The PRS factory is just up the road from me, and I've gone on tours a few times with some of my guitar students - it's a factory..... Al DiMeola and Carlos Santana have been playing PRS guitars since Paul was making them in his garage in the early 80's; one thing's for sure, the new PRS guitars that are given to DiMeola, Santana, and John McLaughlin are not exactly assembled on the line in the factory, from the parts bin. However, I don't think I'd be able to tell much of anything about any guitar in a room full of noise at Guitar Center, except quality control, fret finishing etc. On those things, I think PRS does a great job. (I still think the main difference between a $2500 Gibson and a $6000 custom shop Gibson is about $150 worth of fret work, ditto with the $1200 Strats and the $4000 ones.)
Different pieces of wood do different things, and I've had to change out pickups and capacitors on Warmoths I built because I guessed "wrong" the first time - to me it's just part of the process of getting it as good as possible. It's no big deal on a Warmoth, but rewire a PRS and you've "lost" resale value, even if you fixed the damn guitar.... I almost bought a Music Man Petrucci 7-string but built a Warmoth 7 instead for that very reason. PRS uses good wood and good parts, but I really doubt PRS, Music Man or any other high-end factory is going to tune the electronics to the boards unless you're DiMeola, Santana, McLaughlin, Morse, Petrucci.... :toothy12:
I think it's obvious that Gibson, Warmoth, Carvin, Suhr, ESP and every other maker in the world has been "touched" by the colors and finishes that Paul Reed Smith has come up with - there didn't used to be blue wood in 1985... but give me $7000 to get a great guitar and I'd build 6 Warmoths, and just hope one would work out O.K. :hello2: (Actually I'd sneak a $1000 Ibanez jazz box in there too, those things are scary.)
