Defpony, one thing to keep in mind with custom builds is this: you're still young. (relative to some of us, anyway; if you're about to turn 30 but haven't yet you're younger than both of my kids!) A lot is going to change over the next 30 years of your life. Just because something seems perfect now doesn't mean it will continue to be perfect for the next 30 years. The upside of that, if you can frame it this way, is that your potential PS build doesn't
have to be perfect, it just has to be what you want right now. That might take some of the pressure off so you don't have to sweat every little detail or get into a maddening flip flop between
this and
that.
Just enjoy the process!
I was kinda like Les in that I played a bunch of different PRS guitars over a pretty long window of time (got my first back in 1990) before I ever considered a PS guitar. When I did finally do a custom build though, it wasn't to get something I wanted that I couldn't get otherwise. It was totally random/intuitive. It came about because I was in the wood library with my good friend Eric from Willcutt. My sole purpose was to help E pick out wood for a run he was doing for the shop. We solemnly agreed beforehand that we both had too many nice guitars already and we were NOT going to get another one for ourselves. Well, the best laid plans... ...I left there with a pile of wood and order sheet for PS #3825. (pic to follow) (as did E, btw)
Here's the thing. I picked various pieces of wood because they called to me. For different reasons in each case. I gave no thought to the end result until I had basically a whole guitar's worth of wood in a pile in front of me.
Oh, crap! Now I have to decide what I'm going to have them build out of this stuff! The top I had chosen kinda screamed "59 Les Paul" to me (and everyone) but I've never been a fan of the PRS single cuts (OK, so, shoot me). They hadn't done the 594 thing yet, and I wasn't sure how far I could push them in the direction I would really want to go. I knew the basic DGT recipe worked for me so I just went with that, with a 57/08 in the neck 'cos I knew I liked that better than a DGT neck pickup. Given how it went down, and what all else I have in my personal woodpile, my expectations were that it would be a cool (and nice-looking) guitar that would be fun to have but not particularly essential.
FWIW, I recognize what a luxury it is to be able to spec a PS (or any custom build guitar) just basically for the fun of it. For most of my life I wouldn't have been able to do that.
Anyway, the guitar arrived four months later and it certainly was as cool and nice-looking as I'd expected. And the overall voice was what I expected as well -- a little bit quirky due to the weird combination of woods I'd chosen, it's one of those guitars that really
has a sound. Sometimes that's great; other times it's not what I want to hear at all.
Over time (the build happened in 2012) I found myself playing that guitar surprisingly often and, when I did, it was the one guitar out of all of 'em (roughly 50, although if you only count 6-string electrics it's more like 35) where I would think, "You know, I could see myself doing a Wayne Krantz and playing this one exclusively." Then I'd list all the things I would change if I were actually going to do that! The end result of all that thinking was another PS guitar, but with the newer one, it went down very differently. I helped a dealer (different one, not E) spec the guitar, not specifically for me, but for his shop. When the guitar arrived and he showed it to me, I'd completely forgotten about our whole conversation! But when I played the guitar,
damn!!! It was everything I wanted in a bespoke PRS, even though my name didn't appear anywhere on the build sheet.
Of course I bought it. And I love it.
But the funny thing is, even though objectively speaking it's a better fit for me than my original KingsleyDGT, and my ears generally tell me "the new one sounds so much better overall!" there's an unmistakable emotional bond with the original one that isn't there in the same way with the new one.
Or maybe it's just the Honduran rosewood neck... ...anyway, good luck, and don't overthink things!
Here's the original KingsleyDGT.