Ah New Red Geetar

A couple weeks ago I finally, after about 12 years or so, picked up a PRS Custom 24 electric guitar. It is the first one I purchased in about 20 years. The funny part about this story is that Mary nearly had to kick me out the door to go get it! The opportunity presented itself and I took it (with some persuasion!). The guitar in this picture is actually the second one. I did pick up the first one at the Guitar Center in Joliet. After making a few adjustments to it I got it to really scream! However, I still had a nagging buzz in the neck that wouldn't go away. After taking it to a guitar tech at West Side Music in Joliet, we discovered that it had some uneven frets as well as a loose bolt-on neck. It could have been repaired but I only had it for little over a week! Since I actually bought it from Billy Terrill (the manager at the store at 72nd and cicero), I drove back up there where he had another one (almost identical). That is the one you see here. But, sad to say, I think I have to exchange this one too. Not because of bad construction (although there is a little buzz on the 13th fret of the low E string), but rather because I am just not "feeling it" with this one. Don't get me wrong, it plays great! Sounds great! However, and I think many guitar players (and musicians in general) would relate to this, I'm just not comfortable with it. I can't really explain it. The first guitar, I was 100% comfortable with it. It was just a shame that it had those technical problems. Billy over at Guitar Center has been way awesome with me on this! He has a couple more at his store. I have like 30-45 days to test drive these (CCC does give him business and will continue to do so as long as he is there). So on Monday I am going to try another one. He said it is kind of a cool looking black/gray color. Hopefully third time is a charm! Meanwhile, I do plan on playing this one at the Generosity Conference tomorrow. Should be lots of fun!

So yeah, I am a bit picky with this stuff. It's funny how it goes with instruments. It doesn't matter if it is PRS, Fender Strats, Gibson Les Pauls, or you name it: you could like 20 of them up with all the exact same specifications and I swear, they will each feel different somehow. It was that way when I picked out my Taylor acoustic. The one I have was 'it'. There were others that were of the same model that didn't feel the same. Fortunately at that time the first one home ended up being the keeper. I doesn't matter how much you play it at the store, the real test comes when you bring it home to your setup, playing in real-stage conditions. I'll let you know how it goes on Monday!