Very very belated NGD: Private Stock Starla

Whitecat

Goes home to Starla
Joined
Apr 30, 2012
Messages
1,228
Location
UK
Keep meaning to post this as people keep asking and I keep forgetting. I added a quick photo to the PS Friday thread for fun when I had a second and meant to do a proper post the next week - didn't - so this is an NGD post from well back into last year. Roll back the clock with me and pretend.

The summer of 2014 was coming to a close... :D

Found this old-stock PS Starla last year at a dealer while I was pecking around and it kinda just sang to me. The price was right as it's now almost seven years old (Joseph Knaggs signature is on the back of the headstock!) - and it was missing the original COA (have a photocopy though). It had just never found a home. I know Starlas were never the most popular model and the PS ones aren't very common for that reason alone. As it's really not that far off what I might spec myself if I did a PS order, I was intrigued.

I bl**dy love Starlas - I have a vintage cherry Core model with a solid IRW neck, and as the tones I get out of them are sweeter than any other PRS model, I took the leap. Plus I got some free swag from PRS Europe as they were doing a care package deal at the time, so all the stars kind of aligned.

It's a mahogany body/wide fat neck, quilt top finished in Burnt Orange Smokeburst, ebony fingerboard, ebony headstock veneer, ebony scratchguard, etched silver inlays, silver 'Starla' inlay on ebony TRC, Starla pickups (same wiring as Core model so pull-tap available), B-5 Bigsby. Shipped in a PS brown leather case.

Here are the pics! One of these days I'll do some even better ones but a new arrival of the small human variety has prevented me from playing as much as I'd like. The last two pics are from the dealer, they are a little better lit!

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How are those pickups? Excellent looking guitar, too!

Core Starla pickups to me are best described as Filtertrons with an extended high and low range. As a result they don't sound quite as compressed as a real 'tron or a TV Jones or similar. The hi-fi-meets-vintage flavour is excellent and it means the tonal pallette is absolutely spectacular. Easily my favourite pups PRS has ever made!
 
How on earth does such a beautiful looking guitar sit around for 7 years unsold? What a find! Love the top...and birds...and headstock inlay...and the natural binding (I haven't seen that on a Starla before, but maybe I ain't looking in the right places).
 
That beauty just oozes vintage vibe and class. Great Pick-up...enjoy her to the max.
 
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