My journey has begun!

JasonE

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Joined
May 1, 2012
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South Florida
I debated on whether to put this in general discussion or in electric guitars because the end result of this will be a beautiful electric guitar that I have wanted for many, many years.

As some of you have probably noticed I have been getting a bit more serious about possibly having a private stock built. This is my first and I have wanted to do this for decades. It would have been cheaper to do it decades ago but some of the options I will go with were not available back then. Unfortunately, there are probably some options I would like to have done but are not available now.

The first thing that made this journey get some traction is that I was talking to my wife about the idea of this again. She has heard this conversation more than once over the years. I told her that I wanted to do a trip to the library and get the tour of the factory and that I wanted to take her with me. She said that would be very cool to do. That was the green light I needed to really get me moving on it.

I had two guitars that I had pulled out months ago and put back to stock in preparation to sell. I just hadn't got motivated enough to sell them. I sent CME the pictures and specs. They weren't even interested in one of them and sent me a price on the other one that I wasn't sure I was willing to accept. I had talked to my local independent shop over a year ago about putting some guitars in his shop on consignment and he said he may be willing to buy some outright. The two I had are right in his lane. It took both of them over to him on Saturday. I had a bad feeling when I walked in because his shop it over stocked. The have new gear stacked up all over the place. He told me the price would have to be right because he has so much stock. He looked at them and commented about how good of condition they were in and that they were really good guitars. He asked what I was thinking. I told him to give me a number that he was comfortable with. He gave me a number and it was right at the low end of where I had decided I was comfortable selling them. I told him that he hit my bottom number and that I was willing to sell them to him for that. He told me he appreciated me working with him on the deal and accepting that offer. I told him that I would rather support my local shop than some place nowhere near me. I got $400 more out of the guitar that CME was interested in from him and I didn't have to box and ship it anywhere. This is a great start to the journey too.

I picked a dealer on Thursday and made a phone call in between meetings. I had a great conversation. I sent my first pass at the specs to the dealer on Friday. They told me that they would probably get to them today or tomorrow. I know there are a couple of things in my list that they will have to call to find out if they will do them. I have had enough days to think through this build that I have been identifying things about my current lineup that I like and putting those things in this build. This build is going to be a combination of 3 or 4 of my current PRS guitars. I may actually sell a few of them off after this one is done if it comes out like I am hoping it will.

I am excited and really looking forward to this journey. I have more guitars I want to sell. I need to get them out and inspect them and make some decisions. My local shop told me that it would be good if I could wait about a month before bringing more in. I have a couple that the dealer I am working with on the private stock build told me they would be interested in. May see what they are willing to give me for them in the meantime.
 
I debated on whether to put this in general discussion or in electric guitars because the end result of this will be a beautiful electric guitar that I have wanted for many, many years.

As some of you have probably noticed I have been getting a bit more serious about possibly having a private stock built. This is my first and I have wanted to do this for decades. It would have been cheaper to do it decades ago but some of the options I will go with were not available back then. Unfortunately, there are probably some options I would like to have done but are not available now.

The first thing that made this journey get some traction is that I was talking to my wife about the idea of this again. She has heard this conversation more than once over the years. I told her that I wanted to do a trip to the library and get the tour of the factory and that I wanted to take her with me. She said that would be very cool to do. That was the green light I needed to really get me moving on it.

I had two guitars that I had pulled out months ago and put back to stock in preparation to sell. I just hadn't got motivated enough to sell them. I sent CME the pictures and specs. They weren't even interested in one of them and sent me a price on the other one that I wasn't sure I was willing to accept. I had talked to my local independent shop over a year ago about putting some guitars in his shop on consignment and he said he may be willing to buy some outright. The two I had are right in his lane. It took both of them over to him on Saturday. I had a bad feeling when I walked in because his shop it over stocked. The have new gear stacked up all over the place. He told me the price would have to be right because he has so much stock. He looked at them and commented about how good of condition they were in and that they were really good guitars. He asked what I was thinking. I told him to give me a number that he was comfortable with. He gave me a number and it was right at the low end of where I had decided I was comfortable selling them. I told him that he hit my bottom number and that I was willing to sell them to him for that. He told me he appreciated me working with him on the deal and accepting that offer. I told him that I would rather support my local shop than some place nowhere near me. I got $400 more out of the guitar that CME was interested in from him and I didn't have to box and ship it anywhere. This is a great start to the journey too.

