Korina PRS

This guitar has a Black Limba top and back and a Sapele middle section, with the carves on the front and back cutting through into the Sapele. The body has a deep chamfer on the top and a large radius round-over on the back – a comfortable guitar.

The large control cavity and additional weight relief has made for a very light body..

The neck has an Ebony fretboard with Olive wood edging and a 25″ scale length – and locking tuners – so not the lightest neck.

I’ve used the PRS ‘DGT’ (Dave Grissom signature model) control layout – separate volumes will be helpful with the pickups I’ve chosen (Alegree Speedster and Iron Gear Blues Engine), but one tone knob should be enough! There is a single push-push on the tone control to partially split both pickups – keeping things relatively simple.

The finished weight is 7lb 8oz

Design

The PRS body shape was adapted to use a Fender-style neck pocket and bridge, so no neck angle.

The headstock will be the same design used on the Pine Paul guitar, which worked well.

Build

I decided to use simple drilling for weight relief, since the Korina is not too heavy and the large control cavity removes a lot of material.

The laminated neck uses a mix of Purple Heart, reclaimed quarter sawn Beech and Sapele.

Finished Guitar

The finished guitar is a very comfortable weight and looks good with the contrasting body wood and my usual oil finish. At first, I thought the Black Limba came-out a bit too dark, but it’s grown on me. The pickups sound good – especially the Blues Engine in the neck. The original fitment of an Iron Gear Dirty Torque was swapped out for an Alegree Speedster – these pickups are very similar, but the Speedster I have is slightly less hot (14k c.f. 16k) and I had used it with the Blues Engine previously. It is also uncovered, but vintage cream, so looks good in the black ring. I also swapped the knobs for ones with a grub screw to sit better on the Push-Push pot.