1988 PRS With Undisclosed Neck Break Now On Reverb and Ebay 2022 updated

henrygregory91

Hi all. It’s myself selling this guitar. I’m disappointed to see that I was clearly mislead when buying this guitar but thanks for getting in touch and giving me the information. I’d be grateful for any advice re values given the neck break. It sadly owes me a lot of money! It may have to be a keeper. 

tone1

Perhaps I should buy it and have a matching pair...

prlgmnr

Oh look, honest people do exist.

Dodge

@henrygregory91 ;

It's a shame, it's a lovely guitar and in the right colour for an 80s PRS. I'm sorry you got stiffed when you bought it (assuming the seller knew).

I was once offered £4k for my 87 (same colour, VGC and no neck break) I declined, but those days are long gone. I suspect mine is worth £2.5-3k now. The 1 piece top is a plus, but the neck break obviously isn't. Maybe it's worth a similar value?

If it was me, I'd leave it up for your asking and see if you get any interest. If you don't, it's too expensive.

stonevibe

henrygregory91 said:

Hi all. It’s myself selling this guitar. I’m disappointed to see that I was clearly mislead when buying this guitar but thanks for getting in touch and giving me the information. I’d be grateful for any advice re values given the neck break. It sadly owes me a lot of money! It may have to be a keeper. 

There are some knowledgeable PRS people on here that can help you out. GLWTS

henrygregory91

Dodge said:

@henrygregory91 ;

It's a shame, it's a lovely guitar and in the right colour for an 80s PRS. I'm sorry you got stiffed when you bought it (assuming the seller knew).

I was once offered £4k for my 87 (same colour, VGC and no neck break) I declined, but those days are long gone. I suspect mine is worth £2.5-3k now. The 1 piece top is a plus, but the neck break obviously isn't. Maybe it's worth a similar value?

If it was me, I'd leave it up for your asking and see if you get any interest. If you don't, it's too expensive.

Thanks for this, I think that will be my plan. I don’t need to sell and it’s a great guitar to enjoy. It takes a special kind of person to want a guitar with a neck break! 

henrygregory91

stonevibe said:

henrygregory91 said:

Hi all. It’s myself selling this guitar. I’m disappointed to see that I was clearly mislead when buying this guitar but thanks for getting in touch and giving me the information. I’d be grateful for any advice re values given the neck break. It sadly owes me a lot of money! It may have to be a keeper. 

There are some knowledgeable PRS people on here that can help you out. GLWTS

Thanks very much. 

TheBigDipper

Question for all the guitar makers and repairers out there...

If I'd brought the broken guitar to you and you'd fixed it to the standard we can see in the photos, then what's the problem? 

OK, we know the guitar was damaged. Assume the repair was professionally done. It's a good looking guitar. Assume it plays and sounds as good as it always did. Why does the knowledge it was repaired cause such a big reduction in what people will pay for it?

I realise lots of people won't pay as much "just because..." but is there any likely actual extra risk in owning a well-repaired guitar? 

Adey

The break looks so we'll repaired, and happened some while ago (I'm supposing), that it might not be a huge deal to people who want a nice PRS for playing. Yes it affects the price, but it doesn't make it worthless or undesirable.

If it was a Les Paul, a neck break could be described as "lightly used" and in some ways, once repaired, it's an "upgrade".

tone1

The Gary Moore/Peter Green/Kirk Hammet 59 Les Paul had a neck break, and that sounded pretty damn good.... well 2/3 out bad (now that reminds me of a song) 

HarrySeven

@henrygregory91 - *virtual high-five*

a. Absolute fair play to you re. disclosure - there are far too many sellers nowadays who would ignore/refute stuff like this.

b. Welcome! Good to see another tFB member in Shropshire.

HarrySeven

henrygregory91 said:

It takes a special kind of person to want a guitar with a neck break! 

Personally makes no odds to me whatsoever - any neck break will decrease resale value, but if it’s a keeper and the price is right, it’s all good - if it’s unrepaired and you can do the work yourself, even better.

As I’ve said before, I’d sooner have a LP with a well-repaired break than not, TBH...

henrygregory91

HarrySeven said:

@henrygregory91 - *virtual high-five*

a. Absolute fair play to you re. disclosure - there are far too many sellers nowadays who would ignore/refute stuff like this.

b. Welcome! Good to see another tFB member in Shropshire.

