PRS extends Custom 24 range with Private Stock 8-string

We've seen the odd PRS seven-string, but eight-strings are much rarer birds indeed, unless you're Mark Holcomb, it seems, as the Periphery guitarist has collaborated with PRS on an eight-string version of the Custom 24.

Part of the Private Stock Guitar of the Month program, August's guitar comes tuned to F#, B, E, A, D, G, B, E across a 26.5" scale length and packs Holcomb's signature Seymour Duncan Alpha and Omega pickups, which you'll also find on his excellent SE model.

The rather impressive finish is called Frostbite Glow, and it adorns the curly maple top on swamp ash back, which is paired to a curly maple neck with African blackwood fingerboard and headstock veneer.

It all adds up to perhaps the most stylish eight-string we've yet seen, and suffice to say, we want one.

The snag is that only eight of these guitars will be made, and the price tag is likely to be well into the thousands. Which begs the question: any chance of a production eight-string, PRS?

Michael Astley-Brown

Mike has been Editor-in-Chief of GuitarWorld.com since 2019, and an offset fiend and recovering pedal addict for far longer. He has a master's degree in journalism from Cardiff University, and 15 years' experience writing and editing for guitar publications including MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitarist, as well as 20 years of recording and live experience in original and function bands. During his career, he has interviewed the likes of John Frusciante, Chris Cornell, Tom Morello, Matt Bellamy, Kirk Hammett, Jerry Cantrell, Joe Satriani, Tom DeLonge, Radiohead's Ed O'Brien, Polyphia, Tosin Abasi, Yvette Young and many more. His writing also appears in the The Cambridge Companion to the Electric Guitar. In his free time, you'll find him making progressive instrumental rock as Maebe.