New PRS Core Guitars

Thought there’d be more pix in this thread. ;)

Nothing wrong with a solid top. (See avatar)
But I think about 95% of the finished on PRS guitars are amazing.
 
The beauty of wood is in the eye of the beholder!

One top/stain finish will talk more to one person (group of people) than another (others).

Colours are very subjective. G•d knows, poor Sergio gets teased almost daily!

I personally love anomalies in grain and figuring, that others may class as faults in timber. I regard them as the wood being the organic material that it is.

It’s what we’re encouraged to believe. As @11top said, it’s a matter of supply and demand. It’s also subject to fashion as well, to a certain extent. Years ago, spalted timber was regarded as waste, it was burnt in the yard to prevent it infecting other wood.

Pretty tops are nice, but can they make any quantifiable tonal difference? That’s the million dollar question?;)

They are worth what the market dictates and also their scarcity.
 
The beauty of wood is in the eye of the beholder!

One top/stain finish will talk more to one person (group of people) than another (others).

Colours are very subjective. G•d knows, poor Sergio gets teased almost daily!

I personally love anomalies in grain and figuring, that others may class as faults in timber. I regard them as the wood being the organic material that it is.

I concur completely. I like the plains grains these days. Solids are fine too.
Though I was very taken by this diffuse quilt C24. It was among those I tried out and considered buying last month.

PRS-Limited-Edition-Custom-24-Quilt-Riverblue_8.jpg
 
I concur completely. I like the plains grains these days. Solids are fine too.
Though I was very taken by this diffuse quilt C24. It was among those I tried out and considered buying last month.

PRS-Limited-Edition-Custom-24-Quilt-Riverblue_8.jpg
Yeah that’s beautiful, like a stormy summer sky. An SSS if you will!
 
Also - and depending on how obsessively you shop - I think it's inevitable to find periods in time when store stock available to you in a given model isn't quite what you envisioned. It doesn't mean the product quality has declined, but rather shows a wide range of natural variance in wood, transparent to the world so to speak. Some prefer chevrons, others lush quilt. Many seek a near-perfect book match, others like some "strange". I know I have my preferences, and I've been fortunate enough to enjoy two spectacular purchases so far. All I know is: I've never seen a stock PRS top that made me think "DAMN, I wish they'd shot that in a solid." ;)

This is giving me the kooky notion for a "runners-up" thread to purchases we've made, but is anyone besides me dorky enough to keep track of that sort of thing? :confused:
I like strange..................tops
 
A lot of the jaw dropping tops seem to be winding up on 594's lately. Although Dave's guitars has a quilted CU24 Semi-hollow with a top to die for.
 
I appreciate the beauty of a nice curl in the wood, And can be as picky as the next person, but after the “NGD” wears off, I stop caring much about the figure in the wood. Possibly that’s the point where the guitar truly becomes what it’s intended to be, an instrument to make music with.

I can honestly say that I spend zero time looking at the guitars, except to take them out of the case, or put them back in the case, and the rest of the time playing them.

“Oh yeah? Then why do you spring for the pretty ones?”

“Because I’m as crazy as the rest of you.”
I’m pretty much like this - I love looking at a nice instrument when I first get it, but then I largely don’t see it after that. If it’s UGLY enough, like if it was some bright neon color I really didn’t like, I’d probably still see it. I had a relic finish Ibanez semi-hollow that I though was pretty stupid looking, but underneath all the stupid it was a pretty basic sunburst, and I never saw the stupid relic after the initial look either. It was a great player that I got for about half price because they were discontinuing that finish.

My 594 is by far the prettiest guitar I’ve ever owned - that mattered for about a week. Now it’s just the sunburst hanging on the wall, easily distinguished from my silver Robert Cray Strat next to it - I really dug the looks of both of them when I first had em and now I don’t see them anymore except to tell them apart. There are some extremely bright colored quilted tops I’ve seen here that are beautiful and I enjoy seeing, but wouldn’t personally want to own - we each like what we like. I guess if I still notice the looks of a guitar after a month, it’s because there’s something I DON’T like about it.

My 594 is a 10-top. As for why I “sprung for the pretty one”, it was the opposite. I was shopping for used to keep the cost down, wanted to buy from Guitar Center for easy returnability if I didn’t bond with it, and 5 of the 6 available at the time were 10-tops and the one core model was priced the same - they were all priced within about $300 of the same - except there was a violet one that was a couple hundred cheaper yet - didn’t appeal to me and I guess I wasn’t alone. I went for the tobacco burst model I saw because it was tied for the lowest price among them (aside from the violet one), was the most understated finish of those available, and, taking the word of the salesmen over the phone, was one of two available that appeared to have almost never been played. A new core 594 was about $600 less than a new 10-top, and my used 10-top was about $600 less than a new core model. So I sprung for the the best deal I could find in a finish I didn’t DIS-like. Still the most I’ve spent on an electric guitar by a factor of more than three. Extremely happy to have a guitar that plays this well and sounds this good, but I really don’t see how pretty it is anymore...

I recently saw a used green Zach Myers in a shop for $500 - thought it was as pretty as any 10-Top I’ve seen. I guess that one was just luck of the draw - I’ve seen some Zachs online that weren’t all that nice, but DAMN!

-Ray
 
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Not all maple is equal

Even plain maple tops vary in appearance. The trees don't grow figure, it's actually a flaw in the timber that happens to occur. Not all tops are the same, you will find amongst regular figured top models a wide variety of the coverage of figure, the depth, the form, how grainy is is, how it reflects light etc. The only guitars where the tops are consistent are the ones with a fake top
 
One thing I have to point out though - when comparing PRS PS tops against Gibson CS Reissue tops, PS wins hands down.

Some PS have absolutely perfect ‘les Paul’ tops where the grain literally curls about. A good example is the recent 594 hollowbody limited run.

Whereas with CS R9s you’d be lucky to even spot a near perfect one. Most I see are patchy and not well defined, even with the higher end range of the R9s. It’s even more surprising given the price, or the fact that R9s are supposed to be highly and flamboyantly flamed. I would say many core PRS tops are on par with R9 tops, and this is not even apples with apples.

While I don't disagree with most of what you wrote, there are some really good Gibby reissue tops out there (and at the Custom Shop).
 
I wonder if where you are looking matters. Someone at TGP said years ago (and it must be true, because I heard it on the internet) that some "big" retailers would take "lesser" tops because they got a lower price on them. They specifically mentioned GC and MF, as large buyers who would take tops that were not quite as nice ad a reduced price, so they could sell cheaper. PRS can confirm or deny that. I'm not agreeing, just saying I heard it.
 
I wonder if where you are looking matters. Someone at TGP said years ago (and it must be true, because I heard it on the internet) that some "big" retailers would take "lesser" tops because they got a lower price on them. They specifically mentioned GC and MF, as large buyers who would take tops that were not quite as nice ad a reduced price, so they could sell cheaper. PRS can confirm or deny that. I'm not agreeing, just saying I heard it.

B. S.
 
[QUOTE="21Hemispheres12, post: 396052, member: 15177]Here's my attempt at bringing out the carve more, that quilt top just gets in the way![\QUOTE]

You what?!;)
 
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