Another Kind Of Paisley

Went to Cincinnati with my son today to put my 560SL into storage and to complete a deal I worked out about a month ago. It was for a leftover PRS MC-58. I was told it had a paisley case... but when I got there it didn't look like any PRS case I'd ever seen. This isn't my first rodeo. I have a few PRS Paisley cases, as shown here:

Note that they aren't identical. They have different hardware on them, some of them have a PRS Eagle embroidered on the inside, some don't. But they are all the same fabric, and they all fundamentally look like this:

The paisley on the MC-58 case is different; it's got color. Ron, the manager of the Guitar Center in Cincinnati and a well-known PRS forum expert, said he'd never seen one like it before or since. Other MC-58s made during the same month (December of 2011, which was actually a kind of fateful month in my life for reasons that are irrelevant now) have standard black-and-gold cases.

So what happened? Does it matter? After some research, I came upon a photo that claims to show "the five Paisleys". This is the highest resolution I can find:

I'm not totally certain that my paisley is any of those. If it is, it's the one on the far right, but I'm doubtful.

Oh well. On to the guitar. The MC-58 was Paul's attempt to build a product to compete on equal terms with the Gibson Les Paul "R8" and "R9" custom shop reissue guitars. MAP was $3,995 from a retail of $6,895. It has an Artist-grade top, outline birds, a bound neck, and top-grade appointments. It was basically a Modern Eagle with a mahogany neck. Most people spent the extra $700 and got a Modern Eagle. The model was discontinued for 2013 and I paid far less than MAP for this. Anybody who did drop four grand on a new one is probably now looking at eBay prices (approx. $2700 on the average) and frothing at the mouth.

I'll plug it in tomorrow and see how it sounds. If things had gone as planned, I never would have taken delivery of this guitar; it was part of a trade deal for something else that went totally off the tracks while I was in Sonoma. But I'm glad it's here now. My other paisley cases will have to learn to deal with a little diversity in the mix, so to speak. But wait, there's more. About ninety days ago, some PRS dealers reported seeing a new variety of paisley case:

Can't wait to get my hands on one of those. Yes, I know the whole thing is ridiculous, but I should point out that I did take my paisley-cased Modern Eagle Quatro to a gig once. Sure enough, the girl who was the majorette of my high school marching band (and the unwitting star of many a personal teenaged dream) came up and asked me a question about it. So... if you're a genuine musician, paisley cases are a despicable foppery. But if you're in the guitar game to meet girls, it's money well spent!