How does the one-pickup beauty stack up to its peers? Read our expert review on the new Prestige Troubadour RS guitar below…
So, getting a modern single cut electric opens up some choices; go “authentic” and have the same version as everyone else, or go boutique, and empty out the wallet completely. But Prestige gives a new option in the Troubadour RS — a single cut, with excellent features and build quality, that’s familiar where it’s wanted, and modern where’s it’s needed, at a price that’s beyond reasonable.
Under a super stealthy, rat rod flat black finish, is a 3/4” carved Canadian maple top with a mahogany body. The neck is also mahogany, with an ebony fingerboard that sports offset dot fret markers, and a fantastic binding, that also wraps around the body and headstock.
The headstock has a tasteful Fleur-de-lis-style inlay on it and closed back tuners. It’s a nice design overall. Normally pairing a familiar body shape with a different headstock profile can look odd, but this sits nicely together, design wise. The C shape neck has a 14” radius, with a 24.75” scale. A wraparound Tone Pros tailpiece with adjustable saddles rounds out the hardware configuration.
Let’s cover the electronics, as a lone Seymour Duncan Pegasus zebra-coil pickup is directly mounted into the body, and the axe features just a single volume and tone control. So why do you need an upper bout toggle switch? Well, in this case, it’s a kill switch. Wanna do those stutter effects that a traditional dual humbucker guitar can pull off with dual volume controls? You’re covered. To make it a bit more tonally versatile, the volume control is also a push pull, and splits the humbucker into a single coil mode.
The overall fit and finish is excellent, and the style of the flat black finish really sits well with the chrome hardware and zebra coil pickup. It’s really got the look and feel of a small craft boutique build, and is well executed.
Picking it up and plugging it in is where the rubber hits the road. The neck feel is super comfortable overall, up and down the fretboard. No dead spots, and no feeling that you’re fighting it to get control. While the electronics are quite simple, the single pickup hits hard, with plenty of aggressive attack in high-gain modes, and when dialing an amp’s gain back, it opens up and gets punchy and snappy. In single coil mode, it gets kind of Tele-ish in its crispness. There’s no loss of output, it just cleans up really well, and gets slinky and jangly. The kill switch might seem odd at first, and some players might find themselves at first trying to figure out why their guitar isn’t making any sound (is my volume turned up?) but it only takes a second to get used to.
The only qualm is the volume pot, and it’s a minor one. Rolling the volume back slightly, and it gets dark, very quickly. Now as it’s a single pickup guitar, this can kind do some of the same job as switching to a neck pickup, but ideally a tad more roll off before the darkness sets in would be a bit more useful, especially as this guitar has a tone knob that could easily be rolled back to thicken things up. Adding a treble bleed mod could solve this easily for players who might want a touch more clarity at lower volume settings.
Here’s the kicker though: street price is just $999. Yeah, it’s a lot of guitar for the money, considering the build quality, and overall design. It’s a no-nonsense, great feeling guitar with plenty of the tones modern players actually want.
PROS:
Great look, simple electronics, wonderful tones. Fantastic neck, excellent price.
CONS:
Volume knob can be a bit dark when rolled off.
STREET PRICE:
$999