How Famous Do I Need To Be...

[CandidPicker]

Annoyingly, Fender has released a Limited Edition Brent Mason Telecaster recently. He's obviously moved back to that fold, ever since he and PRS parted ways. Oh well.

I would like to see a full on PRS version of the telecaster (IMHO the Vela is about 75% of the way there), but with the little things that PRS would do to make it better - belly carves and forearm relief via beveled edges like a PRS S2 normally has (or like a Strat, ha ha), classic PRS headstock or maybe even the same reverse-headstock as the Silver Sky, better access to the high frets, and 22 frets rolleyes.

I think the Tele concept will need a sponsor, the same way the SS was with JM. Some guitar great (calling Josh Smith to the courtesy phone) would need to request a special order piece that PRS could put into production...

 

[shinksma]

I think the Tele concept will need a sponsor, the same way the SS was with JM. Some guitar great (calling Josh Smith to the courtesy phone) would need to request a special order piece that PRS could put into production...

I think it would help, but look at the 594 (esp the SC), PRS's take on the LP: no super duper major artist name, just a really good expression/implementation of the model.

 

[jxe]

 

[CandidPicker]

I think it would help, but look at the 594 (esp the SC), PRS's take on the LP: no super duper major artist name, just a really good expression/implementation of the model.

True, but I think the concept was partially based on the newer TCI pickups, knowing that older 594s would only be a limited production run until the TCI-equipped 594s were brought to market. PRS likely was sure the SC 594 would not infringe on any patents before they produced the SC 594.

What type of pickups would you put in a PRS Tele? (Am partial to H-S, or H-H)

 

[GuitarJammin]

A PRS TCI tuned tele would be amazing. What they did with the silver sky was great...and Paul's take on the Tele would no doubt be a masterpiece. I know if PRS released a Tele style guitar it would sell like hotcakes. I guess if Silver Sky sales ever slow down building Teles will definitely be a profitable path to re-ignite the flame. I know I'd be buying one even though i already own too many guitars.

 

[HANGAR18]

I think it would take someone truly iconic to pull off a "PRS Tele," like Keith Richards or Bruce Springsteen (arguably the only living legends (to the masses) who really "own" that model, aside from the legion of regular users).

Springsteen doesn't even know how to play a guitar. All he does is pose for pictures with a Tele. If PRS were to ever make a Telecaster shaped guitar, they would need to find someone who is Danny Gatton good to be their signature artist. Maybe someone like Grammy award winning artist...
Mike Melchione!

 

[ViperDoc]

I personally love the Telecaster sound. But I don't see PRSh interested in recreating a classic. He's too innovative.

 

[dmatthews]

I personally love the Telecaster sound. But I don't see PRSh interested in recreating a classic. He's too innovative.

I dunno man... he did it with the SS. Find the right guy to associate with and TCI the cr@p outta that thing!

 

[jxe]

Springsteen doesn't even know how to play a guitar. All he does is pose for pictures with a Tele. If PRS were to ever make a Telecaster shaped guitar, they would need to find someone who is Danny Gatton good to be their signature artist. Maybe someone like Grammy award winning artist...
Mike Melchione!

we can’t all be van morrison level shred gods.

 

[ViperDoc]

I dunno man... he did it with the SS. Find the right guy to associate with and TCI the cr@p outta that thing!

If anyone could give it a run for its money... I've never played a Vela, but I always thought its barrel-bridge hybrid design might have tried to take that design on a tangent. The 594 has definitely put the LP on notice. I wonder what looks like the biggest red dot to Paulh right now?

 

[HANGAR18]

If anyone could give it a run for its money... I've never played a Vela, but I always thought its barrel-bridge hybrid design might have tried to take that design on a tangent. The 594 has definitely put the LP on notice. I wonder what looks like the biggest red dot to Paulh right now?

A Flying V. hahahahaha

 

[shinksma]

True, but I think the concept was partially based on the newer TCI pickups, knowing that older 594s would only be a limited production run until the TCI-equipped 594s were brought to market. PRS likely was sure the SC 594 would not infringe on any patents before they produced the SC 594.

What type of pickups would you put in a PRS Tele? (Am partial to H-S, or H-H)

I think any direct take on the T-style would need classic T-style pups: the slanted SC bridge pup and that slim covered neck single coil. The Vela configuration hinted at it, with the through-body plate-style bridge, but needs to be expanded to include that bridge pup - something about that big ol' plate matters (eddy currents, allegedly).

IMHO, if PRS issued a T-style take with H-H pups, it might be considered too far away from the target to be fully appreciated. Folks go for non-trad pup configurations to get away from the classic T-style sound, which dilutes the whole point (again, IMHO).

