Paul Reed Smith Guitars, also known as PRS Guitars or simply PRS, is an American guitar and amplifier manufacturer founded in 1985 in Annapolis, Maryland by Paul Reed Smith. After dropping out of college, Smith began making guitars by hand and found early customers in players like Peter Frampton and Carlos Santana. Smith achieved wider success with his namesake company's first production model, the Custom, and the ornate Dragon series. PRS has continued to build its reputation with models like the vintage-inspired McCarty, affordable SE range, and signature models for players including Santana, Mark Tremonti, and John Mayer. PRS also produces acoustic guitars, basses, and amplifiers. The company is currently based in Stevensville, Maryland.
Paul Reed Smith (born February 18, 1956) built his first stringed instrument, an electric bass, in 1972 while a student at Bowie High School.[1] After graduating, Smith briefly attended St. Mary's College of Maryland,[2] where he completed his first electric guitar at the age of 19. The college awarded Smith four credits for the guitar, which was deemed "of professional quality."[3] Smith dropped out of college to open his own repair and luthier shop in Annapolis, from which he and several employees built on average one guitar per month. In 1976, Smith built a custom guitar for Peter Frampton and took it to several concerts, where he knocked on backstage doors to try and show it to guitarists. Ted Nugent bought an early guitar from Smith. Al Dimeola ordered a 12-string model. Howard Leese bought Smith's first maple-topped guitar, the Golden Eagle. Carlos Santana requested a guitar similar to the one owned by Leese, and it was delivered in 1980.[3]
By the end of 1984, Smith had refined his early designs, creating what would become his brand's signature design elements, including its Strat-meets-Les Paul body shape, headstock design, birds-in-flight fretboard inlays, and dual humbuckers with rotary, five-way pickup switching.[4][5] Smith debuted his new guitar model, the "Custom," at the 1985 NAMM Show, and afterwards traveled to retailers along the East Coast, collecting enough preorders to open his own Annapolis factory that same year.[4][6]
Breakthrough
PRS's primary headstock style
Paul Reed Smith Guitars launched with two factory production models, the Custom and what was then simply known as the "PRS Guitar," an all-mahogany version of the Custom—which would be renamed the "Standard" in 1987.[3] Demand escalated quickly, and the brand produced its 1,000th guitar in June 1986.[4] With its reputation growing, a friend remarked to Smith that he was not charging enough money for his guitars, so Smith went upmarket with the "Signature" series, which was produced from 1987 until 1991 and cost so much that PRS started developing a reputation among critics for building guitars for "doctors and dentists."[3]
In 1988, PRS introduced a more affordable option, their "CE" (Classic Electric) models, which were characterized by bolt-on necks, alder bodies, and maple necks, similar to Fender guitars. The CEs were originally produced until 2009, and then reintroduced in 2016.[7] These were followed in 1990 with the even more affordable, 22-fret "EG" (Electric Guitar) models and the more successful "EG II" of 1992, which included PRS's first left-handed offering.[3] PRS introduced the "Dragon 1" model in 1992, with only 50 units made and an $8,000 price tag. It featured an intricate dragon inlay which ran down the fretboard, a wide 22-fret neck, a non-vibrato stop-tail bridge, and a new pickup design. The changes from previous models added a noticeable tonal improvement, which led the company to create a mass production model in 1993, the Custom 22.[8] PRS then launched the "McCarty" model in 1994, offering a more vintage-feeling and sounding PRS guitar in honor of former Gibson president Ted McCarty, who had become a friend and mentor to Smith.[3] The following year, PRS began producing a signature model for Santana, who became the brand's first formal endorser. In 1996, the company moved to its present facility in Stevensville on Kent Island, launched its website, and opened its "Private Stock" custom-build service.[5]
Expansion
All of PRS's guitars were produced in the company's Maryland factory, but this changed in 2000 with the introduction of the "SE" (Student Edition) range of guitars, which offers more affordable versions of many of the brand's popular models.[9] SE models are manufactured in Korea by World Musical Instrument Co. Ltd. In 2008, PRS expanded its catalog to include acoustic guitars. Two years later, despite the economic downturn, PRS released 20 new models, 13 of which were anniversary editions, alongside new models like a singlecut McCarty and SE versions of the Singlecut and Santana models. With the S2 range introduced in 2014, PRS began offering less expensive, American-made versions of their guitars. The S2 range launched with an S2 version of the Custom 24 and two new models, the Starla and Mira.[3]
In 2007, PRS began offering amplifiers with its Archon model and subsequently added to its lineup signature models for Mark Tremonti (MT series) and David Grissom (DG Custom 30). PRS also produces the HDRX series, an amp series based originally on a Marshall Super Lead used by Jimi Hendrix and housed at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, Washington.[10]
PRS offers multiple signature model guitars and amplifiers, most notably designing the Silver Sky with John Mayer.[11]
Construction
Examples of PRS's signature birds-in-flight fretboard inlays.
