2012 PRS NF3, Antique White, Maple Fretboard

Headstock. A repaired crack on the treble side, at the corner below the tuner nearest the nut. It starts at that tuner's lower mounting screw, runs down and out across the bevel, and dies at the edge, about three quarters of an inch in all. A few short fine lines run off it at the corner and are part of the same break. It is tight and closed, nothing reads as filler or overspray, nothing is splined or dowelled, and the headstock has not been refinished. The close-ups of the back of the headstock show it. It does not show from the front. The neck shaft is clean its whole length and the four bolt joint is undisturbed.

Front. A chip in the finish on the bass side, just outboard of the pickguard and level with the gap between the middle and bridge pickups, just outside the edge of the pickguard, roughly a quarter inch across, with the flake lifted along one edge. The clear coat has lifted along one edge and there is a paler layer under it. Whether that reaches bare wood cannot be told from a photograph on an opaque white finish, so we are not claiming either way until it is looked at in person. There is a close-up of it in the set.

Back. Light swirl scratching across the lower half, a hairline scratch about an inch long beside the tremolo cover, and a small white mark in the finish just below the cover.

Plastics. The black pickguard and the black tremolo cover are the most worn things on the guitar. Both carry dense fine scratching and pick marks across the whole face. Both are replaceable and both are cheap.

Neck and fretboard. Clean. No dings on the back of the neck, no wear through the satin, and the flame is easy to see. One short scratch on the headstock face above the tuners. The maple board has light darkening in the lower positions from playing.

Hardware. The bridge plate and saddles have dulled, with light tarnish. No tremolo arm is fitted.

Finish generally. Dents here and there, no checking, and no cracks or separations anywhere other than the repair described above.

Not assessed. Fret height and any past levelling, neck relief, and whether the tremolo is decked or floating. Ask and we will check.

The guitar and a rectangular black hardshell case, plain, with cream piping and chrome latches. It is not the PRS case and carries no maker's mark. It is scuffed along the lid and at one corner, and the latches and the handle work. No tremolo arm is fitted.

The headstock has been repaired. That is the first fact about this guitar and it is why it is priced where it is. A crack runs from the lower mounting screw of the tuner nearest the nut, on the treble side, down across the bevel and out to the corner, about three quarters of an inch in all. It is tight and closed, nothing is splined or dowelled, the headstock has not been refinished, and it does not show from the front at all. The work was done here in Livingston by a repairman we trust.

If the word crack made you stop reading, it is worth knowing which break this is, because one word covers two very different faults. The one people picture is a Gibson style snap through the volute, where the headstock comes off and the string load then runs through the repair forever. This one is a corner below a tuner, outside the string path, on a headstock PRS angles at ten degrees rather than seventeen. The neck is bolted on with four screws, which caps the worst case in a way a glued in neck never does. We have played it since the repair, and it plays and sounds good. The electronics work.

What is left is the odd one in the PRS line. Three pickups, a bolt-on maple neck, a maple fretboard and a six saddle tremolo: all of that is familiar. The pickups are not. A Narrowfield is narrower pole to pole and deeper front to back than a single coil, wound with the same wire PRS used in its 57/08 humbuckers, and PRS built it to sit in its own place rather than to imitate a Strat pickup.

The rest of the build is plain and good. A one piece maple neck, satin on the back, with flame running the length of it. Twenty two frets on a 25.25 inch scale, which is PRS's own length and falls between the usual Fender and Gibson numbers. Volume, tone, a five way blade. The jack is on the side of the body, where the cable stays out of your way. Bare flamed maple on the headstock face and the back of the neck against an opaque white body is most of why this model looks like nothing else on a wall.

Away from the headstock the wear is cosmetic, and the condition notes say exactly where: one chip through the finish on the front, swirls on the back, and a pickguard and tremolo cover so scratched that a fresh set is the cheapest thing anyone could do to it. Ask us anything the photographs do not answer and we will take more.

Pickup only. We are not shipping instruments yet, so this one is bought here: 215 East Lewis Street, third floor, Livingston, by appointment.

On the price. This costs more than the clean 2021 Telecaster on the same wall. PRS built the NF3 for about three years and stopped, and a handful are listed for sale anywhere at any time. A clean one is fifteen hundred dollars at a national dealer today. A Telecaster of this era is made by the thousand and you can buy one anywhere. Scarcity is doing the work here, and the repair is what brings it back under a clean one.

This is for someone who is going to play it. Three pickups, a bolt-on neck, a 25.25 inch scale, two knobs and a blade: a guitar that is not a Strat, with a satin neck and a maple board that already carries honest wear, so the first new mark will not cost you anything.

Buy something else if you are buying to hold value. A disclosed headstock repair follows a guitar for the rest of its life and it is the first thing the next buyer will ask about, so this is one to keep and play rather than to trade on. Buy something else if you want true single coils, because a Narrowfield is not one. Buy something else if you want the original PRS case and the papers, because this comes in a plain hardshell that fits it. And buy something else if you want a guitar that photographs as new: there is a chip through the finish on the front, the black plastics are heavily scratched, and no tremolo arm is fitted.