Recent content by Whitecat

They were introduced in 2008, and I believe production ceased either at the very end of 2012 or early 2013, so almost five years of manufacture. As mentioned, exact numbers won't be available. There were a few variants of the basic Core model over that timespan as well - a stoptail version with...

The 594 soapbars are a serious step-up from the ones they used to use. I honestly can't believe that they could better those.

Pretty sure this is a pervasive myth. Tops are graded without regard to percentages of shipments. Generally a ‘less-good’ 10-Top is probably a victim of carving... sometimes the figure doesn’t go deep enough to look “perfect.” Conversely, very occasionally tops are “upgraded” during the build...

Didn't Taylor try to do fairly easily-swappable pickups on their solidbody electrics quite a few years ago? Those didn't do so well, did they... and they were made from normal wood too...

Strange since they are using it in Private Stock now... https://forums.prsguitars.com/threads/buckeye-burl-594-roasted-neck.37373/

The contest you speak of (being advertised on Facebook) is not being administered by (the excellent) Peach Guitars. I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole, it’s most likely a scam and should be reported to Facebook as such.

The only one I ever opened my wallet for was the 277 soapbar...

Your Stripper will have a Pattern profile, the Vela has Pattern Regular which is narrower at the nut, but the same depth. The shoulders will feel different as a result too. The Vela is not the worst sub in the world for a Telecaster or a Gretsch-type sound. It's got more cut and more sparkle...

Interesting observation! The Chesapeake prototypes were very much Joe's own project as I understand it, so could be why Paul didn't necessarily sign all of them...

Holy wow that's stunning. Definitely gonna have a different sound to the Tonares/Angeluses of the world... As mentioned, Joe is still building these, but only "to order" with long lead times I've been told. Acoustics are still a bit of a side project. Was nice of Paul to let him keep the...

Here's another inexpensive "make it slightly easier" Bigsby restring solution - especially good if you don't like the look of the Vibratmate spoiler... as they say, it's slightly less elegant to use on the import Bigsbys but still works. http://stringraytool.com Anyway, congrats - love these...

Sorry, wasn't clear about that, it's the electronics that are back-mounted/wired. Pickups dropped in on top and then wiring all done on the rear, rather than loading the pickguard first and then just having to drop that on and wire it all up to the controls/jack.

The pickups are mounted on the pickguard which is then mounted on the top, like a Fender guitar. Pretty normal for any guitar with a direct-mounted pickguard. Back-loading pickups adds expense to the guitar.