Ice cream

I'm not that into relic guitars despite owning a CS strat that i bought for its Tone/playability. I also have a old 2003 LP with perfect finish checks...and still pretty...Hmm i should sell that one soon...anywayz...off topic now.

I DID REAALLY like this and almost pulled the trigger on it...but it sold. I thought this was very nicely done by PRS!

https://reverb.com/item/11107054-pr...t-aged-faded-mccarty-burst-392?show_sold=true
 
I spent time on a few other forums this morning. Came across some very interesting and cool guitars that were non-PRS. This led me to my following chain of thought :

if I were an ice cream maker and in my heart believe the chocolate was the best flavor and crafted perfect chocolate ice cream but the market was crying for a rocky road I might ponder what I should do.
Continue to make what I believe is the best and only that. Or should I try to expand my market share and give the customers what they are asking for. In doing so try to make the best rocky road the market has ever seen.

The analogy is based on road worn relicted guitars. There is a huge market out there for them based on what I see from other manufacturers and also from what I see and read in the forums.

over and over I see a younger demographic of player embracing beat up vintage guitars or relicted New guitars as they turn their nose up to guitars that are too pretty.

why not give the market what they want? Why not try something new? Why not do a limited run?

yes I know the relic thing gets bashed to death on most forums but who wouldn’t want a limited run Casper!!!!
Yeah, it's a slippery slope though!

Remember when Breyer's ice cream had their ingredients printed on the front? Cream, milk, sugar, cocoa. Now they also include: whey, carob bean gum, mono and diglycerides, carrageenan, salt, lactase enzyme, vitamin a palmitate, Tara gum, guar gum, natural flavor. They cheapened their product in order to compete with other brands on price.

Remember when Levi's jeans used to all be made in the USA? Then they decided to try to get into Wal-Mart, and started making an import line of jeans, and now, you can't get USA made Levi's unless you want to shell out $200 and are limited to one style. (or at least last time I checked)

You can give the market what it wants and be marginally more successful while abandoning your core values, or you can stick to your core values and continue to push the envelope making the best production guitars out there. I don't see why anyone would choose the former, but then, our band has 7 to 8 monthly listeners on spotify... doesn't give me much of a soapbox to stand on. :)
 
Remember when Breyer's ice cream had their ingredients printed on the front? Cream, milk, sugar, cocoa. Now they also include: whey, carob bean gum, mono and diglycerides, carrageenan, salt, lactase enzyme, vitamin a palmitate, Tara gum, guar gum, natural flavor. They cheapened their product in order to compete with other brands on price.

I'll give you the guar gum thing, but you keep your mitts off my lactase enzyme!!!
 
I guess the point was this would aim for people that are NOT currently PRS players. Of course the folks here are fine as is or we would not be here.

Lets take the Gear Page for example... They drone on about this forever. Every time there is, lets say 25% or more, that think its cool and have or want one.

Variety!
 
I’ve bought signature guitars, Santana, DGT, SRV, Mayer, Elvin Bishop (Electra). No relics. That said, if PRS did a Frankie Clarke Casper relic limited. I’d buy one if some of the proceeds went to his family. We never met, but talked online. Can’t believe he’s gone. I can only imagine what it would be like to have a cool rock star like him as a high school teacher. RIP Frankie.

p.s. I’m a huge fan of PRS’s Ted McCarty signature models. All of them. McTrem’s & Ted 245’s especially, but HB’s too.
 
My Martin is a relic kinda.. its 1977.. one owner guitar, me. My McCarty 2008.. Looks near perfect.
My Strat? It's old too! lol.. I try my best NOT to damage my instruments. If they have wear its just that.. wear and not intentional abuse.
To me that's a deal breaker.
 
A gold DGT that has seen no play may have no wear, is in mint condition, and retains more of its value. A well-worn gold DGT that has been played is no longer in mint condition, but is known as a player's guitar, and has devalued according to the road wear.

I like mint chocolate chip, but am not a fan of rocky road.

Besides, whenever I ask my doctor if I can enjoy ice cream, she says, “This is a glandular problem, hmm?”
 
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As I am new to the PRS world, I’ve just realised reading this thread that I’ve not seen a ‘well used’ PRS... anyone care to share a photo of one so I can consider if I would buy a pre reliced PRS if it were available
 
As I am new to the PRS world, I’ve just realised reading this thread that I’ve not seen a ‘well used’ PRS... anyone care to share a photo of one so I can consider if I would buy a pre reliced PRS if it were available

Google: Frankie Clarke & the Actions. You might find him on YouTube as well. ‘Caspar’, his beloved early production white PRS is a good example of a real “player’s” piece.
 
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At the beginning of Die Hard, Bruce Willis is looking pristine but he isn't worth much. Just a run of the mill guy. 120 minutes later, he looks like crap but he got s#it done, and looks like a million bucks because he was the only one ho was going to be able to do it.

That's the appeal of a reliced guitar. A few months ago, I wasn't a fan of relicing, apart from the ocasional odd one. Now, I can't get enough of it.

A perfectly finished strat? Yawn. Kirk Hammett's 63 Strat on the "I Disappear" music video? Drool. I did that to my Squier and it inspired me to play it again, after having cursed it for months (it was my first electric, and a really crappy specimen, to be honest).

Most people are never going to get a guitar to that point no matter how much they try. Even if they do, it probably wasn't by being on the road and playing arenas. It's more likely to be the dog's fault, or kids playing with it (as a toy, not as an instrument).

Was a sunburst also an intentional thing at first? Do you also need to "earn it" nowadays?

Funny enough, I don't see PRS as a suitable contender for that. I can't pinpoint why, specially being that I love looking at somewhat worn Les Pauls, and can't imagine a Mccarty in the same vein.

I understand the point on both sides. There's no excuse for a pristine guitar turned into a bad relic job, though.
 
Nope, no relic for me...in my case, I want my PRS to be perfect...no fake stuff. Not for me but to each his own.

However, if you want to see one of my favorite PRSi EVER, AND it has some "real players wear" just see @Mike Duncan Gold DGT...NOW that one...is the real m-fn deal!!
 
Nope, no relic for me...in my case, I want my PRS to be perfect...no fake stuff. Not for me but to each his own.

However, if you want to see one of my favorite PRSi EVER, AND it has some "real players wear" just see @Mike Duncan Gold DGT...NOW that one...is the real m-fn deal!!

I’ll let you scratch your initials into the back of the headstock. Nothing more, nothing less!;)
 
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