Paul Reed Smith Guitars
380 Log Canoe Circle
Stevensville, MD 21666
USA International:
Phone: 410-643-9970
FAX: 410-643-9980

Paul Reed Smith Guitars have been creating guitars for celebrity guitar players for years. From Carlos Santana to Howard Lesse they have lived up to their excellent reputation. They use top quality materials as well as top guitar technology. From the raw mahogany guitar bodies to the finish on the neck these guitars are made to sound and feel pure solid guitar tone. For Heavy Metal, Jazz, or Progressive Rock guitarist. PRS guitars are top of the field and state of the art.

It’s difficult to say when PRS actually was started. Paul Smith started in 1976 making a solid body electric for Ted Nugent as well as one for Peter Frampton. The company was officially started in 1985 when it debut it’s guitars at the NAMM show. Back in the late 70’s he built guitars for Al DeMiola, Santana and Heart’s Guitarist Howard Lesse. These guitars where all hand made one of kind. He used maple tops on these guitars and one some of the first guitars he actually used wood from a dresser drawer. This was the curly maple that you see on many maple topped guitars (Gibson, Fender and other companies as well). The body styles where double cut-away with a unique design to them. The Les Paul body shape is owned by Gibson and it can’t simply be copied.

The PRS body shape is one of the better designed shapes. It has elements of both Gibson and Fender yet is very much its own design. Paul Smith wanted to create a guitar that had the best of both brands in a one guitar. The neck length for instance was right between that of Gibson’s and Fenders: 25 inches (Gibson 24.75 inches, Fender 25.5 inches). The radius of the neck also was right in the middle with a 10 inch radius as opposed to the 12 inch for Gibson and 7.7 5 inch for Fender. The wood used for the necks where usually a single piece of Mahogany with a rosewood fretboard. The guitars also featured an unstained natural maple binding in place of the plastic binding used by other guitar manufacturers (plastic around the body and/or neck).

These models also used a 3 pickup design like that of the Fenders and used a rotary knob in place of a 5 way selector switch found on some Fenders. This gave the guitar 5 different tones. The pickup types also varied between the models. Fender for the most part used single coil pickups and Gibson usually Humbucker Dual Coils or P-90s. The PRS guitars for the most part used a combination of both. They had a Humbucker in the Bridge position and then two single coils, one for the mid, one for the neck. This in combination with the rotary knob gave you 5 unique sounds by combining the single and dual coil pickups.

PRS had a new type of bridge designed that was based on the Fender Strat vibrato but used cam-locking tuners which allowed for great pitch variation without going completely out of tune. This is different than the Floyd Rose systems used at the time.

By 1987 the company started making limited editions. These guitars where made of the finest woods available and hand crafted. These guitars where also signed by PRS on the headstock of the guitar. In 1991 the Artist Series became the most popular guitars produced by the company as the limited editions had been stopped for a number of practical reasons. If you own a PRS guitar made before 1991 you probably have one of these limited edition models. This is a collector’s item or will very likely be more valuable than other versions.

In ’91 they started manufacturing a newer series of limited editions which included a non-tremolo bridge (tune-o-matic type) with a stud tailpiece. These guitars also had hollowed out cavities in the body yet didn’t have any ‘f’-holes. On some models redwood and cedar replaced the maple curly tops. Around this time they started making a more affordable version which had a bolt-on necks and maple necks with maple fretboards. The guitars made up to this point all had been set-in (glued) to the body. This guitar was called the Classic Electric but later changed to ‘CE’. This guitar also had a 22 fret neck and mahogany body.

PRS Guitars Custom 22
The Custom 22 is an excellent sounding guitar that is very playable. A very responsive guitar that lets notes fly right off your fingers. It has a carved figured maple Top with mahogany body that looks fantastic.

PRS Standard 24
The Guitars Standard 24 is designed around the original PRS guitars. The body is made of mahogany that allows you to access the upper frets. The mahogany neck has 24 frets and great looking abalone inlays.

The McCarty guitar is modeled after one of the pioneering guitar desingers and mentor of Paul Reed Smith. It has a beautifully designed carved mahogany body with maple top which give it an extra thickness for greater tone and sustain.

PRS Santana SE
The Guitars Santana SE is one their most popular guitars. Based on the Carlos Santana custom guitar the SE is an affordable version.

The Mark Tremonti PRS is a signature model guitar. Mark Tremonti played for the band Creed. This is a beautiful guitar! The body is made Mahogany with a carved maple top.

PRS Guitars SE EG SSH
The SE EG S/S/H is a 6-string electric guitar that has two single-coil and one humbucker pickup. The S/S/H means Single/Single/Humbucker pickup configuration.

Paul Reed Smith SE Custom Electric Guitar Tobacco Sunburst Stoptail
The PRS SE Custom 24 is a Korean made 6-string electric guitar that features a 24-fret neck, mahogany body, flame maple veneer top, double cutaway, and rosewood fretboard. Its one of the lower cost PRS guitars that is designed around the Custom 22.