Eclipse Auditorium Spruce / Mahogany

This is my long overdue, honest and unbiased review of an absolutely outstanding guitar brand that I was, until about a year ago, completely unfamiliar with. I have been playing guitar for the past 33 years, and have amassed a pretty solid guitar collection in that time. During a visit with family in upstate New York last summer I came across a local listing for a Prestige Eclipse guitar (mahogany/ spruce) being offered for sale for a ridiculously low price. The images immediately caught my attention – it’s a truly stunning instrument and looked to be of much higher quality/ value, than the listed price suggested. It’s appearance suggests that of a high-end custom built acoustic. Being that I was wholly unfamiliar with Prestige guitars I did some quick googling and was more than intrigued but also highly suspicious of the post because of the list price. To my absolute delight, the seller responded quickly and I was en route to meet him. I soon found myself in very exclusive neighborhood where I met with a middle aged man in the driveway of an impressive home. He explained to me that he had purchased the guitar several years prior with the intent to learn to play but never found the time. He and his wife were now downsizing from their palatial estate to a loft in the city and cutting ties with a lot of unused items at insanely low prices (good for me!). I played the guitar for all of about 3 seconds and purchased it immediately. I have owned this instrument for about a year now and I’m blown away by it every time I pick it up or look in its general direction. So I am writing this review because earlier today I spent some time at a local Sam Ash store on Long Island to see if they had any worth while store closing deals. While there I played no less than a dozen different Martin, Taylor’s, Gibsons… throw in a Hoffman and a few other custom builds…. The average sale price of any one of the guitars was $1999-4000…. and let me tell you how not a single one held a candle to the aesthetic, playability or tones of this Prestige Eclipse. I’m honestly not writing this as a knock on any of the major players listed above… I have several higher end Martin, Taylor, Breedlove etc in my collection… I honestly love them all. This is just me giving high praise to Prestige guitars for manufacturing an instrument that I would very happily pay list price any day over most other options at or above its retail – it’s really that good! This guitar will never leave my collection and has been my go to option since it came into my possession. Lastly, I recently had this baby set up by a prominent guitar tech/ luthier who was also unfamiliar with Prestige. When I picked it up a few days later he said “this is a really nice guitar. I am really impressed by this, they really did everything right… great find, great guitar”. I couldn’t agree more!