Strapped on, the neck feels really long but the light weight is a dramatic departure from, for example, the Singlecut's bulk.Ī couple of unplugged strums reveals a superb ring and resonance and a clean amp tone produces a warm, bell-like tonality with a smooth 'nose' to the attack of the bridge humbucker and a warmer, fruitier voice to the neck pickup. Instead of using a pull/push switch on the tone control to split the humbuckers to single-coil we have a mini-toggle.įirstly, the guitar almost revisits the more delicate feline feel of the early PRS instruments, especially with the wide-thin neck that's the same width as the wide-fat but thinner in depth. Volume and tone controls use the new 'lampshade' knobs, while the three-way lever (as used on the Johnny Hiland model) replaces the more common three-way toggle. The same material is used for the Mira-engraved truss rod cover - while the Mira humbuckers are mounted conventionally in black rings. The Mira is the only PRS guitar currently offered with its controls mounted on a scratchplate - here an attractive retro design made from black/white/black plastic laminate. Whereas you might expect more vintage-style Kluson-alike tuners, PRS's excellent locking tuners are employed here, but feature new brass posts, one of many minor sound-led tweaks that PRS is bringing to its guitars. Or have a look at used PRS guitars on Reverb here.While both the 24-fret Standards (Satin and High Gloss) are offered only with PRS's vibrato, the Mira is a stop-tail-only model (the body is too thin to accept the vibrato unless it is modified). Image: Bob MarquartĬheck out the new PRS S2 Custom 24 at Guitar Center here The new models, two 22-fret and one 24-fret design, are are solid body guitars with a choice of dot or bird fret inlays, nickel hardware and PRS' custom-built pickups. With the launch of its 2015 line-up only a few weeks away, PRS last week announced three additions to the S2 series, featuring the all-mahogany bodies for which the company is renowned. Smith himself said he'd 'never worked harder in my life.' But by 2010, things were looking up and last year PRS bought its European distributor, allowing it to sell direct into markets like Germany and the UK, where PRS guitars are hugely popular.
PRS was hit hard by the financial crash at the end of the last decade. McCarty later became a consultant to Paul Reed Smith guitars and in 1994, the company named a model after him – the first time McCarty had had his name on the instrument to which he contributed so much. Smith's second break was being mentored by the legendary Ted McCarty, who designed the Gibson ES-335, Explorer and Flying V among many other innovations. Santana is rarely seen on stage with anything other than a Paul Reed Smith guitar. By coincidence, St Holmes now sings in the Paul Reed Smith Band.)Ī few years later, Smith did the same thing at a Carlos Santana gig, beginning a relationship that continues today. Holmes, who played guitar in Nugent's band at the time and that St. (Note: Smith's entry on Wikipedia claims the guitar was given to Derek St.
'If you don’t fall in love with the guitar, you get your money back,' Smith told him. The early yearsĪs with any successful business venture, catching an early break was crucial, and in Smith's case it came when, according to Forbes, he managed to get backstage at a Ted Nugent gig with one of the guitar's he'd built and showed it to Nugent.
If I opened the case of a guitar I’d built, people would gather in a crowd, he explained to Forbes. At the time Smith was both playing and making guitars, but was much more successful at the latter. That's still only a shade over a tenth of the turnovers of Fender and Gibson, but for a man who started building guitars in his bedroom only ten years earlier, it's pretty good going.Īccording to Forbes, Smith's first guitar was built from parts acquired from a violin shop in Washington DC. Far from just surviving, PRS Guitars has grown and prospered since Smith founded it in 1985, to the point where it turned over $43.5m in 2012. If he's right, an awful lot of customers have liked his guitars the best over the years. 'My company survives only if there are ten guitars on the wall of a music shop and the customer likes the one we made the best,' Smith explained to Forbes last year.
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