PRS S2 Custom 24: The Flagship Built in Maryland at Half the Price

The generic PRS artist roster attached to this row of the catalog — Carlos Santana, Mark Tremonti, John Mayer, Orianthi, David Grissom — is the same five names that show up on nearly every PRS model in this series, and the verdict on them hasn’t changed. When this site covered the flagship Core Custom 24, the finding was that only Orianthi has a genuine, documented connection to the Custom 24 platform specifically; the other four belong to different corners of the PRS catalog entirely. None of the five has any specific, additional connection to the S2 Custom 24 covered here — and searching for one turns up something more interesting than a missed celebrity attribution: PRS’s own marketing for this model leans on anonymous touring-musician testimonials rather than a single famous name, because the S2 Custom 24’s real selling point isn’t a signature story. It’s arithmetic.

What “S2” Actually Means

S2 stands for Stevensville 2 — a second manufacturing line PRS built inside its Stevensville, Maryland factory in 2013, running alongside the Core production line but using different manufacturing techniques and simplified appointments to hit a lower price point without leaving the country. That’s the detail that separates the S2 line from the SE series: SE guitars are built overseas in Indonesia, while every S2 instrument is made in the same Maryland facility as the Core line, by the same workforce, on different tooling optimized for efficiency rather than hand-finished ornamentation.

The S2 Custom 24 takes PRS’s original 1985 flagship shape — the guitar that put the company on the map at that year’s Winter NAMM show — and reproduces its core recipe (maple top over a mahogany body, 25″ scale, 24 frets, PRS’s patented tremolo) while trimming the features that add labor and material cost without changing the fundamental playing experience: a flat-sawn rather than heavily figured maple top, simplified inlays, and historically, non-USA-made electronics even on a USA-built guitar.

This manufacturing structure is genuinely unusual in the guitar industry. Most brands split their lineup by country of origin — a USA flagship line and an imported budget line, with a hard line between them in both price and construction quality. PRS instead built a second assembly line inside its existing American factory, meaning an S2 Custom 24 and a Core Custom 24 share the same building, the same quality-control standards for wood selection and fret work, and often the same technicians, even though they’re priced worlds apart. That’s a meaningfully different value proposition than a typical “affordable import” tier, and it’s the central reason the S2 line has built a loyal following among gigging musicians who care more about consistency and durability than cosmetic flourishes.

Full Specifications

How the S2 Custom 24 Evolved

The S2 line launched in 2013 with a straightforward pitch: PRS craftsmanship, made domestically, at a price serious working musicians could justify without a signature-artist markup. The Custom 24 was a natural early candidate for the treatment, since it’s the model that defines PRS’s identity more than any other in the catalog.

A significant update landed in 2022 with the S2 Custom 24-08, which brought the platform’s switching system up to the Core guitar’s standard: a 5-way blade switch with true independent coil-splitting on each pickup, replacing the earlier 3-way switch and single push/pull tone control. Reviewers singled the update out for effectively closing much of the tonal-versatility gap between S2 and Core instruments at a fraction of the price. Then, in 2024, PRS moved the S2 line’s pickups and electronics to USA-made components for the first time — a detail worth noting for anyone comparing a pre-2024 used S2 Custom 24 against a current one, since the 2024-and-later pickups are wound in Maryland rather than overseas, even though every S2-era guitar has always had its body and neck built in the same American factory.

PRS has also periodically marked the S2 line’s milestones with limited-run anniversary editions — a 10th Anniversary S2 Custom 24 in 2023 and a 35th Anniversary S2 Custom 24 reviewed prominently in the guitar press, both featuring pickups fine-tuned through PRS’s TCI process and paired with the modern 5-way switching architecture. These limited runs function as a signal of how seriously PRS treats the S2 line internally — not as a stripped-down afterthought, but as a genuine second tier of its flagship model worth commemorating in its own right. Guitar Player’s review of the updated S2 Custom 24-08 awarded it an Editors’ Pick specifically for delivering Core-level performance in a domestically built guitar at a price within reach of full-time working musicians, a distinction not every “affordable” tier guitar earns from the specialist press.

