I am thrifty and extravagant in a strange way, I guess. I find PS guitars way too extravagant for me to play on, but passing up the chance for their company in my life would be too thrifty.
As Yoda would say, gone about my guitars the wrong way round, I have.
Not at all, and I think I might have felt that way if it hadn't been for a coming-together of events and situations that were unusual - for me.
What happened was that I felt I needed a maple bodied acoustic. I'd had a couple of Collings that met that spec, and missed that kind of tone for certain recording sessions. However, I had a cocobolo Tonare Grand with an ebony fingerboard. I loved it, but still wanted the maple. The only way to get one was to go the PS route, and I decided to do that.
I wasn't after the bling of a PS, nor the fancy wood, the coco Tonare (then a Core model) had more than enough bling for me. So I spec'd out a very plain PS compared to most, simply to get the woods of choice, in 2013.
When the guitar came, it was, to say the least, a
revelation. Yes, it was the same model of acoustic with different woods. But there was something about it that was literally incredible in the way it sounded and played. It was the best sounding and playing acoustic guitar I'd ever held in my hands, and that not only includes my old Collings guitars, my 41 series Martins, and 900 series Taylors, I've also played Gurians and Bozos from the 70s, Olson, and many, many other high end guitars.
So we're talking rarified company here.
Then in 2014, I was looking for the perfect Singlecut. And PRS had just come out with a run of PS McCarty Singlecuts. My friend and dealer Jack Gretz had just gotten in an Artist Relations model made by the PS Dept. I called to ask about it, and he made me a video of it. The thing sounded like an old LP in that video, and I was really intrigued. Because of my great luck with the acoustic, I went for it. Damn the expense, full speed ahead! And it was not only phenomenal, everything I'd ever loved in both a PRS and that old-school Single-cutaway tone, but the feel and playability were off the chart and honestly, the guitar put the Core Singlecuts, SC58, SC245, I've had in the shade in every way.
I immediately started using it in my work. Ad track after track.There's no way you let a guitar this playable and this good-sounding sit on the wall or in a case. It'd just be
wrong, for me. YMMV.
Easily the most useful studio guitar I'd ever owned up to that time. In a way, well...you know the difference between the feel of a Core PRS and an SE? This is a similar kind of thing.
Then the 30th Anniversary PS came out, and when Jack got one in, I didn't have to think about it very long -- another video, and I was hooked. And
what an instrument it is! Open, clear-sounding, different enough from the McSC that it's useful in entirely different ways.
It's the same with the "20th Anni of PS" PS. Simply a unique guitar! This time I didn't wait for the video, I just jumped on getting one ordered as soon as they were announced. The reward? I've never played, let alone owned, a guitar whose notes literally fly off the fretboard like this. Incredible tone. For days. Again, how can this just sit in a collection somewhere, and not be played? I couldn't think of it that way.
So my thinking on PS, what it's about, and who it's for, has changed, because at one time, I thought it'd just be about the bling, the top the artistry, etc. That is simply not the case. It's more about the instrument
qua instrument, than anything else!
A work of art? That, too. But a
playable work of art, whose primary function is clearly and absolutely,
making music.
I tend to like these "stock" PS instruments, as opposed to thinking about a custom order, actually. I don't really know what I want, I kinda like the ideas PRS has more than my own. Because I don't design guitars for a living, I just play 'em.
One thing: I have a Core Wood Library McCarty, and it's a great instrument. But it's a different kind of thing than PS. Both, PS and Core, are great, all are keepers.