I picked a dealer on Thursday and made a phone call in between meetings. I had a great conversation. I sent my first pass at the specs to the dealer on Friday. They told me that they would probably get to them today or tomorrow. I know there are a couple of things in my list that they will have to call to find out if they will do them. I have had enough days to think through this build that I have been identifying things about my current lineup that I like and putting those things in this build. This build is going to be a combination of 3 or 4 of my current PRS guitars. I may actually sell a few of them off after this one is done if it comes out like I am hoping it will.

I am excited and really looking forward to this journey. I have more guitars I want to sell. I need to get them out and inspect them and make some decisions. My local shop told me that it would be good if I could wait about a month before bringing more in. I have a couple that the dealer I am working with on the private stock build told me they would be interested in. May see what they are willing to give me for them in the meantime.
That is awesome. Good luck and have fun!
 
Living abroad - non US resident - I'm personally reluctant in spending in a Private Stock, though they are pieces of outstanding craftmanship. I could offer a few reasons for that. One is: I own two core guitars which a perfect to me, soundwise, haptically and optically. A PS instead then need to be likewise an eight-string version with fanned frets of that maybe. But why? Six strings a complex enough to bring into harmony :cool:
Second: I have to honour to share friendship to a luthier. He built two guitars up to my specs, a third one made by him is one of a series of approx.e 20 he intended to manufacture. Especially the genesis of the custom builts could not be closer. The first one is witness of the requirements of that time, but was never capable to become my #1. My first PRS 513 (a 2011 MT) kept this spot.
The second one made it to the extension of body and soul and became the #1, my 513s are on #2.
I would be disappointed not to be bonded by PRS PS Division in the same manner due to their output.

But I'm curious, what you have in mind for your body and soul extension, @JasonE.

 
Living abroad - non US resident - I'm personally reluctant in spending in a Private Stock, though they are pieces of outstanding craftmanship. I could offer a few reasons for that. One is: I own two core guitars which a perfect to me, soundwise, haptically and optically. A PS instead then need to be likewise an eight-string version with fanned frets of that maybe. But why? Six strings a complex enough to bring into harmony :cool:
Second: I have to honour to share friendship to a luthier. He built two guitars up to my specs, a third one made by him is one of a series of approx.e 20 he intended to manufacture. Especially the genesis of the custom builts could not be closer. The first one is witness of the requirements of that time, but was never capable to become my #1. My first PRS 513 (a 2011 MT) kept this spot.
The second one made it to the extension of body and soul and became the #1, my 513s are on #2.
I would be disappointed not to be bonded by PRS PS Division in the same manner due to their output.

But I'm curious, what you have in mind for your body and soul extension, @JasonE.

As I get the specs finalized and get word on what they will and won't do, I will reveal the stuff that gets locked in and why I picked it.
 
Well, I had a little bump in the road with this. The dealer I picked didn't seem all that interested in this sale. There were very long lags between communications. Things were never done when they said they would be. I happened to think that if something went sideways with this build this dealer was going to be tough to deal with because this didn't seem to be a priority for them. I wanted more of a partner in this process. The main reason I picked this dealer was because I had purchased a guitar from them back in 2012 and it was a really good transaction. It seems they have grown a lot since then and don't have time to provide the customer service level they had provided in the past. I still wasn't able to get my questions answered and get the specs nailed down after almost of 2 weeks working with them.

So, that was the bad. Here is the good.

I had another dealer that I was very seriously considering. I have bought some parts and things from this dealer in the past and always had a good experience there. I was really close to calling this dealer first in the beginning. I gave them a call. I got most of my questions answered on that call. These are things I had been asking the other dealer and not getting answers on. I sent them the specs that I had nailed down along with the things I wasn't sure about. I had sent this same exact list to the other dealer. By the end of the next day we had the specs pretty much nailed down with only a couple of questions that needed to be asked to PRS. They had the answers by the next business day and we submitted the specs up the approval chain. You read that right. I had my specs submitted with this dealer within 2 business days where I had been in the process with the other dealer for just about 2 weeks and hadn't got this far. I got word yesterday that my specs have been approved and are now going to PRS for final approval. Once that happens I will pay the deposit and we will lock in a day for the factory visit. That could happen today.

I really wish I had called the second dealer first. The person I am working with there has been an absolute pleasure to work with. He has made this experience go from something I was getting pretty uncomfortable with to something I am very excited about again. I am not going to out the dealer I had a bad experience with. They post on here occasionally. The dealer that has made this a great experience again also posts here occasionally. Therefore, I will not divulge the name of the one I moved on from. I will at some point reveal the one that made this a great experience. They deserve all of the accolades I can give them. I will also reveal the guitar specs once everything is locked in. I am very excited to be doing this again!
 
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