Construction & Tone

Structurally, the S2 Custom 24 is closer to the Core Custom 24 than most players expect from a “budget” tier PRS. The asymmetric beveled top, mahogany body, and 25″ scale length are shared across both, and the current-generation 85/15 “S” pickups are voiced to the same TCI (Tuned Capacitance and Inductance) philosophy as their Core counterparts, aiming for the same core tonal target rather than a scaled-down substitute. The differences that remain are mostly cosmetic and material-grade: a plainer maple top figuring, a scarf-jointed rather than one-piece neck, and simplified fretboard inlay work.

Tonally, that means the S2 Custom 24 delivers most of what makes the Custom 24 platform distinctive — full-spectrum humbucking output with genuinely usable coil-split single-coil tones available at the flip of a switch — without a significant compromise in the areas that actually affect how the guitar sounds and plays. Reviewers testing the updated model have described balanced output across the frequency spectrum, with the coil-split modes staying quiet and articulate rather than thin or noisy, a detail PRS’s TCI pickup design specifically targets.

The PRS Patented Tremolo bridge deserves particular attention, since it’s one of the few components genuinely shared, part-for-part in design philosophy, across the entire Custom 24 range. Unlike a traditional Fender-style vibrato that sits flush against the body, PRS’s design floats slightly, and several reviewers have noted this contributes a subtle natural resonance — almost a hint of spring reverb — audible even before the guitar is plugged in. Combined with the mahogany body’s inherent sustain and the maple top’s added brightness and attack, the result is a guitar that reviewers consistently describe as sounding notably “PRS” regardless of which manufacturing tier produced it — a testament to how much of the platform’s signature voice comes from body architecture and bridge design rather than premium cosmetic details alone.

Famous Players: Why This Model Skips the Signature Story

Unlike most models in this catalog, the S2 Custom 24 doesn’t have its own dedicated celebrity narrative — and that’s arguably the point. The players genuinely associated with the Custom 24 platform overall — early adopters Al Di Meola and Ted Nugent around the guitar’s 1985 launch, Alex Lifeson of Rush since 1990, Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth, Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda and Brad Delson, Incubus’s Mike Einziger, and jazz fusion pioneer John McLaughlin — are documented playing Core Custom 24 instruments specifically, not the S2 line, which didn’t exist until nearly three decades after most of those relationships began. That full history is covered in this site’s Core Custom 24 feature.

What the S2 Custom 24 represents instead is the guitar those same players’ fans and working-musician peers actually buy. PRS’s own marketing leans on unnamed touring musicians describing the S2 Custom 24 as a road-ready workhorse rather than a display piece — guitars that get used, gigged, and beaten up night after night rather than kept pristine in a case. That’s a deliberate positioning choice: where the Core Custom 24 sells partly on prestige and famous-name association, the S2 sells on the promise that a gigging player doesn’t need to spend three or four times as much to get most of what makes the platform genuinely good.

Tone Recipes

• Classic rock rhythm: Both pickups humbucking, moderate midrange, amp on the edge of breakup. The core Custom 24 voicing translates directly.
• Fusion/jazz-rock lead: Neck pickup, warm clean-to-crunch tone, light compression — a nod to the platform’s early adoption by fusion players drawn to its clarity and sustain.
• Funk/clean rhythm: Position 2 or 4 on the 5-way switch (mixed humbucker/single-coil), clean amp tone, light compression. The coil-split modes are genuinely usable rather than a marketing afterthought.
• Modern metal rhythm: Bridge humbucker, full output, tight low-gain-friendly EQ. The 85/15 “S” pickups stay articulate under high gain without becoming muddy.
• Working-musician all-purpose: Bridge pickup for lead breaks, neck for rhythm, 5-way switch used to move between full humbucking punch and cleaner split tones across a typical gig set — the exact versatility the design targets.

S2 vs. SE vs. Core: Which One Actually Makes Sense

The SE Custom 24, built in Indonesia, is the true entry point — Wide Thin maple neck rather than mahogany, simpler 3-way switching, and Indonesian-made 85/15 “S” pickups, at roughly half the S2’s price. The S2 Custom 24 sits in the middle: USA-built body and neck, and since 2024, USA-wound electronics, for around 40-45% of the Core model’s cost. The Core Custom 24 remains the reference point — figured maple tops, Pattern Regular or Pattern Thin neck options, and the full Private Stock-adjacent fit and finish PRS is known for. For most gigging players, the practical question isn’t “can I afford the Core,” it’s whether the S2’s simplified cosmetics matter more than closing the price gap by more than half while keeping nearly identical playability and switching versatility.