Fretboard inlays
One of PRS's signature design elements are its birds-in-flight fretboard inlays. Smith first used bird inlays in a guitar he built for Peter Frampton in 1976, prior to PRS's official launch.[12] Smith credited his mother's love of bird watching for the choice, with most of the designs inspired by a bird book he purchased for the task. He has stated the birds featured in the smaller upper frets were the most difficult to design, and several friends helped with their depiction. Once designed, the inlays for Frampton's guitar were cut by hand from pearl piano keys.[13]
Nuts are synthetic and tuners are of PRS's own design, although some models feature Korean-made Kluson-style tuners. PRS guitars feature three original bridge designs: a one-piece pre-intonated stoptail, a vibrato, and a wrapover tailpiece. The vibrato was designed with the help of guitar engineer John Mann. It was an update on the classic Fender vibrato and used cam-locking tuners, which offered wide pitch bending with exceptional tuning stability.[8]
Pickups
Pickups are designed and wound in-house. While most of the brand's pickups are humbuckers, some are a pair of single coils wound in opposing directions, one intended for the neck and one for the bridge position. Through the use of a unique rotary pickup selector switch, PRS pickups offer five different sounds: a combination of thick humbuckingGibson-like tones, and chimey single-coil Stratocaster-like tones.[8] The standard treble and standard bass pick ups use magnetic pole pieces in the non-adjustable inner coil, and a rear-placed feeder magnet in order to achieve a more authentic single-coil tone when split by the rotary switch.[8]
PRS developed pickups for the aggressive rock market, offering pick ups such as the chainsaw, and the Hot-Fat-Screams (HFS) initially used on the Special model.[8]
In 1998, an electronic upgrade kit was released for pre-1993 instruments which included lighter-weight tuner buttons, nickel-plated brass screws for saddles and intonation, a simulated tone control, and high-capacitance hookup wire.[8] In 2012, PRS released the 408 pickups used on the 408 and Paul's Guitar models. These pickups include innovations that feature no loss of volume when in coil split mode.[14] They have an exclusive agreement to use wire drawn from the same machine that made wire for Les Paul and Stratocaster pickups in the 1950s.[15]
Certain models of PRS guitars have also used pickups by Lindy Fralin, notably in the EG II[16] and certain specs of the Custom 22.[17]
Product series
PRS offers many of its models in different product series, each varying in price, quality, and location of manufacture. They are organized below by price range, from low to high.[18]
SE / Student Edition: Created out of demand for affordable versions of the brand's Core models. Most SE models are made in Korea or Indonesia. Compared to other series, SE models reduce production costs in several ways, such as using maple veneers (instead of maple tops) and multi-ply maple necks. They also employ a "Wide Thin" neck profile as opposed to the more popular "Pattern Thin" profile of more expensive models.[19]
S2: The brand's mid-priced offerings, constructed in the Stevensville factory alongside the Core models, albeit using a faster production line and a combination of USA-made and foreign parts. S2 models have a stripped-down aesthetic compared to most Core models and feature some design changes, like using asymmetrically beveled tops.[19] This line contains both "reimagined" versions of existing models and new designs.[18]
Bolt-On: Made in the brand's Maryland factory, these models are characterized by their bolt-on neck construction and include several models with single-coil pickups, like the Silver Sky.[18] All CE models have bolt-on necks.
Core: PRS's standard, American-made production models. The Core series comprises all of the brand's early designs and features the brand's highest build quality short of Private Stock guitars.[18]
Private Stock: Private Stock is a custom-build service and represent PRS's highest-end guitars.[6]
Notable models
McCarty with a stopbar bridge
Silver Sky
Santana signature model
Golden Eagle
Paul Reed Smith built his first maple-topped guitar, dubbed the Golden Eagle, using wood from a 300-year-old dresser Smith acquired from a friend's mother.[20] The "pre-factory" design was similar to a double cutawayLes Paul Junior,[21] with a rounder lower bout and a shorter bass-side horn compared to PRS's later Custom-style silhouette, but used two humbuckers, a carved maple top, and vibrato bridge. The Golden Eagle had a yellow/amber finish, abalone purfling strips, darker mahogany neck, mother-of-pearl eagle on the headstock, and 24.5" scale length.[22] The customer it was built for, however, declined to follow through on the purchase and it was instead sold to Heart's Howard Leese, who bought the guitar based entirely on a photo Smith sent him. Much of the Golden Eagle's design was later replicated for Carlos Santana's own signature models. Leese also purchased Smith's maple-topped follow-up, the Golden Eagle #2, which featured only a bridge pickup.[20]
Santana
While Santana first played a PRS guitar in 1976 when Smith was showing his guitars backstage at concerts, he first extensively used one when he borrowed Leese's Golden Eagle #2 to record his album Zebop!.[20][23] In 1980, Smith brought another prototype to Santana backstage at a concert and an impressed Santana commissioned his own maple-topped model, which was Smith's third after Leese's Golden Eagles. The guitar was completed in 30 days and delivered that November. It followed much of the original Golden Eagle's format,[20] with alterations like an Om symbol on the truss rod cover, a single knob (for volume), and on/off mini-toggles for each pickup.[24] The guitar established a lasting relationship between Santana and Smith, giving the fledgling PRS brand credibility and serving as the template for future signature models for Santana,[21] which PRS began making in 1995. Multiple iterations have since been released, including the Santana II, which was used to record Supernatural,[23] and the first SE model, as the SE series was inspired by numerous requests from players for an affordable Santana signature guitar.[4]
