In his 20s, Ben Mitchell was like most musicians, grinding simply to eat and pay lease. As a gigging guitarist, he’d owned his share of guitars together with a Gibson Trini Lopez and a ’50s Strat that slipped by his palms when he was 18 “…for peanuts as a result of it was only a ‘used guitar.’”

When he stepped into Nalli Music Annex in Ann Arbor, Michigan, one November day in 1992, he was simply window purchasing. Being a Fender and Gibson man, he gazed at devices till the salesperson noticed him.

“He walked up and mentioned I ought to check out one thing superior that had simply are available, then he led me to the again and grabbed a guitar I didn’t acknowledge. He needed to clarify it was a PRS Customized 24 with a Zebrawood prime. It had a dark-red sunburst end, and he was proper – it was superior!”

The gross sales man, Mike, let him strum it.

“I began improvising blues riffs then tried a swing/blues chord development that I’d picked up from a man I knew in faculty – I normally play it after I seize any guitar (laughs). Anyway, individuals say that whenever you discover the best guitar, it speaks to you. As my fingers moved throughout the fretboard that day, I felt a fervid want to be a higher participant. That guitar was not going again on the wall, despite the fact that it meant a considerable drop in my checking account.”

A number of weeks later, Mitchell was in Ann Arbor once more, so he stopped by Nalli to speak with Mike about how a lot he was loving the PRS.

“He noticed me are available and immediately motioned at me,” he mentioned. Once more, we walked to the again, and there on the wall was one other Customized 24.”

Totally different from the one he’d simply purchased, it had a walnut prime with bookmatched figuring and a refined sunburst end. Just like the Zebrawood, it was costly. As Mike handed it to him, Mitchell as soon as once more grew to become enamored.

“I began to noodle whereas asking if the shop had positioned an order for customized tops, however he mentioned they hadn’t – each guitars had been a part of an everyday allotment. I felt fortunate to once more be in the best place on the proper time, and I purchased the guitar (laughs). My luck went up one other notch when Mike advised me that Paul Smith, the builder, was scheduled to do a workshop there on the retailer in just a few months.”

Mitchell took benefit of the chance to ask Smith in regards to the guitars, and it turned out their origins had been fairly easy – he’d been provided a number of uncommon woods and determined to make use of them on a run of Customized 24s to check their market potential.

“I bear in mind Paul mentioning 5 woods – zebrawood, walnut, cedar, lacewood, and redwood,” he says. “At the least one prime was carved from every and less than 5 of any had been carved. A PRS worker later advised me that there in all probability weren’t greater than 25 or 30 guitars made with unique tops earlier than they grew to become a customized choice.”

Mitchell grew to become a seeker; any time he visited a music retailer, spoke to a guitarist, or checked with distributors and other people strolling the aisles at guitar reveals, he’d point out his odd PRS guitars.

“I acquired used to seeing facial expressions that advised me no one had ever heard about zebrawood or walnut tops,” he mentioned.

A ray of hope got here with the 2005 version of The Official Classic Guitar Worth Information.

“I noticed a ’92 Customized 24 (Walnut) 10 High listed as two identified to have been made,” he mentioned. “I questioned, ‘Might one be mine?’”

After he corresponded with co-author Gil Hembree and supplied footage and the serial variety of his, the The Information was amended the next 12 months to checklist three identified.

The 2026 version of The Information reveals these ’92 Walnut guitars valued in keeping with “customary” Customized 24s created from 1990 by ’95. However they floor so not often there’s no approach to gauge broader demand.

Such considerations should not foremost on Mitchell’s thoughts, as a result of…

“They not solely play and sound nice, however seem like lovely artworks – value each little bit of effort and sweat I used to pay for them,” he mentioned. “I’ve purchased and bought quite a few guitars over time, however I don’t see these two going wherever, and I’ve loved the joys of studying that two guitars I’ve cherished for greater than 30 years turned out to be significantly uncommon. That might deliver an enormous smile to any proprietor’s face.”

Jim Cullen, who has labored at PRS since 1997 as a sander, finisher, customer support rep, salesman, accounts supervisor, and (for the final decade) Director of Gross sales, mentioned the early-’90s run Smith talked about that day at Nalli in ’93 had been certainly an experimental batch the corporate referred to as a Restricted Version. At present, PRS presents non-standard choices from its Wooden Library, a program provided to Signature Sellers for runs with woods not provided on catalog fashions. In November of ’25 it reopened to in-person choice. – Ward Meeker

This text initially appeared in VG’s January 2026 situation. All copyrights are by the writer and Classic Guitar journal. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.