alantig
Zombie Four, DFZ
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2012
- Messages
- 15,438
Well, I was finally able to arrange a PS build of my own. Sadly, I missed the Blood Brothers build a few months ago, so I'm behind the curve on this.
Drove down to MD on Tuesday and met up with JustRob for a trip to Chick And Ruth's for dinner, followed by a stroll up to Ram's Head for a little liquid libation. Got some great advice from Rob about what to expect when I went to the vault. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention some excellent advice from Vaughn as well. It all helped me keep my head straight when I walked into the room.
Next day, after a quick pop to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast, it was off to the factory for the build. I checked in and Tina came down and escorted me to the room. It really is breathtaking to walk into the Vault and see all that great wood there. Brian, Paul Miles and Tina couldn't have been more helpful. There was a bit of handholding and a bit of "you're on your own" through the day. The options are overwhelming - there is so much wood to pick from. I think I looked at a dozen tops or so, maybe 15. Some gorgeous quilts, including a very intriguing one-piece. I found a nice flamed maple top, and a really cool burl top. After all those, I ended up picking a quilt top that I believe was the second one I pulled off the shelves. To give you an idea how much nice wood there was, a few that I passed on ended up in Brian's pile - there are some nice builds coming out his trip! You've been warned.
After that, I started into the fret boards. I went through all of the Macassar ebony boards - and I do mean all of them. I went through most of the ebony, and a good bit of the Brazilian rosewood boards. I narrowed it down to one of each those, but the Macassar ebony board rang so much better than the other two - and those two sounded great. This one, though was just awesome. I found an ebony overlay for the headstock that matched pretty much perfectly. Next up was the neck, I think (may have been the body, but we'll say the neck because it seems more like the theme). I had already decided it was going to be East Indian rosewood, so it was just a matter of going through those blanks and grabbing the best one. So you know what I ended up with - Honduran rosewood. Yeah, I'm not sure how it happened either, just that I picked a few up and found three that had gorgeous rings when tapped. After that, it was a matter of picking the one that I liked best.
Then the body - mahogany. McCarty thickness. We found a back with pretty decent figuring, and pretty dense. It's going to have a bit of heft to it.
The inlay pattern I had pretty much picked out, but Tina and Brian were insanely helpful working through the process. Both had great suggestions that I hadn't really considered, but eventually I went with what they thought of. There's one twist with the inlays I'm not sure I'm ready to reveal yet, but we'll see. I think it's going to be pretty cool.
After that, Paul had to check with someone about whether they would be able to do what I wanted and how it would be laid out. It wasn't exactly how I'd initially designed it, but I didn't know if what I'd come up with would fit, and it really didn't. At that point, it was do we do a fair amount of extra work or do I change my design to fit. So I changed the configuration - function was more important than sticking to a plan that I wasn't sure would work in the first place. My goal all along was to get a great sounding guitar, not just the fanciest wood or craziest design. And Paul, Tina and Brian were invaluable guiding me through the process.
So, where it ended up:
- McCarty (my quote sheet said DGT, but at one point, Tina said, "You know, there's really nothing left DGT about this...")
- Quilted maple top, Northern Lights Smoked Burst
- Honduran RW neck
- Macassar ebony fretboard, Macassar ebony headstock overlay
- Curly maple 20th Anniversary birds and eagle, stained Northern Lights, outlined in white, and the wisps are white
- \m/ pickups, uncovered, black rings
- 3-way toggle, 2 volumes with push-pull coil taps, 2 tones with push-pull sweet switches
- Glow in the dark side dots
- Maple tuner buttons stained to match the top
And the wood...
I can't express enough thanks to the group for all the help and guidance I received. Huge thanks to Brian for enabling the experience, for all the advice and guidance through the entire process from quote to build. Around my build, it was a joy to watch Brian work out his builds. Extra thanks to his lovely wife Katie, who was so gracious to me that it showed she'd never met me before! To Paul and Tina - I can't even begin to thank you enough for the advice, guidance, and above all patience that you displayed. No question was too stupid, no indecision was too great to overcome. Change any person in that room, and I would not have ended up with the guitar I'm going to get, and I'll be forever grateful. As exciting as it was to go through all the wood and materials in the room, the thing I'll remember most is not the guitar but the experience of being in that room with those people and being accepted like I belonged there. As much as I'd like to build another PS, I just want to be in that room again - it's like a personalized Experience PRS in that the real treasure is the time I spent and the time other people gave me.
Now, I need to go find a rich relative to leave me a big inheritance...
