Bluedawg
01-25-2009, 08:16 PM
Look what showed up at my house Friday.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/Bluedawg/Guitars/PRSArchtop003.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/Bluedawg/Guitars/PRSArchtop007.jpg
I found this at the Memphis Guitar Center. They gave me a great deal on it.
There are a couple of nicks on it and the back is scuffed up a bit, probably from its days at GC.
but overall it is in good shape.
The tone is very nice and jazz flavored. My wife says it is one of my smoothest guitars.
I compared it to my Gibson L4-CES and my Heritage Sweet 16. I ran it through my Roland Cube 60 and a Carr Rambler. The PRS Archtop is closer in tone to the L4. The L4 has a little more of that "tubby" archtop sound, but the PRS Archtop is certainly in the same ball park as the L4 and it's solid spruce top.
The PRS has that mounted pickup jazz tone as opposed to the floating pickup tone. It definately has a real archtop jazz sound minus some of the "tubbyness" to my ears. It does not sound like a solidbody with flatwounds and the treble turned down, which is good IMHO.
It also plays like a PRS, which is very good, and the access to upper frets is much better than your average archtop.
My Sweet 16 has a floating pickup so it has more of an acoustic jazz sound even when electrified.
The strings on it feel and sound like Thomastiks so they will be staying on there for a while. Sometimes I think the Thomastiks could make a strat sound like an L5.
Overall it's a nice compact little Jazz box. Although, it could probably deliver some rock tones with roundwound strings.
It's certainly a 2003, but finding info on this model is kind of hard. The PRS website appears to call it the PRS Archtop. My PRS book calls it a McCarty Archtop second version. The tag in the case has Archtop IV written on it, assuming that is the tag that came with the guitar. There is a registration card in the case that says PRS Archtop Vintage Burst. Knowing Guitar Center the case candy and the guitar may have nothing to do with each other.
Digging up info on this thing is complicated by the fact that the PRS Hollowbody and the PRS Archtop are two distinct models, but lots of people call the Hollowbody an archtop, which is not really innaccurate, and the Archtop can rightfully be called a hollowbody.
I'm going to enjoy playing with this thing. I may try it at swing band practice tomorrow night.
:banana
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/Bluedawg/Guitars/PRSArchtop003.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/Bluedawg/Guitars/PRSArchtop007.jpg
I found this at the Memphis Guitar Center. They gave me a great deal on it.
There are a couple of nicks on it and the back is scuffed up a bit, probably from its days at GC.
but overall it is in good shape.
The tone is very nice and jazz flavored. My wife says it is one of my smoothest guitars.
I compared it to my Gibson L4-CES and my Heritage Sweet 16. I ran it through my Roland Cube 60 and a Carr Rambler. The PRS Archtop is closer in tone to the L4. The L4 has a little more of that "tubby" archtop sound, but the PRS Archtop is certainly in the same ball park as the L4 and it's solid spruce top.
The PRS has that mounted pickup jazz tone as opposed to the floating pickup tone. It definately has a real archtop jazz sound minus some of the "tubbyness" to my ears. It does not sound like a solidbody with flatwounds and the treble turned down, which is good IMHO.
It also plays like a PRS, which is very good, and the access to upper frets is much better than your average archtop.
My Sweet 16 has a floating pickup so it has more of an acoustic jazz sound even when electrified.
The strings on it feel and sound like Thomastiks so they will be staying on there for a while. Sometimes I think the Thomastiks could make a strat sound like an L5.
Overall it's a nice compact little Jazz box. Although, it could probably deliver some rock tones with roundwound strings.
It's certainly a 2003, but finding info on this model is kind of hard. The PRS website appears to call it the PRS Archtop. My PRS book calls it a McCarty Archtop second version. The tag in the case has Archtop IV written on it, assuming that is the tag that came with the guitar. There is a registration card in the case that says PRS Archtop Vintage Burst. Knowing Guitar Center the case candy and the guitar may have nothing to do with each other.
Digging up info on this thing is complicated by the fact that the PRS Hollowbody and the PRS Archtop are two distinct models, but lots of people call the Hollowbody an archtop, which is not really innaccurate, and the Archtop can rightfully be called a hollowbody.
I'm going to enjoy playing with this thing. I may try it at swing band practice tomorrow night.
:banana