PRS has refreshed six of its top electric guitars with a mango top finish. But if you’re interested in buying one, you’ll need to be fast – they’re part of a limited edition run, with just 1200 units available in total.
PRS founder, Paul Reed Smith, says “There’s a new kid in town – there’s a new kind of extraordinary figured wood that we’re starting to use here at PRS called mango. It’s wild looking – everything about this stuff I’m enjoying”
Mango wood is known for its unique figuring, which Smith describes as having it’s own “fingerprint”. He adds, “All of the mango wood that we use on these guitars are figured in a different way. I’ve never seen the same exact top, it just doesn’t happen. They’re all wildly different”
Commenting on the wood pattern, PRS Body Sand Manager, Max Elcik said it can take the pattern of anything from “natural chevrons” to “zigzags of grainline going all over the place.” He added, “It’s become one of our favorite woods to work with”.
Director of Manufacturing, Paul Miles explained that because the mango figuring has such a wide variation, PRS has decided to “spread it out through many models.”
The guitars receiving the colorful overhaul include the PRS Custom 24, Custom 24-08, Studio, Special Semi-Hollow, McCarty 594, and Paul’s Guitar. Each will be available in a run of 200, with two colorway options (100 each), making a grand total of 1200 limited edition axes all in.
The limited edition guitars all receive a mango wood top, ziricote fretboard and a headstock veneer to make them stand out from the regular editions.
PRS Guitars Senior Wood Manager, Michael Reid says “Mango wood (Mangifera Indica) is similar to maple but a bit lighter in weight and a little less dense. There is quite a bit of variety in the figure, which very often shows what is referred to as a ‘bee's wing’ pattern,”
Mango not only looks great but PRS tells us it’s a very sustainable wood, too: “In recent decades, it has been favored for guitars due to its sustainability as a “farmed” tree.
"When the tree is old and declines in fruit production, it is then harvested and the wood is salvaged.”
Known for its organic movement, every individual mango top boasts its own personality, ranging from softly flowing patterns to dramatic, high-contrast figuring.
Smith concludes saying, “I’m interested in the caliber of the curl and the way it looks, but I’m also extraordinarily interested in how the guitar’s going to sound. My experience with this mango is that it makes really good musical instruments, because in the end that’s what really turns a musician on.”
