1986 PRS Vintage Yellow Custom 24 Serial #6 12XX
Completely original. Two Owners. Vintage Yellow. Blue-lined case. Star in the neck cavity. Special Order One-Piece maple top.
That’s right — I said Special Order One-Piece Top. Ordered from Paul himself.
This is the type of ultra-rare time-capsule find many of us PRS lovers and addicts lay awake at 2 a.m. fantasizing about.
The original owner — a Nashville songwriter –ordered this 1986 Vintage Yellow Custom directly from Paul Reed Smith at the Virginia Ave. workshop. He didn’t want the Birds because he thought they were way too fancy. But one thing he was dead-set on getting was a one-piece rock maple top. Back in 1986 you could order one — for the whopping price of $100. Paul told him at the time it might very well be the last one-piece he would do because he was having so much trouble getting quality pieces of maple that size.
Sometime around ’90, the owner needed emergency funds and sold this beauty to the second owner — his cousin, an acoustic player who was helping him out with some quick cash. Since being shipped to him twenty years ago, this guitar has never been out of the house, safely stashed in storage in the Northeastern USA.
By his estimation, this ultra-mint Custom has only been played five or six times since then.
The condition of this guitar is factory-fresh dead-mint. The finish is so virgin it literally looks like Mike Deeley just inked the star in the neck cavity TODAY. She sounds fantastic in each of the five settings, with special emphasis on the “9″ Cocked-Wah position — which is a little beefier and less nasal-sounding than many others I’ve heard. This gives “9″ the heft and depth of the full humbucker, while still maintaining the secret-sauce, swirling cocked bite of Paul’s ’80′s innovation. A very unique sound.
So that’s the story — an immaculate classic instrument, stashed for two decades, rediscovered and retrieved from its time capsule, then sent rockin’ right into August 2011. A classic 2 a.m. laying-awake-in-bed PRS Collector’s fantasy brought vividly to life. Serial Number 6 12XX.
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