# NGD! PRS Private Stock # 4919 Paul's Guitar in Rainforest Glow Maple Sandwich!



## HighGain510 (Oct 13, 2014)

First things first, there is a little bit of history with this beauty!!!  This one was yet another amazing Private Stock in-stock build ordered by Brian @ Brian's Guitars in CT (fantastic dealer, btw, I've bought *several* of my PRS and a few other used guitars from him, Brian is a great guy and one of my favorite dealers!!!) and I actually tried to see if I could swing it back when he listed it but I was at a conference that lasted all day and by the time I got out, she was already sold to a local. Totally bummed, the finish on this one was similar to the Jade Glow one I still wish to this day I would have been able to keep, but Rainforest finish has a bit of a darker, almost teal-ish blue rubbed into the bright green and that finish for whatever reason seems to haunt my dreams!  I actually had one of the limited run of PRS custom 100w 2-channel heads that came with the only Rainforest finish maple front in the batch way back for anyone who remembers those! It was a serious bummer but somewhere in the back of my mind, I felt like maybe I'd get a second chance later... and fortunately this local dude appears to have worse GAS than I do!  He ended up trading it in to his local Guitar Center and I saw it while browsing GC Used randomly last week and almost had a heart attack. Here are the specs:



Specs for PRS Private Stock #4919 said:


> PRS Private Stock Pauls Guitar Rainforest Glow
> 
> Serial Number: 209908 #4919
> 
> ...



If you're just looking for the pretty pics, skip down below, but I figured I'd share this for the folks who might care about knowing which stores to NOT deal with (or more specifically which people at those stores): 

A few folks I've spoken with privately know the full story but suffice it to say, the assistant manager I was dealing with at that GC is a total knob and despite telling him up front that I could still remember roughly what the LISTED price was, which dealer had it for sale originally and that I had spoken with the dealer and received a better price than was listed on the site (which was substantially HIGHER than both the price listed on the site and the multiple return "hook-up" discount price I was offered), the guy STILL chose to make up a TON of bullshit and blatantly lie through his teeth.  Seriously... when I tell you I know the dealer personally and could just as easily ping him for the actual information about the original price the guitar sold for, why the hell would you make shit up like the following line:

"We do have a resaler interest in all 3 that we have, and another offer from another customer. The guitar has been price reduced on line and we are looking to see what that brings also too. I also spoke with the previous owner and he has shown me his receipt from Brian's and he paid 11999.99 plus tax. Brian didn't even give him a break on the tax."

Complete and utter bullshit. I emailed Brian and he told me what he listed it for on the site, and the price it sold for to the original buyer (which FWIW was what I was offered on the guitar, and since I knew the guy is ALSO a frequent shopper there, I figured that was the case!) which was, as predicted, substantially lower than the BS line this douchebag was feeding me. Turns out since the price wasn't what he claimed it was, there's NO possible way he could have seen the receipt and Brian even said he wasn't sure what that was about as the receipt he gave the original buyer obviously only showed what he paid for it and not that fake price the GC guy made up. Seriously, after all the conversations I had already had with this assistant manager, I'm shocked that he tried to pull that garbage with me when I told him up front I am an informed shopper and provided him a boatload of information proving this.

Aaaaanywho, after I forwarded this jerk the email from Brian confirming all of the pricing info and proved he was talking out of his ass and blatantly lying to my face (over the internet anyway haha), he literally just replied with "Thank you for the information."    Yeaaaaaah.... no.  I immediately looked up their GM's info and called the store to speak to him directly and when I forwarded him the entire email trail he was more than a bit surprised. Fortunately the GM of the store was very cool and was willing to work with me a bit to get the price down closer to what it should have been. I feel like the price was still a tad high, but considering it truly was mint and only a few months old and I got it for a couple *grand* less than I would have back in June when I tried to buy it new, I can't complain!  Moral of the story? As always, different managers at GC can suck, but if you find one who doesn't, it CAN work out to a happy ending! The GM said he would hold it at that price through Saturday before he dropped it to what I offered and I knew if they did that, it wouldn't last through the weekend, hence the fire sale of gear this weekend/coming week as I could swing the deal but it would wipe out my bank account as I wasn't planning on spending that much cash right now whatsoever. 


ON TO THE PICS!

Pics from when Brian hand-selected the woods for the build:



























Little bit further along, looking like a guitar now!

























More pics in the next post!


