PRS Guitars

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PRS Guitars
Type Private
Industry Guitar manufacturing
Founded 1985
Founder(s) Paul Reed Smith
Headquarters Stevensville, Maryland, USA
Area served Worldwide
Key people Paul Reed Smith
Products Guitars, Bass Guitars, Guitar Amplification
Parent self-owned
Subsidiaries PRS SE
Website http://www.prsguitars.com

PRS Guitars also known as Paul Reed Smith Guitars is an American guitar manufacturer headquartered in Stevensville, Maryland, founded by guitarist and luthier Paul Reed Smith in 1985. PRS has a reputation as a manufacturer of high end electric guitars made in the US, and known for their custom shop instruments. However since the 1990s they have expanded production to Asia, where they manufacture the more affordable 'SE' line of instruments. As of 2013 they have begun making more affordable guitars in the US with their 'S2' line.[1] PRS Guitars also manufactures guitar amplifiers. One of PRS's most notable endorsers is Carlos Santana.[2] In addition to this, many other artists endorse the company, including Mike Oldfield, who has used a PRS Artist Custom 24 for studio recordings and live shows since the late 1980s; Clint Lowery; Mikael Åkerfeldt; Dave Navarro; Ted Nugent; Al Di Meola; Mark Tremonti and Orianthi.[3]

History

Paul Reed Smith was a guitar player who began building guitars while he was in college. Early guitar players to use his hand-built guitars were Derek St. Holmes (of Ted Nugent's band) and Howard Leese (then with Heart), but Smith's big break came when Carlos Santana began playing the still hand-built guitars, which at the time looked like a Gibson Les Paul with a double cut-away and were made of expensive woods like curly maple.[4] He used the custom as a prototype to raise orders on the road worth nearly $300,000. Smith set up a limited partnership with his wife Barbara and business man Warren Esanu, and set up a factory in Virginia Avenue, Annapolis.[5] Smith produced 20 guitars for the 1985 NAMM Show (those guitars are now known as the "NAMM 20"), and managed to find a niche in the guitar market: the mid-1980s was the time of the Superstrat, and there was little competition for the higher-quality, upscale guitars PRS was building, guitars with "an elegant, modern, vintage-inspired design--the kind of guitar one might have expected Fenders and Gibsons to evolve into".[6]

At first there were eight workers taking up one third of the building which they shared with a furniture-stripping shop. After three years PRS had taken over most of the building, with 45 people producing 15 guitars every day, and as time progressed a separate woodshop was added. By 1995 the factory was making 25-30 guitars daily and employed 80 people. In 1996 production moved to a new factory in Stevensville on Kent Island, just across a bridge from Annapolis. By the end of 1998 Prs was producing 700 guitars a month with a staff of 110 people.[5]

Construction

PRS Custom

Materials

The bodies of most PRS guitars are crafted of mahogany, with a maple top on most models. They often feature highly figured tops, including flame maple, quilt maple and figured maple creating the effect of tiger stripes. A small number of bodies feature white Limba, referred to as Korina by luthiers.[7] PRS necks are usually made from mahogany, although some models feature maple or Indian or Brazilian rosewood necks; fingerboards on production models are normally made of rosewood.

Fingerboard Inlays

PRS's signature fret markers include the standard birds and the optional and sought after moon inlays, often fashioned from Pearl or Paua (Abalone) shell. The moons appear similar to standard dot inlays, but have a crescent more prominent than the rest of the dot. The bird inlays feature representations of the following species; Peregrine Falcon, Marsh Hawk, Ruby Throated Hummingbird, Common Tern, Coopers Hawk, Kite, Sparrow, Storm Petrel,a landing Hawk and the Screech owl on a branch (24-fret models only).[8] 20th and 25th anniversary edition production models feature updated and stylized versions of this standard inlay.

"10-Top" Guitars

A very small percentage of maple trees cut in North America are actually figured. According to their website, to make "10-Top" status, a PRS top must have "clearly defined figure across its entire top with no "dead" spots".[9] As such, the term "10 Top" refers to specimens of maple with distinctive and notable figure, as opposed to a specific grade of timber.

PRS guitars which feature a "10 Top" feature a written or stamped "10" on the upper right headstock (when viewed from behind).

Hardware

Close-up of the 3rd, 5th, and 7th fret bird inlays.

