I bought this guitar from a guitar store in Miami some time ago. It was sold as 'Almost definitely made for Carlos Santana'. Well, I contacted customer service at PRS, and got the reply from Shawn in customer support that '...your guitar... was built for Carlos several years ago'. I used to know Ralph Perucci, in the White Plains store in 1987, one of Mr Smith's good friends. Ralph helped him get his guitar business off the ground in the early days, and has worked with many famous artists himself. At the time, I had the chance to own many prototype PRS guitars, and luckily I took Ralph up on many of Mr Smith's offerings. I turned down the chance to have Mr Smith build me a 'Signature Series' (1/1000) with a Floyd Rose bridge (which would have been wild), but I did get a nice one with the original PRS bridge. Mr Smith offered to sign anything I wanted on the guitar, but I opted just to have him sign his name on the back of the headstock. In 1988 I also bought two of the original 'prototype' bolt-on guitars, that had been shown at the NAMM show. BOTH had the serial number '1988' (I think there where 6 in all). I also had one of the very first sparkle-red Customs. All where sold down the line... but... hey, I still have the 1989 Carlos. If anyone out there has an old bolt-on, with the serial number '1988'... yup, you didn't know it, but it's a prototype.
