The Man, the Company, & His Guitars

By Cliff Suttle
cliffnotes@harmony-central.com

If you poll 100 guitar players and ask them to name the top five high-end guitar makers in the world, you will get a lot of different answers. But three letters will appear on almost everyone's list: PRS. This three letter acronym, short for Paul Reed Smith, is synonymous with some of the best guitars in the world. PRS guitars are played by some of the finest guitar players in the music industry including Ted Nugent, Ross Childress, Jimmy Page, Neil Schon, Carlos Santana, Trent Reznor, and a list of others way too long to mention here. How does a guitar company come out of nowhere and in less than 10 years rival the likes of Gibson and Fender? It starts with the dreams of one man -- Paul Reed Smith.

I recently had a chance to interview Mr. Smith, an opportunity I had been looking forward to for a long time. I came away with a sense of a man with a dream and a desire which could only be rivaled by Walt Disney and Jim Henson (creator of the muppets). Paul's dream is to make the best guitars that technology, craftsmanship, and some of the finest designers in the world can create. Has he done it? Well, go to your local music store and try out the PRS Custom 22 or Custom 24 and you be the judge.

Paul Reed Smith

The trademark of PRS guitars is the quality wood tops and special bird inlays on the neck. The guitar tops are 3/4" carved flamed or quilted maple and are stained and finished beautifully (see photo). The guitar is thinly coated and buffed to a finish that PRS refers to as "Dipped in Glass." It gives PRS guitars a special look that puts them in a class by themselves. I personally have a Custom 22 with a Whale Blue 10-Top (a term that refers to a very nicely book-matched wood that is striped or quilted with no dead spots in the pattern) that I fell in love with the first time I saw it. The pictures included here come from the PRS web site and are used with permission.

The path to creating these fine guitars was a long one. It all started back in 1975 when Paul (then a high school student) made the decision of what he wanted to do with his life. Years of studying, refining, testing, playing, and just plain hard work has led to the current PRS company that employs 119 people, has a yearly revenue of $11.5M, ships over 700 guitars per month, and is one of the top three guitar makers in the country.

Before we read Paul's own words, if I have intrigued you about PRS guitars, they can be reached on the web at www.prsguitars.com or by phone at 410-643-9970. Their web site is graphically inviting and easy to navigate. PRS also has a screen saver that you can download that will display some of the most beautiful guitars on your monitor. The site is worth the trip.

But now lets hear from Paul:

Harmony Central (HC): When and how did you get into the business of building guitars?

Paul Reed Smith: Other than selling flowers and washing dishes before I was 18, this is the only job I ever had. I was lucky; I knew what I wanted to do for a very, very long time. I was in wood shop during my last year of high school when I built my first guitar. During the summer between my first and second year of college, I turned my brother's bedroom into a workshop. There's been a lot of times in my life where I literally played music all night and made guitars all day.

HC: What hardships did you face in the beginning?

Smith: (Laughs) Which ones didn't I face. One winter I had no money and I lived on two bags of lentils and two bags of split peas. There were years when I was out of money and I borrowed all the money out of my friends' bank accounts. For years I lived on macaroni and cheese. At one point I was down to two dollars a day to eat on. I bought a fish sub in the morning with a glass of water for 95 cents. That was my meat, bread, and salad (it had lettuce and tomato on it). Then I would have another one in the evening. I had a repair shop and making money in the repair business can be pretty difficult. I think in some ways that those were pretty happy times though. Hardships ... hardships are constant, life is painful ... I don't regret any of it.

HC: Who was the first big star to play a PRS guitar and how did you attract them to do so?

Smith: Ted Nugent was the first. I used to get back stage at noon and show the roadies [the guitar], and then the roadies show the musicians and the musicians would say... ah ... maybe you can meet Ted. I was lucky. I was in Washington DC; there weren't any other guitar makers. In other towns there were a lot of guys standing there with their guitars. [In DC] there was no competition. I was the only guy there. The deal was that if they didn't fall in love with it, I gave them their money back. It was the only deal that made sense. They [the big stars] had other guitars made for them that they weren't happy with. It wasn't that they had to like it, that they were satisfied -- they had to fall in love with it. Carlos Santana couldn't believe it. He said, "You mean if I don't absolutely love it I get my money back?", and I said "Of course." People don't buy a guitar unless they fall in love with it. You buy ADAT's because you need them. You buy a guitar because you really want it.

