PRS Guitars

Pre-factory era Paul Reed Smith (born February 18, 1956) built his first stringed instrument, an electric bass, in 1972 while a student at Bowie High School. After graduating, Smith briefly attended St. Mary's College of Maryland, 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. Breakthrough Paul Reed Smith introduced two factory production models, the "Custom" and the "PRS Guitar" which was an all-mahogany version of the Custom. It would later be named the "Standard" in 1987. 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. SE models were originally manufactured in Korea by World Musical Instrument Co. Ltd., but since 2019 production has been moved to Cor-Tek factories in Indonesia and China. 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. PRS offers multiple signature model guitars and amplifiers, most notably designing the Silver Sky with John Mayer. The Silver Sky and SE models were both included in Guitar World's 2025 list of the 50 greatest pieces of guitar gear of the century so far. ==Construction==

10 Top As PRS's profile grew, the brand started getting individual requests for guitars with the most attractive figured maple tops they had available. Smith was unwilling to part with them without charging extra, however, and began designating woods with deep, consistent figuring as "10 Tops" and selling guitars made with them at a higher price point. Tops with particularly deep figuring—even by 10 Top standards—are designated for premium Artist Package and Private Stock models. How PRS rates these maple tops can change during the course of manufacturing, with tops upgraded or downgraded depending on how the figuring changes after being carved or stained. Although purely aesthetic, 10 Top models are among PRS's most sought after. 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. 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. The birds shown are a peregrine falcon, northern harrier, ruby-throated hummingbird, common tern, Cooper's hawk, kite, sparrow (landing), storm petrel, and hawk (landing). Signature models can also use different designs, like the Private Stock Orianthi Limited Edition's "Lotus Vine" inlay, which is similar to a tree of life inlay design the brand has used. Hardware 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. The standard treble and standard bass pickups 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. 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. Certain models of PRS guitars have also used pickups by Lindy Fralin, notably in the EG II and certain specs of the Custom 22. == 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. • SE / Student Edition: Created out of demand for affordable versions of the brand's Core models. SE models were originally made in Korea, but production was later moved to Indonesia and China. • 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 US-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. This line contains both "reimagined" versions of existing models and new designs. • 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. 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. • Private Stock: Private Stock is a custom-build service and represent PRS's highest-end guitars. == Notable models ==

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. The "pre-factory" design was similar to a double cutaway Les Paul Junior, 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. 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. 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, 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, 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. In a retrospective, Guitar World credited the Custom's success during the height of the superstrat's popularity as owing to many players looking for a guitar with a vintage aesthetic and tone but with modern, upscale features. 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. The Dragon was the first PRS model to feature a 22-fret neck and the brand's "Wide Fat" neck profile; it also introduced their "Stoptail" one-piece wrap-over bridge design, new covered humbucker Dragon Treble and Bass pickups, and steeper headstock back-angle. with a Federal District Court judge ruling that the Singlecut was an imitation of the Les Paul. 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. Silver Sky 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." == Artists ==

Italics denote the player has a PRS signature model. • Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth • Emil Werstler • Martin Barre of Jethro Tull • Wes Borland of Limp Bizkit • Dave Knudson of Minus the Bear • Brad Delson of Linkin Park • Mark Lettieri • Herman Li of DragonForce • Alex Lifeson of Rush • Tim Mahoney of 311 • Gary Moore • Ted Nugent • Mike Oldfield • Carlos Santana • Neal Schon of Journey • Pat Travers • Dustie Waring ==References==