New 20yo guitar day.

[Screamingdaisy]

Went out to buy a new bass... failed at that job terribly. Still consider the day a success.

I found this downtown. There's an old independent guitar store where the owner passed away a number of years ago. He had a warehouse full of stock and vintage gear that's slowly being sold off in what is probably the worlds longest estate sale. I went there looking for a P Bass and decided to check out the guitars before leaving and came across this;

The salesman says it's been in the shops possession since at least 2013 since that's when they stopped buying used guitars. I've never seen it there before, so they must've pulled it out of storage somewhat recently. Except for some corrosion on the bridge and the oldest set of strings I've seen in a long time the guitar looks like it's brand new/never been used before. No damage anywhere, no wear on the frets, pickups, rings or the back of the guitar.

Anyone have any idea how to read that Modcat?

CE22VYQST - I can figure out CE 22 and Vintage Yellow... no idea what the QST are.

And does anyone know what the 21087.5 means?

I haven't had much time to really play the guitar yet. After restringing it and shooting a couple of photos I had about 15 minutes to wail away before I had to leave to do something. Sounds great and I'm liking the Dragon pickups, which just howl through a wah pedal. The 5 way I'm not sold on as I like McCarty switching better, but I'm going to leave it in place for now to see if I develop a use for the middle position sounds.


Edit: Photobucket sh*t the bed, so I posted new pics.

 

[rugerpc]

Nice! I love the old CEs.

 

[toothace]

That is an awesome find!!

 

[DISTORT6]

SCORE!

 

[vchizzle]

Sweet!

 

[Boogie]

I love the "old Mustang found under a tarp in an old barn" stories! And that's the most mint 90s era PRS I've seen in a long time. Beautiful score.

 

[garrettb]

Wow, rare find! Good work.

The Q is for quilt and I believe ST is for stoptail.

 

[bodia]

Great find!

 

[László]

Fantastic find!

 

[gush]

I'm not into hot pickups much these days but dragon 1s are really cool pickups.
Nice score

 

[Screamingdaisy]

Wow, rare find! Good work.

The Q is for quilt and I believe ST is for stoptail.

Quilt and Stoptail makes sense.

Best I can figure out using the ModCat decoder:

Q = Quilt,
S = Stoptail, and
T = Ten Top

I thought T = Ten Top may have been wrong because it's fairly subtle by todays standards, but it's consistent and produces a lot of movement so I thought maybe this would've qualified back in '97. But, there's no 10 on the headstock which leads me to believe the T might mean something else... anyone know what year they started doing that?

 

[Screamingdaisy]

Nice! I love the old CEs.

I've been curious about them for a few years now. I was told by someone that the CE's were cool because of the maple neck, which gave them a bit more cut live. This guitar (unplugged) has more upper midrange than my McCarty, but the Dragons will have a lot to say about it's amplified sound... which is pretty compressed and aggressive.

I love the "old Mustang found under a tarp in an old barn" stories! And that's the most mint 90s era PRS I've seen in a long time. Beautiful score.

If it weren't for the corrosion on the bridge it'd be pretty much new. The corrosion is on the part of the bridge that would rest against the case and not the part that rests against the hand, and the Case smells like it was stored in a basement, so I suspect moisture may have been an issue. Nothing else seems to have corroded and the electronics function so all is well.

Interestingly, the case also came with a strap with Schallers while the guitar still had oversized PRS strap buttons, and it came with a 2001 PRS owners manual... so I suspect this isn't the original case.

I'm not into hot pickups much these days but dragon 1s are really cool pickups.
Nice score

I like them. I have a bunch of guitars with low output. It's nice to have another fire breather in the mix.

 

[garrettb]

Quilt and Stoptail makes sense.

Best I can figure out using the ModCat decoder:

Q = Quilt,
S = Stoptail, and
T = Ten Top

I thought T = Ten Top may have been wrong because it's fairly subtle by todays standards, but it's consistent and produces a lot of movement so I thought maybe this would've qualified back in '97. But, there's no 10 on the headstock which leads me to believe the T might mean something else... anyone know what year they started doing that?

The old set necks would've had a 10 written in the cavity and on the headstock, but since it's a CE that doesn't apply.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

The 10 top option for CE's was only available as a three-piece top.

 

[Screamingdaisy]

The 10 top option for CE's was only available as a three-piece top.

Looks like in this case ST likely means Stoptail, which makes sense because trem was also an option.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

I forgot to add...




Bangin'!

 

[xjbebop]

Outstanding!
Great pics... I really like that top too!
As for the rotary switch... even if it's less than ideal, it would kinda be a shame to change it on that guitar...
Enjoy!

 

[veinbuster]

Excellent find.
I really like that yellow top, red back look.

 

[Screamingdaisy]

it would kinda be a shame to change it on that guitar...
Enjoy!

I feel the same. Near mint and all original. As I understand it, CEs were meant to cop a more Strat like vibe and the 5 way gives PRS take on the Strat's in-between positions.

Still, I have to be able to make this work on the fly and the 5 way isn't super efficient in that regard. It'll probably be a year or more before I make the decision... I do legitimately want to see if I can integrate the notch positions into my sound.

 

[Artjr]

Very nice. I'm missing my 96 CE I traded away a few weeks ago. Could the T mean thin ? I've own a few 90s CE they all had WF or WT written in the pickup cavity.