Paul Reed Smith 1980 West Street Limited

Natural Mahogany color, Artist grade Sapele top on mahogany body, with a deeper top and horn curve, Brazilian rosewood fretboard with green heart abalone bird inlays, green heart abalone Eagle on headstock, small pre-factory Dragon inlaid on top in Green Ripple and Paua, 24.5" scale length, tremolo bridge, Santana II neck carve, Brazilian rosewood truss rod cover with OM symbol, HFS and RP bass pickup with zebra coils, Santana II switching, a limited run of 300 guitars made. Comes with deluxe hard case and letter from Paul. About the only thing it didn't have was a coil tap, but this is a retro recreation and the originals these inspired didn't have them.

This is a beautiful sounding guitar. Very articulate. Cleans up and drives very well. The thing that really struck me was how usable the volume and tone controls were. The pickups were very sensitive to changes in volume and tone which gave a very complex tonal palette. I have a Custom 24 with the HFS and Vintage Bass pickups (with a coil tap on them) and they are great for hard rock to metal on that guitar, but they don't have quite as much full-bodied flavor as the HFS and RP models on this. The all mahogany body and the brass trem probably helped give it the warmer articulate tone. I've never played a Santana model but I can hear some Santana-style tones to the pickups in these and I'd imagine probably they are close since this was patterned off the original models Paul was making at the start of his relationship with Carlos. I work in a music store and tried this out on Marshall JVM's, Fender Supersonics, and Egnaters...sounded great on all of them.

Guitar was absolutely flawless (as you can expect from a new PRS). played perfect out of the box. I have a guitar repair business and know how to do exceptional setups and did not have to do a thing to it. My Custom 24 I've had for 2 years and it has never needed even a truss rod adjustment so Paul makes good stuff. PRS has gotten a bad rap from people saying they sold out when he went to factory production, but I've toured the factory and their quality control there is exceptional. His Private Stock stuff goes through the assembly process with the same people working on them as his regular production stuff and they all meet the same QC requirements. I have Fenders and Gibsons and they all have their own appeal, but PRS is the benchmark for factory production quality.

I bought this guitar as an investment piece so it will never see a live show, but I will pull it out occasionally to plug it in for a few minutes and marvel at the beauty of it. It has a heavy clear finish and despite it's good looks I'm sure it would hold up well in a gigging environment. My Custom 24 as well as some of my friends's PRS guitars have seen a lot of live action and held up well. PRS guitars are not cheap, but you do generally get what you pay for and when compared to comparable Gibson's I think PRS guitars are a step above in overall quality (although Gibson has stepped up with the new 2008 Les Pauls).

Have not had to deal with them although have generally heard good things about them. Most repair work I would perform myself anyway if I had to.

As mentioned, I bought this as an investment piece. I own numerous other high-end Fenders, Gibsons and Gretsch investment grade guitars. Because of the upfront cost of most PRS guitars their long-term return potential might be limited, but this is such a unique run (and probably one of the last with Brazilian Rosewood fretboards) that I think it will appreciate over the long-term (I'm thinking 20 years down the road)...at the least it won't depreciate from what I paid. It is a beautiful guitar, plays perfect (short scale and neck profile are very playable for smaller hands), sounds great and is just about everything I would want in a solid body electric. Being an expensive guitar you run the risk of it being stolen at gigs, so like a lot of people I would use cheaper guitars for that and enjoy this in my home. I would definately buy another if stolen (that's why it is insured!)