Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Friday, December 15, 2006
PRS Santana II Gold Hardware
Santana II
We make the Santana II to special order only, using many of the design and construction features Paul employed on the first guitars he hand-built for Carlos two decades ago. The scale length is a shorter 24 1/2", the top is Artist grade curly maple, the fingerboard is Brazilian rosewood and the tone can be magical. When Carlos visited the factory, he took one out of a box in shipping and played it in concert that same night.
Body
Carved Artist grade flame maple top with rippled abalone purfling and mahogany back
Neck
24.5" scale length mahogany 24-fret neck with Brazilian rosewood fretboard, rippled abalone bird inlays and headstock eagle
Neck carve - Santana wide fat
Hardware
PRS tremolo
PRS 14:1 Phase II low mass locking tuners
Engraved anodized electronics cover plate
OM symbol truss rod cover
Option: Gold hardware
Electronics
Santana zebra bobbin treble and bass pickups
Volume and tone control with 3-way toggle pickup selector
Finishes
- Amber (natural back)
- Black Cherry - Black Sunburst
- Blue Matteo (natural back)
- Dark Cherry Sunburst
- Dark Cherry Wrap Around Sunburst **
- Emerald Green - Gray Black
- McCarty Sunburst
- McCarty Tobacco Sunburst
- McCarty Tobacco Wrap Around Burst **
- Natural - Orange - Royal Blue**
- Ruby
- Santana Yellow (natural back)
- Scarlet Red **
- Tortoise Shell
- Tri-Color Sunburst
- Vintage Natural
- Vintage Yellow
- Violin Amber Sunburst **
- Whale Blue
** Indicates matching maple edge
CREDIT:
The content come from http://www.prsguitars.com/showcase/current/santana2.html
The owner : PRS_THAILAND or XDA2-MiNi.
Special Thanks : http://www.guitarist.vze.com/ and http://www.prsforums.com/
Thursday, December 14, 2006
PRS modern eagle faded blue jeans. 7 months of waiting!!!
Specifications:
The Modern Eagle incorporates many aspects of our prestigious Private Stock instruments and specifications that PRS has been developing for years. These include a classy, ultra-thin nitrocellulose finish, Modern Eagle RP pickups, an anodized stoptail bridge, brass studs, mixed hardware, Brazilian rosewood neck and fingerboard, rippled abalone bird inlays and unique, highly figured maple tops. Available in stoptail or tremolo in 8 exclusive Modern Eagle colors.
Body:
Carved highly figured maple top with mahogany back
Neck:
25" scale length Brazilian rosewood 22-fret neck with Brazilian rosewood fretboard, rippled Abalone bird inlays, and Brazilian rosewood headstock overlay with inlaid (Modern) Eagle
Wide fat neck carve
Hardware:
PRS stoptail or PRS tremolo
PRS 14:1 Phase II low mass locking tuners (grommet style)
Hybrid gold/nickel hardware
Embossed “20th” truss rod cover
Electronics:
2 PRS RP humbucking pickups with satin covers
3-way toggle, master volume and a push-pull tone control
PUSH-PULL DOWN POSITIONS
Position 1: Treble Humbucker
Position 2: Both Humbuckers
Position 3: Bass Humbucker
PUSH-PULL UP POSITIONS
Position 4: Bridge Single Coil
Position 5: Both Single Coils
Position 6: Neck Single Coil
Finish Options:
Abalone
Charcoal
Emerald
Faded Blue Jean
McCarty Amber
Old Natural
Red Tiger
Slate
Yellow Tiger
*** All Modern Eagle instruments are finished with an ultra thin satin nitro-cellulose finish and feature natural maple binding & natural back.
CREDIT:
The content come from http://www.elderly.com/new_instruments/items/MEAGLE4.htm
The owner : PRS_THAILAND or XDA2-MiNi.
