PRS Guitars has unveiled the Tekton, an all-new electric guitar design that takes on the shred heavyweights at their own game.
Offered as a six and seven-string guitars, the Tekton is unmistakably PRS. It has the headstock profile. Selected models have a highly figured top. As we have seen with our own eyes, the Tekton models have the on-point build and attention to detail that PRS specialises in. But this is something quite different; the Tekton is the product of PRS listening to players asking for more shred options, and these models tap into a market dominated by the likes of Jackson, Ibanez et al.
The Maryland-based brand has made a full-on high-performance electric before, working with DragonForce shredder-in-chief Herman Li on the Chleo – a Floyd Rose-equipped six-string built for speed that first dropped as a limited run high-end build, then as an Indonesian-made SE version.
It has even built seven-strings before, teaming up with Mark Holcomb of Periphery for the SVN. The Tekton, however, has no artist affiliation and become the brand’s USA Bolt-On range.
You might be looking at the pictures and thinking Paul Reed Smith has got his hands on some really weird maple for this, but PRS has gone exotic for the Tekton, topping its solid mahogany body with a cap of figured mango. There is also an alder-bodied model with a Floyd Rose vibrato.
The bodies are finished in high-gloss, and having seen the Bloodstone Red finish in the flesh, we can confirm that it looks astonishing.
Other finishes include Slate Blue, Imperial Topaz, Black Tourmaline, Violet Tourmaline, and Fuchsia Aura. The solid-colours on the Floyd-equipped Tektons are pretty cool, too, and include White Holoflake, Purple Royale, Neon Green and Hot Pink.
“This is not just introducing a new model. We are planting a flag for a whole new family of guitars,” says Jim Cullen, director of sales at PRS Guitars. “Since day one, PRS has been built around a combination of player feedback and our experience as guitar makers.
“Listening to musicians while continually refining our craft has helped us create instruments that serve as tools for a wide range of players. Over the years, we have heard a growing call for more modern spec’d PRS guitars. The Tekton is our answer to that call.”
On the six-strings, the maple neck is painted black to match the body and finished in satin-nitro – it joins the body with an ergonomically sculpted four-bolt joint, whose contours extend from the lower to upper cutaways. The neck is thin but with a D profile, with the extra timber on the neck's shoulders offering a measure of comfort.
The Tekton debuts PRS’s all-new Stylus humbuckers, which are hooked up to a three-way selector switch, volume and tone controls, with a push-pull coil-split function.
Reflecting the fact that more players are leaning on amp modellers for their tone these days, the medium-output Stylus pickups have been voiced to sound good through digital rigs as well as tube amps. Based around an Alnico V magnet, they have a flatter output than most pickups, and offer clarity even at high gain.
PRS offers you plenty of options when it comes to hardware. You can get the six-string Tekton as a hardtail, or with PRS’s own super-smooth 2-Point tremolo, pairing it with Phase III locking tuners, and a proprietary composite nut (it is one of the key PRS design principles that the guitar’s critical infrastructure – i.e. whatever touches a string – is engineered to perfection).
And, because there is a significant cohort of shredders and shred-adjacent players who simply must hit a harmonic and divebomb the string onto the fretboard, the collection would not be complete with a Floyd option, too. Hallelujah! The Tekton SVN seven-string is offered with a string-through-body hardtail.
This is recognisably PRS but there are noticeable tweaks on the house style. There are no birds, just offset small dot inlays on an ebony fingerboard.
We also have 24 jumbo stainless steel frets, Luminlay side dot markers. The fingerboard’s radius is a super-flat 16”, while the scale length on the six-strings been extended to a full Fender-esque 25.5” – the seven-strings have a 26.5”. Prices range from £/$2,899 for the hardtail and vibrato equipped Tekton T, with the Floyd Tekton and Tekton SVN priced at priced £/$2,999. Prices include a PRS Premium gig bag.
For more details, head over to PRS Guitars.
