40 Years. That is a long time for a company to be around, and nearly as long as I have been alive, but here we are 40 years later and Paul Reed Smith guitar company is bigger and better than ever before. In my opinion, and seemingly the opinion of many top performers who prefer them today, they are the best guitar company in existence today. Let me explain.
In the past PRS was only really known for their fantastic core models and the beautiful wood that was used in making their art gallery worthy guitars. These days they are known for so much more, but hey it’s called “core” so lets start there. In no mixed words, these guitars are simply works of art. Beautiful to a degree that no guitars were before them with the mostly incredible flamed, striped and quilted maple tops ever seen in a guitar. This sometimes put them in an odd position, they were expensive guitars that often sat on the wall of collectors who barely played them, yet as instruments they rivaled the best guitar available, money no object.
As time went on, the aesthetics were industry leading and most other brands started to follow suit offering guitars as beautiful as they sounded. At the same time, PRS perfected the craft of building guitars and their consistency was a thing to behold. Every guitar off the line was basically perfect with very little variation, earning them a title of… “boring”? It’s understandable at the time where you could walk into a guitar store, try 15 Stratocasters and find one that was significantly better (a “diamond in the rough”) which was an exciting event. PRS became the “boring” brand because while only 1 out of 15 Strats may have been a 9/10, every PRS was at least a 8.5/10 with most being pretty much faultless. Guitar players are a quirky bunch.
These days the core models are endorsed by the biggest names in the business and everyone knows them as some of the best money can buy. But what about those who can’t afford the dream worthy core line? In the last 10 years PRS has all but taken over the affordable market as well. Their SE and S2 lines give everyone a guitar in their budget, without compromising their gig-worthiness. Many artists enjoy their highly reliable, more affordable PRS guitars around the world giving them 90% of the core experience and tone at a fraction of the price. Not to mention their amps!
So what is the future for PRS? While historic companies like Fender and Gibson are stuck making the closest version to their vintage models, PRS is free to explore the future under the inventive eye of Paul Reed Smith himself. Every year they make small advances that push guitar tone and functionality forward while also improving consistency and overall experience. One of the few guitar companies where you can pretty much guaranty that the newest guitar they put out will be the “best” while having some of the best playing and sounding guitar made over the last 40 years, PRS is a brand that you can’t afford to miss and is personally the first brand I would check out when looking for a new guitar.
Here it is, the Stratocaster that I often refer to as “the first”, “the original”or if I’m channeling my inner Stevie, my “Number One”