Musings on Potential Models

[markd21]

I wasn't kidding when I said it took them 28 years to break through in the Strat market.

They released the EG in 1990. They've already sold more Silver Sky models than the entire six-year run of EG models.

It could've been interesting had Joe Knaggs stayed. His Choptank shape looks cool. I would've liked to see how it turned out with input from Paul. It could make for a nice Tele-esque platform.

They did do the Vernon Reid Vela, but it's definitely on the extreme side. Narrow 408's would rule in a Vela!

Here's one going through PS right now and it appears to have a bevel and a shallow carve similar to the original Starla.

Now there are two guitars that are AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!! I am glad I opened this post!!!

 

[markd21]

Regarding the topic....

I am a "tele" guy (more Esquire, actually), and I will go to my grave about the Vela being tele-ish. It's VERY cool, and it does offer something VERY different and cool, but it ain't a tele. Close enough for some, but far enough for those of us that rely on that tone....

One of the reasons I have an Esquire still is because the tone is in the simplicity. While PRS could do amazing things with the tele/esquire concept - especially in the woods department - part of what gives the tone is "junky" wood, lol. Many KILLER sounding teles are built with PINE!! Mine has a "soft wood" body and snarls like demon and resonates like you wouldn't believe.

While the Silver Sky has some really cool "updates" to the classic design, the strat has always been the "futuristic" instrument for Fender. The tele was a slab of wood with a neck and a pickup. It was an experiment. It's cool as is.

Now, if you are after a 2 HB tele SHAPED guitar that looks like a PRS, that's different.....and I have no comment, because to me.....

That ain't a tele.

 

[Alnus Rubra]

If I may give my “two penneth”.

The Silver Sky came about, as we are told, by John Mayer being dissatisfied with his then instrument provider and he approached PRS.

As a result of this and tremendous collaboration between him and several at PRS, the SS was born.

For a PRS version of a Tele to come to fruition, it would maybe take one of a few things, or a combination of them -

1. A well established artist, who uses a Tele, to approach them for a collaboration.

2. Market research showing that the sales of Tele’s is going off the chart.

3. Indication of some sort that a PRS Tele would fly off the shelves like a SS has.

All or any of these are a possibility, but there’s no obvious indication of them at the moment.

 

[Drew]

Repeat after me....

WE WANT PRODUCTION 7 STRINGS....WE WANT PRODUCTION 7 STRINGS!!!!

 

[django49]

Working off the John Mayer/Silver Sky formula, what we need is a Brad Paisley Signature. Pink AND blue of course. I mean there is already a paisley case.....

Could that not be a Paisley Replica Signature, or PRS P.R.S. for short?

 

[garrett]

Repeat after me....

WE WANT PRODUCTION 7 STRINGS....WE WANT PRODUCTION 7 STRINGS!!!!

I'd love to see an S2 7. Or a CE 7 would be badass.

 

[alantig]

One of the reasons I have an Esquire still is because the tone is in the simplicity. While PRS could do amazing things with the tele/esquire concept - especially in the woods department - part of what gives the tone is "junky" wood, lol. Many KILLER sounding teles are built with PINE!! Mine has a "soft wood" body and snarls like demon and resonates like you wouldn't believe.

At a clinic last year, Brian Ewald said something similar about a PRS model. He said the CE had different metal in the trem and that it was - MY words - a lesser metal. But he said that it had a flavor all its own and that he felt it complemented the core PRS trem sound. It's not "worse", it's different.

Sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

 

[markd21]

At a clinic last year, Brian Ewald said something similar about a PRS model. He said the CE had different metal in the trem and that it was - MY words - a lesser metal. But he said that it had a flavor all its own and that he felt it complemented the core PRS trem sound. It's not "worse", it's different.

Sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Oh, for sure!! It's why I do NOT "upgrade" the bridge on my S2 STD 22s. That steel block on the vibrato gives those guitars a tone that I great enjoy. If I want a core sound, I'll grab a core. But you last sentence really sums up the telecaster concept - and what I dig about PRS' design approach also:

Every part of it "works" to create the instrument. Change one part of the formula and you end up with something different.

Going back to the Esquire, it's why I like using a "cheap" softer wood for the body. It's a little truer to those originals. I still use a three saddle brass bridge, too - back loaded, not string through body. All of the elements work together to give a certain feel that having, say, an alder body and a string-thru-body bridge doesn't have. It's the little things, sometimes, and I appreciate that about PRS. They notice that stuff when designing/building their guitars.

 

[Bill SAS 513]

Working off the John Mayer/Silver Sky formula, what we need is a Brad Paisley Signature. Pink AND blue of course. I mean there is already a paisley case.....

Could that not be a Paisley Replica Signature, or PRS P.R.S. for short?

Amen, Django...love me some Brad cluster pluckin`

 

[gush]

I would so be all over a Schenker V!

Hey, we could eat mexican food and drink weird drinks that blur your vision while you rip on some scorpions!

 

[gush]

I think PRS nailed it with the Vela offset body shape. I don’t want Paul wasting time on Tele shapes that have been done before, I want him to expand this great shape they already have.

So I’d love to see some variations on the Vela shape. Namely, a Core model to start, to add both the carves and the tops. I think a Vela shape with a Paul’s Guitar or 408 pickup/switching layout would be pretty cool. Like mentioned earlier, how about adding the Vela to the Bolt-On neck line and get some maple in there? How about expanding the S2 line with a dual-humbucker pickup layout?

There so much cool to that shape, it’s boundaries haven’t nearly been explored enough.

Vela with prs trem.........................

 

[bodia]

Hey, we could eat mexican food and drink weird drinks that blur your vision while you rip on some scorpions!

I'm in!

 

[shinksma]

One of my personal guitar/artist heroes, Steven Wilson, who is a long-time PRS endorsed artist, wrote (and then recorded) his latest album primarily with a cheap Telecaster, because it was the only guitar he had around (along with the only amp handy, a H&K 5W Tubemeister combo) because all his PRSi (and BadCat amps) were still in the warehouse from a recent tour.

So...he could be a trial balloon artist for a PRS telecaster, I suppose.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

Vela with prs trem.........................

When everyone was loving all over their Vela's I just couldn't get past that Tele style bridge. That is why the new S2 Studio appeals to me so much. GOT to play one as soon as there is one around! Silver Sky seems to have delayed almost everything else PRS makes. Good for them, but I still think that making the S2 Studio a "limited time" guitar is a mistake, especially when introducing it at the same time as the SS. If that S2S is what I think it could be, it SHOULD be a regular production model and they should get a LOT of them in the stores because it should sell like crazy.

 

[Ovibos]

One of my personal guitar/artist heroes, Steven Wilson, who is a long-time PRS endorsed artist, wrote (and then recorded) his latest album primarily with a cheap Telecaster, because it was the only guitar he had around (along with the only amp handy, a H&K 5W Tubemeister combo) because all his PRSi (and BadCat amps) were still in the warehouse from a recent tour.

So...he could be a trial balloon artist for a PRS telecaster, I suppose.

On the current tour he plays the Teles for part of the show (latest album material), but his his main goldtop SCT does a ton of work along with the green CU24 for Porcupine Tree material (it seemed). His tones and playing were, as always, amazing.

The H&K got plopped in the middle of the stage for an encore solo version of "Even Less" (on Tele).

Alex Hutchings is a nice replacement in the 2nd guitar slot, altho I found his tone too smooth (missing some bite) at points and those Waghorns he plays are kinda fugly.