August 2008
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August 2008 \ Web Exclusives \ How to Build a PRS Guitar

How to Build a PRS Guitar

by Joe Coffey

All-Access Tour of the PRS Factory
Stevensville, MD (July 30, 2008) - Paul Reed Smith Guitars opened their doors for us and gave us a guided tour of their facilities, showing us exactly how they do what they do. Identifiable by a mere glimpse from across a concert hall or by a single soaring note piercing the mix, people love PRS guitars for their startling maple quilts and their ability to allow artists as different as Carlos Santana and Mark Tremonti to craft their own sonic identity. With that in mind, we hit the factory floor with PRS President, Jack Higginbotham, ready to explore every nuance involved with PRS guitar construction. Years ago, Jack was on the floor himself - sawing, sanding and putting his own sweat into PRS instruments. Knowing every nook and cranny of the factory and the construction process, Jack didn't hold back - as you'll see below. There's an awful lot of detailed craftsmanship involved that is cool to see in a behind-the-scenes fashion.
Inside PRS

PRS players, luthiers and guitar nuts will be able to see the same tour up-close and in person at Experience PRS, which takes place September 19th and 20th. The annual event is a celebration of the PRS guitar and includes a packed schedule of events that is essentially two days of PRS bliss: factory tours, demos, artist appearances, clinics, free food, prizes, etc. Registration is required as this is a private event -- for details go to www.prsguitars.com/experience.

On with the tour... below are four segments that take you from a warehouse of raw wood coming in from all over the world to the final person who touches up a finished, tested guitar and puts it in the case. As you'll see, PRS is very adamant about letting people do what people do best and letting machines do what they do best.

Part 1 - Raw wood, bookmatching tops and CNC milling.


Part 2 - Body fixtures, necks, fretboards and sanding.


Part 3 - Staining, painting, sanding and breaking in a neck.


Part 4 - Electronics, final assembly and finishing.



For more info:
PRS Guitars
Experience PRS

Commentary

UsernameComment
1 2 3 4 
ron
on 09/29/2008 		I thought Paul was the nicest guy I ever met. That one dude musta met him on a bad day. We all have those. Paul is a trip,a true craftsman who care more about tone than anything.
Frank L. Richmond
on 09/23/2008 		First of all, I have to say I love PRS guitars, but there is still a part of me that is a Les Paul guy forever. I passed up the chance to get a wonderful Private Stock guitar made a few years back and get a really good deal, and I regret it a lot. I didn't start to really get into their guitars as anything other than art, though, until they came out with the heavier 22-fret models with a fixed bridge.

I currently have a Singlecut that I use primarily. I hate to say it and offend the purists, but it has a Tone Pros bridge on it, and a Super Distortion in the bridge and a Super 2 in the neck, both with nickel covers. If I had waited until after the Gibson lawsuit, I'd have just stuck with an SC 245, I guess.

On Santana, I'm planning to buy a Santana model in the next couple months. I've seen a couple of the Santana 2 guitars that were really nice, though I'm still not a big fan of vibrato-style bridges. Every time I watch Sacred Fire--Santana live in Mexico I get blown away again by Santana's tone. He's always been one of my favorites, even after I became an Al DiMeola disciple. I must confess that I don't like the stuff he does with rappers, etc., but I've heard his next album will be more of a return to classic form. I hope so!

I'm happy to see the attention to detail and passion they have for what they do. Unlike Santana, though, the archangel Metatron--or whoever it was--has never appeared to me and told me to rearrange people's molecular structure with music. I get annoyed sometimes by all the talk about the passion of the people who build the instruments being imbued in the guitar. I guess I'm just not mystical enough, but I do like a nice guitar. : )
'ol goob
on 09/06/2008 		A friend of mine, who doesn't play, went to a garage sale and saw a guitar for sale. He recognized its shape as "an RPS or something", took a chance and bought it for $400 for his kid who is taking lessons from me. Turns out to be a '86 custom 24, mint. Worth 6K. The kid can't even play the "Sharp Dressed Man" riff yet. DAMMIT, DAMMIT, DAMMIT!!! But the real question is why is the value of the pre CNC PRS stuff so high? Cuz true craftsmanship comes from people making guitars, not companies manufacturing guitars. They dropped a couple of notches when they moved in '94.
Cliff Taylor
on 09/04/2008 		When something is great you do not have to fix it or be "trendy" to fit in. Carlos Santana is a great guitarist but in my opinion he has gone down for a number of reasons--some personal which I thing have to do with style and taste so some may or may not agree. I think it is good to grow on the guitar and just flogging the same old riffs is not the way forward.

