Mystery '98 Ce22 FSR??????

[Balls5150]

Im looking for some info on a guitar I have and hoping anyone can help maybe even Paul himselfI have a'98 CE22 that I traded up to. Its the weirdest colour. It looks like it started life as a whale blue but then faded into blueish gray. Visible on the sides and back is the original blue colour but the top is faded and there are hints of blue on certain spots on the top. I'll attach pictures.It has a beautiful top with DragonII pickups. I removed the 5way and installed 3way toggle and coil tap on the neck pickup. Wide thin neck and all other standard appointments from that era. Its a great playing and sounding guitar. Here's the weird thing. With the weird colour(faded hombre grey?) that PRS doesn't offer I was curious and had to dive deeper.Removing the pickups to inspect cavities for clues a found FSR(factory special run???) in the cavities. My questions are.
1. Did PRS do factory special runs?
2. was whale blue offered as a colour option in 1998?
3. When was the whale blue colour first offered?
4. Is it possible that the colour faded that badly?
5. What is the deal with this guitar???????
6. first post so I can't seem to post pictures not sure what's up
Any help is appreciated.

 

[toothace]

Make a few more posts and you will be able to post photos. You'll need to use a third party host...I use Imgur.

Blue is well known for fading...I have '91 CE that started as royal blue and ... well... is not anymore.

You can see the original color under the pickup ring...

 

[Balls5150]

Thanks I’ll do the imgur thing once I can. Mine has the build tech signature dated as well as an FSR. It is also faded a lot more than your pic greeny blue grey. Are your wise dot steel? Do you know the inlay material? When were moon inlays introduced if you know.

 

[Balls5150]

Sweet looking guitar btw. I try to use my trem ala Jeff beck very poorly though. So sad. If you use it any tuning tricks? Do you have OG bat wing tuners?

 

[JasonE]

I suppose it is possible that FSR could be someone's initials that inspected it along the way. Whale Blue was probably around at that time. I have a 2006 CU24 in Whale Blue. I have seen pictures of that color fading to look more gray than blue. It all depends on how much it was exposed to natural light. Mine is in it's case when not being played so mine has not faded at all. Blue has been a tough color for PRS. There have been a lot of fading issues with the older guitars. They have changed dyes a few times trying to get something that doesn't fade as bad.

 

[Xtcclassic]

Whale blue definitely existed in the 90’s.

 

[garrett]

1. Did PRS do factory special runs?
2. was whale blue offered as a colour option in 1998?
3. When was the whale blue colour first offered?
4. Is it possible that the colour faded that badly?
5. What is the deal with this guitar???????

1. It's not unheard of, but not common.

2. Yep. However, if the black is blue, I'll bet you a dollar the finish is Royal Blue. Royal was more vibrant (until it faded, lol) and blue all over. No scraped binding. Whale was more subdued. Scraped binding with a black back. There is always the possibility of exceptions, but that's the general way of things.

3. At least since at least the mid-90's.

4. Oh yeah. Both Whale Blue and Royal Blue (or any PRS finish containing any blue at all) are infamous for fading.

5. It sounds like a typical CE22 of the era. You had the option of W/F or W/T neck on the CE22 back in the day, with the thin being less common. They eventually dropped that option and made 'em all W/F.

 

[JasonE]

1. It's not unheard of, but not common.

2. Yep. However, if the black is blue, I'll bet you a dollar the finish is Royal Blue. Royal was more vibrant (until it faded, lol) and blue all over. No scraped binding. Whale was more subdued. Scraped binding with a black back. There is always the possibility of exceptions, but that's the general way of things.

3. At least since at least the mid-90's.

4. Oh yeah. Both Whale Blue and Royal Blue (or any PRS finish containing any blue at all) are infamous for fading.

5. It sounds like a typical CE22 of the era. You had the option of W/F or W/T neck on the CE22 back in the day, with the thin being less common. They eventually dropped that option and made 'em all W/F.

In the pictures you can see a black back and scraped binding. The blue where the pickup ring was doesn't look exactly like whale blue to me but the black back and scraped binding would be appropriate for that color. My WB guitar has a bit more gray in the color than this one looks to have from the pictures. I also think there was some variation in the color over the years. That could be due to them changing dyes to combat the fading.

