I've ordered my PS. Sadly though, I wasn't able to have the 'experience', as I'm in Australia.
So for you PS owners who were able to go to the factory, please tell me what it was like,
what processes you went through etc etc .
You look at wood. You smell wood. Paul Miles and Tina Sears spray water on wood so you can what the grain will look like when finished/ You pick a top that suits you, probably with Paul pulling a few off the shelf that have charateristics that you said you were interested in. You look at some colour samples, maybe some blends of colours. You talk over how you want the top to look - and Paul Miles is an excellent guide in this - he really knows how the stains are going to work and the kinds of things they can do. You probably choose the body style you want based on the top you picked.
You pick some more wood - probably a back, maybe just flavours of mahogany, maybe obeche to lighten it up.
Pick a neck. There are lots of choices, so you might narrow it down to maple or mahogany - but you could peak at a few exotics and if one strike your fancy talk through what it might do to the sound.
Now that you have the bits that will determine the weight of the guitar, maybe you talk about weight relief.
Find a nice fingerboard. There is a surprisingly rich selection of fingerboards with interesting character to them. I'm a big fan of the feel of ebony and the look of cocobolo, so I usually look there first, but african blackwood is very nice. Maple is perfect for some guitars.
That was the easy part, and the heart of the guitar, so pause to catch your breath and maybe get a drink.
Next the details: what tuners do you want, what electronics do you want, which pickups. You might have had much of this in your mind before you went in.
And you have to choose from a huge array of inlay options. Style of birds on the board, type of eagle on the headstock, material for the inlays. They have trays of samples to look at and you try to visuallize how to best finish off your guitar.
Tina will scribe it all and get a quote to your dealer and you confirm that everything looks good.
There is a reasonable chance that Paul Smith will find a moment to pop in and chat for a minute.
You might as well take a tour of the factory and see what is in progress - the almost finished private stocks is always a treat.
It is a great day. Everybody treats you like part of the family.