Who the S2 Custom 24 Actually Suits

The S2 Custom 24 occupies a specific niche that’s worth naming directly: it’s built for the player who has already decided they want a Custom 24 and is now deciding how much of the flagship experience they actually need to pay for. That’s a different buyer than the one shopping the SE Custom 24, who is often choosing PRS’s platform for the first time and prioritizing price above all else, and a different buyer than the one shopping Core, who typically wants the full prestige package — figured tops, premium finish options, and the resale value that comes with USA flagship branding.

In practice, that makes the S2 Custom 24 a common “second guitar” purchase for players who already own an SE model and have decided they’re staying with the platform long-term, as well as a frequent first serious purchase for players stepping up from budget instruments who want to skip the SE tier entirely and go straight to USA construction. It’s also a common backup or touring instrument for players whose primary guitar is a Core or Private Stock model too valuable to risk on the road — several PRS artists have publicly noted keeping S2 or similarly positioned mid-tier guitars specifically for situations where an instrument might be damaged, lost, or stolen during travel.

The guitar’s positioning also explains why PRS doesn’t lean on a celebrity signature story to sell it. A famous artist’s name attached to a guitar typically signals “play like they do” — but the S2 Custom 24’s pitch is closer to “play like you do, reliably, night after night, without worrying about the instrument.” That’s a harder story to tell in a magazine feature, but it’s an honest one, and it’s reflected directly in how PRS chooses to market the guitar: not through artist endorsement, but through unfiltered testimonials from touring musicians who use it as a genuine workhorse.

A Note on the Custom 24 Family as a Whole

With the S2 Custom 24 covered alongside the Core Custom 24 and, elsewhere in this catalog, the SE Custom 24, a clear picture of PRS’s flagship strategy emerges: rather than a single guitar at a single price point, PRS treats the Custom 24 shape as a platform to be offered at three distinct manufacturing tiers, each targeting a different kind of buyer, but all sharing the same fundamental design DNA that Paul Reed Smith debuted at NAMM in 1985. Few guitar manufacturers replicate a single flagship shape across three genuinely different construction tiers this consistently — Gibson’s Les Paul comes closest with its Custom Shop, USA, and Epiphone tiers, but PRS is unusual in keeping two of its three tiers (Core and S2) built in the exact same American facility rather than splitting domestic and overseas production entirely.

Buying Guide

• S2 Custom 24 (~$1,599–$1,699): The sweet spot for players who want USA construction and the current-generation 5-way switching without Core pricing. Post-2024 models specifically benefit from USA-made electronics.
• Pre-2024 used S2 Custom 24: Still an excellent guitar, but check whether it’s a pre- or post-2022 model — the 2022 “24-08” update to 5-way switching and TCI pickups is a meaningful upgrade over the earlier 3-way/push-pull configuration.
• Limited editions: PRS has released anniversary S2 Custom 24 runs (10th Anniversary, 35th Anniversary) with upgraded pickups and finishes worth seeking out on the used market for collectors.
• Colors: Recent S2 Custom 24 finishes have included Lake Blue, Dark Cherry Sunburst, McCarty Sunburst, Elephant Grey, Faded Blue Smokeburst, Scarlet Red, Burnt Amber Burst, and Whale Blue, all in gloss nitro-over-cellulose finish.

Ownership Notes

The S2 Custom 24’s proprietary 85/15 “S” pickups aren’t easily swapped for aftermarket alternatives due to PRS’s non-standard mounting and wiring — a minor consideration for players who like to modify pickups but a non-issue for anyone happy with the stock voicing, which reviewers have consistently praised. Setup and fret work out of the factory are consistently reported as excellent, a hallmark of PRS’s Maryland manufacturing regardless of price tier — this is not a guitar that typically needs a significant setup investment on arrival. The locking Phase III tuners make restringing fast and largely eliminate the minor tuning slippage some players associate with older PRS tremolo-equipped guitars, and the guitar’s relatively light weight compared to a similarly appointed Les Paul-style instrument makes it a comfortable choice for long gigs or extended studio sessions.

Because the S2 line shares its factory and quality-control process with the Core line, used S2 Custom 24s tend to hold their value reasonably well on the secondhand market compared to imported budget guitars, which typically depreciate faster. Buyers shopping used should specifically confirm production year given the 2022 switching update and 2024 electronics update — both meaningfully change what’s actually inside the guitar despite an unchanged model name.

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