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## HighGain510 (Oct 13, 2014)

These are the dealer pics from Brian originally, such a beautiful guitar! I'm a sucker for green finishes done right, and I'll be damned if PRS doesn't have SEVERAL that are just mind-blowingly awesome (Rainforest Glow, Jade Glow, Trampas, Trampas Fade, Lemongrass... UGH SO MUCH WANT!!!) so I was a goner once I saw Brian's pics months ago as he takes awesome shots for his gallery pics!







































































































Here's a few quick iPhone snaps until I have a nice day to get some hi-res shots with my SLR:



















I thought this was pretty cool... the headstock PS Eagle inlay is Brazilian Rosewood and because they used the high gloss nitro on this baby, the nitro is already sinking into the wood so the grain of the BRW in the eagle almost makes the wings look textured!






She deserves better pics than that so hopefully if we have nicer weather this weekend I'll get her out in the sun for some proper shots!


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## HighGain510 (Oct 13, 2014)

Tone report:

Well I'm totally thrilled with this guitar! The thick maple caps for the top and back and mahogany sandwiched in between paired VERY well with the Honduran Rosewood neck and Brazzy board!  The neck to me sounds closer to a Brazilian Rosewood neck, but without the monster price tag a solid BRW neck would normally fetch! Honduran Rosewood is often used for marimbas, if that gives you an idea of how they ring out.  The tone is pretty balanced which was surprising, I figured the tone would be much more midrangey like an IRW neck but nope, pretty balanced for the most part! Sounds wonderful on all sorts of settings for cleans and the bridge 408 pickup on the Paul's guitar is hotter than normal so she works well for high gain applications too which is a plus! Rock tones are yummy, not quite as hot as the 59/09's in my other PS but this one does just fine bringing the heavy!  The neck feels wonderful, it's not cleared but I wonder if they buffed it a bit as it feels a bit more like BRW does in terms of smooth/satin-like feel goes.

I really dig the Paul's wraparound too, they added brass inserts under all of the strings and it definitely enhances the brilliance of the strings so I'm wondering if that's part of what is contributing to the tone being so well rounded perhaps? The fact that the guitar is solid except for the cavity probably doesn't hurt things either, but even with all that maple she's not heavy at just a bit over 7 lbs!  My back is happy!  

Really loving this one! She might have cost me several instruments and one of my amp rigs, but honestly it was worth every penny! Eventually I will try to get some vids or clips up, between illness and playing heavy catchup with work I've been totally burned out most evenings and every weekend, so hoping for some time to relax and finally get working on that as I know I'm well overdue for those to say the least!


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## loqtrall (Oct 13, 2014)

Holy shit. YES. That's all I can say. Fvcking phenominal, man. Great catch!


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## technomancer (Oct 13, 2014)

So much win! Perfect color and one of my two favorite PRS inlays (birds in flight and the brush stroke birds are both amazing).


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## Blood Tempest (Oct 13, 2014)

One of the most beautiful PRS guitars I've ever seen! Major congrats and a very happy NGD!


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## bouVIP (Oct 13, 2014)

When I read the part that said he traded it into GC and you saw it on their site I figured there would be a problem haha. Glad it worked out.


It is so amazing!!!! HNGD!!


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## yellowv (Oct 13, 2014)

Matt once again I hate you, yet still love you. Lol. That is just amazing.


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## HighGain510 (Oct 13, 2014)

bouVIP said:


> When I read the part that said he traded it into GC and you saw it on their site I figured there would be a problem haha. Glad it worked out.
> 
> 
> It is so amazing!!!! HNGD!!



I should have known better, right?   Like I said, the assistant manager was an asshat but their GM was a good dude and was willing to have the logical and reasonable discussion with me which was their only saving grace. Brian has another Paul's guitar from the Private Stock Limited Run on consignment from a customer that has me drooling, my plan was to go up to CT for this one and if either the manager tried to pull anything fishy or the guitar was ANYTHING less than mint, I was going to say "peace bitch!" and head over to Brian's to bring home the Sandstorm Fade guitar on consignment.  Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on which one you are rooting for haha) the deal for this one worked out, but I wouldn't have been upset taking home the other one with the chaltecoco neck and trem with that yummy fade and gold/MOP brushstroke birds either!  As always, this was another one of those "GC Failworthy" deals but at least in the end it worked out! This one is smoking and seem worth the price tag, even better that I got it in new condition but without the new price tag.


