1999 Paul Reed Smith Custom 22 Tremolo

Quilted maple top in Vintage Yellow. Some light wear but overall clean. All-original save for (confusingly engraved “2010”) aftermarket truss rod cover and missing tremolo arm (easily-sourced) and comes in its factory hard case. Neck is the famous PRS “wide-fat” profile, the fingerboard is Indian rosewood (Willie and this copywriter had ten bucks riding on whether or not it was Brazilian but the MODCAT says it isn’t despite it sure looking like it is), and features the pre-2008 solid bird inlays. Frets look good, and the tuners are the old-style PRS wing-and-collar locking units. Pickups are the factory Dragon II Treble and Dragon II Bass humbuckers with McCarty switching (three-way selector toggle with master volume and tone controls, the tone being a pull pot that provides coil-splitting.) The majority of Custom 22s we’ve seen have wraparound bridges but for much of the model’s history the excellent PRS tremolo was an option, as seen on this guitar. The top is very interesting - lovely quilted maple but if you look at our photos of the pickup cavities, you can get an insight into Paul Reed Smith’s manufacturing process - “poss 10” is written in the bridge pickup cavity, demonstrating that PRS did not definitely designate the top as a “10” until all sanding and finishing was completed. And in our experience, especially back in the day, non-10 Paul Reed Smith maple tops are often as pretty as a 10. Needless to say it plays beautifully and really sings, very versatile, and easy on the eyes. PRS still makes great guitars but there’s something special about the Annapolis and early Stevensville guitars like this one.