Collecting PRS guitars is Hot. Prices are rising, and it is great fun collecting these scarce build early PRS guitars. With Thanks to Rick Hogue from the Musians hotline.

We recommend the following PRS guitar to collect!

1982-1984 PRS Pre Factory Santana Style, Maple tops are king!
1985 PRS Custom, Vintage Yellow, birds, low serial number
1985-1986 PRS Guitar (after 1987 known as the Standard), Any color is fine but Magenta pearl, sea foam green, powder blue, canary yellow are the rarest colors
1985-1986 Metal Model, with birds if possible, Magenta pearl or green are rare ones
1986-1991 Signature model, 1st choice is quilt, Purple and Bonni Pinks are the coolest!
Bonni Pink- THE Rare PRS color, it is hideous to behold but every PRS collectors has to have one, Sig, Custom, Etc...

Signature Limited-Maple tops are RARE, others are cool too!
1992 Dragon I, amber quilt, pearl wings #1 choice
1993 Dragon II, amber quilt, pearl wings #1 (not as popular as 1 or 3)
1994 Dragon III, Indigo quilt

Dragon prototypes are cool also
2000 Millennium Dragon, Black Cherry is most common, all other Dragons are passé
1994 McCarty models, numbered ones are cool, but earlier ones had CU22 style features and heel
1996 Artist III-these have been the favorite and have held value
1994 Artist Limited-Indigo Quilt
1996 Santana I, the numbered ones, Santana Yellow is best
1988-1991 Studio Model, maple tops are best
1987-1991 Special Model-crackled finish

10th Anniversary-Quilts
Single Cut Brazilian Rosewood-no other PRS sounds better with a Brazilian neck
Rosewood Limited-Semi hollow and tremolos are rare
Employee Guitars-the closer to a Private Stock the better
Guitars of the month- not many around
Rarest PRS ­ The Golden Dragon I

Honorable Mention-
HG-70 and HG 212 Amps
PRS Acoustics- no more than 13 made in two batches from early 90's (11) and
two made later by Dana Bourgeouis

These are a sampling of what to collect, and of course it's a guide, but there a lot of great PRS out there and I don't know of anyone that has them all.