PRS

509

The 513 had thirteen sounds. The 509 kept all five pickups and threw four of the sounds away.

May 2016. PRS’s Private Stock shop turns twenty and marks it with ten purple guitars, each headstock signed by hand. The name on them is a count: five pickups, nine sounds. The guitar it was counting against had thirteen.

Introduced: 2017
Type: Solidbody electric
Class: Production

Read the story · 3 min

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The short version

2004
The 513
Five single-coils, thirteen sounds, and two blade switches.
2013
The 408
The two-pickup PRS whose switching the 509 would be compared to.
2016
Ten in purple
May’s Private Stock Guitar of the Month, for the custom shop’s 20th anniversary. Only ten.
2016
Announced for the catalog
In November PRS introduces the 509 as a 2017 Core model, a marriage of the 513 and the 408.
2017
“Long live the 509”
Reviewed in August at a list of $4,300.
2023
Off the order sheet
PRS marks it no longer available for order, with the backlog shipping through the year.

Side A

Ten purple guitars

May 2016. PRS’s Private Stock shop is twenty years old, and its Guitar of the Month is a new design in Imperial Purple Smoked Burst. Only ten are made. Curly maple top and neck, African ribbon mahogany back, a kingwood fingerboard, and a headstock signed by hand.

The name is the spec sheet. PRS’s own blog spelled it out that month: 509 means 5 pickups, 9 sounds.

Those nine were a correction. PRS already had a guitar with five pickups. It had thirteen sounds, and getting to all of them took some work.

Thirteen was a lot

The 513 arrived in 2004 as a Brazilian-rosewood guitar one reviewer called “a virtually complete redesign of the PRS Custom,” and then in a cheaper mahogany-neck version. Five single-coils: a pair at the neck, a pair at the bridge, and one alone in the middle.

To run them you had a 5-way blade and then a second, 3-way blade on top of it: hot humbucking, clear humbucking, or true single-coil. Thirteen sounds. Lovely, if you could remember where they were in the middle of a song.

The 509 kept the five coils, the 25.25-inch scale, and the extended heel, and it threw out the second blade. In its place, two mini-toggles, one for each humbucking pair. The switching was “akin to” the 408’s, PRS said. Nine sounds instead of thirteen.

One reviewer put it bluntly in 2017: “The 513 is dead: long live the 509.”

A real single-coil in the middle

Here’s what those five coils actually do. The neck and bridge “humbuckers” are two Strat-style single-coils run in series. Flip a toggle and you don’t get the usual thinned-out humbucker tap. You get an actual single-coil. And the middle pickup isn’t a split of anything. It’s a single-coil because that’s all it ever was.

Because each toggle works its own end of the guitar, you can split the neck and leave the bridge fat, or the other way around. That’s why nine can be more useful than thirteen. Fewer positions, and more of them you’d actually use.

Which way the toggles go depends on what you read. The 2016 blog chart has up for humbucking. The 2023 control card has down for humbucking and up for single-coil. Keep both, and check the guitar in your hands. One reviewer also found that, on his guitar, the down position gave him the 513’s “clear” humbucking, with one coil tapped, rather than full output.

Flip the record · By the numbers

5-0-9
Five pickups, nine sounds. PRS’s own blog spelled it out.
13
Sounds on the 513 it replaced, which needed a second blade switch to get them.
10
Private Stock 509s in May 2016, in Imperial Purple Smoked Burst, before there was a catalog one.
25.25"
The scale. In 2017, the longest standard one PRS made outside baritones and basses.

Side B

The long one in the line

PRS announced the catalog version in November 2016 as a 2017 Core model, a marriage of the 513 and the 408. In 2017 it was the only Core PRS with a true single-coil, and its 25.25-inch scale was the longest standard one PRS made outside baritones and basses. That quarter inch over a 25-inch PRS adds a little snap and tightness to the strings.

The rest is a PRS doing PRS things: a carved maple top on mahogany, a set mahogany neck, 22 frets with birds, the company’s Gen III tremolo, locking tuners. It listed at $4,300 in 2017.

People still mix it up with Paul’s Guitar. Don’t. Paul’s Guitar has two pickups, no middle single, and a stoptail. No five-coil count anywhere on it.

Off the order sheet

The 509 ran as a regular Core model, not a limited edition, until 2023. That year PRS’s page said it was no longer available for order, and the backlog shipped out through the end of the year. No later catalog page brought it back. A dealer who types 2024 on a listing hasn’t restarted the line.