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## DakiEnt (Oct 13, 2014)

Wow, that is incredible. The BACK is better than most any top I can think of...


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## HighGain510 (Oct 13, 2014)

DakiEnt said:


> Wow, that is incredible. The BACK is better than most any top I can think of...



Seriously, I almost prefer the maple on the back to the maple on the front!  DAT ASS!


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## Cloudy (Oct 13, 2014)

Im not a fan of the colours of the instrument but gawd damn all that flamey goodness.


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## vilk (Oct 13, 2014)

Best looking PRS ever. I usually don't like the aesthetic of these guitars at all, but this one just makes it work. I normally hate the inlays but these arent so bad. And I love the wraparound stoptail


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## protest (Oct 13, 2014)

You guys can catch Matt at his next gig. He'll be performing every 30 minutes from 5:00 - 9:00 at the Rainforest Cafe. You can find him next to the big gorilla in the safari hat.

That thing looks like PRS found it growing in the depths of the Amazon.

As always congrats dude, and you have a problem!


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## Triple7 (Oct 13, 2014)

Wow dude, that looks amazing. Congrats.


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## JD27 (Oct 13, 2014)

Wow, that might be the most beautiful PRS I have ever seen. That green is just amazing. I'd never be able to play it though, I would be too scared my filthy paws may damage it. You always manage to find killer PRS guitars.


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## neurosis (Oct 13, 2014)

Wow and holy Macarena! 

I love this one! I also wonder every time I see this if Mayones and Framus didm´t take some notes regarding how they do a few things, not counting the bolt on.

Enjoy it! It is stunning.


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## Valnob (Oct 13, 2014)

Could you stop please ? 

Since i've registered here in 2012, i've seen so many ngd post by you with those beautiful babies...
Private Stock PRS's a truly the most georgous guitars ever made, period.

Happy NGD !!!


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## Benjyy (Oct 13, 2014)

Oh my god! Once of the nicest private stocks I've seen! Congrats man


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## Aris_T (Oct 13, 2014)

What a day...First it's technomancer's semihollow and now THIS!!!
I should be monitoring my sodium intake!

Absolute beauty! Congrats and enjoy!


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## OlisDead (Oct 13, 2014)

Man! I'm a huge fan of PRS and green guitars. I already loved the Jade glow semi hollow you posted a while ago but this one... This is the most amazing PRS I've ever seen. Congrats!


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## Possessed (Oct 13, 2014)

That is how private stock shines! Huge congrats!


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## dragonbiscuit (Oct 13, 2014)

Breathtaking! One of the prettiest PRS guitars I've seen. Congrats brother


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## geese_com (Oct 13, 2014)

Absolutely amazing! Brian and the crew really know how to spec out Private Stocks. Congrats!


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## ThePhilosopher (Oct 13, 2014)

You're making me want that Bonnie Pink "Tremonti" more and more posting beauties like this.


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## geofreesun (Oct 13, 2014)

man, beyond words! congrats!


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## The Scenic View (Oct 13, 2014)

There's so much beauty in this post. I might just cry


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## PAINGVR (Oct 13, 2014)

Congrats my friend! I'm glad this deal worked out for both of us!


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## JP Universe (Oct 13, 2014)

Congrats man, I can see why you HAD to sell the Parker now


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## Nlelith (Oct 14, 2014)

Whoa, that maple is terrific! Really gorgeous guitar, HNGD!


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## Opion (Oct 14, 2014)

Holy Hell, man...

That is all I should really say  This has to be one of the wildest, most exotic guitars I've ever seen you own, and I have seen LOTS of your NGD's. Hold onto this one, buddy!

P.S. TAKE A VIDEO! I wanna hear how it sounds!


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## Churchie777 (Oct 14, 2014)

Cant you disappoint me just once when you post a NGD! to much epic to often


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## s4tch (Oct 14, 2014)

HighGain510 said:


>


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## rjg3000 (Oct 14, 2014)

Wow that finish is stunning. And the Brazilian Rosewood is definitely the icing on the cake. It's just gorgeous!


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## AliceLG (Oct 14, 2014)

Holy flying fvcking fvck! Curly Maple top AND back, including the electronics and truss rod covers. And rosewood everything, so much rosewood everything.

HNGD








I hate you and your stupid incredibly beautiful jaw-dropping PRSi


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## BucketheadRules (Oct 14, 2014)

I was scrolling through the pics, wide-eyed, whispering "WHAT" to myself.

