Rosewood Limited Edion PRS McCarty  -  One Of Just 100 Made in 1996/97.

1997 Paul Reed Smith Rosewood Limited Edition McCarty.

This PRS 'Rosewood Limited Edition' McCarty model weighs 8.00 lbs., and has a one-piece, PRS-shape offset asymmetrical double-cutaway 13 inch wide, just under 2 inches deep, mahogany body with an amazing sculptured, two-piece, bookmatched Violin Amber Sunburst maple top. One-piece rosewood PRS-shape glued-in neck with a nut width of 1 11/16 inches, a wonderful medium-thick profile and a scale length of 25.00 inches. Rosewood headstock face with "Tree-Of-Life" inlaid in Abalone and Silver, the border purfling inlaid in Abalone. Truss-rod cover with "Rosewood / Ltd."  and continuation of "Tree-Of Life" inlaid in Silver and Abalone, secured with one screw. Individual Schaller/PRS 'Rotamatic' locking tuners with the optional half-moon shaped walnut burl buttons. On the back of the headstock, written in gold marker is the serial number "7 29912" and "#45". Ten inch radiused Brazilian rosewood fretboard with inlaid Abalone "Tree-Of-Life" and 22 medium frets. One PRS "McCarty Bass" humbucker in the neck position and one PRS "McCarty Bass" humbucker in the bridge position with outputs of 7.75k and 8.84k respectively. One volume control, one tone control with pull-push coil-tap operation and a three-way pickup selector switch. Gold plastic barrel-shape "Speed" control knobs. Gold-plated PRS (wrap-over) 'compensated' stop-tail. Inside the neck pickup cavity written in silver marker is "AH". There is also a small circular red label with "JW / 21.2". Inside the bridge pickup cavity, written in black ink is "29,212 / Violin Amber / Sunburst / Rosewood Ltd. / 22 FWF". On the back of the guitar the triangular black plastic control cover is secured by three screws. This amazing guitar is in mint, unplayed (9.50) condition. With two original PRS hang-tags. Housed in the original three-latch, rectangular black hardshell case with black leather ends and black plush lining (9.25).

"Along with the continuing Artist series in the form of the lll and lV, the Rosewood Ltd fulfilled PRS's limited-edition high-line slot for 1996. Like the Dragon before it, the Rosewood brought a dual message. On one hand the tree-of-life inlay, based on a traditional theme, was a striking new design, never seen before on a PRS fretboard and headstock. This delicate inlay pattern further highlighted the work of Larry Sifel's Pearl Works team, and used a variety of materials including mammoth ivory, brown-lip mother of pearl, abalone, paua, mother of pearl, coral and gold, as well as fine etching techniques. On the other hand, as the guitar's name implies, the Rosewood Ltd was the first PRS guitar made in any quantity to use a rosewood neck. Smith's own amber-coloured Dragon guitar had been the first, and had convinced him of the timber's merit. (Rosewood had also been used for the neck of one of the 12 Guitars Of The Month, and according to Smith he made "a few rosewood-neck guitars for artists"."

Rosewood Ltd. 1996
One-piece rosewood wide-fat set-neck, Brazilian rosewood fingerboard with tree-of-life inlay, abalone purfling on fingerboard, 22 frets, "Rosewood Ltd." on truss-rod cover, abalone inlaid signature on headstock, tree-of-life inlay on headstock; gold-plated "vintage" tuners. Solid mahogany PRS-shaped body (slight extra depth) with figured maple top.
Colours: Black cherry; gray black; purple; violin amber; violin amber sunburst.
Two humbuckers (McCarty Treble and McCarty Bass) with gold-plated covers.
Two controls (volume, tone) plus three-way toggle pickup selector; pull-push tone control operates coil-tap.
Gold-anodised PRS Stop-Tail. Limited edition of 100, issued with certificate of authenticity.
Options include gold-plated PRS vibrato & gold-plated locking tuners with walnut burl buttons; semi-hollow body.

"Jim Jannard, a major California-based collector of PRS instruments, owns what Hogue rates as the ultimate PRS: a Dragon 1 with solid-gold inlay. "The number one best piece in the world!" Hogue exclaims. I think the Rosewood Limited is their finest piece," counters collector Garry Malone. "Paul took a step into tradition with the exquisite tree-of-life inlay but added, for the first time on a production guitar, a rosewwod neck. Out of all the PRS guitars built, it has the most ornate headstock, and the sound too is spectacular." (p.67)