Artist Package Questions

[tmfrank]

Hi everyone! First post on the forum, so forgive me if I'm posting in the wrong section. I was looking for a box to ship one of my guitars in, and stumbled upon a guitar store I had been to before, but had never really taken a hard look at the inventory. Upon entering, I was greeted with a wall of PRS guitars. Some were Artist Packages, some were SE's, and some were Limited Editions. I quickly fell for a semi-hollow Custom 22, and had a good talk with the manager of the store about PRS' custom options.

Private Stock is more than out of my league, but I still wanted the customizable options if I was going to shell out a lot of money for a PRS. After learning about the Artist Package, I was just curious about a few things. I was hoping some educated members of this forum would be able to offer some advice to a fellow PRS-lover. Thanks all!

1. Do the prices of Artist Package PRS' differ from store to store? Or, in other words, are Artist Package PRS' more expensive in some areas than others?

2. With the 2013 Artist Package list, is it possible to get a semi-hollow Custom 24?

3. What PRS wood combinations yield a generally good tone for modern metal purposes?

4. How expensive do these Artist Package guitars get? I'm looking to get a semi-hollow Custom 24 with a rosewood neck if possible.

Any other advice is MUCH appreciated, thanks all!

 

[Paul L]

Welcome aboard! All I can tell you is that PRS prices can vary between dealers, Artist Package or not. I'm sure you'll get lots of good recommendations here. I've done business with both Wildwood Guitars and Washington Music Center (a.k.a. Chuck Levin's) and they are both very good (in fact, PRSh used to work at Chuck's before he started making guitars).

I'm not a metalhead, but I would think that maple or some other dense hardwood would probably help you find the scooped tones you're looking for (rosewood neck is a good choice too). A maple capped mahogany body works well for many styles of music and is pretty much the norm. You also have to factor in the pickups and the amp, of course. If it were me, I'd probably go for a Singlecut with hotter pickups and the rosewood neck. You probably want a solidbody for metal, but that's not to say you can't play metal on a semi-hollow.

 

[Rango]

Frank, Welcome.
Dealers set their own prices they will SELL for... There is a Minimum Advertised Price - Commonly called "MAP" that they are not allowed to go below publicly. We can't talk numbers here but I had more than a 10% price spread dealer to dealer IDENTICAL model guitars when I was shopping for my P22 last year.

I sent you a pm with a suggestion
Chris