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, vibrato, and 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.[5] The pre-intonated stoptail is unique to PRS, however, this design does not allow intonation to be adjusted to compensate for variations in string thickness or drop tuning. The PRS vibrato resembles a vintage Fender Stratocaster unit, and the more recent compensated wrapover tailpiece allows for minimal intonation adjustment. An adjustable wrapover bridge is available as an extra.[10]

Pickups

Pickups are designed and wound in-house. While most of the pickups are humbuckers, some are actually 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 pick up selector switch, PRS pickups offer 5 different sounds: a combination of thick humbucking Gibson-like tones, and thinner single-coil Stratocaster-like tones.[5] 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[5] PRS developed pickups for the aggressive rock market, offering pick ups such as the chainsaw, and the HFS (Hot-Fat-Screams) initially used on the Special model.[5] The Vintage Treble and Vintage Bass humbuckers were used on the Classic Electric Model, and a combination of HFS and Vintage bass pick ups were used on the CE maple top models, the Standard, and The Custom models. 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 a high capacitance hook up wire.[5]

SE models

PRS introduced a new, affordable, line of guitars in the late 1990s referred to as the "SE" which is manufactured in Korea. Contrary to popular belief, SE does not stand for student edition. The incorrect assumption was even published in the PRS Book.  In an odd twist of irony, Paul Smith will not reveal the details.  See the official PRS forum for more details (prsguitars.com/forum).

The Dragon Models

In 1992 Prs introduced the Dragon 1 model. Only 50 units were produced. It featured an intricate dragon inlay which ran down the finger board, a wide 22 fret neck, and a non-vibrato Stop-tail bridge and a new pick up design. The changes in design from previous models added a noticeable tonal improvement which led the company to use the same characteristics in later models such as the Prs Custom 22.[5] The Dragon 2 was released in 1993, and the Dragon 3 in 1994. Both featured dragon inlays which became more extreme with every year. Only 100 of each of the 2 models were made.[5] In 1999 Prs released the Dragon 2000, which featured complex body curves, and a 3 dimensional dragon inlay. Just 50 Dragon 2000's were ever produced.[5]

Mike Oldfield with his Custom 24, December 2006

Legal issues

In 2001, PRS released their "Singlecut" guitar—which bore some resemblance to the venerable Les Paul. Gibson Guitar Corporation filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Paul Reed Smith. An injunction was ordered[11] and PRS stopped manufacture of the Singlecut at the end of 2004. Federal District Court Judge William J. Haynes, in a 57-page decision ruled "that PRS [Paul Reed Smith] was imitating the Les Paul" and gave the parties ninety days "to complete any discovery on damages or disgorgement of PRS's profits on the sales of its offending Singlecut guitar."[11]

In 2005, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed the lower court decision and ordered the dismissal of Gibson's suit against PRS.[12] The decision also immediately vacated the injunction prohibiting the sale and production of PRS’s Singlecut Guitar. PRS announced that it would immediately resume production of its Singlecut guitars.

Gibson tried and failed to have the case reheard by all sixteen active Sixth Circuit judges (denied in December 2005)[13] and then by the United States Supreme Court (denied June 2006),[14] which was their last chance to have their original injunction upheld.

While no changes to the design of the Singlecut occurred as a result of the lawsuit (given that Gibson lost), some Singlecut owners and sellers have adopted the term 'pre-lawsuit' to differentiate their Singlecut from others.[15][16][17]

References

  1. ↑
  2. ↑ Bennett, Joe (2002). Guitar Facts. Hal Leonard. pp. 122–23. ISBN 9780634051920. Retrieved 28 November 2012. 
  3. ↑
  4. ↑ Marten, Neville (2009). Guitar Heaven: The Most Famous Guitars to Electrify Our World. HarperCollins. p. 184. ISBN 9780061699191. Retrieved 28 November 2012. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.9 Bacon, Tony (2000). Electric guitars, the illustrated encyclopedia. San Diego: thunder bay press. pp. 250–267. ISBN 1-57145-281-8. 
  6. ↑ Gruhn, George; Walter Carter (May 2012). "PRS #15". Vintage Guitar. pp. 50–52. 
  7. ↑ {{|Title = Limba |Publisher = The Wood Database|Date = January 2014 |url = http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-identification/hardwoods/limba/}}
  8. ↑ {{url = http://www.prsguitars.com/csc/faq.html}}
  9. ↑ {{|Title = FAQ | url = http://www.prsguitars.com/csc/faq.html}}
  10. ↑
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Gibson Guitar Corp. v. Paul Reed Smith Guitars, L.P., 325 F. Supp. 2d 841 (M.D. Tenn., 2004)
  12. ↑ Gibson Guitar Corp. v. Paul Reed Smith Guitars, LP, 423 F.3d 539 (6th Cir. 2005).
  13. ↑ En banc rehearing denied by Gibson Guitar Corp. v. Paul Reed Smith Guitars, Ltd. P'ship, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 29220 (6th Cir., Dec. 30, 2005)
  14. ↑ Certiori denied by Gibson Guitar Corp. v. Paul Reed Smith Guitars, LP, 126 S. Ct. 2355 (June 5, 2006)
  15. ↑ Gibson Guitar Corp. v. Paul Reed Smith Guitars, LP, 423 F.3d 539 (6th Cir. 2005), footnote 13.
  16. ↑ 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: pp. 883-917
  17. ↑ Haggerty, Thomas P. (2006) Note: "A Blue Note: The Sixth Circuit, Product Design and the Confusion Doctrines in Gibson Guitar Corp. v. Paul Reed Smith Guitars, LP" Tulane Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property 8: pp. 219-230

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