 

[HANGAR18]

UPDATE 2021: This weekend I went to a PRS Private Stock dealer and asked the serious question. Yes, I came to the place in my mind that I was willing to pay PRS between $10,000.00 to $13,000.00 if they would build me a caveman simple guitar design to the specifications which I would provide them. Basically, a Flying V guitar body design.

I got the call today, a few hours ago with the answer. It was a hard No, with no explanation provided.

I'm pi$$ed off. Like... someone just slapped me in the face pi$$ed off and visions of a gesture which was made famous by Stone Cold Steve Austin are swirling around in my mind. I'm sure I'll get over it but right now, it still stings. And for the record, I don't buy that whole copyright and not wanting to get sued bit. That doesn't apply to a one-off build that is commissioned by a customer. That's not how copyrights work (to the best of my understanding) and I don't think there is a chance in hell that Gibson would sue PRS over something like that, even if they had 20 customers who all wanted one of their own. We are not talking about a production guitar which a reasonable person might mistakenly buy, thinking that it was a Gibson product.

So the good news is that they just saved me thirteen thousand dollars by saying no. Last week, I did reach out to Gibson to ask them if their Custom Shop would build me a Flying V if I provided them the specs. They said yes... so long as I wasn't trying to modify any of their pre-made custom shop offerings from their current catalog. So yeah, I could do that and get it done for half of what PRS would have charged, but then again, Gibson is like the old girlfriend I dumped a long time ago and I just don't want to get back in bed with her again.

So for now, I guess I'll just calm the fork down and ponder my options. Maybe I can find a Hamer V somewhere.

 

[veinbuster]

UPDATE 2021: This weekend I went to a PRS Private Stock dealer and asked the serious question. Yes, I came to the place in my mind that I was willing to pay PRS between $10,000.00 to $13,000.00 if they would build me a caveman simple guitar design to the specifications which I would provide them. Basically, a Flying V guitar body design.

I got the call today, a few hours ago with the answer. It was a hard No, with no explanation provided.

I'm pi$$ed off. Like... someone just slapped me in the face pi$$ed off and visions of a gesture which was made famous by Stone Cold Steve Austin are swirling around in my mind. I'm sure I'll get over it but right now, it still stings. And for the record, I don't buy that whole copyright and not wanting to get sued bit. That doesn't apply to a one-off build that is commissioned by a customer. That's not how copyrights work (to the best of my understanding) and I don't think there is a chance in hell that Gibson would sue PRS over something like that, even if they had 20 customers who all wanted one of their own. We are not talking about a production guitar which a reasonable person might mistakenly buy, thinking that it was a Gibson product.

So the good news is that they just saved me thirteen thousand dollars by saying no. Last week, I did reach out to Gibson to ask them if their Custom Shop would build me a Flying V if I provided them the specs. They said yes... so long as I wasn't trying to modify any of their pre-made custom shop offerings from their current catalog. So yeah, I could do that and get it done for half of what PRS would have charged, but then again, Gibson is like the old girlfriend I dumped a long time ago and I just don't want to get back in bed with her again.

So for now, I guess I'll just calm the fork down and ponder my options. Maybe I can find a Hamer V somewhere.

Sorry you can’t get what you want.
Private stock has never been about truly one off guitars. They’ve always been variations of something in the PRS line, unless you’ve got Mayer type leverage.

If you really want a V, check with some of the smaller builders. Thorn did a sweet batch of them a few years ago and one seems to find a new owner every 18 months or so.

 

[Warmart]

Sorry man, I feel your pain. Almost all of the big companies and many small ones make a V, and I don't see any of them getting sued so I'm not buying the copyright reason. They would obviously use the PRS headstock and there shouldn't be an issue. Who knows, I guess PRSh just doesn't like them.

 

[Moondog Wily]

UPDATE 2021: This weekend I went to a PRS Private Stock dealer and asked the serious question. Yes, I came to the place in my mind that I was willing to pay PRS between $10,000.00 to $13,000.00 if they would build me a caveman simple guitar design to the specifications which I would provide them. Basically, a Flying V guitar body design.

I got the call today, a few hours ago with the answer. It was a hard No, with no explanation provided.

I'm pi$$ed off. Like... someone just slapped me in the face pi$$ed off and visions of a gesture which was made famous by Stone Cold Steve Austin are swirling around in my mind. I'm sure I'll get over it but right now, it still stings. And for the record, I don't buy that whole copyright and not wanting to get sued bit. That doesn't apply to a one-off build that is commissioned by a customer. That's not how copyrights work (to the best of my understanding) and I don't think there is a chance in hell that Gibson would sue PRS over something like that, even if they had 20 customers who all wanted one of their own. We are not talking about a production guitar which a reasonable person might mistakenly buy, thinking that it was a Gibson product.

