The best color for a PRS in your opinion?

[Maxime Bousquet]

Gold top is on top!

https://imgur.com/a/B1fDdb7

 

[21Hemispheres12]

I’m surprised how many people said charcoal, I thought with all of the vivid finishes PRS offers the grays and blacks would be less loved.

For me if it’s a solid finish I love black top with natural back. For transparent finishes I really like fades and dragons breath finishes in blues and greens.

Here’s one for all the charcoal lovers.

 

[DaveP]

Tiger Eye....

 

[Going Modal]

I’m surprised how many people said charcoal, I thought with all of the vivid finishes PRS offers the grays and blacks would be less loved.

For me if it’s a solid finish I love black top with natural back. For transparent finishes I really like fades and dragons breath finishes in blues and greens.

Here’s one for all the charcoal lovers.

PRS's "charcoal" (not the "charcoal burst," necessarily, which fades to black and loses the effect) really does something to the eye, as you try to make out, "Is is black, is it gray, is it... brown?" And that effect really pops when paired with the natural back instead of a black-painted back (which the charcoal burst usually gets).

Side note: I have a similar-looking charcoal front w/charcoal flamed neck on a McCarty Vine and it's just a sick, sick lookin' guitar.

 

[bluefade]

BLOOD ORANGE...Is there REALLY any other color..C'mon now,REALLY ?

 

[horax]

anything purple....case in point, hte ce 24 I just ordered yesterday:

 

[Maxime Bousquet]

Very partial to the Firemist Burgundy solid color on my 594.

damn it escaped my eyes that one! sweet red, I like it!

 

[Maxime Bousquet]

Your guitars, everyone!! are fantastic! thanks for sharing, very nice to watch!

 

[TDLH01]

Charcoal burst is my favorite. McCarty burst is up there. Other close ones is Burnt Orange. Aquabluex Blue. Olive (the black, green and I believe purple). A very underrated and a rare find is the Blood Orange burst (for me it has to have the black around the edges), they should call it Halloween burst lol. Bonnie Pink is a staple for sure.

Hi Rickcard71/anyone,
Just recently bought a CE24 (gloss finish, 2021 model) in Limited Edition colour 'Charcoal Burst' with a very slight thin hint of dark green between the black edges and the (very) dark grey main top. I would say it's even darker than that - closer to black but you can see the dark grey 'Maple top' stripes. It's a great guitar and does everything I was/am looking for, but the same guitar in Fire Red Burst is also looking amazing too. Do you/anyone think the Fire Red Burst version is much nicer looking (exactly the same price) or should I stick with the 'dark' Charcoal Burst and be done with it? (Maybe in a year or couple of years time change it for a brighter colour if I really need to)?

 

[veinbuster]

Kind of nice

Easy to get along with

 

[bluenova]

Oh I recognize that one and its tuner buttons ;-)

Hey, never knew you were on here but now the username makes perfect sense lol!!! FYI Seb can make you a killer set of tuner buttons…

 

[doublescale1]

damn it escaped my eyes that one! sweet red, I like it!

as far as I can tell, this color is still not offered from the PRS website - I found a similar color on like a 2009 Custom 24 IIRC for sale online somewhere, same kind of Firemist Burgundy with the extremely fine, small metal flake, But that's the only other one I've ever seen. When I got this I went to my local indie PRS dealer asking for a solid color 594, he called their rep in Maryland to see what they might have and he sent us a phone photo of a one-off they had at the factory - I snapped it up right then and there. When it arrived it certainly did not disappoint. I actually offed an R9 that never changed my life for this guitar. I like this one so much better than the R9 for so many reasons.

 

[shinksma]

This thread is full of amazing examples of why there is, IMHO, no one set answer to the question.

The best color? Or best finish utilizing multiple colors? If just one "color" across the whole top, no bursts, no fades, but we allow multiple stain phases using different stain colors, I would say Northern Lights. Does PRS do any finish using just a single stain color for the whole top? i.e. is Emerald Green just a particular dark-ish green stain? Or is there always some magic of first layer with a dark stain like black/gray, sanded down a bit, then another stain as primary "color" that is perceived, maybe a third for highlights? Seems like all the videos I have seen have involved multiple stain steps. Maybe Blue Matteo is a single stain step?

If we can do bursts/fades/glows/etc:

I would posit one of the Dragon's Breath versions, or the Beach Fade (at the angle, on quilt).

And as @11top said (and @LSchefman concurred with):

It depends upon the wood. While I’d choose natural as a gun to the head default “color”, if I’m going to paint it, my choice would change for fiddleback vrs quilt, vrs burl Maple. Also, who’s going to paint ziracote, macassar ebony, or cocobolo?

I like straight up non-burst stains on tight flames. But I also like fades on pretty well any figuring, especially fades between neighboring colors in the rainbow (e.g. red-yellow with orange in between, or blue-green). And after disliking the finish for a while because the orange "burst" looked too strong in dealer photos, I found a more-subtle Burnt Maple Leaf that I totally fell in love with via the SSH I snagged at Exp 2018.

Other bursts range from "looks great" to "looks classic, but not for me right now" to "nah, too harsh a contrast".

So glad I could offer such ambiguous conclusions...

 

[Maxime Bousquet]

as far as I can tell, this color is still not offered from the PRS website - I found a similar color on like a 2009 Custom 24 IIRC for sale online somewhere, same kind of Firemist Burgundy with the extremely fine, small metal flake, But that's the only other one I've ever seen. When I got this I went to my local indie PRS dealer asking for a solid color 594, he called their rep in Maryland to see what they might have and he sent us a phone photo of a one-off they had at the factory - I snapped it up right then and there. When it arrived it certainly did not disappoint. I actually offed an R9 that never changed my life for this guitar. I like this one so much better than the R9 for so many reasons.

A wonderful color!!!

 

[John]

Regarding the currently discontinued colors, Scarlet Red. Ruby, as well.

 

[Rod/]

Copperhead pictured on the left. I love that color

 

[Andrea Tagliabue]

My Autumn Sky!

 

[horax]

Norhtern Lights is always a stunner:

 

[Tosca]

All of the above….

 

[Tosca]

Also not too bad…