Special Thanks : http://www.guitarist.vze.com/ and http://www.prsforums.com/
Friday, December 1, 2006
PRS Guitars’ 513 Model Named “Best Electric Guitar Of The Year”
Paul Reed Smith Guitars is again the recipient of a Musikmesse International Press Award (mipa). The PRS 513 model was the winner of the “Best Electric Guitar of the Year” for the second consecutive year. “No other guitar manufacturer has ever won the award twice for the same instrument in mipa’s history,” says Gitarre & Bass magazine Editor Dieter Roesberg. Comprised of a voting panel of editors and journalists from more than 58 publications worldwide, mipa presents manufacturers with awards considered by many in the industry to be the “Grammy” of the musical instrument/pro audio industry.
The awards were presented to the winners at the special mipa-Party/Awards- Ceremony held during Musikmesse/ProLight & Sound on March 30, 2006, in Frankfurt, Germany. Mipa has honored esteemed musical instrument and equipment manufacturers for seven years and included more than forty different categories in 2006. PRS has been nominated as one of three contenders in the electric guitar category every year since the mipa award was created in 2000 and has received the “Best Electric Guitar of the Year” accolade five times, another feat that has never been accomplished by any other guitar manufacturer. Past PRS model winners include the PRS Singlecut in 2000, the Santana SE in 2002, the Santana II in 2003 and the 513 in 2005.
“I would like to thank all participating magazines from around the world for their support and confidence in us. It’s a great honor to be the recipient once again of this prestigious award, especially since this is the first time the same guitar has won the award twice”, says Peter Wolf, Director of Sales and Marketing at PRS Guitars. “In my opinion, it shows that the international press not only rewarded our unique level of quality and attention to detail but also awarded PRS’ quest for innovation and further improvements in the guitar market, which in the end, benefit all guitar players. Congratulations to everyone at PRS Guitars, this is your reward”.
Credit: http://risingpakistan.wordpress.com/2006/11/25/prs-guitars-513-model-named-best-electric-guitar-of-the-year/
The awards were presented to the winners at the special mipa-Party/Awards- Ceremony held during Musikmesse/ProLight & Sound on March 30, 2006, in Frankfurt, Germany. Mipa has honored esteemed musical instrument and equipment manufacturers for seven years and included more than forty different categories in 2006. PRS has been nominated as one of three contenders in the electric guitar category every year since the mipa award was created in 2000 and has received the “Best Electric Guitar of the Year” accolade five times, another feat that has never been accomplished by any other guitar manufacturer. Past PRS model winners include the PRS Singlecut in 2000, the Santana SE in 2002, the Santana II in 2003 and the 513 in 2005.
“I would like to thank all participating magazines from around the world for their support and confidence in us. It’s a great honor to be the recipient once again of this prestigious award, especially since this is the first time the same guitar has won the award twice”, says Peter Wolf, Director of Sales and Marketing at PRS Guitars. “In my opinion, it shows that the international press not only rewarded our unique level of quality and attention to detail but also awarded PRS’ quest for innovation and further improvements in the guitar market, which in the end, benefit all guitar players. Congratulations to everyone at PRS Guitars, this is your reward”.
Credit: http://risingpakistan.wordpress.com/2006/11/25/prs-guitars-513-model-named-best-electric-guitar-of-the-year/
Paul Reed Smith prs guitar story cont.
The Journey Continuesby Tom Wheeler
If becoming the gold standard of quality in the guitar business was a remarkable achievement for PRS, equally impressive has been its maintaining that standard as the company has grown into a major industry presence. While PRS’s continuing success in this regard demands a constant re-evaluation of materials, tools, and procedures, the bottom-line goal hasn’t changed since the days when Paul Smith hand-crafted his first instruments in an upstairs loft: Build extraordinary guitars, guitars with magic.
National Sales and Marketing Manager Larry Urie: “With every increase in factory size or production output, we build in even tighter quality control to make sure our standards remain extremely high. If anything, the quality control at PRS is tighter than it’s ever been.”
