Why are PRS owners so afraid of getting a little scratch on it?

[fgeorge097]

If I want to buy something to look at, I'll hang a piece of art on the wall.

If I want to buy an investment, I'll buy stocks.

If I buy a $5000 guitar, I want to play it. Inevitably, I will get dings, scratches and probably drop it once in a while. Such is part of playing guitars.

People who just leave their PRS in a case and/or are petrified to do anything that might damage it make no sense to me.

Play your damn guitar and enjoy it too!

 

[21Hemispheres12]

I play mine but I’m also very careful with them, but I’m very careful with all of my belongings. If people want to keep their guitars in their cases and never open them more power to them, it doesn’t affect me at all.

 

[Tonart]

Because keeping a great guitar pristine gives me more joy than playing it.

And if my skills are right, playing a lesser guitar gives me no lesser joy.

 

[veinbuster]

I play mine but I’m also very careful with them, but I’m very careful with all of my belongings. If people want to keep their guitars in their cases and never open them more power to them, it doesn’t affect me at all.

Agreed.
I play all of mine.
I prefer not to ding them, and have had pretty good luck with that. I’m not afraid of damaging them, but I do strive to avoid it. I have had visions of smacking a headstock into the piano when I take it out of the case though.

 

[Tosca]

Because they are so awesome?

 

[dmatthews]

I'm in the "made to be played" crowd.
I don't have super expensive guitars, but some pretty nice core and WL.
I have gone to practice and gigged them all, and I'll do it again and again. Last gig was a wedding where some drunk guy got on stage and was stumbling around almost kicking my P22 over during a song I was singing/playing. That was close...
In any case, guitars "are" and "mean" whatever they do to the owner. If they stay in the case and are brought out only to show another appreciative person/player, that's cool by me.
If you don't know how to play but absolutely love seeing the art on your wall I'm jiggy with that too.
Play 'em, just look at 'em... it's all good.

 

[Dirty_Boogie]

If I want ...
If I buy a $5000 guitar, I want to play it. Inevitably, I will get dings, scratches and probably drop it once
People who just leave their PRS in a case and/or are petrified to do anything that might damage it make no sense to me.

Play your damn guitar and enjoy it too!

Ok....

And do your care if your nice car gets scratched or dented? Do you take it to the body shop to get repaired ?

Each to his/her own I guess.

 

[jackcrowder]

I don't mind real life bumps and such. Every time I watch Eric Clapton play his guitar, it looks like it's well taken care of. Played a bunch but well taken cared for. Clean and shiny.
It's a tool he uses to do his job .Scratches and bumps are inevitable, but it can still be well taken care of.

 

[Herr Squid]

I love to play 'em (and I do!) but I don't want to hurt 'em.

It sucks when guitars get hurt.

 

[Roy]

The first scar hurts... so try to avoid as long as possible...

But I have to play...

so risk accepted.

 

[GuitarJammin]

I'm in the made to be played crowd..and buy used and abused crowd as well.

However..I will say this...A Lot of PRS owners LOVE the way their guitars look! I know I do! So naturally we want to keep them that way! Dings hurt in the soul. LOL. I gig my guitars and maintain them and keep them clean, but I also know every ding and i don't like them..but hey like you said it's part of the gig.

 

[Tonart]

Play 'em, just look at 'em... it's all good.

Exactly. Does the path to heaven matter as long as you get there?

 

[FunkyFreeman]

I think I'm a believer of guitars are meant to be played. All my PRS - ranging from SE to ME are equally:
- left on a rack together all the time, none is in case/gig bag, every guitars are ready to be played within few seconds
- taken care from time to time, like regular cleaning, restringing, etc.
- played with some attention to 'serious physical damages' - they're played but not that abused

I also did many mods to many of my PRS:
- MEQ: reshaping its rosewood neck, replace stock pups with Bare Knuckle set, replacing stock bridge with PG's bridge, and more mods to be applied soon
- SE SVN: refinishing twice (third is coming soon), replace stock Koren pups with BKP Cold Sweat, replacing almost all parts, etc.
- core CU24: replace 57/08 pups with PRS \m/
- and more to come

Hmmm.. despite putting myself in guitars are meant to be played camp, I think we all have different levels of guitar abusing acceptance like...
- acceptance of pick scratches but not dropping the guitar,
- acceptance of some parts replacements as long as not damaging the wood
- acceptance of self-made dings on SE guitars but never for core and beyond
- etc.

 

[Tone-y]

Well, I try to keep them pristine.....It just doesn't tend to work out that well.

