Thinking about selling my ‘89 PRS Custom 24

I purchased this guitar, new, from the Only Guitar Shoppe in Clifton Park, NY, back in 1989.  I was going to school in Albany at the time and would regularly go on afternoon rides to various music stores in the area to check out guitars.  When I found the PRS, I thought it was a drop-dead gorgeous guitar.  It still is, 18 years later, and I think a great example of what’s best in PRS guitars.  I’ve mentioned this before, but aside from being beautiful to look at, this Custom 24 feels fast and powerful.  It’s extremely well finished, light-weight and comfortable to play, and the body shape is classic—a great synthesis of older designs to come up with something new, exciting and timeless.  Kudos to Paul.

When I bought this guitar I put it on my credit card and paid it off over an entire summer.  Not the smartest thing, but this was a long time ago when I was unencumbered by car loans, mortgage payment and the other expenses associated with having a growing family.  Why not, after all, I thought I would have this guitar for the rest of my days and pass it along to my children when I left this world behind.  An heirloom guitar.

But, here’s the thing, I don’t love the neck on this particular guitar.  I’m not sure what the carve is (wide-thin or, more likely, regular), it’s just too small at the nut.  It feels both narrower (side-to-side) and shallower (front-to-back) that the Yamaha Weddington Custom I’m playing most of the time these days.  I need to pull out a caliper and measure it to be sure, but it just feels small to me.  Consequently, I don’t play this guitar any where much as it deserves and it spends it days safely locked away, tucked inside it’s case. 

So, now I’m thinking about selling it.  Early PRS’ are bringing in some descent money these days and I suspect I would have enough to have David Thomas McNaught build a vintage singecut or doublecut to my specifications.  No crazy fretboard inlays (the Tribal Suns inlay, for example, costs more than most factory-produced guitars), but a great guitar with choice tonewoods, a stunning finish, Wagner pickups and neck profile that works for me.  So instead of passing along a PRS to my kids, they might get a DTM instead.  That would be okay, right?

On a more-or-less unrelated note, I’m convinced that the muddiness I hear playing the Yamaha Weddington Custom through the Ceriatone DC30 is due to the jazz-oriented Benedetto neck pickup.  Instead of doing the economical thing and pulling the pickup and replacing it with the stock DiMarzio, I ordered a Crossroads (neck) and Darkburst (bridge) pickup set from Wagner Custom Rewinds today.  I hope they arrive next week so I have a local luthier change them out and give the guitar a general setup.  I’ll keep you posted.

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