Good news.
I was able to meet with Paul, Tina, Paul Miles, and another real nice guy whos name I just can not remember. I believe he is the head of domestic sales. Anyway, first off, I can say without any hesitation, Paul Reed Smith is a genuine, nice guy. He had zero attitude, and never talked "down" to me or anyone else in the room. Paul Miles I love He really knows what he is talking about, and if he can not answer a question, he will seek out the correct answer and not try and talk around it. VERY good. Tina is also totally cool, and seems to be a calming factor. Like a great bass player, never lets things get to crazy!! Paul did not rush me, he listened to all of my concerns, and came up with what I feel is totally fair. It was nice to lay the guitar on the table, put the sample piece of wood with the Pomegranite color I had originally picked next to it, and have everyone agree the colors were very different. I think between that and the chambering/semi hollow differences, they realized I was not nit-picking, and that my frustrations were well founded. (At least I hope they felt that way.)
What helps my piece of mind is I found out exactly why 3-4 of my major issues over the last 3 guitars happened, and while PRS did make some mistakes, it seems most were between the dealer/PRS communication process. I can say this, for a PS, its best to go to PRS, pick your woods, and go over every detail to the nth degree with the PS team themselves. Leave NOTHING to chance, or left to be figured out and or communicated between the dealer and PS team. (This is not as easy as it sounds, so plan things out WAY ahead of time) This is where the problems seem to occur. After speaking with them face to face and seeing their confidence, I feel much better about letting them refin the Pomegranite to the color I want. They believe, without any doubt, they can get it right on. (See, it wasnt the wood!) They have two guys who spray, and one tends to mix things much darker. Guess who sprayed mine? Soo... A refin it is to the correct color, and if I am let down by it changing the killer top in any way, I can have a full refund on the guitar, and start over. It also ends up the chambering (semi hollowness) on this one is actually correct, its my last one that was wrong.
The last one, which to me seems more "semi hollow" is what they call chambered, (Although I ordered it semi hollow , and it even says so on the certificate) and my new one that seems to me to be chambered, is what they call semi hollow. (But also says semi hollow on the certificate)
From what they tell me, if you xray the guitars, the one that looks more solid from inside the cavity, is actually more routed out. So my blue one that sounds more semi hollow to me, is actually less so. I would really like to see xrays of these!!!!! Maybe I will take them to my dentist.
It does seem like this new one has the correct inner structure (whatever you want to call it) of the original production Artist 3s, so this one IS what I always wanted!
On top of that Paul is taking my first private stock, (the one that has the1/8" thinner body, and oddly, no one there can figure out why or how) and is going to make it sound as good as possible. New Frets, new pups, new tuners and a new nut, all on him.
(WAY more than I thought, the guitar is 8 years old!) At that point, I said with all of that, I am going to pay for a refin on it. It will be like a totally new guitar. I picked out two different blue/green colors, and told them to use which ever they thought would make the top "pop" the best. So it will be a surprise. He also offered to see what he could do with my blue ebony board guitar. He could not retop it, and it sounds to good as is to mess with, so that one is being left alone. I am still upset that a refin has to be done, but I can see that without getting my note and picture, its not 100% their fault. They should have matched the pomegranite sample I handed them, but the darker maroon color has gone out to a lot of people who seem to really dig it. I happen to not be one of them. I have no idea when this will be done, but of course pics as soon as possible.
A few more nice things. When Paul first picked up the Pomegranite guitar, the first words which were more or less to himself...."This thing sounds GREAT. Rings like a bell. We talked about the body depth, semi hollow/trem construction adding to the tone, and he said maybe they should start offering them again. You could see he was genuinely impressed with the tone. He kept playing it, tapping the body, and listening, over and over, with a half smile on his face. Kind of like what I do, but I get the drool as well! . :redface: VERY GOOD! I have been saying this for years. The trem, deep body, semi hollow combination is like magic. One more thing.. PRS guitars are thought of by many to be "pretty guitars" with no soul. I am sure Paul knows that the nice woods, and beautiful looks makes his guitars stand out, but when you talk to him, and watch him play, this is of zero concern. None. Its all about how the guitar plays and sounds. Thats it. For someone who makes such beautiful guitars, he does not even mention it. Maybe thats why his guitars sound and play so good. Underneath it all, he is "just" a guitar player.
VERY GOOD, VERY GOOD!!!
I was able to meet with Paul, Tina, Paul Miles, and another real nice guy whos name I just can not remember. I believe he is the head of domestic sales. Anyway, first off, I can say without any hesitation, Paul Reed Smith is a genuine, nice guy. He had zero attitude, and never talked "down" to me or anyone else in the room. Paul Miles I love He really knows what he is talking about, and if he can not answer a question, he will seek out the correct answer and not try and talk around it. VERY good. Tina is also totally cool, and seems to be a calming factor. Like a great bass player, never lets things get to crazy!! Paul did not rush me, he listened to all of my concerns, and came up with what I feel is totally fair. It was nice to lay the guitar on the table, put the sample piece of wood with the Pomegranite color I had originally picked next to it, and have everyone agree the colors were very different. I think between that and the chambering/semi hollow differences, they realized I was not nit-picking, and that my frustrations were well founded. (At least I hope they felt that way.)
What helps my piece of mind is I found out exactly why 3-4 of my major issues over the last 3 guitars happened, and while PRS did make some mistakes, it seems most were between the dealer/PRS communication process. I can say this, for a PS, its best to go to PRS, pick your woods, and go over every detail to the nth degree with the PS team themselves. Leave NOTHING to chance, or left to be figured out and or communicated between the dealer and PS team. (This is not as easy as it sounds, so plan things out WAY ahead of time) This is where the problems seem to occur. After speaking with them face to face and seeing their confidence, I feel much better about letting them refin the Pomegranite to the color I want. They believe, without any doubt, they can get it right on. (See, it wasnt the wood!) They have two guys who spray, and one tends to mix things much darker. Guess who sprayed mine? Soo... A refin it is to the correct color, and if I am let down by it changing the killer top in any way, I can have a full refund on the guitar, and start over. It also ends up the chambering (semi hollowness) on this one is actually correct, its my last one that was wrong.
On top of that Paul is taking my first private stock, (the one that has the1/8" thinner body, and oddly, no one there can figure out why or how) and is going to make it sound as good as possible. New Frets, new pups, new tuners and a new nut, all on him.
A few more nice things. When Paul first picked up the Pomegranite guitar, the first words which were more or less to himself...."This thing sounds GREAT. Rings like a bell. We talked about the body depth, semi hollow/trem construction adding to the tone, and he said maybe they should start offering them again. You could see he was genuinely impressed with the tone. He kept playing it, tapping the body, and listening, over and over, with a half smile on his face. Kind of like what I do, but I get the drool as well! . :redface: VERY GOOD! I have been saying this for years. The trem, deep body, semi hollow combination is like magic. One more thing.. PRS guitars are thought of by many to be "pretty guitars" with no soul. I am sure Paul knows that the nice woods, and beautiful looks makes his guitars stand out, but when you talk to him, and watch him play, this is of zero concern. None. Its all about how the guitar plays and sounds. Thats it. For someone who makes such beautiful guitars, he does not even mention it. Maybe thats why his guitars sound and play so good. Underneath it all, he is "just" a guitar player.
VERY GOOD, VERY GOOD!!!
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