Description
Player’s Perspective
We’re stoked to bring you another unique and beautiful creation from our friends over at the Paul Reed Smith Private Stock department! There’s never any question as to the quality of the instrument you’re getting when you get any PRS guitar. But there’s something magical with these Private Stocks and, at the end of the day, they’re simply unlike any other PRS guitar out there.
This stunning instrument is based upon the Mark Holcomb signature, and it’s one of the coolest looking and meanest sounding guitars we’ve ever seen. At the center of the sonic show are Mark’s signature Scarlet & Scourge pickups from Seymour Duncan. These pups are absolutely incredible and they can handle any amount of gain you want to throw at them. They’re defined and highly articulate, ready to take on anything. You’ll never get buried in a mix with them. Definitely geared for the shredder and hard-rocker out there, these are some serious screamers, no doubt, and they clean up quite nicely, too. The guitar also features a longer 25.5″ scale and flat 20″ fretboard radius, which makes the fretboard lightning fast and gives the strings a little more punch and definition.
We scoured through PRS’s Private Stock wood vault for the beautiful timber used for this guitar. The figuring on the quilt maple top and swamp ash back are just marvelous. We went with a vivacious piece of Ziricote for the neck, along with a more subdued piece of Ziricote for the fretboard so that the spalted maple bird inlays would stand out. The Ziricote neck feels absolutely incredible. We love the way raw wood necks feel. Over time, they just get better and better as the natural oils from your hands seep into the pores of the wood. In our experience, these are the types of necks that start off feeling amazing and only continue to improve over time. The tone is very similar to Brazilian rosewood, which is usually regarded as the holy grail of tonewoods. It’s smooth, full, and warm, while also having a very defined and bell-like top-end that shines through beautifully.
Everywhere you look on this guitar, there’s going to be something that catches your eye. But, of course, it’s one thing when you’re there in the wood room picking stuff out and all you can do is try to envision how it’s all going to come out. It’s a whole other thing when the finished product arrives and it exceeds what were already very high expectations! This guitar came out even cooler than we could have imagined!
PRS’s Private Stock guitars are the cream of the crop, of course. This one is a true masterpiece in every way. It is both a work of art and a player’s dream all in one.
Details
Private Stock represents the highest quality of materials, the most personally crafted instruments, and the greatest level of customization available from PRS. Whether you choose a Limited Edition instrument or a Built to Order guitar, every Private Stock is conceived and built with a “one-off” mentality. Through this program, we strive to deliver heirloom-quality, musical instruments.
“There’s something magic about guitars because they are simultaneously musical instruments, pieces of art, tools to joyfully spend time with, and treasured possessions. The goal of Private Stock is not only to create the most beautiful and best-playing guitar money can buy, but the best sounding. If you decide on a Private Stock guitar, we will give everything we have to make it the best instrument you’ve ever experienced.” – Paul Reed Smith
Unique features to this PRS Private Stock guitar are:
- Satin Nitro finish
- Quilted Maple top
- Swamp Ash back
- Ziricote neck, fingerboard & headstock veneer
- Spalted Maple bird inlays with Paua outlines
- Smoked Black hardware
- Seymour Duncan Scarlet & Scourge pickups
- Dealer-selected woods
Seymour Duncan Scarlet & Scourge Holcomb Signature Pickups
Mark Holcomb’s musicality continues to push progressive metal forward. The sound of Scarlet & Scourge was inspired by his use of high gain amp-modeling technology. With his modeler delivering Periphery’s ideal overdriven amp sound, Mark’s new pickups required enhanced clarity for complex chord voicings, coil splitting, and drop tunings. Through rigorous testing, Mark & the Seymour Duncan engineering team created the Scarlet neck and Scourge bridge pickups. Like Mark’s other signature neck pickup Alpha – which is suited for Mark’s heaviest riffs – Scarlet features a ceramic magnet, but with an output calibrated for note definition in clean & mid-gain applications. The Scourge, with its Alnico 8 magnet, provides the low-end and focused mid-range needed to anchor Mark’s modern sound.
