The evolving family, or how I learned to love PRS and own mostly PRSi

[John Beef]

In the summer of 2006, I had never owned a PRS. This was my harem at the time - mostly partscasters and a G&L which might be the worst guitar I have ever owned. Building and modifying partscasters was a big hobby of mine at the time.

On Dec 31, 2006, I bought a black Custom 22 and drove straight from the guitar shop in Phoenix to Los Angeles to see Chavez at Spaceland.

By the summer of 2009, this is what my collection looked like.

And here is the current lineup, January 2014. I used all five of these guitars and both amps on our album we are finishing up currently.

 

[g.wizz]

Excellent evolution sir :top:

 

[sergiodeblanc]

Nice! Only one to go!

I went from this:



To these in the last year.



Smartest move I ever made.

 

[markie]

Biatch'in :rock: :rock:

 

[toothace]

Great photos!:beer:

 

[John Beef]

Nice! Only one to go!

Yeah, that's the last holdout and the best guitar to come out of that period. It'll probably be the one that doesn't ever get sold. The market value for a parts guitar is WAY lower than the quality this guitar boasts. I put it up there with most regular core USA PRSi, especially with its most recent neck.

You might notice across the photos three different necks on it. It started in 2002, Warmoth 1 pc Ash body, with a fatback neck which was the heaviest neck I have ever owned. Tall, thin, pointy stainless frets. F* American Vintage reissue pickups. Sounded great, somewhat hard to play, pickups were ungodly noisy. Honestly if the pickups didn't buzz like a damn chainsaw all the time, no matter what I did to try to shield them, my entire guitar history might be different. (there was nothing wrong with it, that's just the way it was)

The second neck was at least one or one and a half pounds lighter, an Allparts SMNF-Fat. It was fine, sort of lifeless in tone and a shock to go back and forth between the PRS - totally different feel with the much fatter back and much narrower nut width.

The third neck is a USACG 25" scale conversion with a .86 thickness at the nut and a 10" radius (sound familiar?). The pickups are Fralin hum-calncelling P-90 for Jazzmaster wound with 42 gauge wire for authentic Jazzmaster tones with zero hum. It went from my noisiest guitar to the quietest, though you could say it's a very different guitar now. The tones are fantastic, but I never really play it with the band because we need beefy tones to keep up with our bass player and drummer.

 

[László]

I'm a big believer in evolution.

 

[swede71]

Partocaster building is a good way to understand what you like and dislike in guitars.I think most partocaster builder starts with the dream of putting together a guitar cheap as possible and end up putting together a guitar with all the best part out there.Also partocasting makes you realise the genius of the Fender guitar.Partocasting is mostly about building a F guitar and along the way you realise a strat is not a strat,a tele is not a tele etc etc.and that the original design and pickup config was the best after all .Its not a very cheap hobbie to have but a good way to learn about guitar construction and how different parts affect the final product.My fav strat is an american standard that sounded totally dull and lifeless until i put on a warmoth boatneck profile neck and a callaham tremoloblock.Especially the neck was the biggest factor in the tone-equation i have to say.First after these parts the Van Zandt singlecoils sounded the best strat pickups in the world .A cool thing with PRS is the quality of the guitar.Quality cost folks!....PS.Dont buy MIM Fender necks to save money for your partocaster project...they suck!...and hey...cool collections in all the pics John.