Someone mentioned seeing the PRS review in Guitar Player magazine in the 80s...that probably set the hook. However, I didn’t even consider buying one until 2001. Heck, at the time, I had a whopping 3 guitars...what the hell would I need with another guitar??!! A Les Paul, a Super Strat, and a regular Strat. Well, Mrs. B came up with the great notion that she wanted to buy me a “nice Christmas present...you know, one of those guitars you like...how much are they?” Me: “umm, with tax, probably $4k-$5k. Are you sure?” “Yeah, go pick it out but you can’t have it until Xmas day”. A few weeks later I had my Teal Black ‘01 Custom 24 10 Top, which was a PRS poster child. Couldn’t play it for 6 weeks! (I visited it whenever she left the house, which was rare with 2 kids 9 and 10 years old. It was torture!)
Still have it and it sits in my forever collection (I guess that’s just about everything I own).