Cheers! I wouldn’t feel comfortable not disclosing now that I know. I like to think the guy that sold it to me didn’t know either. But...as you say, far too many people are out there to mislead. 

HarrySeven

TheBigDipper said:

Question for all the guitar makers and repairers out there...

If I'd brought the broken guitar to you and you'd fixed it to the standard we can see in the photos, then what's the problem? 

OK, we know the guitar was damaged. Assume the repair was professionally done. It's a good looking guitar. Assume it plays and sounds as good as it always did. Why does the knowledge it was repaired cause such a big reduction in what people will pay for it?

I realise lots of people won't pay as much "just because..." but is there any likely actual extra risk in owning a well-repaired guitar? 

This has been discussed numerous time before. Have a peep at threads like:

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/4092/gibson-neck-breaks-whats-the-wisdom-on-this

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/9539/les-paul-impact-of-repair-on-value

WezV

tone1 said:

The Gary Moore/Peter Green/Kirk Hammet 59 Les Paul had a neck break, and that sounded pretty damn good.... well 2/3 out bad (now that reminds me of a song) 

The old guitar shop "wisdom" was that a repaired break sounds better as any weakness has been dealt with and its stronger than it was before.

Sadly, things are not that predictable.  Breaks are not all equal, neither are guitar repairers.

This is a well repaired long grain break, so from a functionality point of view there are no issues whatsoever. 

But originality is lost and that seems to affect PRS values more than some others.

Does make you wonder whether a repair should be left more visible, but I know none of you would want that if yours broke. 

Strat54

I was offered it by the original seller, who is 100% honest so I don't know who you bought it off Henry but I do know it was being openly disclosed then. I was offered the guitar for well under £2k at the time. The neck repair when first done looked amazing, it was totally invisible and the finish was perfect, now to be honest its looking less than stellar. You've had it for sale on ebay for quite sometime, right? 

boogieman

Well done for turning up here and holding your hands up @henrygregory91. Takes a lot of balls to do that. 

I have to ask, did you not notice the damage when you took delivery of the guitar? (Not inferring any blame on your part if you didn’t by the way, I’m just curious, as it looks fairly obvious to me from your auction pics).  I’m surprised that a “reputable dealer“ didn’t make it known when they sold it to you either, you’d have thought a dealer with a reputation to protect would be quick to pick up on things like that. 

It does prompt some thought from me. I’ve got an SG that had a very obvious neck break when I got it. The seller was also upfront about and sold it cheap to allow for the damage. It’d been well repaired and I’ve since had the guitar completely refinished in a solid colour, and so well that the damage doesn’t actually show any more. I’d be upfront about it if I ever sold it on, but would anyone further down the line also be honest, or even know about it without that knowledge being passed on? 

Dodge

It was bought from a dealer? If so, how long ago?

ICBM

WezV said:

The old guitar shop "wisdom" was that a repaired break sounds better as any weakness has been dealt with and its stronger than it was before.

Sadly, things are not that predictable.  Breaks are not all equal, neither are guitar repairers.

This is a well repaired long grain break, so from a functionality point of view there are no issues whatsoever.

Agreed - if it has been glued properly, which it does look like, then in this case with a slightly weaker neck due to the wood grain direction, it’s actually stronger than it was.

The issue for me is the finish - it just looks a bit of a mess. It might not have when it was first done, I suspect a different type of finish (probably nitro) has been used and the two have reacted over time.

WezV said:

But originality is lost and that seems to affect PRS values more than some others.

Yes, and even if you had the whole neck fully refinished correctly - which I think would make the repair more or less invisible - it would still have to be disclosed.

It’s an unfortunate Catch-22 with guitar values, where originality trumps everything.

henrygregory91

Strat54 said:

I was offered it by the original seller, who is 100% honest so I don't know who you bought it off Henry but I do know it was being openly disclosed then. I was offered the guitar for well under £2k at the time. The neck repair when first done looked amazing, it was totally invisible and the finish was perfect, now to be honest its looking less than stellar. You've had it for sale on ebay for quite sometime, right? 

It’s been on eBay since tale end of last year I think. I’ve only just listed on Reverb. I don’t think the chap I bought it from realised either as he recently got in touch to swap for a Masterbuilt Strat. Very frustrating!