In the early 90's, PRS made their now famous Dragon Guitars. These guitars had full neck length dragon inlays on the fret board made from different woods, stone, shell, and metals. If you can find one to buy today, you will pay between $12,000-$18,000 dollars for it. They are truly breath taking. This landmark instrument even hangs in the Smithsonian museum in Washington DC.

The Dragon II

HC: Did you consider the Dragon guitars to be a big risk on your part?

Smith: I didn't think they were a risk at all. Everyone else did. I thought it was meant to be. I finally got a good design. I loved it. I didn't get any orders though. I had to literally shove the orders down the dealer's throats. I wanted more money than anyone had ever asked before and it was outside [the norm]. I told one dealer, you're going to kick yourself in the ass if you don't put your name on this list. He wishes he had more now.

HC: In 1995 PRS began doing some of their processing with CNC machines and robots. What are the advantages of this process?

Smith: Robotics!?! Robotics are like going to heaven. No back problems, it does the same motion day in and day out, it doesn't have a bad day, it doesn't have a good day. I hope to be using more and more of them as time goes on. I think they're great.

In 1995 PRS began carving their guitar bodies with CNC machines (computerized milling machines). This year they began buffing the guitars with robots. The rest of the instrument is still hand made.

HC: Of the PRS guitars, which is your favorite model and why?

Smith: Shoot ... [long pause] ... I play a McCarty. I like McCarty's. That's what I play. I like Custom 22's because of the pickups. There's a lot of things I like that we do.

McCarty was the President of Gibson guitars from 1950 to 1966. Mr. McCarty has been consulting with PRS for a number of years and helped to design the PRS guitar that bears his name, as well as having a major role in the design of other instruments.

The Custom 22

HC: Not including PRS guitars, what is your favorite guitar and why?

Smith: If I had to play a gig and PRS guitars didn't exist, I would buy a 1963 Fender Strat and put a humbucker in the treble position. I'm a musician -- if some other company was making a guitar that I liked better than a PRS I would have a real hard time not using it. [Paul doesn't seem to have this problem. In his group "The Dragons," he only plays PRS guitars.]

HC: Tell us about your new hollow body and semi-hollow body guitars? [For more information, look for the upcoming review of the new PRS arch-top guitar coming soon to Harmony Central.]

Smith: I like 'em. Basically they are very similar to a violin with a guitar attached. The thing that's cool about them is that they don't feed back really loud. If you've ever played a big jazz box loud through an amplifier it goes "howoooo, howooo." These things don't do that. The sound post joins the top and the bottom together.

HC: What would you like the world to know about Paul Reed Smith, the company, that they may not already know?

Smith: We're a team of people, not just one person. We have assembled a really intelligent team of people who really care a lot about PRS instruments and instruments in general. There is not any sitting on laurels stuff going on here. We are constantly working on new things and updating old things, making these the best possible instruments they can be. We are a bunch of normal people trying to do something remarkable.

HC: What would you like the world to know about Paul Read Smith, the man, that they may not already know?

Smith: [long pause] Sometimes I'm surprised about how much I care about all this stuff. I really care about whether the guitars last a long time, whether people are happy with them -- the neck shape, tone, long term [performance]. The idea of making light bulbs that burn out makes my stomach turn. I want products that will last a life time and their children's life time. I'm not planning on throwing in the towel anytime soon. I have a lot more to do.

During the interview Paul also told me about a few new projects in development. PRS is working on a bass for release sometime next year which Paul is very excited about. Also, they have a new pickup system in the works that will make their hollow body guitars sound like acoustic guitars. PRS is also considering a lower priced line of guitars. Some design work has been done, but this sounded as if it was a long time off, if at all, so don't hold your breath on this one.

I would like to thank Paul for his time and his candor during our interview as well as Doug Chandler for all his help in arranging the interview and getting the background information needed for this article. PRS was nothing but helpful and cooperative through the whole process. A class act all the way.

If you have any comments for me about this or any other article, would like to contact me, or would like to suggest topics for an article you would like to see appear, please email me at cliffnotes@harmony-central.com.

Cliff Suttle

Cliff Suttle (cliffnotes@harmony-central.com) has been studying music for over twenty years including studies at the University of Michigan. Fluent on keyboards, guitar, and bass, Cliff is currently playing in an all original rock band Middle Earth. Cliff's motto: Understand the theory and you can play anything.