1996 PRS Artist lV - Limited Edition of Under Seventy Guitars…

1996 Paul Reed Smith Artist Series IV (Amber Flame Top).

This PRS 'Artist Series lV weighs just 7.20 lbs. One-piece 13 inch wide, 1 5/8 inch deep, South American mahogany solid body with a two-piece carved Artist grade book-matched 'flamed' amber maple top. One-piece South American mahogany glued-in neck with a nut width of 1 11/16 inches, a scale length of 25.00 inches and a wonderful medium-to-thick profile. Back angled three-on-a-side Brazilian rosewood veneered headstock with PRS 'Eagle' inlaid in 14k gold. Back of headstock with serial number "6 26899" and "#12" in black pen. Rosewood truss-rod cover with gold purfling and "Artist lV" in gold, secured by one screw. Individual Schaller/PRS 'Rotamatic' locking tuners with half-moon metal buttons. Brazilian rosewood fretboard with inlaid gold side purfling, 14k gold 'bird' inlays and 22 jumbo frets. One PRS 'McCarty Bass' Humbucker in the neck position and one PRS 'McCarty Treble' Humbucker in the bridge position with outputs of 7.80k and 8.54k respectively. Cream plastic pickup surrounds. One volume control, one tone control with pull-push coil-tap operation and one three-way pickup selector switch. Gold plastic barrel-shape "Speed" control knobs. PRS wrap-tail 'stud-bar' tailpiece. All hardware gold plated. Inside the neck pickup cavity is a large "AS IV" in black marker aand inside the bridge pickup cavity in blue ink is written "26,899 / Amber / Art. Ser. lV / 22 FWFSH". This beautifully made guitar is in mint unplayed (9.50) condition. Housed in the Original three-latch, rectangular black hardshell case with black leather ends and black plush lining (9.25).

The PRS Artist lV was only made in 1996 in a limited edition of "under 70"… Unfortunately this example, #12, whilst being mint and as new, does not have the original certificate of authenticity.

"The Artist lll and Artist iV replaced the Artist ll and Artist Limited, and completed the company's mid-1990s high-line production lines, harmonising with the similarly up-scale Rosewood Ltd and earlier 10th Anniversary models. Both these new Artists were 22-fret guitars, with the Artist lll closer in design to the previous Artist guitars with its inlaid-signature headstock logo, open-coiled Artist pickups and five-way rotary switch… The Artist lV, however, seemed more in line with the 10th Anniversary and Rosewood Ltd models: it used gold-plated nickel-silver covered McCarty pickups, as well as electronics that, of course, included a three-way toggle pickup selector switch. Pearl Works excelled themselves when inlaying the lV,s solid 14-k gold fingerboard birds, headstock eagle and purfling. "The engraving found on the solid-gold bird inlays of the Artist lV is extraordinary," said Smith. "The headstock bird alone contains over 3,900 lines." Pearl Works' Larry Sifel reckons that in fact the headstock bird contains nearer 5,000 engraved lines - and from his point of view the Artist lV was by no means plain sailing. "The first one had gold purfling, but that was a nightmare to do and it was switched to agoya, in laminate form. Without our Abalam laminate technique, agoya would have been too small a shell to use. But it's actually a fine pearl substitute." Listing for $4,800, the Artist lll with gold-plated locking tuners and stop-tail bridge. The Artist lV, an altogether more up-scale piece, listed for $7,600. It too used the gold-plated stop-tail, but featured McCarty vintage-style non-locking tuners." (Dave Burrluck. The PRS Guitar Book, p. 92)