F*cking unbelievable guitar man!


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## HighGain510 (Oct 17, 2014)

Haha thanks guys!  Yeah she's pretty awesome, the Honduran Rosewood neck is sweeter than I anticipated! The coloring might not be super dark like the good Brazilian stuff is but the entire neck just vibrates like crazy and since there is so little cut out of the body, the vibration resonates through your chest when you're playing too!  So good!  

As most of you know, I'm also a tinkerer/modder so despite this one being a Private Stock, I am still tempted to make some changes possibly!  I do dig the 408 Neck/Paul's Bridge pickup combo quite a bit, but as always I'm a humbucker guy and since this one has a unique wood combo I can't help but think "I wonder what this one would sound like with PRS 59/09's.... or a BKP set... or a set of CS Duncans... hmmmm..."  Previously I had tracked down an extra set of USA PRS cream pickup rings and decided I'd take a look at the initial measurements to see what I was looking at space-wise for both pickups...































From initial glances, it seems like it MIGHT work!   I had pinged the PRS PTC a year or so ago to ask about the possibility of routing a PRS 408 AP I had for standard-sized hums and they said it was a no-go without seeing extra space or screw holes left behind from the bridge 408 ring, but since the 408 neck pickups are thinner and less wide, I think it MIGHT be possible!  She needs a string change and a good fretboard cleaning anyway, so I'm thinking if I do that this weekend I'm going to try to pull both pickups and lay down the PRS humbucker rings to see what it really looks like as far as the route width from side-to-side as my only major concern is that the ears for the Paul's pickups might be a touch too wide and the humbucker ring might not cover them all the way. If you're going to route a $10K guitar, you want to make sure it's going to be done right!  

Obviously this is just me thinking out loud, always curious to try new things so if the modification looks like it CAN be done cleanly, I'll look into pinging the PRS PTC or my bud Phil Jacoby to see who feels confident about performing the surgery. I know the PTC can do some cool mods but they're a little hesitant about certain jobs (not sure if hand-routing a nitro-finished PS for hums like this is something they're interested in taking on due to difficulty or risk of something not going well), so we'll see what they say if it looks like it will work. Only cool thing about going PTC for that job is that I might be able to get them to install a set of covered 59/09's for me since it's a PS and despite not putting them into production stuff much anymore, they still apparently HAVE access to the wire for 59/09 and 53/10 pickups when it's going into a Private Stock.  We shall see, I'll post up some pics soon when I have a chance to strip her down and take a look at the routes to see if this is a possible option! Would be cool to hear how this rosewood neck sounds with some other pickup combos, I know 59/09's in my experience sound KILLER in a rosewood-necked PRS so if it looks like it will work and the PTC will take on the job, she may be going back home for some minor cosmetic surgery! BOOB JOBS ALL AROUND!


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## Andromalia (Oct 17, 2014)

How about making a series ? "Highgain510's PRS of the week" ?


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## HighGain510 (Oct 17, 2014)

Andromalia said:


> How about making a series ? "Highgain510's PRS of the week" ?



I might have been able to do that before, but I think that series would be rather short-lived now.  This one wiped out most of my "expendable" gear, and even then some of those pieces were already ones I didn't "want" to let go.  Right now I'm down to 4 USA PRS (2 PS and 2 AP's) and my SE models, although the Mushok is going up for sale as part of what needed to go to cover this one! No more NGD's from me for quite a while, have to get this puppy all paid off (almost there though!) and then I'll just be enjoying what I have for the time being.  Not the end of the world by any means, I'm blessed to have lots of killer stuff so I'm happy with what I've got!


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## WillDfx (Oct 17, 2014)

Congrats, Matt! Looks amazing! I think that Jade Glow encapsulates all of the greatest shades of Green that PRS offers! And about the neck being a tad lighter in color, I think it actually suits the guitar much better that way. It allows the Fingerboard to pop a bit, and the reddish hue goes outstandingly well with the shades of green. Wonderful!!


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## protest (Oct 17, 2014)

If you wind up putting 59/09's in you might want to grab some rosewood pickup rings.


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## Andromalia (Oct 17, 2014)

HighGain510 said:


> ...



Yeah, yeah. Sure. I'm _totally _believing that.


