My dad bought a brand new PRS Custom 24 in May of 1999. The guitar has been his baby, and it's spent its entire life indoors in a room that receives only indirect sunlight. Nonetheless, we started noticing this Christmas that his "purple" guitar is now clearly more of a faded maroon color. It's as if all the blue in the finish evaporated and left only the reds.

I know that UV light can really damage a guitar's finish; but what about a guitar that's spent almost its entire light in a dim room or in a case? Anyone ever experienced similar fading without sun damage?

Never even heard of that happening, I wonder if it was a bad batch or something.

Did a little more digging--looks like PRS had a real problem with their blues fading in the 1990s. This was a "Royal Blue" guitar when new.

http://prsguitars.com/forum/showthre...ly-Fade-Batman

Yikes haha

I've had problems with the plating on my PRS becoming oxidized way too quickly.

I bought a PRS Custom 24 10 top about two years ago, came to be flawlessly, obviously. Now every time I'm finished using my guitar i take a VERY fine microfiber cloth and make sure I wipe down each individual string, the fretboard, any metal parts so that they don't oxidize. I get all of my fingerprints off.

Well after about 2 weeks a spot on the bridge was already starting to oxidize. I was pretty pissed. There's really no excuse for that, especially when spending ~$3k on a guitar.

Jem7vwh , i had similar story with an Ibanez Artfield… a couple of years ago German Luthier repainted the guitar Purple for me. After maybe 7/8 months the guitar started to loose the beautiful purple color and became a brown dwarf…so to say ( also minimal sunlight on it)..…after a year it was completely brown. All the purple was gone.
I consulted some guitarpaint specialists over here in Europe ( actually 2 of the best in Germany) and they told me , first Purple is one of the most difficult colors to handle. One of them told me that he normally wouldn't do purple job.Second ..the outcome after a few years could be different and a risk. They both told me it was probably lack of a good UV filter that caused the discoloration .
Unfortunately, i couldn't get a refund or warranty from the German Luthier and as he had no solutions to fix it. , so i found a Luthier in Holland who did a perfect purple job on the Artfield. I lost money on that guitar but it still has her purple color and looks beautiful.
As in your case did you contact PRS , a company like that must be able to find a fix.
Owning a lot of purple guitars, i can say its a beautiful but unpredictable color.

Hope all will come out good for you dad's guitar.

PM if you wanna see some pics.

I also have an Ibanez Artfield AFD25 in Blue (Search for the Ibanez Artfield catalogs on the IBZ site) which after years became greenish blue.

I'm sorry to hear about your "brown dwarf"--purple is my favorite color and I'm always disappointed at how hard it is to find nice guitars in the color.

Fortunately, I think my dad still likes his guitar with its faded wine color; but I was just amazed at how badly it has faded.

Some would call that Patina....

The only way to stop any kind of vunerable colour fading is to always put the guitar back in the case and keep the blinds/curtains closed. Even in indirect sunlight the UV rays bounce all over the place and will hit anything that's not not fully protected from the daylight.
The reason I know this is that I work out doors all day and my doc told me to be careful, even when working in the shade because of the danger of refracted UV.

Some would. Some would call it "mojo" or "vintage." I'd call it sun damage. Then again, I'm pretty OCD about my guitars.

I collected vintage guitars for many years and every guitar, given enough time, will fade if not in case. For an inexpensive guitar, a case is used as a way to transport guitars with minimal damage. But for a vintage collector, a case also doubles as a place to keep the guitar away from light. For the high end guitars, light is your absolute enemy.

OMG! There's a ridiculous difference between being in a dim room indoors versus being in the case if we are talking years instead of days. This is especially evident in rare finishes like the Pelham Blue that Gibson used or the Sonic Blue of Fender. Those are exceptionally prized guitars in a blue hue since most existing instruments have been left out and turned more green.

Even some guitars that haven't been known to change to much with light can be so expensive that they always live in the dark. One great vintage shop had everything out there like L5s, Super 400s, and other high end electrics. One day the dealer showed me a Stromberg he only lets live in case and won't bring it out unless somebody asks for it. The same thing happened in Vegas at a huge vintage store that had everything out but kept the D'Anglelico New Yorker in its case. Like high end sports cars that have a lot of their value tied up in being low mileage (and thus travel in large trailers), the higher end guitars with delicate finishes live in cases.

If I had a translucent baby blue or purple American made PRS, even though an otherwise tough solidbody, it would most definitely live in its case. Knowing what I do about these fragile finishes, and having seen dirt brown and puke green on great instruments, I would no more likely swim with the guitar in the pool that I leave them out in the light.

I have never seen a true Sonic Blue in unmolested (by light) condition and only saw a blue Pelman Blue Melody Maker student guitar, but that student guitar was going for $2,500 since it's unlikely that you'll ever see that blue of a Gibson from that period. Sometimes the faded look doesn't make the guitar look ugly but it's still a shame. To see an original '58-'60 with intact original blood orange burst (some examples in below picture) is like seeing a supermodel in person:

http://www.inspirationandcraft.co.uk...ft/iprint.html

my 2007 blue burst epi is still lookin sexy... yay for 500 dollar guitars