PRS WL Cu24 Aquableux Purple Burst premature finish fading

opnoob

opnoob

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Sep 22, 2022
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Recently, I started to notice that my less than 1 year old Custom 24 was quite as eye popping as I once thought it was. A quick search of other cases made me realize that it is not an isolated incident especially with blue finishes. The guitar doesn't hibernate in a case all the time, but it also doesn't see any direct sunlight and is well maintained. Even so, it was enough to fade the finishing quite significantly in less than one year of ownership. I contacted PRS customer service and luckily they were nice enough to have me send the guitar back for evaluation / refinishing. So I dropped my guitar off with FedEx this morning and will update you guys on the process.

 
Sunlight isn't the only culprit when dyes fade. While sunlight has UV rays aplenty, any light consists of photons, and photons cause organic dyes to fade. So indirect light can do the same thing, and so can electric lights, though obviously sunlight is more drastic.

It can, and will, easily happen again if you put the guitar where you did for the past year when not playing it. It's not the end of the world if that happens, but you might prefer a different outcome.

You know what to do when it comes back. ;)
 
Someday the guitar in my avatar will look like it does in my avatar. The photo was taken in direct sunlight, but in person this guitar looks so dark you can't see the figuring. There's the PRS dilemma: Should the guitar look attractive at time of sale then fade, or should the guitar look too dark at time of sale then fade to an attractive color?
 
That's pretty severe fading for one year old. Hope they take good care of you.

For everyone else: Treat your blue/violet guitar like a vampire. Name her Mistress of the Dark and don't ever let her out after sunrise.

=K
 
Thanks for all the input. Yes, I'm aware that even indirect light can have an effect but honestly I didn't expect this much, this fast. Will definitely try to keep it cased up more once I get it back but damn I do love just having it on the stand ready to go at a whim.
 
I guess I'm weird, as I like faded blues more than strong ones ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It's rather like denim: new jeans look all wrong, like "office wear", instead of what you put on to wrestle a herd of Boogies in and out of a truck.
 
Wyzard said:
I guess I'm weird, as I like faded blues more than strong ones ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It's rather like denim: new jeans look all wrong, like "office wear", instead of what you put on to wrestle a herd of Boogies in and out of a truck.
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Yeah the analogy just doesn't work the same way for me. The way the natural wood colours interact with a fading blue just makes it look messy and dull. Atleast in my case.
 
opnoob said:
Yeah the analogy just doesn't work the same way for me. The way the natural wood colours interact with a fading blue just makes it look messy and dull. Atleast in my case.
Click to expand...

I may be an outlier in the PRS world, but I'm not a fan of vibrant colours on my guitars. If PRS made a faded pink Paisley Sky (gold base) with a maple neck, I'd have my debit card out so fast that you wouldn't even see the movement :cool:
 
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