MusicRadar

PRS Narrowfield pickups: simple concept, brilliant delivery.

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• Review

The dual humbuckers that grace so many PRS guitars perhaps pigeonhole them as coming more from the Gibson side of the tone tracks. But from the first PRS guitars - such as the 25-year-old Custom, still PRS's bestselling instrument - PRS has offered single-coil tones via the original five-way switching and the later 'McCarty package'.

And don't forget the smattering of guitars over the past quarter-decade that have featured true single-coil pickups, such as the 1988 Studio, the USA-made EGs, the later 513 and the SE EG. The 305, however, could be correctly seen as PRS's first 'proper' attempt to nail a more accurate Stratocaster-like single-coil sound.

It seems PRS's artist programme was the genesis. "Basically Winn [Krozak, who heads up PRS's artist liaison] couldn't do his job without this guitar," Paul Smith told us recently. "There were too many people that wanted that tone. It's like the player is missing the colour blue, he needs that colour to paint."

You might remember that The Swamp Ash Special was introduced in the mid-nineties to do that very job. Having been superseded by the 305 it was dropped from PRS's core line this year, only to re-appear in the 25th Anniversary line-up with a trio of the latest PRS Narrowfield humbuckers.

The original Swamp Ash Special was introduced in 1996. Its swamp ash body, bolt-on maple neck and single-coil-sized humbucker flanked by two normal 'buckers all pointed to a more Fender-intended tonality.

This year's model remains pretty much the same - nicely figured swamp ash body, 634mm (25-inch) scale bolt-on maple neck and fingerboard, and a vibrato - the major difference is the new pickups: neatly designed mini-humbuckers.