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## SeditiousDissent (Oct 17, 2014)

Ho Lee Fuk! That's not a guitar, it's a work of art. Knowing what Private Stock guitars generally run, I think you got an absolute bargain considering how beautiful it is. I had never seen the Rainforest Green finish before now and I'm blown away by it. It's a few days late, but Happy NGD! I think I found my new desktop wallpaper


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## absolutorigin (Oct 17, 2014)

Very nice! Rainforest glow is such a badass finish. Rainforest has always been one of my favorites so this is just does it for me. That back is better than most tops !


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## MAJ Meadows SF (Oct 17, 2014)

That color... wow. Just wow. And on the back too. Phenomenal stuff. 

I've never been a fan of the 408 pickups, but that's just a personal thing. I'd love to hear one of these with proper humbuckers. Not necessarily a metal oriented set, just something to compliment the woods and character. 

Regardless, HNGD, so badass.


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## Jason2112 (Oct 17, 2014)

I can't believe I clicked on another one of you NGD posts. I told myself I was gonna stop and, well, here I am. Moths can't seem to stay away from flames I guess.... and that guitar's got some serious flames (you see what I just did there....). HNGD number 642 or something.


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## skydizzle (Oct 18, 2014)

Wow that guitar is beautiful!


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## Sean Ashe (Oct 18, 2014)

damn. she's purdy


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## Timelesseer (Oct 18, 2014)

Wow man, one of the nicest PRS's I've ever seen. Oddly enough, I think the back looks nicer than the front, but the front is still an 11/10. Unbelievable guitar man! Glad you were able to get it, even despite having to deal with the GC stuff.


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## Blue1970Cutlass (Oct 19, 2014)

Gahd that green is incredible! 
I get the "rainforest green" moniker 'cause it looks like the guitar is covered with variegated leaves or something


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## DISTORT6 (Oct 19, 2014)

Another beauty!
Those brass inserts on the bridge look _very_ interesting. Any differences that you can hear?
Congrats, Matt and HNPRSPSD!


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## rifftrauma (Oct 19, 2014)




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## HRC51 (Oct 19, 2014)

Lovely guitar. I have 59/09's in my PRS -- great pickups.


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## jemfloral (Oct 20, 2014)

technomancer said:


> So much win! Perfect color and one of my two favorite PRS inlays (birds in flight and the brush stroke birds are both amazing).



100% agreed. The colour is so classy, and the 20th-anniversary-style birds will probably always be my favorite PRS inlay. Happy NGD and congrats on the triumph over the lame GC assistant manager


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## Zado (Oct 20, 2014)

Someday I will see you with a Knaggs


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## technomancer (Oct 20, 2014)

jemfloral said:


> 100% agreed. The colour is so classy, and the 20th-anniversary-style birds will probably always be my favorite PRS inlay. Happy NGD and congrats on the triumph over the lame GC assistant manager



The hilarious thing is that store has at least 3 other PRS Private Stocks with similar ridiculous prices.

Matt: I think I'd leave the Paul's pickups in this one just for the variety in tone. You've already got the 59/09s in 4346


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## ihave27frets (Oct 21, 2014)

Sick!


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## ferret (Oct 21, 2014)

I want this finish so bad it hurts.


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## protest (Oct 21, 2014)

technomancer said:


> The hilarious thing is that store has at least 3 other PRS Private Stocks with similar ridiculous prices.
> 
> Matt: I think I'd leave the Paul's pickups in this one just for the variety in tone. You've already got the 59/09s in 4346



Just to stay on the GC train, here's one of the pics another store is using for a Private Stock:








The color is "Purple Mist Burst" in case it wasn't obvious from the photo. Also I believe it does have knobs, though I'm not sure how many... This is seriously the picture you use to show off a $6,500 guitar? ...Friggin Guitar Center.


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## HighGain510 (Oct 21, 2014)

absolutorigin said:


> Very nice! Rainforest glow is such a badass finish. Rainforest has always been one of my favorites so this is just does it for me. That back is better than most tops !





Timelesseer said:


> Wow man, one of the nicest PRS's I've ever seen. Oddly enough, I think the back looks nicer than the front, but the front is still an 11/10. Unbelievable guitar man! Glad you were able to get it, even despite having to deal with the GC stuff.



Haha I think I'm with you guys, I prefer the maple on the back to the maple on the top!  They're both killer cuts of wood, but the maple back cap is glorious! 



