Serial number confusion

C

Crow

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Jan 5, 2018
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Hi folks. I have a friend that has what looks like an older PRS guitar. It has 24 frets, is dinged up, and doesn't have bird inlays. It has nice dots. It has a rotary switch, but no sweet switch. just a tone knob and volume and the rotary switch, I didn't see it long enough to look and see if it's a set neck or bolt on. It has (Winged) locking tuners on it, I have looked at the serial number lookup on the PRS site but I am confused by it. The serial number on the guitar is 378837.
It's emerald green with stripes. not really pretty at this point. The signature on the head stock is smaller font than what I see on the newer ones. It has a tremolo.. the shape looks like a carved custom 24.
Can anyone help decipher that serial number? Any help would be appreciated. Wish he would have given me a picture of it. Thank you.
 
Wow thank you, I think you are spot on. The time frame fits when he thinks his brother bought it used. I played it for about thirty seconds, and the sustain was ridiculous. That caught my attention. Old strings on it too. What would that guitar be worth? It is dinged and scratched up.. pitting on the tuners. It hasn't been payed much by the current owner, he bought it used years ago. SO the Original owner must have used it. been thrown around more than used by the owner...lol. He may be open to selling it to me, but I don't want to pay too much .I only have two SE's now. Both nice, very nice but they don't have that sustain.Which from what I read is one big difference between the USA models over my two Korean SE's. I like them both, but that sustain has me drooling. I doubt I can afford to buy it. I am hoping the condition will bring the price down a bit? The frets look fine, it's just been left out at some point. It's been in a case for the last few years but not played much.He and his brother don't like those winged locking tuners. "annoying" they said. I don't gig, So not sure it would be a big factor for me, I wouldn't change strings that often.. And it may be too much $$$ for me anyway.
Thanks for the help. Much appreciated..
 
toothace said:
3 would indicate 1993,
7 would indicate it's a CE (bolt-on),
8837 would be CE guitar number 8837(numbers on the website being approximate)
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Excuse me, I thought I was thanking you. For the help, I lost the quote somehow. Thanks for the help!
 
sergiodeblanc said:
A 93 CE is an awesome guitar.
Click to expand...
It seemed pretty danged nice, except for how it looked. The sustain was great for the thirty seconds I dinked around on it. I think I love it. I am hoping the poor condition would bring the price down if he is willing to sell it.
 
Tough call on the value/price. Those old alder CE's are one of the few guitars that are climbing in price lately... mostly because they're rad. It used to be that you'd never have to pay more than $1000 used for one in great shape, so then maybe $6-700 for one that was beat, but those days may be over?

If you can swing it, try and grab it from your boy. They're special guitars.
 
sergiodeblanc said:
Tough call on the value/price. Those old alder CE's are one of the few guitars that are climbing in price lately... mostly because they're rad. It used to be that you'd never have to pay more than $1000 used for one in great shape, so then maybe $6-700 for one that was beat, but those days may be over?

If you can swing it, try and grab it from your boy. They're special guitars.
Click to expand...
I am going to try. He rarely plays guitar anymore. But the whole family are musicians, and they have nice stuff that costs more than I can afford to buy..lol.
 
shinksma said:
That might be a cool guitar to own, because it is beat up. Adds character, as they say.

OP, have a look at this listing:
https://reverb.com/item/5883689-1993-prs-ce-24-paul-reed-smith

and this listing:
https://reverb.com/item/6949507-swe...urple-flame-maple-top-safe-worldwide-shipping

Based on those and the condition you reported, I would say you should be able to offer less than 1G fairly, maybe even 800-900.
Click to expand...
I will have to wait and see what he is asking for it if he even wants to sell it. if he happens to google it, it will bring him here and he can see what they sell for. Or he will find them on Reverb. It's worth whatever he wants it to be worth I guess..lol.
 
toothace said:
Fixed it for ya;)
Click to expand...
True but it also works the way I said it when it comes to me. Some things never sell. If I aint willin to hand him an arm and a leg, it aint sellin. He wasn't offering up for sale. His brother has it and was working on it. I was the only one that mentioned buyin. We'll see. I also want to take it home and play it thru my gear before I go too far.. I already have way too many guitars and I am getting old. I should be sellin, not buyin. I have 20 or so closet queens. I used to try and play them all but life is getting in the way. I don't "need" this guitar, I just liked that sustain... It would be cool to own but if I die soon, my wife will be stuck with 30 guitars and most not worth much. People are broke these days too, hard to sell a guitar in this part of the country. After I'm gone I don't care what she does with them..
 
toothace said:
Fixed it for ya;)
Click to expand...
At 19 minutes into this video, Rob is showing how much sustain the SE 245 pickupshave.. My 2012 SE Santana won't give me that tone, (maybe tone isn't the right word) and neither will my SE Custom 24. Is that the pickups, or his amp? This one I am looking at came really close on a Cheap Super Champ XD. On a tweed modeling with very little gain or volume it was crying to me. Maybe I could change pickups on the SE's I have?. But it may be the rotary switching that helps the guitar resonate. I am not sure what pickup it was on. I don't know enough about these guitars to even discuss them intelligently, that's why I aint using any g's on the end of words. That's how us hicks type
coolsmiley.gif
and we use aint a lot..
 
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