The “limited edition” disease - new PRS guitar strain....

[WindyCommon]

The current vogue for marketing-led “limited editions” in consumer goods is starting to really p*ss me off. Rolexes, Porsches, trainers - it’s all a load of nonsense. These are mass produced items, where any scarcity is purely the creation of “award winning” teams of marketing onanists. The phenomenon is sustained by consumers who are willingly mugged by the onanists, with the muggings aided and abetted by opportunist middle-men. It pains me to see this playing out in musical instruments...

Limited editions have always been a part of PRS marketing. In the early years they were truly limited editions in that they used rare tone woods and were produced by hand in low numbers. Gradually these truths have been whittled away, and we have now - with the PRS John Mayer Silver Sky Limited Edition Lunar Ice - reached a new low. With 1000 being made, this is absolutely a mass-produced instrument.

You can (or could) buy a new one for about £2,800:



But these have all been snapped up and here we see someone looking for a £10k premium:



I know they probably won’t get £12.5k for it, but do they have no shame...?

Nice guitar, and I don’t want one by the way. I just wish this particular strain of modern consumerism wasn’t alive and well in musical instruments.

Edited by WindyCommon on Sunday 24th January 14:22

[AdeTuono]

With the 35th Anniversary Dragon going out the door at £15k+, who knows?

But £10k over for this does seem a tad optimistic.

[lockhart flawse]

Guitars have become a hobby over the last 25 years in the same way the motorbikes have. A motorbike was transport and I used to ride one in shorts and a T shirt. In London I rode to work in my suit and a coat if it was raining and so did plenty of other people. Now practically everyone seems to have all the gear and I suspect few use them as everyday transport anymore.

Same with new guitars. Who buys them and are they any good; can they even play them? I suspect there is a new breed of guitar collectors and they are fueling the demand for the never ending procession of variations on the same Strat theme and limited editions that are 99.9% the same in use as any non-limited edition guitar or last year's Strat.

Arguably - no one needs more than a Strat/Tele and an HH guitar but that wouldn't keep Fender and the others going.

However, as always, I am still looking for the perfect Strat but the definition of perfect changes from year to year.

[Camelot1971]

Ironic that these will likely appreciate in value but the genuinely rare and special ones depreciate like stones.