| Paul Reed Smith |
Article Index for Paul |
Website Links For Paul |
Information AboutPaul Reed Smith |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT PAUL REED SMITH | |
| american musical instrument makers | |
| smith, paul reed | |
| luthiers | |
| people from maryland | |
| 1956 births | |
| living people | |
|
Smith is originally from Bowie, Maryland . He made his first guitar while at St. Mary's College Of Maryland , and continued to build guitars after he finished college, making them one at a time, one a month. He brought his instruments backstage at concerts, convincing musicians to try and critique his guitars. With this feedback he refined his guitar design. Smith got his big break when Carlos Santana agreed to try one of his guitars. The story goes that Carlos thought the first guitar played so well it must have been an "accident of God", so he ordered a second. That was an "accident of God" too, so he ordered a 3rd, a double neck. On the 3rd try, Carlos realized that Paul was for real. He then contacted Ted McCarty , former president of Gibson and creator of the Explorer , ES-335 and Flying V guitars, and McCarty became his mentor and advisor. The result of their collaboration was the current line of PRS Guitars , which include solid- and hollow-body guitars. Gibson sued PRS over their Les Paul-esque singlecut line, and a Federal Court imposed an injunction against PRS prohibiting the company from manufacturing anymore singlecut guitars, but this ruling was later overturned on appeal by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and PRS has resumed production of the singlecuts. Paul Reed Smith guitars are quite unique due to the fact that locking machine head tuners are incorporated into their design. This innovation allows guitar strings to be rapidly changed. The strings easily lock into the machine heads on the guitar's headstock and do not have to be tied to the heads to prevent string slippage. This incredible design allows the guitar to stay in tune for relatively long periods of time after the strings have been successfully stretched. Recently PRS has also introduced a lower-end line of guitars called the SE series. These guitars are either completely new models or cheaper versions of custom guitars, such as the Santana SE. |
|
|