Wood Library tops -Expert opinion needed!

DrCarver

New Member
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Sep 17, 2019
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Hi all

I’m looking at purchasing a new wood library PRS. The dealer has it listed as an Artist grade top, however the headstock has the “10” in the corner. He’s telling me that all wood library guitars are artist grade tops and the 10 is there because the wood library is no less than a 10 top. That doesn’t sound correct to me, and I feel like he may be misinformed. Even the PRS website says WL guitars can have any grade top.

It's a cool guitar, and I don’t really care what grade the top is, I just want to make sure I’m not paying artist prices for a 10.

Can anyone here clarify this for me?


Thanks!
 
Hi all

I’m looking at purchasing a new wood library PRS. The dealer has it listed as an Artist grade top, however the headstock has the “10” in the corner. He’s telling me that all wood library guitars are artist grade tops and the 10 is there because the wood library is no less than a 10 top. That doesn’t sound correct to me, and I feel like he may be misinformed. Even the PRS website says WL guitars can have any grade top.

It's a cool guitar, and I don’t really care what grade the top is, I just want to make sure I’m not paying artist prices for a 10.

Can anyone here clarify this for me?


Thanks!

Artist never has a "10" on the back of the headstock, Wood Library or not. Guy is feeding you a line of bull**** or ignorance one.

I will say that about every 10 Top Wood Library top has usually looked more impressive than any of my regular core 10 Tops.
 
PRS seems to shoot from the hip on this sort of stuff. Not always etched in stone, you know?
As I understand it, an "Artist" top is supposed to be even better than a 10 top and it's perfectly normal to not have a 10 on the back of the headstock.

As for Wood Library, I think it means more about the dealer picking out a bunch of nice, non-standard wood in order to spec out a build. You can expect a Wood Library model to have an fantastic top, but there is no telling whether it will have a 10 marker or not. I now have two Wood Library models. One of them has a 10 and the other one doesn't.

Wood Library w/o 10 indicator but a fantastic top.
PRS-2018_CU24-08.jpg


Wood Library WITH a 10 top indicator.
PRS-2019_Cu24-WL-CharFade-1.jpg


The more important questions are, Do you like the guitar? Are you willing to pay the asking price for the guitar?
 
Yep the above is correct. It is not an artist top, it is a 10 top. Sometimes there isn't a lot if difference between the two but you should ask if they are priced differently or not because that is a 10 top no matter what it looks like.
 
I also agree with the above. I have three WL guitars, all with Artist Grade tops. None of them is marked with a 10.
 
Agree with above. For wood library: 10 = 10 top, no 10 = artist. Should be priced differently, resale different too in my experience.
 
Agree with above. For wood library: 10 = 10 top, no 10 = artist. Should be priced differently, resale different too in my experience.

That's what I had always thought too. The guitar is priced fairly for retail I believe. It's from a big box store, so I'm assuming the sales rep just doesn't have the correct info on the guitar. Anyway, I'll be calling them soon to inquire. Thanks!
 
I’ve seen a lot of dealers advertise their runs as tops that were ‘downgraded from private stock to Artist’ top and ‘downgraded from Artist to 10 Top’ for their WL runs. Pricing is what everyone has already said - standard pricing differences between Artist and 10 Top models / packages.
 
If there’s a 10 on the headstock then it’s a 10 top no matter the other specs of the guitar. I have one wood library that’s a 10 top and another that’s an artist but they’re both equally fantastic in my opinion.

Artist top
fWJdk1Z.jpg


10 top
IfNBvkQ.jpg


the backs of both
SDy8NWW.jpg
Very nice guitars.
I like the reverse video thing going on with the backs.
 
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