NGD - PRS SE Baritone Mike Mushok Vintage Cherry

[shinksma]

Went home at lunch today to sign for my delivery of a PRS SE Mike Mushok Baritone guitar - the only baritone production model PRS has, AFAIK - in Vintage Cherry.

Sorry for the guitar pr0n, I can't help myself in combining two hobbies of mine. All shots with a Canon 5DII with 24 1.4 L II mounted, at f/1.4, 3.5 or 5.0, IIRC. Varying ISOs and shutter speeds.

A backside shot for grain examination... (not that kind of backside!)

And the obligatory thin-depth-of-field shot for arty yet indistinct imagery:

Sorry for the copyright watermark, but I need to use it consistently, or else it cannot apply when I need it to...

The pool table seems to have different colors in each shot, as I adjusted the color balance to bring out the best in the guitar.

Oh yeah, it plays very nice, needed no adjustment out of the box just yet (might lower the action, might not). I took it into work after lunch, and co-workers were quite fascinated by the baritone tuning.

I like the look of wood grain, so I picked Vintage Cherry. The Silver Burst looked good too, but this really looks nice, IMHO.

I ordered online, and I seemed to grab the last one in-stock, as they are now OOS at that retailer and everywhere else I look. I guess they aren't exactly big movers.

shinksma

 

[newbuilder]

I have been looking at those for my first baritone. That looks killer!

 

[Hopeful Sinner]

I had one briefly, let it get away, was miserable, got it back Monday!!! I'll post pics later this week!!!

Nice score!!! Congrats...

 

[shinksma]

Another observation:

The guitar came with the soft PRS gig bag, but in a nice burgundy color, not black, which is what I assume is the usual color (the PRS store offer the gig bag in black only). Maybe I'll post a pic of that too...

And a related question:

Anyone bought a hardshell case for their PRS baritone? Which one? None of the cases offered in the PRS shop seem to be appropriate.

shinksma

 

[John Beef]

Another observation:

The guitar came with the soft PRS gig bag, but in a nice burgundy color, not black, which is what I assume is the usual color (the PRS store offer the gig bag in black only). Maybe I'll post a pic of that too...

And a related question:

Anyone bought a hardshell case for their PRS baritone? Which one? None of the cases offered in the PRS shop seem to be appropriate.

shinksma

Congrats! The vintage cherry looks pretty sweet. I have owned one since silverburst was (regrettably) the only color, 2009 I think. I bought mine used and it came with an aftermarket gig bag.

SE gig bags have evolved over the years. They were black in the early days, then later were grey, and now are the reddish burgundy color. I have one of the new reddish ones and it's very nice. It's a lot better than the black one that came with my 03 Santana SE.

I have never used a hard shell case with mine. It's always gone in a double guitar gig bag to gigs.

 

[László]

Nice guitar!

 

[sergiodeblanc]

Bangin'!

 

[shinksma]

SE gig bags have evolved over the years. They were black in the early days, then later were grey, and now are the reddish burgundy color. I have one of the new reddish ones and it's very nice. It's a lot better than the black one that came with my 03 Santana SE.

I have never used a hard shell case with mine. It's always gone in a double guitar gig bag to gigs.

I don't need a hardshell, but if I found one it would be a nice-to-have. I do have a spare hardshell case that is too big for a strat, perhaps originally intended for a small bass, so maybe I'll try that. (Although it also doesn't support my Custom 24 properly, even "loosely" - the body-neck-headstock profile of PRSs is quite different from Strats and P-basses, etc, and the headstock of the Custom24 is pressed too firmly into the bottom of the case because the neck isn't supported appropriately.)

I Googled for PRS SE gig bag images, and there appears to have been a burnt-orange (or maybe it's dark coral) one too - unless that is just weirdly exposed photos of the burgundy gig bag. I wonder whether the gig bag of a baritone is any different from the regular stock size (since the baritone guitar is physically longer).

On a related note, there is a retailer with an ebay and regular online presence that has been mentioned in the forums before, Spotlight Music in Colorado, that has the PRS SE Mike Mushak Baritone in a Spalted Maple finish - a run of 25, just like the Custom 24s and another model they did last year, IIRC. A few left, last I looked.

I like the look of spalted maple, but for this guitar I think the Vintage Cherry looks better to me.

 

[CantankerousCarl]

I am used to seeing these in the black/gray...very much digging the cherry on this. Congrats!

 

[Chris528]

Very nice color! May consider buying one myself now. The previous color option was too ugly for me so stayed away from it, but this is nice.

 

[sleary]

Killer

 

[shinksma]

I took the baritone to band practice on Thursday night, just to demonstrate it (i.e. show off new toy). It was liked enough I ended up using it for a couple of songs the next night (last night) at a gig - we play mostly folk/trad music, plus covers of "rock" acoustic tracks like Wish you Were Here or other similar stuff arranged for acoustic (so I didn't get to Djent away madly with lots'o'distortion), and I basically just played beneath the regular acoustic guitar playing rhythm. Tuned down to "A standard" tuning (vs the standard B it ships at), so I could chord/strum/pick similar to the manner I would use normally if capoed at the fifth fret on a normal guitar. Seemed to fill out the sound quite nicely, since we lack a stand-up bass in the band.

The folk stuff is a very different world from the prog rock/metal/classic rock I normally play.

This is the fastest I've put a new guitar to work. I need to get together with some co-workers who are into heavier stuff, do some loud grungy stuff to exercise that end of the spectrum...