I was referring to and this is straight from Paul when I met him in Salt Lake City and at Stevensville. He said getting the shape of the guitar just right was a disaster early on, neck shape problems and dealing with Carlos was very difficult in the beginning. But recent blunders I think are the Narrow field pups, Mira X, Strat copy guitars (now discontinued), V12 finish (the jury is still out), I like the old finish process better IMO. Over abundance of SE Artist guitars (fixed). The best success was the court decision about the Singlecut versus the Gibson Les Paul. the judge saying "you'd have to be a complete idiot to mistake a Singlecut and Les Paul at 20 feet." That was such a victory. That law suit about broke Paul. Paul's relentless drive to perfection put him and the company back on track. I just hope that the Indonesia guitar thing doesn't backfire.
OK, I understand now. 'epic failures' for your tastes personally, not as a guitar maker.
Close relationships are hard. But they are worth working on. Carlos was already big when Paul was still wet behind the ears. Paul had to prove himself and earn Carlos' respect. I think the end result is pretty clear.
I'm having a hard time seeing how the progress of learning to build and getting to a guitar and neck shape that is not just good, but great is any kind of failure, much less an epic one.
The narrowfield pickups are such epic blunders that they are featured on the 20th anniversary private stock currently offered. Ummm...
One reason you don't see a lot of Mira X guitars on the used market is because the people that have them like them. It's OK if
you're not a fan.
Strat copies: You only have to look around this forum to see that there are lots of members who want something like the EG back. And people are swapping humbuckers for HB wide single coils all over the place.
SE artist guitars are a very smart way to test the market for new design tweaks. Look at the success of the Bernie. That could easily end up being a core model. It makes a lot more sense to experiment at that price point than in the core or S2 lines. The opposite of a 'failure'.
Paul took a risk early with the SC. He thought he made it different enough from a Gibson that it was it's own guitar. In the end, the courts agreed. It's business, end of story.
SE guitars are made in Korea, not indonesia. Tough it is a common misconception that Korea is part of Indonesia, it is not. Currently, I'm pretty sure that the SE line far outsells anything else PRS makes. (anyone with sales figures?) That's a failure?