So the good news is that they just saved me thirteen thousand dollars by saying no. Last week, I did reach out to Gibson to ask them if their Custom Shop would build me a Flying V if I provided them the specs. They said yes... so long as I wasn't trying to modify any of their pre-made custom shop offerings from their current catalog. So yeah, I could do that and get it done for half of what PRS would have charged, but then again, Gibson is like the old girlfriend I dumped a long time ago and I just don't want to get back in bed with her again.

So for now, I guess I'll just calm the fork down and ponder my options. Maybe I can find a Hamer V somewhere.

I think Backlund could build you a Flying V that actually flies!!! After all, they built this (which I think is capable of space travel in Stingray fashion):

I want a bass guitar that looks like the old Stingray logo, but I doubt PRS would ever say yes. Maybe I will ask the Sterling family one day!

 

[Bookface]

And for the record, I don't buy that whole copyright and not wanting to get sued bit. That doesn't apply to a one-off build that is commissioned by a customer. That's not how copyrights work (to the best of my understanding) and I don't think there is a chance in hell that Gibson would sue PRS over something like that, even if they had 20 customers who all wanted one of their own. We are not talking about a production guitar which a reasonable person might mistakenly buy, thinking that it was a Gibson product.

Unfortunately that is exactly how copyright works. Guitars shapes are of course on tricky legal ground when it comes to it because for years they enforced nothing but headstock designs, but if we're talking letter of the law, if it looks like a flying V to the average person then you're infringing Gibsons rights to the design. Would they sue over it? Like you say, probably not, but it would technically be an infringement.

It could also simply be that you didn't offer them enough money. A PS build starts at just over $9800. That's for something that they already have all the designs for, CNC programming, etc. A brand new, totally unique design they've never built before? And you know they wouldn't be happy with doing something that's just 'good enough'. The manager at my local store told me a story recently about a customer who wanted a left handed hollowbody before they'd ever made a leftie HB. They had no CNC programs or anything, and essentially Joe Knaggs would have had to hand carve the whole thing, and they gave a price over $30k. The guy didn't pay it, but I think that's representative of the kind of cost you're looking at to have PRS build you a complete one off, especially when you figure in the potential legal issues.

It sucks that they gave no explanation, but my guess would be it simply not being worth it financially for them.

 

[HANGAR18]

Unfortunately that is exactly how copyright works. Guitars shapes are of course on tricky legal ground when it comes to it because for years they enforced nothing but headstock designs, but if we're talking letter of the law, if it looks like a flying V to the average person then you're infringing Gibsons rights to the design. Would they sue over it? Like you say, probably not, but it would technically be an infringement.

It could also simply be that you didn't offer them enough money. A PS build starts at just over $9800. That's for something that they already have all the designs for, CNC programming, etc. A brand new, totally unique design they've never built before? And you know they wouldn't be happy with doing something that's just 'good enough'. The manager at my local store told me a story recently about a customer who wanted a left handed hollowbody before they'd ever made a leftie HB. They had no CNC programs or anything, and essentially Joe Knaggs would have had to hand carve the whole thing, and they gave a price over $30k. The guy didn't pay it, but I think that's representative of the kind of cost you're looking at to have PRS build you a complete one off, especially when you figure in the potential legal issues.

It sucks that they gave no explanation, but my guess would be it simply not being worth it financially for them.

I don't think that the effort requires any special CnC jobs at all. They already have everything they need to build a neck, let's say a McCarty 594 neck. They already have the CnC programing to route pickup holes, neck pocket and stuff into a S2 McCarty 594 Singlecut. The only thing they need to do different is cut the wood billet diagonally, flip the pieces around and glue them together to make a V body. No carving involved. If you want to get fancy, you could even add a 1/4" slab of Maple on top of the Mahogany V body and spray it with a natural edge. A far simpler design than what they usually make.

 

[markd21]

UPDATE 2021: This weekend I went to a PRS Private Stock dealer and asked the serious question. Yes, I came to the place in my mind that I was willing to pay PRS between $10,000.00 to $13,000.00 if they would build me a caveman simple guitar design to the specifications which I would provide them. Basically, a Flying V guitar body design.

I got the call today, a few hours ago with the answer. It was a hard No, with no explanation provided.

So for now, I guess I'll just calm the fork down and ponder my options. Maybe I can find a Hamer V somewhere.

That sucks. However, if you can find a USA Hamer Vector you will be MORE than pleased. I had one in the early/mid 90s. Basically a sunburst V...it had the 3/4" flamed cap, the sustain block bridge, crown inlays...it was killer. Search, buy, forever enjoy. To me, the Hamer is the greatest V of all time. The Korina style Hamers are beastly as well.

 

[markd21]

Get yours, TODAY!!

https://reverb.com/item/17570309-hamer-usa-vector-2005-korina