Custom
The 24-fret Custom was the brand's first production model, released in 1985, and introduced many of what would become the brand's signature design elements, including a body shape that merged elements of the Fender Stratocaster and Gibson Les Paul, along with a 25" scale length that similarly sits in between Fender and Gibson specs.[25] Other features included a revised headstock design that became standard for the brand, a PRS-patented tremolo, a "sweet switch" tone filter toggle, and a unique, five-position rotary pickup selector that switched between full humbucker and split-coil configurations.[25] A "stoptail" bridge option was offered from 1993 on, while the rotary selector was replaced with a five-way blade switch in 2011.[26] The Custom was renamed the "Custom 24" after the introduction of the Custom 22, a production model of the Dragon 1 that removed the dragon inlay.[3] Like with many future PRS models, both Customs would see iterations that introduced new features, such as piezo and soapbar pickups and Floyd Rose locking bridges.[26]
Dragon
PRS introduced the "Dragon 1" model in 1992, with only 50 units made and an $8,000 price tag. It featured an intricate dragon inlay which ran down the fretboard, a wide 22-fret neck, a non-vibrato stop-tail bridge, and a new pickup design. The changes from previous models added a noticeable tonal improvement, which led the company to create a mass production model in 1993, the Custom 22.[8] The Dragon 2 was released in 1993, and the Dragon 3 in 1994. Both featured dragon inlays that became more complex with each edition. Only 100 of each of the two models were made.[8] In 1999, PRS released the Dragon 2000, which featured complex body curves, and a three-dimensional dragon inlay. Just 50 Dragon 2000's were ever produced.[8] In 1996, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History included the Dragon 1 with other name-brand guitars as a piece of history regarding American popular music.
McCarty
Early in his career, Smith had befriended former Gibson president Ted McCarty, who became a mentor to him. Although McCarty was not involved in the model's design, PRS named it in his honor, with Smith explaining that the design represented the culmination of everything McCarty had taught him. The McCarty departed from the typical PRS design in multiple ways, featuring a slightly deeper body, thinner headstock, and a three-way toggle for pickup selection. PRS later added a push-pull switch for coil-splitting. Some of the McCarty's features came at the suggestion of David Grissom.[3]
Singlecut
A PRS Singlecut, the model at issue in Gibson's trademark dispute.
In 2000, PRS debuted their Singlecut model, which notably bore a strong resemblance to Gibson's Les Paul. Although other brands producing Les Paul-inspired guitars was not uncommon, PRS's success and reputation for quality made the Singlecut uniquely a threat to Gibson.[4] As a result, Gibson filed a trademark infringement lawsuit, while PRS countered that it had not violated any valid Gibson trademarks. The case was of significant interest to the guitar-making industry, as it potentially had serious ramifications for any brand making single-cutaway, solidbody guitar models.[4] An injunction was ordered in 2004 that required PRS to stop manufacturing the Singlecut,[27] with Federal District Court Judge William J. Haynes ruling that the Singlecut was an imitation of the Les Paul.[27] However, in 2005, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed this lower court decision, and ordered the dismissal of Gibson's suit. PRS resumed production.[28] While no changes to the design of the Singlecut occurred as a result of the lawsuit, some Singlecut owners and sellers have adopted the term 'pre-lawsuit' to differentiate their Singlecut guitar from others.[29]
The PRS Silver Sky was co-designed with John Mayer as his signature model with the brand. The Silver Sky's basic design combines a Fender Stratocaster-style body with PRS's headstock and signature birds-in-flight fretboard inlays. Mayer had previously been an endorser of Fender guitars with his own signature model Stratocaster, but Mayer ended the partnership in 2014 to pursue new guitar designs with Paul Reed Smith. Upon release, the Silver Sky quickly became one of the industry's best-selling guitars, while simultaneously facing backlash among many guitarists over its similarities to the Strat—a combination that led Guitar World to dub the Silver Sky a "phenomenon... the guitar that 'broke' the internet."[30]
Artists
Italics denote the player has a PRS signature model.
1 2 Burrluck, Dave. (2007). The PRS guitar book: [a complete history of Paul Reed Smith guitars] (3rded.). Milwaukee, WI: Backbeat. ISBN978-0879308988. OCLC71808403.
1 2 Gibson Guitar Corp. v. Paul Reed Smith Guitars, L.P., 325 F. Supp. 2d 841 (M.D. Tenn., 2004)
↑ Gibson Guitar Corp. v. Paul Reed Smith Guitars, LP, 423 F.3d 539 (6th Cir. 2005).
↑ Marchisotto, Paul Anthony (2006). "Note: Gibson v. PRS: the Applicability of the Initial Interest Confusion Doctrine to Trademarked Product Shapes". Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal. 24: 883–917.
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