I do not see how PRS has improved Carlos Santana's playing. He tone is so sharp and overbaked now and I think that sums up PRS for me--a lack of subtle tone and beauty. Listen to the old Santana and notice how he paid much more attention to this detail. IN a perfect world I guess he would after this many years have moved on into the upper levels of jazz or something.

NOthing beats the tone on his SG at Woodstock or Hendrix and all they changed was the pickups, thanks to Symour Duncan which btw/ I have to say are mighty good pick-ups. All the BS that goes on and on about amps and tone is just that BS, but it sells equipment no doubt and magazines as well. PUT me down for RETRO anytime for my money and I like reviews of this. There are a few that can re-create it so bravo.
Floridaguy
on 09/03/2008 		I have played some PRS from the '90's and thought they were some of the nicest guitars ever....then I met PRS in person and found him to be very condescending and he down right insulted me.
BIG MISTAKE. I own several high-end instruments, not one of which was from PRS. I'm kinda funny about who's pocket I put my money into.
trevor
on 09/03/2008 		Nobody does it better than PRS these days.
Mike Mitchell varaha
on 08/27/2008 		I bought a used McCarty,a beater,at GC San Marcos in Nov "97.$850. Played acoustically,it rings with a loud piano-like tone.An'03.I bought an '05 McCarty from GC.com for $1700.I thought it couldn't be made by the same company,or was an SE. After tweaking the neck,re-setting the intonation and playing-in,It's my best ax.The tall/narrow frets used by Gibson to facilitate automated installation are a pain in the ass.Still,the LP DC AATop is such a good instrument, I forget about the frets. I'm getting some crowning files and getting busy.The customer service at Gibson is some of the best in the industry.Varaha(Mike Mitchell)Escondido
Robert
on 08/11/2008 		Here comes a praise and trash comment in one!! I own a 1998 CE 24, bar none the best guitar I've ever put in my hands and after watching these videos I was impressed at the level of detail these guys go through. Now, that being said I one day thought I'd like to have a backup guitar of the same model only new so I ordered one (2007) and after playing it for only a few minutes I could tell that the attention to detail was just not anywhere near what my 98 model was... I don't get it?! How can this be with all this supposed quality control? How do you still get sloppy finish work, crooked screws, and an unwanted buzzing on the B string?! I couldn't believe it, so I called up my trusty Guitar Sales Guy and guess what he tells me...? Yeah, those are typically known issues with PRS, you'd have to take it to a skilled luthier if you want to fix those issues... "What?! You must be kidding?!" I exclaimed, and promptly sent the guitar back for a refund. These videos are great you get to see the workings of how the PRS guitars are built and It looks as if they have awesome quality control, so it just baffles me to see all this and then get a poorly built guitar from these guys... I don't get it?!
Saul
on 08/05/2008 		The beauty is that each brand has their own way of doing things and their own fans. By filming all these factories and showing us the goods, this magazine is helping us better decide why we like certain brands. As for me, I used to be mildly interested in PRS. After seeing this, I'm very interested. You cannot argue with their philosophies and all the stuff you see in these clips. I noticed in the other factory clips on this site that no one else uses heat during their wood curing/drying process. Interesting.
Frank
on 08/04/2008 		Just to amend my last post: "Gibson has been able to live off of their "past" glory days for a long time now due to their name," where PRS is constantly striving to get better.



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