 

[Mark Ray]

I'm calling it faded Whale Blue.

I'm also calling dibs on the pickups if they're Dragon 1's.

 

[SinSir]

I've seen FSR in cavaties from around the same year. Maybe even my '97 SAS has these initials but don't quote me. I only remember these initials because I thought the same when I first saw FSR, but then decided it was probably just factory worker initials.

You could email PRS the serial to find the answers..

Either way, great guitar, enjoy!

 

[garrett]

Thanks I’ll do the imgur thing once I can. Mine has the build tech signature dated as well as an FSR. It is also faded a lot more than your pic greeny blue grey. Are your wise dot steel? Do you know the inlay material? When were moon inlays introduced if you know.

Side dots at the time were metal. I think some kind of nickel silver.

Moon inlays have been around since the beginning, but CE models got abalone dots. Birds were an option for a short time, but they're rare.

In the pictures you can see a black back and scraped binding. The blue where the pickup ring was doesn't look exactly like whale blue to me but the black back and scraped binding would be appropriate for that color. My WB guitar has a bit more gray in the color than this one looks to have from the pictures. I also think there was some variation in the color over the years. That could be due to them changing dyes to combat the fading.

That's a different guitar than the OP, but yeah I'd have guessed it's Whale Blue based on those details, but agree it seems too bright. Like I said, exceptions to the norms are always possible.

 

[Balls5150]

I’ll get some pics posted once I figure out the image hosting thing. Thanks for all the info.

 

[Balls5150]

Hey all well sorry for the confusion but a I have an update. Here are the pics. My memory of the neck cavity markings were mistaken. It only had SR in the guitar production code which made me think it was a special run. I think everyone here was probably correct in that its a production model royal blue that had an extreme fade with the finish. Feel free to chime in though. Thanks all!

https://imgur.com/a/MKjq17V

 

[JasonE]

That definitely looks more like it was royal blue. It is interesting the top faded and the back didn't. In fact the mahogany that faces front in the lower cut away didn't fade either. The fade must just be a maple thing.

 

[Balls5150]

Yes it is a weird fade. I love the quilt in the top as well. There is almost a 12th fret bird in the quilt just behind the bridge. possibly just hung in the sunlight too long. I like stories of guitars.

 

[Balls5150]

Any idea with the SR means in the production code? Colour?

 

[garrett]

That definitely looks more like it was royal blue. It is interesting the top faded and the back didn't. In fact the mahogany that faces front in the lower cut away didn't fade either. The fade must just be a maple thing.

Yes it is a weird fade. I love the quilt in the top as well. There is almost a 12th fret bird in the quilt just behind the bridge. possibly just hung in the sunlight too long. I like stories of guitars.

That's because the top and back/side color layers are a different process. The maple top has stain applied directly to the wood. This is where the blue hues are notoriously unstable. The back/sides get sprayed with a color coat, which is urethane with an added tint, suspending the color over top of the wood. Different color agents with different applications.

Any idea with the SR means in the production code? Colour?

That's the part I'm not sure of. It's similar, but not exact to what was in my '98 CU24.

CE22SRQWT

CE22
S = ?
R = May be for Royal Blue?
Quilt top
Wide/Thin neck


My Custom was CU24FWT: Custom 24, Flame top, Wide/Thin neck. But mine was a non-standard color, so the finish was written out inside my guitar.

 

[jak3af3r]

What pickups are those? They look suspiciously like McCartys with those really round corners.

 

[Balls5150]

The pickups say DragonII on the stickers. TBH I have a 2006 CU22 with DragonII pickups and these sound completely different. I thought it was because of the bolt on neck. I can't remember readings but the pickups in the CE22 are definitely less compressed and more raw open sounding. The bridge is very hot compared to the neck and and the neck has a real PAF vibe . Almost acoustic sounding when the volume is rolled back on the neck. I had a stop tail CE22 with Dragons in it and didn't see what all the hype was about with those. I traded straight across for this CE22I grew up on a 20th Anniversary White JCM800 212 combo so that's my way of getting the clean. I play a EVH III 50w head and use the second channel with my guitar volume usually for all my tones. Tell me more about PRS

 

[Balls5150]

lol pickups I was supposed to type on the last post