Post your RARE PRS stuff!

This thread is going strong! Here’s a quirky one. Paul’s 28 pickups that are not mounted on a Paul’s 28.
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The original and rare (according to Hans) gold covered Starla pups.



Also, the eyes in this maple pick guard are unusually large. PRS didn’t have any back then, so I supplied the birdseye (PG, HS, TRC, & FB).



I‘d guess there aren’t many Starla private stocks for that matter.

 
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My rare pieces are a discontinued guitar model and the appropriate PRS apparel consisting of the 513 baseball cap, two 513 t-shirts. The right guitar lost its PCB on order of Paul himself in 2014. I put it behind the glass next to the signed back plates by Greg Koch and Paul.

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PRS guitars I'd like to see make an appearance in this thread:
- Banana Yellow (pre) standard
- Silver (pre) standard
- Chesapeake (any model from the brand)
- BRW-neck McCarty with P90's
- DC22 with birds
- Silver Sky Prototype
- 80's Signature bass
- Any Archtop 'Artist'
- Artist 4
- Archtop 4
- Mira with tortoise shell pickguard and old birds
- Archtop with one pickup (in the neck position)
- Starla with East Indian Rosewood neck
- 80's standard with one pickup (in the treble position)
- Any year/model painted by Bud Davis
- Limited Edition with tremolo
- Rosewood Limited with tremolo
- Santana with single coils
- Anything pre-factory
- McCarty 2 with birds
- Clint Lowery SE

I only recall seeing one Rosewood Ltd trem. It was for sale in Chicago for $4500(!). Should have pulled the trigger.
 
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I don’t think of this one as rare, Custom 22.

But it’s one of five 22’s in Sandstorm from the 2007 Dallas Guitar Show. 30 guitars built for the show. Five 22’s & five 24’s in three custom colors. If I remember correctly the other two colors were a lime greenish, and a pinkish.

One of the first runs I remember with hybrid hardware. Mine now has 57/08’s in it, but still hybrid so looks dead stock.
 
Markie Carlos doubleneck rare.

If they made 100 of em, I wouldn’t use the word.

It's hard to define 'rare', but I think the term has to be taken relative to demand, age and desirability.

Gibson made 643 Les Paul bursts in 1959. I don't know how many are still around, but demand remains high, and you don't see very many come up for sale. So I'd say that relative to demand, it's a rare guitar. Obviously, they made more than 100 of them.

A lot of that demand has to do with the fact they're hella cool guitars, and that famous players used them, so they acquired legendary status.

But the PRS limited runs have yet to acquire that patina of desirability. And PS one-offs don't have it, either. I don't know why. Go figure.

I have a couple from the 60 piece PS limited runs. Even though they made fewer than 100 of both runs, relative to demand they're not really rare guitars, and they're probably no more valuable than any PS.

The irony is if it's a custom 1-off, it really IS a rare guitar, yet the demand isn't strong for Some Regular Dude/Gal's idea of their dream guitar - might be a bit different if Dude/Gal is a famous player. Might not.

My guess is that my limited run versions aren't a big deal at all - yet. Maybe that'll all change in however-many years, but for now nope. However, they're a big deal to me, because I bought them to play and they play and sound fantastic. So there's that.

I don't think there are many PRSes that command 'rare guitar' respect in the market, except for the early prototypes or special pre-factory stuff.

On a personal level, the idea that they only made a few of a given model...it's kind of a nutty idea that people want to pay for rarity. I've done it myself, so I'm as crazy as anyone else. You'd think that the value would be in an unusually fantastic, 'magic' example of any model. But that's not how it works, is it?
 
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It's hard to define 'rare', but I think the term has to be taken relative to demand, age and desirability.

Gibson made 643 Les Paul bursts in 1959. I don't know how many are still around, but demand remains high, and you don't see very many come up for sale. So I'd say that relative to demand, it's a rare guitar. Obviously, they made more than 100 of them.

A lot of that demand has to do with the fact they're hella cool guitars, and that famous players used them, so they acquired legendary status.

But the PRS limited runs have yet to acquire that patina of desirability. And PS one-offs don't have it, either. I don't know why. Go figure.

I have a couple from the 60 piece PS limited runs. Even though they made fewer than 100 of both runs, relative to demand they're not really rare guitars, and they're probably no more valuable than any PS.

The irony is if it's a custom 1-off, it really IS a rare guitar, yet the demand isn't strong for Some Regular Dude/Gal's idea of their dream guitar - might be a bit different if Dude/Gal is a famous player. Might not.

My guess is that my limited run versions aren't a big deal at all - yet. Maybe that'll all change in however-many years, but for now nope. However, they're a big deal to me, because I bought them to play and they play and sound fantastic. So there's that.

I don't think there are many PRSes that command 'rare guitar' respect in the market, except for the early prototypes or special pre-factory stuff.

I don’t disagree, but my post was only referencing PRS guitars since that was the thread topic.
 
I don't think there are many PRSes that command 'rare guitar' respect in the market, except for the early prototypes or special pre-factory stuff.

My list would include:

1985’s
10th Anniversary
PS 10th Anniversary
Rosewood Limited
Dragon I, II, III

My former CU22 Standard Studio w/birds - never seen another like it. Never seen another early 22 Studio.
 
I don’t disagree, but my post was only referencing PRS guitars since that was the thread topic.
Yup, I'm just yakking about it in general terms, not materially disagreeing.

I think rarity is interesting as a 'factoid', but really shouldn't be determinative of desirability of any item, in and of itself. I feel this way regardless of the thing we're looking at, including art. Even the artists with the greatest historical reputations occasionally made a piece that was...well, let's just say, not a masterwork.

But try to buy one.

There are undoubtedly '59 bursts that fall into that category, I'm sure.

I've stumbled onto some PRSes that went above and beyond. I've had many that were excellent by most criteria, but the magic ones are unusually good, and at some point that's what I decided to hang onto, after realizing I blew it with a number of them.

So one question I have is, beyond rarity or appearance, what's really worth considering a masterpiece? I have some ideas, of course, but they're all highly debatable and subjective.

Sometimes it seems that we - myself included, since I've bought several limited run models - place the emphasis on the wrong syllable.
 
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