PRS adds limited Private Stock run

PRS Guitars has announced the release of a limited run of instruments to mark the 20th anniversary of the company’s Private Stock programme.

Founder and owner Paul Reed Smith helped design and choose the materials for the 20th Anniversary Private Stock guitars (of which just 40 will be built), which harks back to Howard Leese’s ‘Golden Eagle’ model.

Like the Golden Eagle, these guitars have slightly modified body dimensions, with a 1/16” thinner top and 1/8” thicker back than the normal PRS “Custom” body design, for a warmer tone. It also has a 24.6” scale length neck made from hand-selected East Coast curly maple tops. 

The electronics feature  a three pickup configuration consisting of two narrow 408 treble and bass pickups and a Narrowfield middle pickup. The 5-way blade switch and control placements also nod to the Golden Eagle’s original electronics layout.

“When I played the prototypes for this model, they reminded me very much of what I would be making if I was still in a two-person shop,” said Paul Reed Smith, PRS Guitars’ founder and Managing General Partner.

PRS Guitars completed the first Private Stock on April 19, 1996. The twenty-year-old programme started as a way to recapture the original essence of the PRS workshop with a small team making fewer guitars with more customisation.

Tech specs:

Deep, wide-curl curly maple top

African ribbon mahogany back

22 fret, 24.6” scale length ‘Pattern’ mahogany neck

Madagascar rosewood fingerboard with curly maple binding

Crushed abalone birds with mother of pearl outlines

Madagascar rosewood headstock veneer with curly maple binding and crushed abalone Private Stock Eagle with mother of pearl outlines and mother of pearl “20th Anniversary” banner

Madagascar rosewood truss rod cover

Phase III locking tuners with gold anodized buttons

Private Stock Gen 3 tremolo with locking saddles, hybrid hardware

Narrow 408 treble and bass pickups with Narrowfield middle pickup

Volume, tone, and 5-way blade pickup switch

The Private Stock 20th Anniversary models are strung with 10-guage PRS strings and come in a Private Stock case with black Western tolex and black lustre interior with an embroidered 20th Anniversary Private Stock logo.

It will have an RRP of £8,299/€11,950