MAJ Meadows SF said:


> That color... wow. Just wow. And on the back too. Phenomenal stuff.
> 
> I've never been a fan of the 408 pickups, but that's just a personal thing. I'd love to hear one of these with proper humbuckers. Not necessarily a metal oriented set, just something to compliment the woods and character.
> 
> Regardless, HNGD, so badass.



Yeah I had a 408 and the neck pickup was great but I wasn't thrilled with the enlarged bridge 408 pickup personally. I had actually reached out to the PTC to see if I could have that one routed for hums as the guitar itself was fantastic, I just wasn't getting along with the big 408 bridge pickup which was pretty important for me since I spend most of my time on the bridge pickup.  Sadly they said the pickup was too large to route it for humbuckers cleanly, but this one might be different, still not sure until I yank the pickups and lay down the humbucker rings to see if it will cover the whole 408 route. That being said, I like how the neck pickup sounds and the bridge pickup on this one is the "Paul's bridge" which is like a hotter 408, so it seems to sound pretty darn good stock. Just more of a curiosity deal than anything, would be interesting to try out a 57/08 or 59/09 (or some other set that would work well with a rosewood neck) but with the proprietary pickup size that makes things a little funky to say the least. 



DISTORT6 said:


> Another beauty!
> Those brass inserts on the bridge look _very_ interesting. Any differences that you can hear?
> Congrats, Matt and HNPRSPSD!



Well my 408 had a trem, but I've had a bunch of hardtail CU22's before so I think the only main difference is that it's *slightly* more brilliant-sounding overall in the highs. Not a monstrous difference in my guitar specifically, although since it's rosewood I expected it to be much darker than it is, so maybe that's part of why it doesn't sound as dark overall? 



Zado said:


> Someday I will see you with a Knaggs



Maybe, I know Joe makes nice stuff but I haven't played one and his stuff is fairly pricey for the builds with figured maple or inlays so I'm not sure I'll buy one unless I come across a killer deal. I have definitely wanted to check out a Severn though! 



technomancer said:


> The hilarious thing is that store has at least 3 other PRS Private Stocks with similar ridiculous prices.
> 
> Matt: I think I'd leave the Paul's pickups in this one just for the variety in tone. You've already got the 59/09s in 4346



Yeah I don't know who is doing the "research" at that store or if the GM is just ignorant to what his assistant manager is doing, but their used PS prices (and other PRS prices) are ridiculous. They still have the other PS this guy dropped there tagged at $3K+ more than it sold for NEW, so not sure what the hell they're doing over there as their used pricing is not accurate whatsoever.  I may leave it stock, who knows! It doesn't sound BAD so I'm not necessarily in a rush to try to mod this one or anything.  All my other guitars have dual hums so maybe a little uniqueness to the voicing of the 408/Paul's pickups is not a bad thing. 



ihave27frets said:


> Sick!



Thanks Pete!  I heard the snippet you posted on FB this morning, SO stoked to hear your new material brother!!!  We don't see you on here much anymore, hope you start popping in more often again, always cool to see what you're up to these days!


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## ChrisH (Oct 21, 2014)

Sweet mother of god.....

PRS makes some of the sexiest guitars in this industry. I'm totally jealous man, especially since I have a thing for green guitars!!

Happy NGD!!! Congrats!


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## HighGain510 (Oct 21, 2014)

protest said:


> Just to stay on the GC train, here's one of the pics another store is using for a Private Stock:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I think I saved the pic they shot of this one... fortunately they didn't have it posted with the front AND back showing...  They take photos with whatever camera they have available at the store, sometimes the pics are atrocious but it can work to the buyer's advantage at times if people just pass over a garbage pic but it might actually be an amazing piece!


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## protest (Oct 21, 2014)

HighGain510 said:


> I think I saved the pic they shot of this one... fortunately they didn't have it posted with the front AND back showing...  They take photos with whatever camera they have available at the store, sometimes the pics are atrocious but it can work to the buyer's advantage at times if people just pass over a garbage pic but it might actually be an amazing piece!



