I've met Paul and know a few people that work at the factory in Stevensville, MD. The guitarist for the band I play in deals with their inlays. Paul is a nice (albiet weird) guy...too obessed with fantasy and dragons. Anyways, the newer Paul Reed Smiths just don't have the attention to detail that they used to have. They are just a victim of overgrowth and corporitization. Which is fine and I think Paul is a smart man for blowing up his company to such large proportions. They're building a new complex by their old one, so that's pretty cool. But still, they are now a assembly line that pushes out a lot of guitar and only the private stock gets the attention that's needed to justify their prices. Even then, private stock is a just a couple of old guys (precision lutheirs definitely), but they lack the zeal that they used to have and let things out the door that 10 years ago would have been unacceptable. The best PRS I've seen and played is my guitarist's employee guitar. But understandly, every component was hand picked and made before construction even started. Plus, he is a wizard at fretjobs and thing plays like fingers are on ice. I'll try to get a picture of it, definitely a "10" top and then some.