Easier to go to what you need

The player PRS put on the 509’s page is Randy Bowland, who already owned a 513 and knew exactly what thirteen sounds were like. He liked the warm neck humbucker and the punch at the bridge. Mostly, he liked the toggles:

“I’m also a 513 player but this is easier in many applications to just go to what you need.”

That’s the 509. Five pickups, the same as before. Four sounds gone, and the ones left are right where your hand expects them.

Put this on

You’ve read about it. Now hear it. Here’s what this guitar sounds like, and what to listen for.

Bryan Ewald · 2016
May 2016 Private Stock Guitar of the Month demo
A PRS demo of the first 509s, walking through all nine sounds. A demo, not a record, but it’s the whole switch chart in one sitting.
Watch it on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

The cast

The people, and the specific guitars, that made the legend.

Randy Bowland
509
The player PRS quotes on the 509’s page. Also a 513 player, and he found this one easier to get around. A factory quote, not a session log.
2016
Bryan Ewald
May 2016 Private Stock 509
Demoed the first ten’s nine sounds for PRS.

Liner notes

Specs, construction, rarity, value, and every source we used.

Five coils, nine sounds, and a 25.25" scale — PRS’s 509 followed the 513, and it is not Paul’s Guitar.

Body: Solidbody; maple top, violin carve; mahogany back. Optional 10-Top
Neck: Set one-piece mahogany; Pattern Regular; PRS double-acting truss rod
Fingerboard: Rosewood, 10" radius, 22 frets, bird inlays
Scale: 25.25"
Pickups: Five coils: 509 treble humbucker, 509 middle single-coil, 509 bass humbucker
Hardware: PRS patented tremolo, Gen III; Phase III locking tuners; nickel. Hybrid hardware on 10-Tops
Electronics: Volume and tone; 5-way blade; two mini-toggle coil-taps. Nine sounds, not a rotary
Finish: High-gloss nitro (2023 table). 2020 page: nitro over cellulose (CAB)
Nut: PRS, 1 21/32"; body end 2 1/4"

Open the full research fileConstruction details, the complete player record, production numbers, dated value estimates, and sources

Last US Core table (PRS 509 - 2022 UK page and 509 - 2023; the 2023 page says no longer available for order, shipping through 2023). Neck depth on that English table: 27/32" at the 1/2 fret. Truss-rod cover reads “509.” Hardshell. PRS Signature 10–46. Not the May 2016 Private Stock recipe, and not Paul’s Guitar. Mixed inch/mm flagged: Burrluck (MusicRadar, 23 August 2017) prints 641 mm (25.25") scale, 254 mm (10") radius, and 6.4 mm of extra scale against a 25" guitar. Do not average those with the factory inch table. Japan’s 2023 page prints the same 27/32" as depth at the nut. A 2026 dealer listing prints .863" at the 1st fret and .942" at the 12th. Don’t average the positions either.

Construction

The job was the 513’s five-coil idea with fewer switches. Five single-coils. The outside four grouped as a treble humbucker and a bass humbucker. A real middle single, not a split of a dual-humbucker guitar. Nine sounds. PRS’s own blog, June 2016: the name is the count. 509 = 5 pickups, 9 sounds.

Two dates. Don’t collapse them. Private Stock Guitar of the Month, May 2016, for the custom shop’s 20th anniversary. PRS press, 13 May 2016: only ten, Imperial Purple Smoked Burst, Private Stock curly maple top and neck, African ribbon mahogany back, kingwood fingerboard, mother-of-pearl, and a hand-signed headstock. That object is not the Core. Catalog introduction: PRS press, 18 November 2016, a 2017 Core model, called a marriage of the 513 and the 408. Europe’s model-history row: 509, 2017–present (page dated 2023). This plate’s year is 2017. The ten May guitars are the earlier one.

What it replaced. MusicRadar, December 2007: the 513 arrived in 2004 as the Brazilian-rosewood 513 Rosewood, “a virtually complete redesign of the PRS Custom,” then a mahogany-neck version at a lower price. Five single-coils, 13 sounds. Guitar Interactive (Nick Jennison, 15 September 2018): pairs at neck and bridge, a lone middle single, a 5-way blade, and a second 3-way blade for hot humbucking, clear humbucking, and true single-coil. Burrluck, 23 August 2017: “The 513 is dead: long live the 509.” The 509 keeps the five coils, the 25.25" scale, and the extended heel, and drops the second blade. Two mini-toggles instead. The May 2016 press says the switching is “akin to” the 408. Nine sounds, not thirteen. Jennison: the neck and bridge can be split independently, which is why nine can be more usable than thirteen.