Some companies see a public relations benefit to invoking the romance of historic guitars from the ’50s and ’60s, but Paul Smith knows that for the people who actually designed and built those classic instruments (people like his mentor, Ted McCarty), PR and romance were the furthest things from their minds. Their goal was to manufacture great instruments, period. Build a guitar whose tone inspires you to be a better player, whose durability will get you through a thousand gigs, whose elegance makes it an artwork in its own right. Build a guitar that players can’t put down, and the romance and the PR and all the rest will follow.
Paul Smith: “We don’t do something just because that’s the traditional way. If the best possible guitar results from using a robot for one procedure and a lot of hand-sanding or hand-inlaying for another, then that’s how we do it. Our tradition is a byproduct of our quality, so excellence is always the goal. We never lose sight of that.”
Larry Urie adds: “The automation and the individual craftsmanship go together at PRS. Using automation in one area where it produces superior results allows us to do even more handwork and detail work in those areas where there’s no substitute for the individual craftsman’s eye and skill. People who tour the factory come away amazed at how much handwork they see, and even with the machinery, it’s all dominated by the human element. It’s all about the commitment and the judgment of a highly skilled individual.”
In other words, even in the age of CNC machinery, the essence of the PRS magic still comes down to a pair of hands.
Aside from his family, friends, and business, one of the most important things in Paul Smith’s life is his music — his songwriting, guitar playing, recording, and performing. I mention it because Paul’s enthusiasm for killer tone and for exhilarating music inspires a kind of top-down passion for craftsmanship that as far as I can tell reaches to every workbench in the factory. He estimates that 80% of PRS workers are musicians; many of them gig regularly in bands. PRS President Jack Higginbotham: “These builders have a special kind of pride, an individual ownership of the instruments they’re making. Every one of them treats each guitar as their own, because it is their own. It’s a very personal thing for these builders.”
This passion for quality affects not only the work habits of individuals but also the structure of the whole company. Paul Smith: “We’re not organized like other companies. Every PRS craftsperson is a self-contained quality control ‘department.’ They have a lot of authority over their work, and if a guitar falls short in any way, they don’t pass it on to the next stage, and they make that decision themselves. They hand guitars back and forth all the time, and they inspect everything over and over. It’s like an old European guild or a shop. There’s a constant ‘is this good enough?’ conversation out there on the factory floor. So the quality control begins at the workbench. It’s not something we overlay or tack on. It’s an integral, organic part of the process, beginning with design and materials selection and going through every single step in construction and testing.”
International Sales and Marketing Manager Peter Wolf: “Another way the passion for quality drives everything here is that although we do make our Private Stock guitars, we do not have a custom shop the way other companies do. That’s because the whole PRS factory is basically one big custom shop.”
I’ve had many conversations with Paul Smith over the past 15 years or so, most of them beginning with his asking “Guess what?” and continuing with an enthusiastic explanation of a new discovery about tone. The latest improvement to PRS guitars could be something as minor as the tonal effects of substituting a small part made of a different material. Yes, Paul Smith can hear things most of us can’t hear, or can barely hear, but what’s more remarkable is that the mechanical and engineering savvy of Paul and his brilliant collaborators enables them to convert those observations into improvements in PRS guitars — improvements you can hear and feel.
My son Joe is a black belt in karate. I always assumed the black belt was the end of the road, but he explained to me that it’s just the beginning of a new road. I sense a similar philosophy from the people who build PRS guitars. While players and magazine writers have been waxing eloquent for years about these workers’ mastery of their craft, the builders see themselves as travelers only midway on a journey of discovery. “We’re not there yet,” Paul explains. “It’s a continuing thing. We’re never finished. It’s the quest, the challenge — that’s what brings us to the factory every day.”
