS DNA and give the guitarist a very high-value pickup system”Jack Higginbotham We have Alpha ‘Made in Korea’ pots with a nominal value of 500kohms, the tone cap being .033 microfarads and the treble bleed cap 180 picofarads – standard PRS values. There’s an additional resistor (820k) placed from the input lug to ground on the volume, which means the pickups ‘see’ an approximately 310k volume pot, which, in theory,…

PRICE: £620 (inc gigbag) ORIGIN: Indonesia TYPE: Double-cutaway solidbody electric BODY: Mahogany, bound top edge NECK: 3-piece maple, wide thin profile, glued-in SCALE LENGTH: 635mm (25”) NUT/WIDTH: Friction reducing/ 42.94mm FINGERBOARD: Rosewood,‘old school’ bird inlays, 254mm (10”) radius FRETS: 24, medium HARDWARE: PRS patented vibrato (cast), PRS designed non-locking tuners – nickel-plated STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 52.5mm ELECTRICS: PRS TCI ‘S’ Treble and Bass humbuckers (open coiled black bobbins); 3-way toggle pickup selector switch, master volume and tone, 2x mini-toggle coil-split switches WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.38/7.44 OPTIONS: SE Standard (£590) RANGE OPTIONS: SE Custom 24-08 (£959), S2 Custom 24-08 (£1,999), Core Custom 24-08 (from £3,950) LEFT-HANDERS: Not this model; SE Custom 24 ‘Lefty’ (£920) FINISHES: Trans Blue (as reviewed), Tobacco Sunburst PRS Europe 01223 874301 www.prsguitars.com Guitarist GOLD 10/10 PROS Aside from…

The Lowden nylon-string Jazz first appeared in 1996, based on the small-body ‘S’. It was revoiced around 2003, benefitting from George Lowden’s continuing research into classical guitar construction that had begun in earnest in the late 80s. But despite being quite rare birds, for 2022 the Jazz Collection has been expanded to include this red cedar/ walnut model, as well as the S-34J (Alpine spruce/koa) and the S-35J (Alpine spruce/ Guatemalan rosewood). “What we’ve seen in the last three years is just sustained popularity and growth on these Jazz models,” explains Lowden’s Alastair Simpson, adding that although these nylon-strings account for under 10 per cent of Lowden’s production, that figure has risen from under five per cent about five years ago. “We’ve done very little to promote it, which is…