Stevensville Production Start Date

[BrownDog]

When did electrics first start being produced in the current (Stevensville) factory?

 

[Egads]

'96, I think.

 

[Bob Hundemer]

Back then (in the beginning) it was a single building. All the guitars were made there.
I took a tour back then. It was really neat.
I haven't been to the new facility since they added the second building.
I would like to go again.

 

[garrett]

Late 1995

 

[Egads]

Late 1995

Thanks, Garrett.

 

[garrett]

I forgot to give credit where it's due: The PRS Guitar Book by Dave Burrluck.

 

[jak3af3r]

I know it's a Custom 24 in natural. It's hanging in a display case in the gift shop at PRS.

 

[BrownDog]

Is late 1995 October/November? Another way of asking would be what was the first serial number CU24 to roll off the line?

 

[Shawn@PRS]

PRS moved into the Stevensville factory in January 1996

 

[Dead&Co]

 

[Mark Ray]

I feel privileged to have walked through all the spaces in this ^^^^^ video a couple of times. Cool stuff!

 

[Em7]

I purchased a natural 1995 PRS Standard 24 with birds in August of 1995 because Roe at Master Musicians informed me that production was moving to Stevensville in a few months (Roe owned several pre-Virginia Ave PRS guitars). I had been perusing PRS guitars at their Annapolis and later Glen Bernie stores for eight years at that point in time (I just could not raise the cash because I was in a permanent state of being house poor due to being a single home owner). He said that if I wanted an Annapolis-made guitar, time was of the essence. I threw caution to the wind and put the guitar on a credit card. I wound up selling that guitar seven years later after playing it very little and having Orkie (John Ingram) change it over to McCarty-style wiring because I could not bring myself to use a reamer to enlarge the switch hole. To be completely honest, that guitar does not hold a candle to the Stevensville guitars I have owned; therefore, I would not buy into the Annapolis shop mystique. Those instruments is nowhere near as consistent as the Stevensville guitars tone-wise. PRS used to have to fight Maryland’s humidity in that shop.

 

[Gigi]

Ahh, the famous and mistique "pre factory" ingredient....

 

[alantig]

Ahh, the famous and mistique "pre factory" ingredient....

All I know is I treasure my pre-spray room PRSi. Something about the path through the factory the guitars have to follow w/the new layout seems to have affected the tone.

 

[Em7]

Here is a photo of the first PRS production facility in Annapolis (a.k.a. Annapolis shop). It is now "Furniture Consign and Design."

https://www.google.com/maps/place/1812+Virginia+St,+Annapolis,+MD+21401/@38.9779022,-76.5228126,3a,75y,26.14h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sljTYHlo8zS6AfPDyjMBjKA!2e0!6s//geo3.ggpht.com/cbk?panoid=ljTYHlo8zS6AfPDyjMBjKA&output=thumbnail&cb_client=search.gws-prod.gps&thumb=2&w=86&h=86&yaw=26.142004&pitch=0&thumbfov=100!7i16384!8i8192!4m5!3m4!1s0x89b7f6e8fee5ee3d:0x4ce4ab733f1c44ad!8m2!3d38.9783611!4d-76.5225391

 

[]-[@n$0Ma☩!©]

Ahh, the famous and mystique "pre factory" ingredient....

'Pre-factory' would be the West Street era (before the Virginia Ave factory). This thread is discussing the move from the Virginia Ave factory to Stevensville.

 

[Em7]

I believe that Gigi was bringing up a common misconception that Virginia Ave guitars were pre-factory guitars. A lot of used guitar dealers sell that mystique to drive up the price of Virginia Ave guitars.

 

[Gigi]

I believe that Gigi was bringing up a common misconception that Virginia Ave were pre-factory guitars. A lot of used guitar dealers sell that mystique to drive up the price of Virginia Ave guitars.

This.
I see many people (almost here in Italy) asking prices that range from 2.5k to 4k euro for guitars made from 88 to 92.
In strict terms they are not wrong, these have been done before the Stevensville "Factory"

 

[Gigi]

'Pre-factory' would be the West Street era (before the Virginia Ave factory). This thread is discussing the move from the Virginia Ave factory to Stevensville.

So, before 1985?

 

[]-[@n$0Ma☩!©]

So, before 1985?

Correct (Aug of ‘85).