After a much longer waiting period than expected/predicted, but unsurprising based on other experiences related by other users, my Modern Eagle V, Wood Library edition from Brian's Guitars, with IRW neck and BRW FB, in Teal Black Fade, finally arrived.
The quilting on it is not as strong as another WL (509) that I have, and is probably the weakest of the batch that Brian did, but the graining is rather nice:
The quilt does show up depending on angle and available direct light:
The color seems to change to your eyes depending on the "local color temperature" (i.e. inside under incandescent lighting, outside in direct sunlight vs cloudy, etc), shifting to a bluer or greener color.
You will note there is no microswitch for 250 vs 500 kOhm volume pot switching - from what I have seen, that is true of all the IRW/BRW neck/FB with hog body instances from this run at Brian's, whereas all of the maple neck with Swamp Ash bodies do have the switch. Maybe PRS decided it was not a useful trait for this combo of woods, as they have done for the Core model? :shrug:
So how does it play? Pretty darned good, and I could nicely replicate all the various tones that Brian Ewald showed off on the latest Core MEV video.
It seems to sustain quite nicely, and has a "less-midrangy" sound compared to the SC594 SH that I was using as a back-to-back with it.
The single coil modes sound nice and strat-ish.
This is my first chance to mess with a guitar with Paul's guitar pickups, and I do like the tone. Reminds me of my LP Deluxe with the miniHBs (as a relative comparison to the full HB version of a LP).
The guitar came with a hang tag that noted it has a nitrocellulose finish ("usually only available on Private Stocks" or somesuch, so sounding like not the nitro over CAB that is now a defacto finish) , and to be careful with various substances or somesuch. Is it actually different from the current core Nitro over CAB finish, or is the tag just to warn the user that this isn't one of the old "poly" finish types?