Not a rotary. Not a 58/15. The early Custom’s 5-position rotary is a different circuit (prs-custom-24). This switch is a 5-way blade. The pickups are named 509, on the factory table. They are not McCarty 58/15s, not the Custom’s DMO, and not a coil-split of a covered PAF. Jennison: the neck and bridge “humbuckers” are pairs of Strat-style single-coils run in series, so the “split” is a true single-coil, not the usual humbucker tap. Burrluck, on the review guitar, adds a nuance the 2023 control card does not: toggle down voices both coils, but one of them is tapped — the 513’s “clear” humbucking, not full output. Up voices the outer single of the bridge pair and the inner single of the neck pair. His DC readings on that one guitar: humbucking 8.02 kΩ neck and 8.29 kΩ bridge; singles 5.72 kΩ and 5.84 kΩ; middle 5.97 kΩ. One review instrument. Not a factory spec.

The June 2016 PRS blog prints the toggles the other way: up humbucking, down single-coil. The 2023 Core control card matches Burrluck: down humbucker, up single-coil. Blade order on that card: position 1 down is treble, then treble plus middle, middle, middle plus bass, bass up. Keep both toggle directions.

Paul’s Guitar is the sibling people mash in. PRS press, 3 January 2013: two narrow 408 pickups, brushstroke birds, a stoptail with brass inserts — the guitar he was already playing, put into production. The 2023 Core page, the same catalog year the 509 left the order sheet: two TCI pickups, a 3-way toggle, two mini-toggles, brushstroke birds, stoptail, Honduran rosewood. Smith, on that page: clear single-coils when split, “a very full soapbar” when humbucking. Two pickups. No middle single. No five-coil count. The 408 (Europe model history: 2013–) is the two-humbucker, Pattern Thin, 25" cousin the 509 press only calls “akin.” No SE 509.

Around the circuit, the Core is ordinary PRS wood with one long scale. Burrluck, 2017: the only Core then with a true single-coil, and that year the longest standard scale PRS offered outside baritone and bass — 641 mm (25.25"). He calls the body “McCarty depth.” Against a 635 mm / 25" McCarty, the extra scale is 6.4 mm. Mix flagged above. Don’t turn his sentence into a second factory drawing. Gen III tremolo. November 2016 press: larger mounting screws, screw mass up 50%, 32% more contact to the body, grooves in the bridge plate matched to the saddle-height screws. 10-Top is the figured option, with hybrid hardware.

Europe’s 2023 history row still says a 513 neck carve and outlined birds. Burrluck in 2017, and the 2020 / 2022 / 2023 product pages, say Pattern Regular. Keep both. The product page is the living table.

Finish, in the factory’s own words. 2020 page: “nitro over cellulose (CAB).” 2023 table: “High Gloss Nitro.” A 2023 Wild West listing still prints the CAB line. Jennison’s 2018 spec box says V12. Three labels. Don’t average them. Burrluck: the biggest jumbo fretwire PRS uses, the wire on the DGT and the Santana. The factory table does not print a fret size. The 2020 top-wood line is “Carved Figured Maple.” The 2023 table says maple, with 10-Top as the option. Ask the year before you assume the top.

Off the order sheet. The 2023 page: “no longer available for order,” backlog shipping through 2023. Europe’s row, March 2023, still said present. Reverb’s year filter runs 2017–2026. That is a marketplace bucket, not a factory year. No 2024 or 2025 Core 509 page on prsguitars.com this pass. A dealer who types 2024 has not restarted the catalog.

Custom 24 is 24 frets and two humbuckers. CE 24 is a bolt-on. McCarty is a stoptail with covered pickups and no middle single. Santana signatures are another scale. None of them is this blade.

Players

Do not default Carlos Santana here. Do not default John Mayer, a Custom 24, or a McCarty. Do not move Don Carr onto this plate. Sweetwater InSync (1 May 2024): the guitar he calls his magic bullet is a 513, the 2007 prototype he was still using for Tele-to-Strat covers. That guitar is the predecessor, not a 509.

Randy Bowland. The one named player on the 509 product page. His accolade: the neck humbucker is warm, the bridge has punch, and the two toggles make the other tones easier than on his 513 — “I’m also a 513 player but this is easier in many applications to just go to what you need.” A factory quote, not a session log. No album pinned. His later PRS artist page says the guitar he has been favoring is an amaryllis Fiore. Don’t file the 509 as his main instrument.

Bryan Ewald. PRS demo artist on the May 2016 Guitar of the Month video, walking the nine sounds. A demo. Not a record.

Also known to play stays short. None invented. No Core 509 is pinned to a named track this pass.