Back when he started crafting instruments one at a time, Paul Smith was steeped in the traditions of the great electric guitars of the ’50s and ’60s. Today he finds himself absorbed with the traditions of another revered company — his own. While he fondly recalls the early days of PRS, nostalgia is not a top priority. The best way he can honor the traditions of his own past is to look forward. At PRS, yesterday always takes a back seat to tomorrow. Paul Smith: “I am lucky to have an extremely talented team — not just craftspeople and artists but marketers, salespeople, programmers, administrators, and others — and everyone who works here feels the same way: We want players to know that no matter how great that old PRS guitar is, we’re pushing for the new one to be even better.”
- Tom Wheeler is the former editor in chief of Guitar Player and the author of The Guitar Book and American Guitars.
Credit: http://www.prsguitars.com/inside/story.html
If becoming the gold standard of quality in the guitar business was a remarkable achievement for PRS, equally impressive has been its maintaining that standard as the company has grown into a major industry presence. While PRS’s continuing success in this regard demands a constant re-evaluation of materials, tools, and procedures, the bottom-line goal hasn’t changed since the days when Paul Smith hand-crafted his first instruments in an upstairs loft: Build extraordinary guitars, guitars with magic.
National Sales and Marketing Manager Larry Urie: “With every increase in factory size or production output, we build in even tighter quality control to make sure our standards remain extremely high. If anything, the quality control at PRS is tighter than it’s ever been.”
Some companies see a public relations benefit to invoking the romance of historic guitars from the ’50s and ’60s, but Paul Smith knows that for the people who actually designed and built those classic instruments (people like his mentor, Ted McCarty), PR and romance were the furthest things from their minds. Their goal was to manufacture great instruments, period. Build a guitar whose tone inspires you to be a better player, whose durability will get you through a thousand gigs, whose elegance makes it an artwork in its own right. Build a guitar that players can’t put down, and the romance and the PR and all the rest will follow.
Paul Smith: “We don’t do something just because that’s the traditional way. If the best possible guitar results from using a robot for one procedure and a lot of hand-sanding or hand-inlaying for another, then that’s how we do it. Our tradition is a byproduct of our quality, so excellence is always the goal. We never lose sight of that.”
Larry Urie adds: “The automation and the individual craftsmanship go together at PRS. Using automation in one area where it produces superior results allows us to do even more handwork and detail work in those areas where there’s no substitute for the individual craftsman’s eye and skill. People who tour the factory come away amazed at how much handwork they see, and even with the machinery, it’s all dominated by the human element. It’s all about the commitment and the judgment of a highly skilled individual.”
In other words, even in the age of CNC machinery, the essence of the PRS magic still comes down to a pair of hands.
Aside from his family, friends, and business, one of the most important things in Paul Smith’s life is his music — his songwriting, guitar playing, recording, and performing. I mention it because Paul’s enthusiasm for killer tone and for exhilarating music inspires a kind of top-down passion for craftsmanship that as far as I can tell reaches to every workbench in the factory. He estimates that 80% of PRS workers are musicians; many of them gig regularly in bands. PRS President Jack Higginbotham: “These builders have a special kind of pride, an individual ownership of the instruments they’re making. Every one of them treats each guitar as their own, because it is their own. It’s a very personal thing for these builders.”
This passion for quality affects not only the work habits of individuals but also the structure of the whole company. Paul Smith: “We’re not organized like other companies. Every PRS craftsperson is a self-contained quality control ‘department.’ They have a lot of authority over their work, and if a guitar falls short in any way, they don’t pass it on to the next stage, and they make that decision themselves. They hand guitars back and forth all the time, and they inspect everything over and over. It’s like an old European guild or a shop. There’s a constant ‘is this good enough?’ conversation out there on the factory floor. So the quality control begins at the workbench. It’s not something we overlay or tack on. It’s an integral, organic part of the process, beginning with design and materials selection and going through every single step in construction and testing.”
International Sales and Marketing Manager Peter Wolf: “Another way the passion for quality drives everything here is that although we do make our Private Stock guitars, we do not have a custom shop the way other companies do. That’s because the whole PRS factory is basically one big custom shop.”
