My dream guitar is for sale. Do I buy it?

Do I buy it?

  • yes

    Votes: 40 62.5%
  • no

    Votes: 24 37.5%

  • Total voters
    64
It’s beautiful.
You can afford it (I’m assuming you are not running up a huge student loan obligation).
Gap year is 4 years away.

Do it. If needed, you can probably break even to fund a gap year. If you learn you hate P90s, take your lumps. I find you can do a lot with 3 of them.
 
I voted NO specifically because of your comments on the pickups. That could end up being a huge deal. You will probably not be able to route it for humbuckers. I believe the P90s are wider. I would never take a router to a Private Stock guitar. That is a great way to kill the value of it. I personally am not a fan of the P90 pickup. I just can't stand the look of them. I would hold out for one that is the right guitar or save enough to have one built to your specs. I would say from what you have said, this is NOT your dream guitar. It is in the ballpark but is not it.
 
Your answer is in your post "The problem is I don't think buying this right now would be financially responsible for me." GAS is an addiction that drives people to make foolish financial decisions. You read about it every day on guitar gear forums, people selling gear to buy tires for the car, people losing $500 or $1000 on a guitar they just bought 6 months ago because there's a new, shiny one they just have to have. It just boggles my mind. I had a slight case for a while myself but I never bought something I couldn't afford and never had to sell something to pay a bill. Maybe I was one of the lucky ones.
 
I would hate to pass on a guitar like that. Have you tried a PRS with P90's? Mine didn't sound anything like a Gibson P90. In recordings, it just sounded like a nice guitar.
 
About the P90s, which aren’t for everyone.

I never really cared about them for my first million-billion years. But I felt I should give them a chance and got a guitar with three of them. I have a blend which lets me add degrees of neck or bridge to the middle. It gives me a ton of range in that Les Paul/PRS space.
 
I started out at an emphatic: YES!

Then I partook of the shared wisdom, and switched my vote to: no.

Now, in between that binary thinking: it's not like you couldn't sell your "dream" guitar, if your "fantasy" walked in the door.
 
I should mention that I love P-90s and the Custom 22 Soapbar model (three pickups) was one of my favorite all time PRS models when it was in the lineup. I had one for a long time, and currently have a 594 Soapbar. I love PRS Soapbar guitars.

Nonetheless, they are noisy in some environments due to the tendency to pick up RFI and EMI. P-90 fans learn to minimize the noise by turning in the room to find a spot where there's minimal noise. In some spots, however, there's no noise at all, and in the middle position, the noise tends to cancel itself out, being out of phase.

If you're going to splurge, might be a good idea to play the thing first.

I would hate to pass on a guitar like that. Have you tried a PRS with P90's? Mine didn't sound anything like a Gibson P90. In recordings, it just sounded like a nice guitar.

The earlier P-90s PRS used were brighter and less Gibson-like. However the Antiquities Duncan makes for PRS that are in my 594 Soapbar sound very much like the pickups on my '65 SG Special, only the guitar's snappier, probably due to the maple top.
 
Holy smokes that thing is incredible. If you can truly afford it now, jump on it. If it turns out to actually be a dream guitar, it was worth it. You will be hard pressed to find another non-Private Stock with those woods.

If you're not totally attached to it once gap year comes, sell it. It's already used, so it already took took the biggest depreciation hit. Take care of it and you will likely get most of that money back.

Is it the best financial option? Nah, stick that money in an index fund and make a few bucks. But I wouldn't write it off as a poor decision either, considering the non-tangible value you could get from it over the course of 4+ years.

@Lee Mac speaks some truth up there, though. It's a slippery slope, so don't get too caught up in the excitement of the chase.
 
The answer is always yes, as long as affording it doesn't put you at any risk.

I didn't pull the trigger when I saw my 'dream' guitar show up for sale 2 years ago and regretted it.
I thought the minimum asking price for a used PS was delusional, but it sold for nearly that.

By a pure coincidence I ended up chatting with the new owner couple weeks ago and he kindly agreed to sell it to me.
You bet I'm buying it this time around and I'll be driving several hours to pick that one up this week-end...
 
I voted yes but understand that you may have to adjust other parts of your life the have this.
It it a really good price for a killer looking guitar that can serve you for a lifetime.
I also would skip the gap year and get on with my life , a job will let you have plenty of income for trips and cars.
 
Regarding the P-90s, I've never played with P-90s before. I might love them! If I don't, I really don't mind doing pickup swaps to mini humbuckers. I'll find tones I love without a doubt. As long as I don't do any routing, it's easy to mod it back to stock if I decide I need to sell.

This forum is being far more reasonable than I had hoped. You guys are supposed to be my enablers! This has been really helpful for thinking through the decision. I'm still firmly undecided.
 
I’m a big fan of financial responsibility, but I’ve also learned to grab a guitar when it’s available or you’ll miss out. I missed out on a guitar I wanted back in 2008 and I haven’t seen another come up for sale since, but I’m still looking.

You still have four years to fund the gap year. Plus, buying this one used at a good price means you can probably sell it down the line without a loss if you need to in order to fund the gap year.

The key question here is how close is this to your dream guitar? Pickup swaps are common and easy, and you’ll probably have to spend private stock money to get your perfect dream guitar with ziricote neck.
 
I’m a big fan of financial responsibility, but I’ve also learned to grab a guitar when it’s available or you’ll miss out. I missed out on a guitar I wanted back in 2008 and I haven’t seen another come up for sale since, but I’m still looking.

You still have four years to fund the gap year. Plus, buying this one used at a good price means you can probably sell it down the line without a loss if you need to in order to fund the gap year.

The key question here is how close is this to your dream guitar? Pickup swaps are common and easy, and you’ll probably have to spend private stock money to get your perfect dream guitar with ziricote neck.

Neck profile is the other thing to consider. I haven't played enough PRS guitars to know what neck profile I like. This one has a pattern neck. I generally like modern C necks.
 
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