Pretty much all of my guitars are second hand now. I let someone else take the big hit and buy something I just wouldn't be able to afford new, so I guess that helps take the pain out of a ding a little bit, but for some reason all of my most expensive, nicest second hand guitars have also been absolutely mint when they've come to me, like they haven't been played at all.
My PRS was 5 years old when I got it. Not a mark on it. Everything was clean and shinny, even the pickup covers showed no sign of any wear. After a further 5 years of careful (ish) bedroom playing and I've got dings everywhere and pickup covers are worn, the edges of them are down to bare metal where the plating has been worn off. I don't even know where some of the dings come from, I just see something new and have no idea how they got there. Other not so much. The last two dings were one where I put it down on the stand and missed a bit, hit the stand and now there's a ding by the bottom strap button, and last week where I dropped something whilst near the guitar, I thought I got away with it but later found a hole in the quilted maple (private stock grade) top. Yikes!

But I've come to the acceptance now that it will never pass as mint condition again and I think I'm OK with that. Honestly, it was never going to stay mint anyway as soon as it started getting played as mine has the thin satin nitro finish - any actual play soon polishes the satin to gloss in places. I can't honestly think of any reason why I would want to sell this guitar so none of the dings are going to affect saleability to me. By the time this guitar is 40 years old it will look like all of those worn 50s/60s guitars do, and I'm cool with that

 

[11top]

If I want to buy something to look at, I'll hang a piece of art on the wall.

If I want to buy an investment, I'll buy stocks.

If I buy a $5000 guitar, I want to play it. Inevitably, I will get dings, scratches and probably drop it once in a while. Such is part of playing guitars.

People who just leave their PRS in a case and/or are petrified to do anything that might damage it make no sense to me.

Play your damn guitar and enjoy it too!

If I want to buy a guitar for any of the reasons listed above or even as a boat anchor, so be it. My money; my choice. Why do some find it necessary to tell me what to do with MY stuff?

And FWIW, I‘m a gigging player. Granted I don’t move like Pete Townshend, but I‘m careful and don’t beat them up either.

 

[supergoat94]

I keep all my stuff like new, not just my guitars. All my video games stay in their cases, displayed neatly. Other collectibles and items stay looking new and my cars are always spotless. It's just how I am.

If my guitars get a small scratch so be it but I will always do my best to protect my stuff. I paid for it with my money and I want to keep it as nice as possible for as long as possible.

fyi, I'm not obsessed with cleanliness or being neat. Not at all. But my things that I like, they stay nice.

 

[Silvertree]

I use my guitars in a way that makes me happy. That means they sit out on a stand so I can see them and they are easy to grab when I want to play them. I do the best that I can to keep them in pristine condition because I like taking care of my things.

 

[Bill SAS 513]

Actually pretty cool topic...
I like keeping mine in cases/gig bags when not being played. I definitely fall in the category of those that take a little extra care of their stuff...probably a little OCD about it, but I'm ok with that.
...but I have a couple that are showing signs of play wear...so be it. Honest play wear is the coolest.
And once you get that first nick/scratch, its all ok...Now its OFFICIALLY a "player".

Side Note: I've had plenty of F's and G's in the past, and I treated them all the same way...cased/bagged when not being played.

But I absolutely love learning about/looking at SRV's #1, or Clapton's Blackie, Geddy's '72 Jazz, ...or Willie's Trigger...Those are/were their Tools to do their job.

 

[alantig]

I keep all my stuff like new, not just my guitars. All my video games stay in their cases, displayed neatly. Other collectibles and items stay looking new and my cars are always spotless. It's just how I am.

If my guitars get a small scratch so be it but I will always do my best to protect my stuff. I paid for it with my money and I want to keep it as nice as possible for as long as possible.

fyi, I'm not obsessed with cleanliness or being neat. Not at all. But my things that I like, they stay nice.

This. I take care of my stuff. Period. It's not an investment or resale thing - I just want to keep my stuff around for as long as I can. Granted, I'm rapidly getting to the point where I won't have to maintain the stuff for as long as I used to. It's pretty simple for me - use, don't abuse. Most of us are surely aware of how Eddie Van Halen built his guitars, but I still cringe a bit when I remember the interview where he just tossed a couple in the back of his pickup to go to the studio because to him, they were 'tools'. But I treat my tools pretty well, too.

I tried to recreate that pose last week. Thanks to my gut, I went straight forward to the ground. Not face first though. Because, you know, the gut.

 

[Going Modal]

Check out this video by Shawn Tubbs (he's great!) showing-off his MC-58 PRS artist-package. This guitar would normally be cherished as a shiny, perfect showpiece; and yet, about 6-7 minutes into the video he shows off some road-wear and dents/dings. Cool thing is that he says that he's not interested in having anything fixed, it's beautiful, etc. I like this mentality--you might've gotten it shiny & new, but it's your legitimate play-wear, there might be stories behind the dents (for better or worse), etc. It's kind of like the scrapes & scars that we all get growing up. Part of life, but still can be beautiful.