PRS announced the Tekton on October 20: a four-model family that PRS says is "designed for the most technical of modern players." PRS's Director of Sales, Jim Cullen, called it "a whole new family of guitars," and the spec sheet backs that up. Stainless frets, a bolt-on maple neck, a 16" radius and wider string spacing all point toward players who would otherwise be shopping at ESP, Ibanez or Kiesel.
These are the specs PRS and its retailers have published. Where something hasn't been published, I've marked it as unpublished instead of filling it in.
The Four Models
| Model | Street (USD) | Body | Bridge | Scale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tekton | $2,899 | Figured mango top, mahogany back | Hardtail | 25.5" |
| Tekton T | $2,899 | Figured mango top, mahogany back | PRS two-point tremolo | 25.5" |
| Tekton "Floyd" | $2,999 | Alder | Floyd Rose tremolo | 25.5" |
| Tekton SVN (7-string) | $2,999 | Figured mango top, mahogany back | Hardtail | 26.5" |
Shared across the family:
- Body: a new lightweight shape that PRS places between the Custom 24 and the Vela, with a deep lower-horn scoop for upper-fret access and a belly carve.
- Neck: bolt-on maple with a thin near-"D" profile. PRS says it's the thinnest neck it has made in standard production. Hormigo strength rods stiffen it, the same idea as the carbon rods PRS uses in its acoustics.
- Fretboard: Indian ebony, 16" radius, stainless steel frets, new offset-dot inlays and Luminlay side dots. Retailer listings for the SVN show 24 frets.
- String spacing: wider than traditional PRS spacing, matching the Silver Sky and Fiore.
- Pickups: new PRS Stylus humbuckers with Alnico 5 magnets, usable split or full.
- Controls (SVN, per retailer listings): volume, push/pull tone and a 3-way blade. PRS hasn't published the six-string control layout in the coverage I've seen.
- Finishes: retailer listings show Slate Blue, Black Tourmaline, Imperial Topaz and Bloodstone Red, with natural or black satin necks, and a PRS premium gig bag.
PRS hasn't published the Stylus pickups' DC resistance or output figures. That number matters for the section below, and I'll update this article when PRS releases it.
The Stylus Pickups Will Change Your Gain Staging
The press release says it plainly: the Stylus pickups have a "flatter output" than many humbuckers, voiced to give "aggressive tones without sacrificing note definition" through a tube amp or a modeler. Most players buying a guitar in this category are coming from an EMG 81, a Fishman Fluence Modern or a Seymour Duncan Nazgul. All three hit the front of an amp block harder than a moderate-output passive Alnico 5.
That means a preset built on a hot pickup will feel looser and less compressed on a Tekton. You'll notice it on palm mutes first. Hotter pickups get compression from the pickup itself, and the Stylus doesn't add as much. That's not a flaw. It's where the note definition PRS is advertising comes from. You just need to put the gain somewhere else.
If you bring your current high-gain preset over:
- Level-match before you touch the amp. Play the same open low-string chug on your old guitar and the Tekton, and set an input trim or level block so the two hit the amp equally hard. Don't guess a dB figure until PRS publishes the specs; measure it. One modeler, two guitars, different output levels walks through the method.
- Get the extra push from a boost, not the amp's Gain knob. Leaving the amp gain where it was and adding a Tube Screamer in front of the high-gain block (Drive near 0, Level high) restores the tightness without the low-end flub you get from raising preamp gain. The boost also cuts lows before the amp, which a moderate-output pickup leaves alone.
- Re-set the noise gate last. A lower-output pickup gives you a lower noise floor and a quieter signal. A threshold set for actives may now be too high and cut off note tails. Threshold and decay for high gain covers how to re-set it.
If you're coming from a vintage-output PAF-style passive instead, ignore all of the above until you've played it. You may find the Stylus pushes harder than what you have.
Scale Length: What the Extra Tension Does
The Tekton is PRS's most 25.5"-forward design. String tension scales with the square of scale length, so at the same gauge and tuning:
- 25.5" vs. a 25" Custom 24: (25.5 ÷ 25)² ≈ 4% more tension. That's small but you can hear it: slightly tighter palm mutes and a bit more top-end attack.
- 26.5" SVN vs. a 25.5" seven-string: (26.5 ÷ 25.5)² ≈ 8% more tension on every string, including the low B.
The SVN matters more for presets. That 8% is roughly what you'd otherwise get by going up a gauge on the low string. If your current seven-string preset was dialed on a 25.5" neck with a heavy low B, expect the Tekton SVN to sound tighter and brighter. Before changing anything else:
- Pull Presence back about one step. Presence acts on the power amp's negative feedback, and that's where the extra top-end attack from a longer scale piles up.
- Revisit the pre-amp high-pass. If you're cutting below ~100 Hz before the amp to tighten the low B, try backing it off. The scale is doing some of that work now. Gain staging for drop tunings and dialing in drop-tuned high gain cover where each low-end cut belongs.
Split Mode Is a Real Second Voice
The split setting isn't just a way to get a cleaner rhythm sound. A split humbucker has roughly half the coil, so it drops output and moves the resonant peak up. That's why split neck-pickup cleans suit the clean, arpeggiated parts in modern prog. If you're building a Periphery-style preset (our Misha Mansoor / Periphery tone recipe is the reference), put the clean on its own snapshot. Give it its own input level, because the split coil's lower output will make a level-matched high-gain snapshot jump in volume when you switch back. Set each snapshot's output level by ear at gig volume, not on headphones.
The Short Version
- Tekton / Tekton T / Tekton Floyd ($2,899–$2,999): PRS's first real shred-spec production line. Stainless frets, thin bolt-on neck, wider spacing.
- If you're coming from actives: level-match, then add a boost before the amp instead of raising its gain. Re-gate last.
- Tekton SVN ($2,999): the 26.5" scale adds about 8% tension. Pull Presence back about one step and relax your pre-amp low cut before re-dialing anything else.
- Still unpublished: Stylus DC resistance and output, and the six-string control layout. I'll update when PRS releases them.
Moderate output and a longer scale are measurable changes to the preset you already have. Measure first, then turn knobs.
