About PRS
PRS Guitars was founded by Paul Reed Smith in 1985 in Annapolis, Maryland, after Smith spent years hand-building guitars for touring musicians including Carlos Santana. The company debuted its first factory model, the PRS Custom, at the 1985 NAMM Show and built its 1,000th guitar within a year. In 1996 PRS moved into a purpose-built 125,000-square-foot factory in Stevensville, Maryland, which remains its US headquarters and the home of its highest-end Core and Private Stock instruments today.
To reach players below its USA-built price tier, PRS partners with Cor-Tek, the Indonesian manufacturer behind Cort guitars, on a dedicated factory built to produce the SE line exclusively for PRS. Design and specification originate in Maryland and PRS supplies the components, which is part of why the SE series has built a reputation among guitarists for fit-and-finish that reads well above its price point. The SE Custom 24 in particular is one of the most consistently recommended intermediate electric guitars in the market, prized for the same coil-splitting HH pickup configuration and beveled maple top styling found on PRS's premium American-made models.
Brand website: prsguitars.com
What PRS makes
PRS's catalog runs wider than the gear we review. The lines we know best from our own testing are marked with a star:
SE Series Electric Guitars
Indonesia-built, Cor-Tek-manufactured line including the Custom 24, Standard, and Silver Sky models, designed to PRS specification — featured on House of Octave
Core Series Electric Guitars
USA-built in Stevensville, Maryland, including the Custom 24 and CE 24
Private Stock
PRS's fully custom, made-to-order instrument program built at the Stevensville factory
S2 Series
USA-built, mid-tier line assembled in Maryland with select Core-series appointments
PRS Amplifiers
Tube guitar amplifiers designed alongside the guitar lineup
SE Acoustic Guitars
Acoustic models built on the same SE partnership with Cor-Tek
Why we recognized PRS
The House of Octave Top Brand recognition isn't paid for and can't be applied for. We award it to the brands whose gear consistently stands out in our player-tested category guides. PRS earned it on the strength of the products below, judged the same way every product on this site is: assessed on build, tone, and playability, weighed against what players actually report over years of use, and ranked on merit.
PRS gear we rated highly
PRS SE Custom 24 Exclusive
One of the products we rated highest across the whole roundup. The coil-splittable HH pairing of the SE HFS bridge and Vintage Bass neck humbuckers moves convincingly from spanky single-coil cleans to thick rock and fusion gain, so one instrument genuinely covers most of what a player will ever ask a guitar to do. The beveled maple top, flame maple veneer, and bird inlays are details normally reserved for far pricier guitars, and PRS's quality control across the SE line kept that fit and finish consistent.
Read the 9 Best Electric Guitars of 2026 (Every Budget & Skill Level) guide →What earned PRS the recognition
- Founded by Paul Reed Smith in 1985 in Annapolis, Maryland, and now headquartered in a 125,000-square-foot factory in Stevensville, Maryland that builds its Core and Private Stock instruments
- The PRS SE Custom 24 Exclusive is one of the guitars we rated highest in our electric guitar testing, the most competitive category we cover
- The SE line is built at a factory dedicated exclusively to PRS, run by Cor-Tek, with design and components specified from Maryland rather than an off-the-shelf import build
- Fit-and-finish details on the SE Custom 24, including its beveled maple top and coil-splitting HH pickups, reflect construction techniques carried down from PRS's premium USA-built guitars
- A recognized, sought-after model line that holds real resale value, which our review noted lowers the effective long-term cost of ownership