What's Up With the Orange Binding on My 2021 SC594?

[László]

My Private Stock McCarty SC the day I got it, brand new. The scraped binding was not stained. It was not artificially aged, either. I doubt anyone would claim the maple isn’t high grade.

Note the edge of this top is a little darker than the neck’s maple binding. However, over the years both the binding on the neck and the edge of the top have gotten a bit darker as well.

I absolutely love the way this thing looks (and it sounds even better than it looks). It doesn't scream, "I'm a brand new umpty-zillion dollar guitar!" It has kind of a vintage appeal.

The maple is darker than the 10,000 year old mammoth ivory fretboard inlays. 10,000 years is even older than I am, though not by much.

 

[JJDon]

Pull the pickups and see what the edges of the Maple looks like in the cavaties

I had actually already done that, and it looks like they painted the edges on both pickup cavities all the way down to the mahogany body, so you can't see the maple top color. From what I can tell of the screw holes, the wood on the maple top does look much lighter than the binding. I also see that the inside sticker has the "CC" as well, which again, I'm assuming means custom color. I also reached out to PRS to see what they think.

 

[DISTORT6]

I had actually already done that, and it looks like they painted the edges on both pickup cavities all the way down to the mahogany body, so you can't see the maple top color. From what I can tell of the screw holes, the wood on the maple top does look much lighter than the binding. I also see that the inside sticker has the "CC" as well, which again, I'm assuming means custom color. I also reached out to PRS to see what they think.

Those pics weren’t showing

 

[JJDon]

Those pics weren’t showing

Reattached them.

 

[László]

I looked at the binding on my Private Stock closely today when I played it (I usually don't eyeball my guitars when I play them). It is now darkened to very nearly the color of the top.

I think it looks pretty cool, but what do I know.

 

[aamefford]

I'd like to apologize in advance, and remind everyone that my emotional development was somehow halted at age 13. That said, what this thread really needs, is a "dark wood - that's what she said" comment. OK, that's out of the way. Carry on.

 

[show_a_little_faith]

I had actually already done that, and it looks like they painted the edges on both pickup cavities all the way down to the mahogany body, so you can't see the maple top color. From what I can tell of the screw holes, the wood on the maple top does look much lighter than the binding. I also see that the inside sticker has the "CC" as well, which again, I'm assuming means custom color. I also reached out to PRS to see what they think.

It's too bad the paint covers so much inside too, but I agree from what you can see in the screw holes those do look much lighter (normal) than the binding edge

 

[sergiodeblanc]

PRS has occasionally done guitars with colored “binding” and usually on opaque guitars.

I recall seeing a couple with orange and red stained edges, that’s possibly what it could be?

 

[Canadian_PRS]

The SC594 is my favorite guitar, so I decided to get a second to have a different pickup config. I also wanted one in plain black like a LP black beauty with the light binding around the body. Since SC594s aren't made anymore, there was only one available online on Reverb (2021). I love the guitar, but when I received it, and even in the pictures I saw online, the binding was a lot darker/more orange in person than I expected. Compare that to the binding on most other 594's I've seen (I'll list some examples below), including my other one, and I'm wondering if PRS screwed up when doing the binding or something else happened? It mainly bothers me because the binding is so off colored compared to the neck binding. I don't think I've ever seen a binding this dark on any PRS in general.

Not sure if its worth it depending on the price, but do you think PRS PTC would be able to fix this if I ever wanted to send it in to make it lighter/match the neck binding?












This is the binding from 3 different, and random 594s I've seen online.









The binding on my other 594

Almost has a Roasted maple look. Looks really good with the dark finish.

 

[jbird]

I swear it seems my 20 year old 20th anniversary Black Custom 24's maple binding has darkened over the years...I love the look of it!