Early McCarty NGD (and a few questions)

[Faded]

Hello all I was in the market for a new Les Paul when a '94 McCarty was offered as trade bait toward a Custom Shop SG I had for sale locally. Being a sucker for old looking maple tops and PRSi in general I had to jump at this one. So without further delay here she is...

There isnt nearly this amount of red in the burst in reality. Its more of an almond burst or a very faded bourbon burst.

So on to my question...Does anyone know the serial number sequence for the "first 100" that were signed by Ted? This one came with zero documentation other than a serial number (4 20121) I was told by the previous owner that it was a Pre-Production model, does that line up?...

 

[Goldtop]

I don't know myself. My suggestion would be to e-mail the company and see what they say.

That classic McCarty look... Beautiful. Congrats.

Goldtop

 

[watelessness]

:rock:

 

[László]

Fantastic!

 

[justmund]

Awesome! Classic!

 

[Egads]

No info to help, but wanted to say that's a beaut.

 

[Serious Poo]

Gorgeous guitar! Massive congrats, I'm sure it's a real tone monster.

The signed McCarty's do not follow a clear numbering sequence and weren't always the "first" 100 made. A few had birds, most had moon inlays. My first PRS was a '93 McCarty w/ moon inlays and it wasn't signed, for example. Incredible guitars, they're the reason I started playing PRS's in the first place. I even ordered a 408 BRW with the original McCartyburst finish I love it so much. FWIW, there's also a black '93 trem prototype that moved around between some Bammers, I don't know who owns it now.

 

[Hopeful Sinner]

Very nice guitar man... CONGRATS! I love my McRosie so So SO much... Sometimes, it seems the McCarty doesn't get as much attention as its off shoot, "sister" guitars (DGT, Modern Eagle I-IV & Studio). Just great guitars IMO.

 

[south89]

I had the same questions about my 94 McCarty because I compared my serial # with those of some the ones signed by Ted and I had a lower serial #. I emailed Shawn and he told me ( I hope I get this right ) that the 100 that were signed by Ted were not nescessarily the first 100 off of the line. But you can email Shawn and I'm sure he would reply. He is a very helpful person and just cool dude !

Heres mine if you want to compare

 

[docbennett]

The first 100 signed by Ted were all in the 19,000 range. I own #72/100. they were not the very first, but among the first McCartys released.

One way to tell if you have the earliest example is to see if the tone control is also a push/pull coil splitter. the earliest ones (incuding the signed 100) did not have this feature.

Mine is currently for sale on eBay under "rarebooksnguitars" if you want to see what they looked like. Has birds too.

The story goes that Paul met Ted who was already around 90 years old in Hawaii. He brought 100 backplates with him for Ted to sign, and these were assigned to 100 of the earliest releases. That's why the serial numbers were a bit helter skelter. I've never seen a "first 100 signed" that was not in the 19,000 range of serial numbers however.