Lol yea I know what you mean. I have used that to my advantage before


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## HighGain510 (Oct 22, 2014)

I finally had some time to sit down with Netflix running (Season 2 of Arrow FTW!) and took this baby apart to give the fretboard a thorough cleaning and conditioning as well as yanking one of the pickups to get a glimpse of whether or not the modification could be completed cleanly. To finally put this question to rest (sadly for folks who wanted to see hums in here...), PRS 408 pickups, both the narrow neck/bridge on a Paul's guitar or the wide bridge on the PRS 408 model ARE BOTH in fact WIDER ROUTES than a standard humbucker! You can see I placed the ring down flat ensuring it was equidistant on both sides of the route and sure enough, there would be a little semi-circle hanging out on both sides of the ring.  Bunch of shots below so you can see the proof:


















































Another interesting tidbit of information... the specs listed for the guitar on the PRS site currently states the bridge pickup is just the "Narrow 408 Treble" and previously folks had stated the bridge pickup was a hotter version of the Narrow 408 specifically built for the Paul's Guitar model. Since I yanked the bridge pickup, I found out the label at least denotes that mine is actually a Brent Mason 408 Treble! 






I'm not sure if it's the same resistance and all as the Brent Mason (I could always measure it someday for giggles I suppose) but I loved the demos of the Brent Mason model so perhaps it's not necessarily a bad thing.  Of course, they might also just not have "Paul's Guitar Treble" labels made up, I know lots of the original DGT pickups either didn't have labels or had hand-written pen labels too so perhaps they decided not to make specific labels for the Paul's Guitar if the treble pickup is indeed different than the BM model. 

With all of THAT being said, I'm actually not really pushing to swap the pickups out anymore after all! I had only played through the Kemper and JamUp Pro XT until last night, but since I'm down to the Invader 100 alone these days I finally plugged into a tube amp for the first time... boy am I glad I did!!! The pickups kick major ass through the Invader! Very versatile and they worked well on every channel, handling everything from the super clean stuff to high gain metal.  The narrow 408's paired with the Honduran Rosewood neck definitely have that "vocal" quality to them which sounds super musical on single note lines, so I'm thinking since everything else I have is humbucker-based, it's nice to have yet another flavor to choose from when the mood strikes! This baby is staying stock (for now, at least), but it's not because I am afraid of the little overhang from the stock routes, that wouldn't bother me (although it would likely kill resale value which could be a potential concern down the road) at all but it's nice to know I'm not stuck with proprietary-sized pickups that I don't love in this one. 


P.S. MAN that finish is just so baller! I think it's one of my top 5 at this point, just looks good from every angle and definitely changes a lot from low light to bright light! The top is riddled with mineral streaks and I LOVE it, gives it that vintagey, old maple look! Maybe I should call her "Swamp Thing" perhaps?  I'll try to get hi-res pics together soon, it's super rainy and overcast in the DC area so nothing good for right now!


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## Jason2112 (Oct 22, 2014)

HighGain510 said:


> To finally put this question to rest (sadly for folks who wanted to see hums in here...), PRS 408 pickups, both the narrow neck/bridge on a Paul's guitar or the wide bridge on the PRS 408 model ARE BOTH in fact WIDER ROUTES than a standard humbucker! You can see I placed the ring down flat ensuring it was equidistant on both sides of the route and sure enough, there would be a little semi-circle hanging out on both sides of the ring.



That's a dirty trick.


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## Nik_Left_RG (Oct 23, 2014)

Green finishes are so awesome.. Belated NGD. That is a keeper for sure. Hopefully one day I can afford something similar someday..


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## MAJ Meadows SF (Oct 24, 2014)

protest said:


> The color is "Purple Mist Burst" in case it wasn't obvious from the photo. Also I believe it does have knobs, though I'm not sure how many... This is seriously the picture you use to show off a $6,500 guitar? ...Friggin Guitar Center.


 
Some lazy funkin' employees right there. I'm glad I worked at a pretty good store back in the day. There are routinely $5K-$12K PRS PS in there, and they got armed guard/magazine cover model treatment, including with pictures. The only time any of this aforementioned stuff happens is when the AM or Manager, or both, are not doing their job. That's just unexcusable. That PS SC looks black. What a shame. Still even if a store is pretty good, there's always that "one guy/gal" who sucks at life and ruins a customer's experience.


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## electriceye (Oct 27, 2014)

That's a beautiful axe, OP. I live about 45 minutes away from Brian's in CT and have been there only once. But what a selection he had/has up there. He actually had a sued Bernie Rico Jr axe for sale up there that made me wet my pants. 

Anyway, enjoy it!


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## noUser01 (Oct 28, 2014)

I never really liked PRS guitars all that much, but every time you post an NGD with one I get one step closer to blowing all my money on 8 of them.  Congratulations man, this one is definitely a worthy addition to your collection!


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