Edited to add: And of course, I forgot some people. Namely Brian's rep Peter, and Jim (from sales, I believe), who joined us later. I will now go feel much shame for failing to mention you gentlemen as well.
Drove down to MD on Tuesday and met up with JustRob for a trip to Chick And Ruth's for dinner, followed by a stroll up to Ram's Head for a little liquid libation. Got some great advice from Rob about what to expect when I went to the vault. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention some excellent advice from Vaughn as well. It all helped me keep my head straight when I walked into the room.
Next day, after a quick pop to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast, it was off to the factory for the build. I checked in and Tina came down and escorted me to the room. It really is breathtaking to walk into the Vault and see all that great wood there. Brian, Paul Miles and Tina couldn't have been more helpful. There was a bit of handholding and a bit of "you're on your own" through the day. The options are overwhelming - there is so much wood to pick from. I think I looked at a dozen tops or so, maybe 15. Some gorgeous quilts, including a very intriguing one-piece. I found a nice flamed maple top, and a really cool burl top. After all those, I ended up picking a quilt top that I believe was the second one I pulled off the shelves. To give you an idea how much nice wood there was, a few that I passed on ended up in Brian's pile - there are some nice builds coming out his trip! You've been warned.
After that, I started into the fret boards. I went through all of the Macassar ebony boards - and I do mean all of them. I went through most of the ebony, and a good bit of the Brazilian rosewood boards. I narrowed it down to one of each those, but the Macassar ebony board rang so much better than the other two - and those two sounded great. This one, though was just awesome. I found an ebony overlay for the headstock that matched pretty much perfectly. Next up was the neck, I think (may have been the body, but we'll say the neck because it seems more like the theme). I had already decided it was going to be East Indian rosewood, so it was just a matter of going through those blanks and grabbing the best one. So you know what I ended up with - Honduran rosewood. Yeah, I'm not sure how it happened either, just that I picked a few up and found three that had gorgeous rings when tapped. After that, it was a matter of picking the one that I liked best.
Then the body - mahogany. McCarty thickness. We found a back with pretty decent figuring, and pretty dense. It's going to have a bit of heft to it.
The inlay pattern I had pretty much picked out, but Tina and Brian were insanely helpful working through the process. Both had great suggestions that I hadn't really considered, but eventually I went with what they thought of. There's one twist with the inlays I'm not sure I'm ready to reveal yet, but we'll see. I think it's going to be pretty cool.
After that, Paul had to check with someone about whether they would be able to do what I wanted and how it would be laid out. It wasn't exactly how I'd initially designed it, but I didn't know if what I'd come up with would fit, and it really didn't. At that point, it was do we do a fair amount of extra work or do I change my design to fit. So I changed the configuration - function was more important than sticking to a plan that I wasn't sure would work in the first place. My goal all along was to get a great sounding guitar, not just the fanciest wood or craziest design. And Paul, Tina and Brian were invaluable guiding me through the process.
So, where it ended up:
- McCarty (my quote sheet said DGT, but at one point, Tina said, "You know, there's really nothing left DGT about this...")
- Quilted maple top, Northern Lights Smoked Burst
- Honduran RW neck
- Macassar ebony fretboard, Macassar ebony headstock overlay
- Curly maple 20th Anniversary birds and eagle, stained Northern Lights, outlined in white, and the wisps are white
- \m/ pickups, uncovered, black rings
- 3-way toggle, 2 volumes with push-pull coil taps, 2 tones with push-pull sweet switches
- Glow in the dark side dots
- Maple tuner buttons stained to match the top
And the wood...
I can't express enough thanks to the group for all the help and guidance I received. Huge thanks to Brian for enabling the experience, for all the advice and guidance through the entire process from quote to build. Around my build, it was a joy to watch Brian work out his builds. Extra thanks to his lovely wife Katie, who was so gracious to me that it showed she'd never met me before! To Paul and Tina - I can't even begin to thank you enough for the advice, guidance, and above all patience that you displayed. No question was too stupid, no indecision was too great to overcome. Change any person in that room, and I would not have ended up with the guitar I'm going to get, and I'll be forever grateful. As exciting as it was to go through all the wood and materials in the room, the thing I'll remember most is not the guitar but the experience of being in that room with those people and being accepted like I belonged there. As much as I'd like to build another PS, I just want to be in that room again - it's like a personalized Experience PRS in that the real treasure is the time I spent and the time other people gave me.
Now, I need to go find a rich relative to leave me a big inheritance...
Edited to add: And of course, I forgot some people. Namely Brian's rep Peter, and Jim (from sales, I believe), who joined us later. I will now go feel much shame for failing to mention you gentlemen as well.
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