Santana pic of the day

We're getting well into the day without a picture, so I'll one. But first a bit of a story.
After having conflicts with a couple of Experiences, my wife and I were able to go in 2009. It had been 10 years since we'd been to the factor and my newest PRS was 10 years old. I hadn't looked at gear much in between while my daughters took turns going to university. We went to see how the company had progressed and so I could talk to the Private Stock team about something I was interested in doing (a related story that goes with my second Santana). The event was still relatively small, but packed with information and with talent.
Paul handed us the 25th anniversary dragon to fondle for a bit - a Santana, but that isn't what this story is about. By Saturday, some of the crowd was sleeping in after spending the nights listening to Santana, Buddy Guy, Dweezil Zappa and friends. That meant we had the for sale guitar display in a warehouse beyond the fence to ourselves when it opened up. We were barely in the door when Mrs. spotted this little something and went for the kill. The dialog went something like this:
Mrs: isn't this awesome?
Mr: it's pretty cool and I don't have a 24 fret guitar
Mrs: Are you going to buy it?
Mr: I don't know. I'll see what else is around.
Mrs: You should try it
Mr: Don't really feel like it
Mrs: Doesn't matter. You told me all PRS are good. I'm buying it.
CK_154BabyDragonBack.JPG
 
We're getting well into the day without a picture, so I'll one. But first a bit of a story.
After having conflicts with a couple of Experiences, my wife and I were able to go in 2009. It had been 10 years since we'd been to the factor and my newest PRS was 10 years old. I hadn't looked at gear much in between while my daughters took turns going to university. We went to see how the company had progressed and so I could talk to the Private Stock team about something I was interested in doing (a related story that goes with my second Santana). The event was still relatively small, but packed with information and with talent.
Paul handed us the 25th anniversary dragon to fondle for a bit - a Santana, but that isn't what this story is about. By Saturday, some of the crowd was sleeping in after spending the nights listening to Santana, Buddy Guy, Dweezil Zappa and friends. That meant we had the for sale guitar display in a warehouse beyond the fence to ourselves when it opened up. We were barely in the door when Mrs. spotted this little something and went for the kill. The dialog went something like this:
Mrs: isn't this awesome?
Mr: it's pretty cool and I don't have a 24 fret guitar
Mrs: Are you going to buy it?
Mr: I don't know. I'll see what else is around.
Mrs: You should try it
Mr: Don't really feel like it
Mrs: Doesn't matter. You told me all PRS are good. I'm buying it.
CK_154BabyDragonBack.JPG

Nice. I've always been an a$$ man. That's a hot butt!
 
Come on, Pete. Let's see some full-frontal. Yours is my favorite Westy.
I was going to stick to a pic a day, but that ship has long sailed and they do belong together.

Not quite full frontal, but by far my favourite shot of this guitar.
CK_151BabyDragonDetail.JPG


I don't have a very good full photo with me. I'll have to set aside some time to take some fresh ones. It wouldn't hurt to have new photos of all of them now that my eyes have figured out how to focus again.
CK_149BabyDraon.JPG
 
Hi All!
New forum member and fist post as well.
Instead of an NGD thread, please allow me to support the Santana pic of the day by sharing with you my favourite guitar:)
Santana Signature 2015 in BGB, bought last summer and I could not be happier. Plays great, sounds great, feels great.
And now the pics:D
receipt%201%20of%201_zpsqmfrpg9b.jpg

receipt%201%20of%201-2_zpsllzr0d9m.jpg

receipt%201%20of%201-3_zpsv4nrhuqw.jpg
 
Hi All!
New forum member and fist post as well.
Instead of an NGD thread, please allow me to support the Santana pic of the day by sharing with you my favourite guitar:)
Santana Signature 2015 in BGB, bought last summer and I could not be happier. Plays great, sounds great, feels great.
And now the pics:D
receipt%201%20of%201_zpsqmfrpg9b.jpg

receipt%201%20of%201-2_zpsllzr0d9m.jpg

receipt%201%20of%201-3_zpsv4nrhuqw.jpg

Nice! really love the grain and color on that one!
 
It is well into the day and we can't have a day without Santana already.
This one started life at Experience 2009, when my wife bought the dark grey baby dragon I showed yesterday. Before she bought that one, I had talked to the Private Stock team about getting a spare guitar built: deep brown, Brazilian, 24 frets, you know - all that stuff you believe you need on the one guitar you build for yourself. They could hook up the specs, but I needed my dealer to price it and arrange the build. No one was at the shop (turns out they were at Experience too) but the international crew at PRS went on a hunt for the Moss man. We got hooked up, caught up, and some time later we went back to the warehouse to look at what was on his skid. This build got set aside for a bit.
Experience 2010 I was over the need to have Brazilian so spent a good bit of time talking to the wood buyer. Now I had a plan to build an alternative to the Rosewood Limited, which I had decided to skip when it came out and put the money on my house. I was going to need to good rosewood, and some other things to make sure I had a well balanced guitar. The rosewood there wasn't quite what I wanted so I didn't get the build going yet.
A bit later, Brent was going to the vault, so I asked him to check for some woods. He did, but the pictures got routed to an email I couldn't see until it was too late to run to the vault to get the guitar going. I said I really wanted that wood - I'd pay PRS for it to keep it for me until I could get there to complete the build (not something they do). Just before Experience 2012, I make it to the vault. Tina met me outside the building and managed to get over her disappointment that Mrs. hadn't been able to make the trip. My preferred top was on display with some other nice rosewood. And this is what we came up with.
CK_364EywaTop.JPG


You'll notice there is no tree of life inlay. That was a last minute call, made a bit easier by the fact that I had found another guitar that it was a killer choice for. I thought the traditional birds let the Madagascar rosewood speak for itself. I wouldn't be able to take delivery until the PS signature run made its way to the dealers and they had a chance to sell them. I was OK with that. I really wanted the options that these 408 pickups promised. I was not disappointed.

CK_354EywaHeadstock.JPG
 
Here is a very cool early PS (ca. 2002, PS#404) that is kind of a rescue project for me. This one came with some very small frets by modern PRS standards, and the finish is clouding around the edges of the top. This one will soon have an appointment for a refinish in HG nitro and a refret (DGT/6100 frets) and perhaps some other tweaks. The current pickups are a santana/dragon 1 mix. The brazilian neck on this one is of a quality that doesn't come up often these days and tonally it definitely has good bones, but because of the fret size is not getting play time from me. I am also currently exploring options for installing a tone control, but if it gets very expensive is not a deal breaker for me. The last two photos are an attempt by me to show some of the subtle differences between a "normal" santana carve and a "pre-factory carve", not easy to catch by camera, but the horns are a bit sharper carve on the pre factory style.













 
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