I wish I could say that I had your discipline. I went over the edge when I realized that PRS, unsurprisingly, had solved the 7.5in radius problem. That was some days back...
Oh thank you for this. I guess I was totally wrong then! I was thinking the first 500 would come with the case and was something special... Hence I went for the Frost because the Tungsten's were all out. In that case, I should have just ordered a Tungsten with gigbag haha.
Collecting almost never pays off financially. It’s like looking for a diamond amidst a bin of glass studs. For something to be truly a successful collectors item, it must have 3 components - inherent quality, a path to mass recognition, and finally a barrier to replicability. For guitars inherent quality is usually something with tone off the charts, and beauty to match. A path to mass scale recognition usually comes through contemporary popular music. Finally the barrier to replicability comes from either an inability to reproduce the original run for some reason, or scarcity of materials. As you might imagine, its almost impossible for all these stars to align. The 59 LPs are a one-off. In this case, Gibson can actually reproduce 59 guitars, and that’s why they are called ‘reissues’, but in the mind of the public the inherent quality is not the same. So that’s a perception-based barrier to replicability. Most of the time people collect guitars due to passion and not as an investment. They’d be happy to even break even in terms of financial performance.
I thought it will be collectors item as a special batch.. like @evanjlim.. didn’t say anythig about value.. they made a blurry statement
The LSchefman model will have a case covered unicorn hide. Of course, there will be no guitar, just the case; I’m known more for my tasty guitar cases than my tasty guitar playing. Hey, everyone’s gotta have a thing.
The barrier to replicability isn’t there at this point, going by Tonart’s definition (that I pretty much agree with). Now, if at some point the production of guitars with rosewood fretboards, alder bodies, maple necks, or some other component or material, is somehow prohibited or made impossible, or if the original machines that make them and the CNC programs are destroyed, you’ll have that barrier to replicability. Or if PRS decided to make only 500, you’d have a collectible. But PRS and Mayer are looking to get these into lots of players’ hands.
Unlike a lot of folks here, I have been a strat guy most of my life. And I've owned strats I loved and worked great for me. Ironically, I just bought my first PRS at the time that a) PRS was about to release a great strat-style (won't call it a copy - I prefer to keep my cranium attached!) guitar, and b) when I realize that at this point in my life I'm much more of a humbucker guy than single coil guy - mellowing with old age and whatnot. So I don't see one of these in my future, at least my foreseeable future. But I've got no objections to it at all. I've historically much preferred maple and ebony fretboards to rosewood, but I've played some rosewood boards recently (including on my 594) that play as well as anything I've ever used, so that wouldn't be an impediment with a PRS instrument. I'm impressed. That said, I've played a number of sub-$1000 strats that played as well as I could ever hope for, so I kind of doubt if I ever wanted another strat-type, that I'd be looking in the $2000 plus neighborhood for one... I've had a Classic Player 50s strat for most of the past year (just sold to help pay for my 594) that came with vintage style locking tuners. They were the Goto type that are self-locking and can be a real PIA in the UN-locking department. I actually replaced them with higher-ratio Kluson vintage style locking tuners that do have the knobs on the bottom to cleanly handle locking and unlocking duties. But the guitar is a vintage type strat and it DID come with locking tuners! -Ray
Can't wait to see all your NGD's. I'm in Asia and will only get mine in JULY, yessir, July.. Even though mine will come in the hardcase. US, Eur/UK gets them first. Be sure to post loadsa reviews!
Ah sh!t. Guess I'll turn in my 'serious collector' card. Really? Where? Completely. Totally. Embarrassingly. Incorrect. Drank a little extra Kool Aid before signing on? Your entire post is a bit rich, even for die-hard fanboys like me. Serial numbers are sequential.