Iconic electric guitar maker Paul Reed Smith has answered criticism that his PRS guitars are ‘too good’ and ‘all sound the same’.
“It is true that our window is narrower,” he admitted in an interview with American Music Supply. “The good one and the bad one are much closer than other brands. What I hope is that we’re moving it up so that the window is moving up.”
And I said, 'You called it a fart in a space suit!'
Paul Reed Smith
Addressing the idea that they are ‘too perfect and have no soul’ he insisted “’I’ve picked one up and it didn’t move me’ is a fair comment. But ‘I’ve never picked one up and it’s never moved me’ - that’s not fair.”
He gave an example of an unnamed rock guitarist who said ‘you just farted in a spacesuit’ when the PRS Silver Sky, John Mayer’s signature model, was issued: “He was mad. He didn’t see the need.”
“That rock star ended up buying one and loves it. And I said, 'You called it a fart in a space suit!' And he goes, 'Eh, I was wrong.' He said, 'I liked the decision about the pickups, I liked the decision about the neck shape, the action, the way it feels, the weight,' all that stuff."
In a typically-outspoken interview, he explained his exasperation at players who choose which guitar they buy from the Internet rather than trying it out first. “It’s important to me that people try stuff. Did you plug it in?..I have a problem with people making up their minds about it before they ever even try it.”
It took me 10 years in a room by myself building guitars to start to believe what I thought, not what I was told was true or wasn’t true
Paul Reed Smith
He also insisted that every detail makes a difference when it comes to designing a PRS guitar. “I’ve had too many instances where we’ve straightened out the acoustic tone and the guitar came alive in the amp.
"If you coat the guitar completely in clear silicon rubber, which is essentially over-plasticised paint... that’s going to change the tone of the guitar and the idea that it isn’t going to change the tone of the guitar is nuts!”
It’s nearly 40 years since Smith first set up his company in Annapolis, Maryland and he revealed to AMS that his forthright reputation is not something he was born with. “In my house when I grew up, if I said it was some certain way, everyone would say ‘no it’s not that way’.
"It took me 10 years in a room by myself building guitars to start to believe what I thought, not what I was told was true or wasn’t true. Then I spent the first 10 years of my first marriage in psychotherapy to straighten it all out!”
