Oh, sorry for the egregiously grouchy and cynical tone of the above post. Recent death of a close friend, don’t you know - I guess we all have to go through it.
He gave me the guitar I first learned on. 
Ah, sorry man. What kind of guitar did he give you? Acts like that matter in a musician’s life.
As for Mayer and publicity - in his video, he states that PRS is a place where he is talking with the founder and owner and that mattered to him. I buy that. I just wouldn’t buy the guitar 
but I hope it is successful.
Yeah, and yet I only just remembered how I got it. It was a Yamaha dreadnought that his brother had abandoned, and my friend could only play a couple bars of the introduction to Roundabout on it. So when he showed me how to play that, I got it right, and then the guitar - bigger than I though it was - was mine.
In the 40-odd years since, I’ve come to realize that there are only two types of people: those for whom learning guitar is hard work, and those for whom it’s fun (he was in the first group, while I was in the second). All other categories of humanity - ethnic, religious, Patriots fans, et al. - are merely subsets of these two types. 
To this day, I’ve not seen a Yamaha guitar - whether cheap or expensive - that wasn’t skillfully assembled.
I feel you. My first guitar was a Yamaha FG-75 I got for $68 at a pawn shop in Monterey California.
I have never found guitar easy, but I could see how the parts of the stuff I was learning could come together, so was worth the effort. It’s getting a bit easier now, going on 40 years or so.
This has me salivating.
I learned back in the 60s on a Stella that was ordered from Sears. I thought that I could just pick up the guitar and start right up again after 40 years of, you know, not doing that. Amazing how much less flexible you are at 70 than you were at 20, and how much arthritis fucks with your joints. After 3-4 years of lessons, I’m finally feeling somewhat comfortable around the fret board, but it’s still a struggle. In a moment of insanity, I requested that we give this cover a try. I can kinda sorta get it, but not at any tempo you’d recognize. 
That guitar?! But you live in Portland! That’s not a Portland guitar!
Neither is my Taylor, my Fender, or my Brazilian acoustic, but I can live with the shame.
That’s a nice tune for picking. I think I’ll have to give it a try.
In that video, what are the white things on the guitar? There is a white patch on the body and there is the very noticeable white thing above the low E in the soundhole. Some sort of pickup?
BTW, I’m not quite 50, and I’m already having problems with my hands. I really feel it on the fretting hand.
I’ve not seen those white things. I’m curious, too.
My fingers and shoulder get twingy, but I keep playing 
I am kinda hoping my move to fingerstyle will help me maintain flexibility!
On the Gear Page, there is a quote from a PRS rep saying they have ~3,000 preorders, had made 375 guitars leading up to the announcement, and now have an 8-month backorder list.
In the meantime, Gibson owes its creditors over $500 million in the next few weeks. This is likely going to lead to something involving the ouster of the CEO, the much-reviled Henry J.
I keep hearing from other Musicians that Gibsons quality has gone down hill.
You buy a dream guitar for $2800 and it arrives with a totally crap set up? People don’t forget disappointments like that. I know several friends that had to get complete setups on new Gibsons.
Gibson has dug a deep hole for themselves.
Paul Reed Smith has said his guitars play straight out of the box. They take pride in that.
Gibson can do the same thing. If they care and assign people to set them up before they ship.
Holy guacamole! I guess their gamble on building a high-end Strat copy is going to pay off. 3000 X $2000 = a cool $6 million in new product sales in the first year.
So true. It’s weird: I read stories like that and try to factor in that to volumes - I think a million guitars are sold a year? Which wouldn’t include used sales which would be many times more. It starts to sound possible to get those numbers.
Okay, I put this on Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h-RqVhcbwxQ
Steve Miller’s Jungle Love*. Twice through as a guide track - the second time’s better because I used downstrokes ;). Same rig: Tweed amp, Blackstone overdrive pedal, homebrew Tele, huge neck and heavy gauge strings. Tele’s Volume is about 7; Tone is about 4 - tell me that tone’s not in Gibson territory. It’s articulate, but the highs are rolled off so you get humbuckery mids up front. Yay. Again, Jimmy Page used a Tele on Zep 1 as we all know - I just love that, and get a bit more Malcolm Young crispness with my pedal and heavy strings. Yay.
So - do you realize that more than anything, this is a Keith Richards riff? Jungle Love?! Seriously - it’s in Open G - I’m actually playing in Cheater’s G, with the A detuned 1 step to G. I only play the middle four strings (except the intro lick), and keep both E strings muted the entire time if you notice. The capo puts it up to “Cheater’s A” I guess. Classic Keef setup. And I’m playing the various chord combos Keith uses on every Stones song - hammering on with my middle and ring fingers and moving that shape up to the fifth and seventh frets (relative to the capo). Honky Tonk Woman with a rock groove.
Just fun as hell to play - meat and potatoes pocket rock. Your drummer tightens the snare and kick and locks in. I have always thought it was a fine song - a 70’s staple, but nothing special. But man, playing it takes it to a new level of fun. I’ve seduced bandmates with it - they say Meh to my suggestion, but when I kick off I get smiles all around
*the riff was actually played by LA session ace Greg Douglass; can’t recall why Miller used a hired gun. Douglass was up there with Larry Carlton and Jay Graydon as studio aces and Steely Dan go-tos. Tragically, he fell through a plate glass window and severed a tendon, rendering his picking hand paralyzed. He retaught himself to play with a thumbpick attached. If you can believe it, I was reading an article about his story in Guitar Player when I was in flippin high school in the 70’s - that’s where I learned this. It was in that article I read he did it in Open A. A decade later, when I was messing with Open G, I recalled that story (why??), capoed up and figured it out. I remember the article saying how important the tuning was to the guitar’s great tone on that song. I agree ;).
Okay - geeky Sunday guitar post. Enjoy.
I’ve always thought it sounded fun as hell to play. I just got my capo out and tuned to open G, going to give it a tumble. Nice job working the harmonic notes like the original, sweet!
Wow, WordMan, you managed to make a Steve Miller song sound pretty good there - a feat even Steve Miller himself was never quite capable of. Lately, a cranked Tweed Deluxe sounds a bit harsh to my aging ears, but I guess a Blackstone and a Celestion Blue are the antidote to that.
And since I totally spaced on this post from a month ago:
swampspruce, this sounds like more fun than an octopus in an orphanage!
Let us know how it turns out.
Fender is getting into the acoustic market, again.
I remember the Fender Santa Rosa was a popular small body acoustic with a electric neck. Sold lare 80’s and early 90’s. Quite popular with electric players that occasionally played acoustic. I’ve tried to buy one twice and got outbid.
Santa Rosa
Fender just came out with the California series. Deja vu. Looks pretty much the same as before. Positioned for the cheaper market. IIRC the Santa Rosa was priced for the mid range market.
https://shop.fender.com/en-US/acoustic-series/california/
Guitar World has a short article.
Sounds reasonable, for a small body.
EtFlagon and squeegee - thanks. Just a fun groove to play.
aceplace - Fender never seems to have gotten acoustics right. I can’t think of a single player who uses one. Obviously they do okay, and I could see getting one for a beater guitar, but I would look at a Taylor GS-Mini, used Yamaha or other options before I would consider a Fender acoustic, unless I picked one up and it impressed me more than others have. (that’s how I ended up buying a GS-Mini; I am not a Taylor guy, but was trying $500 beaters, played a bunch, picked up the Taylor and realized what a solid instrument it is).
Wordman you did an awesome job in that video. Do you sing and play?
I agree, Taylor is a better choice for small guitars. The main advantage Fender offers is the C style neck. Electric players find it easy playing Fender acoustics.