I’ve had many conversations with Paul Smith over the past 15 years or so, most of them beginning with his asking “Guess what?” and continuing with an enthusiastic explanation of a new discovery about tone. The latest improvement to PRS guitars could be something as minor as the tonal effects of substituting a small part made of a different material. Yes, Paul Smith can hear things most of us can’t hear, or can barely hear, but what’s more remarkable is that the mechanical and engineering savvy of Paul and his brilliant collaborators enables them to convert those observations into improvements in PRS guitars — improvements you can hear and feel.
My son Joe is a black belt in karate. I always assumed the black belt was the end of the road, but he explained to me that it’s just the beginning of a new road. I sense a similar philosophy from the people who build PRS guitars. While players and magazine writers have been waxing eloquent for years about these workers’ mastery of their craft, the builders see themselves as travelers only midway on a journey of discovery. “We’re not there yet,” Paul explains. “It’s a continuing thing. We’re never finished. It’s the quest, the challenge — that’s what brings us to the factory every day.”
Back when he started crafting instruments one at a time, Paul Smith was steeped in the traditions of the great electric guitars of the ’50s and ’60s. Today he finds himself absorbed with the traditions of another revered company — his own. While he fondly recalls the early days of PRS, nostalgia is not a top priority. The best way he can honor the traditions of his own past is to look forward. At PRS, yesterday always takes a back seat to tomorrow. Paul Smith: “I am lucky to have an extremely talented team — not just craftspeople and artists but marketers, salespeople, programmers, administrators, and others — and everyone who works here feels the same way: We want players to know that no matter how great that old PRS guitar is, we’re pushing for the new one to be even better.”
- Tom Wheeler is the former editor in chief of Guitar Player and the author of The Guitar Book and American Guitars.
Credit: http://www.prsguitars.com/inside/story.html
Paul Reed Smith prs guitar story
The Journey Begins by Paul Reed Smith
The road from my workshop in a historic, haunted Annapolis garret to a state-of-the-art factory was a tough one. Fact is, I always loved working with my hands. Why else would a high school kid sign up for three or four shop classes at a time? My first guitar was built as a challenge to my college music professor for some credits. I got an “A” and decided to pursue my dream of making guitars for a living.
There were a lot of late night brainstorms. I was lucky if I finished a guitar a month. Once a guitar was completed, I’d play it at a gig — field testing in the purest sense. Every design change taught me something new. The next change was built on what I had learned or on feedback from other players test driving the equipment. Over ten years we went through three headstocks, several renditions of body shapes, many tremolo designs, and many experiments with woods and construction methods to get the right mix.
I remember hanging out at the local concert arenas for six or seven hours before a show to make friends with the roadies. With a backstage pass in hand, I’d peddle my guitars to the stars. One night in ten I’d make a sale. Carlos Santana, Al Di Meola, Howard Leese, and other well known players agreed to check one out. I made deals. If someone gave me an order, made a deposit, and then didn’t love the finished guitar, I’d give them their deposit back even if I couldn’t make my rent the next day.
After getting a small following and orders for more than 50 guitars, we built two prototypes. I popped them in the back seat of my truck and cranked it up, calling on guitar dealers up and down the East Coast. After many days and many miles I came back with enough orders to start a company. With the support of my wife, skilled assistants, engineers, lawyers, top salesmen, artists, machinists, and friends who emptied their bank accounts to help me get started, we developed a strong team.
We’ve come a long way, with steady growth in factory capacity, employees, distribution, and the number of prominent artists using our instruments. We’re not stopping here. Every inch of your PRS guitar is based on decades of testing, rethinking, and reinventing. We continue to push the curve beyond what others would consider perfection. With experts to make sure the technology is unsurpassed, and dedicated craftspeople who guarantee a finished product you can’t keep your hands off of, we make no compromises. That’s the story of the beginning of the journey. Not so short, but very sweet. The moral? Believe in your dreams.
- Paul Reed Smith - 1992
Credit: http://www.prsguitars.com/inside/story.html
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