This is a fairly recent purchase, and one of many many Patrick Eggles that I've owned over the years. It's an exceptionally good guitar that I'd rather not sell, but something has to go - that said, if my PRS Tremonti sells first, I will withdraw this listing and keep it so get in quick if you're interested...
This is great example of Patrick Eggle's flagship model, the Berlin Pro. It was built in Birmingham back in 1997 after the company was taken over by Musical Exchanges - I've had a few Eggles from this period (and still own a couple of similar age examples) and they've all been exemplary.
This one features many of the Berlin's standard appointments:
- Mahogany body with carved maple top
- Mahogany set neck with an Ebony fretboard featuring 24 frets
- Sperzel tuners and 2 piece fixed bridge
- Seymour Duncan Humbuckers (APH1 and Custom Custom
- Volume control, 3 way pickup selector and 3 way rotary selector offering humbucking, split coil and 'twintone' settings
The guitar is not only stunning to look at but plays brilliantly with that wonderful Eggle neck! The pickups are excellent - significantly better than the Kent Armstrongs found on some of the earlier models. The other a great range of tones with the humbuckers providing everything from warm and thick through to cutting high gain sounds (according to amp settings). In Twintone (an included diagram explains the wiring for this) and split coil settings you unlock a further array of more single coil type voicings, and these work extremely well - far better than many coil tap or split coil type attempts.
The guitar comes with a high quality Hiscox case that is made to measure with the Eggle logo embossed in the lid. It also comes with a little pouch with the allan key and some paperwork describing the features and settings.
The condition is superb - it's a really stunning guitar that is hard to fault. That said, it's not perfect and under scrutiny you can find some little marks in the lacquer around the edge of the body and a small area on the rear edge near the jack socket where the lacquer has rubbed away revealing a thin slither of wood - barely noticeable. Along the top edge of the fretboard there are a couple of little dings, but these are not noticeable when playing. Overwise, it's very hard to tell that it's 21 years old!
The case has a locking catch that it permanently locked in the open position - if you wanted to reinstate the catch you could probably force or drill out the lock, but the lid is secure without it.
PRICE: £695
Comments
I'm sure it's a marmite type but I love it...( and hate marmite )
My 2 green Berlin's make a great pair but I need to recoup a bit of cash.
These mid/late 90s Berlins have chunkier necks than some of the early ones that were very skinny and shallow - I'd describe it as a full C but it doesn't feel massive, certainly not PRS wide fat.
Eggles necks are great and play so well but they do vary in profile between different models and periods.
I suspect it won't be around after Christmas - in my experience Berlin's tend to sell quite well (if priced sensibly) and if it does hang around and my Tremonti sells in the meantime I will be keeping it. But who knows, I've been wrong before!
@Schnozz - it's worth trying different models from different periods, these mid-late 90s ones were chunkier than the early ones.