Rarity

A 2017–2023 Core 509 was regular US production, not a limited run, and it is off the order sheet now. You buy one used, or you find leftover new stock. You do not order it from the current Core page. PRS does not publish 509 unit counts. None invented. There is no SE 509 whose volume could be mistaken for this guitar.

What is actually thin: the May 2016 Private Stock run. Ten guitars. Imperial Purple Smoked Burst. Signed headstocks. That ten is a factory sentence (13 May 2016), not a serial guess. 10-Top is an option on the Core table, not a year census. A 2016 513 and a May 2016 509 are different objects — thirteen sounds and a second blade, against ten Private Stock guitars of the nine-sound design.

Value

Informal estimate, 6 October 2026. Not an appraisal.

Ask vs sold. No famous 509 hammer, so no celebrity not-comp. No invented median. No factory count.

Period list. MusicRadar, 23 August 2017: £3,655 / $4,300. Guitar Interactive, 15 September 2018: MSRP £3,655 / $4,300. Launch-era list, not 2026 street.

Leftover new. Not a current factory cart. Wild West Guitars, on Reverb, fetched 6 October 2026: 2023 Core, Eriza Verde, brand new, $4,640 asking. Palen Music Center, same day: a 10-Top Orange Tiger the seller dates 2024, $3,895 (was $4,582.35). Asks. The 2024 is the seller’s year, against a factory page that stops at shipping through 2023. Don’t average a plain-top ask with a discounted 10-Top, and don’t treat either as a sold.

Used. Reverb’s Price Guide widget did not print a range on the 509 or the 509 10-Top page this pass. No clean sold median extracted. Don’t invent one. Sweetwater’s pages were unreachable this pass. No street taken from them.

The ten. May 2016 Private Stock: no 2024–26 sold sample extracted. A signed purple one is not a comps tape for a 2023 Core.

Sources

PRS, Introducing the 509 — 18 November 2016; 2017 Core; marriage of 513 and 408; May 2016 Private Stock first; 25.25"; Gen III screw mass +50% and 32% more contact; Smith “Swiss-army-knife” quote
PRS, May 2016 Guitar of the Month — ten pieces; Imperial Purple Smoked Burst; maple neck, kingwood board, African ribbon mahogany; Miles on the signed headstock; switching “akin to” the 408
PRS, Meet the Model: May Guitar of the Month — “509 = 5 pickups 9 sounds”; toggle chart with up = humbucking (disagrees with the 2023 card); Bryan Ewald demo
PRS 509 - 2023 — no longer available for order, shipping through 2023; blade positions; toggles down = humbucker, up = single-coil; Bowland accolade
PRS 509 - 2020 — 2020 nitro over cellulose (CAB); carved figured maple on that year’s top line
PRS UK, 509 - 2022 — Pattern Regular; 27/32" at the 1/2 fret; 1 21/32" nut; 2 1/4" at the body; 509 pickups; 10-Top / hybrid hardware; hardshell
PRS Japan, 509 - 2023 — same 27/32" printed as depth at the nut; do not average with the English table
PRS Europe, Model History — 509 row “2017–present,” 513 neck carve (against Pattern Regular on the product pages); 408 and Paul’s Guitar rows, 2013
MusicRadar, Burrluck, PRS 509 review — 23 August 2017; £3,655 / $4,300; 641 mm / 254 mm / 6.4 mm; McCarty-depth claim; clear-humbucker tap; DCR on the review guitar; “the 513 is dead”
MusicRadar, PRS 513 review — 11 December 2007; 513 introduced 2004 as the rosewood model
Guitar Interactive, Jennison, PRS 509 — 15 September 2018; MSRP £3,655 / $4,300; 513’s second blade and 13 sounds; 509 pairs as series single-coils; V12 on the spec box
PRS, Paul’s Guitar and Paul’s MDT — 3 January 2013; two narrow 408s; stoptail with brass inserts; not this guitar
PRS, Paul’s Guitar - 2023 — two TCI pickups; 3-way plus two mini-toggles; stoptail; brushstroke birds; Smith on the split
Reverb, PRS 509 — year filter 2017–2026 is a marketplace bucket; Wild West 2023 Eriza Verde ask $4,640 (fetched 6 October 2026); Price Guide widget printed no range
Reverb, PRS 509 10-Top — Palen 10-Top Orange Tiger, seller-dated 2024, ask $3,895 from $4,582.35; dealer neck .863" / .942"; Price Guide widget printed no range
PRS, Randy Bowland — later go-to named as an amaryllis Fiore, not the 509
Sweetwater InSync, Don Carr’s 513 — 1 May 2024; his guitar is a 513, not a 509