Another CHAOTIC Paul Reed Smith Interview | PRS Guitars | Meet The Maker | Guitar Interactive
In the mid-1970s, a young musician in Maryland was hacking away at a slab of dresser wood with a pocketknife—trying to build the guitar he desperately wanted but couldn’t afford. He was talented. He was obsessed. He was, frankly, a little nuts.
He still is.
Today, Paul Reed Smith—and his eponymous PRS Guitars, celebrating their 40th anniversary this year—are industry icons, with instruments wielded by everyone from Carlos Santana to John Mayer. And while the company has grown into one of the biggest names in the business, it’s never lost what made it special from the start: a drive to innovate and evolve—respecting the sounds of the past while always chasing the unique tones that live in Paul’s imagination.
In this edition’s Meet the Maker, we sit down with Mr. PRS himself—the man behind the legend.
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Interview Chapters
0:00 Interview Start
0:37 The House of Blues PRS 40th Party: Jeff Beck Tribute, John Mayer, and More
1:26 Paul covers “Cause We Ended As Lovers”
2:45 Herman Li
3:59 Playing Jeff Beck: Technique, Influence & Stories
5:06 Beck’s Perfect Pitch & The Guitar Shop Story
5:11 Fixing Guitars
6:25 PRS: It’s More Than a Brand – It’s Family
7:09 Jon’s 21st Birthday gift
10:16 The Best Celtic Guitarist?
11:47 Does Paul Reed Smith Own Eddie Van Halen’s original PAF?
12:06 Paul Reed Smith: “I made the 5150 guitar.”
13:02 How Close Did Eddie Get to Playing PRS?
13:49 Legendary ‘59 Burst Wire Die
14:54 The Furniture Maple Guitar & Breaking Into the Business
15:50 Why Paul Hates Guitar Stands!
16:32 What’s Inspiring Paul Right Now?
17:24 Mark Lettieri’s One-Off PRS & Limited Runs
18:27 Amps and Vintage Gear
#PaulReedSmith #interview #PRSGuitars #MeetTheMaker
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Originally posted by UCS3QTujyp5t2nSSzktYFzWA at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nbY1VZyjfk
Prs guitars are over priced pieces of wood
Paul is Paul- you can watch a video of him in 1985…. He’s an original. I don’t mistake his excitement and enthusiasm for arrogance. You’re witnessing the founder of something significant. No one knew Leo Fender like this guy today. Nor the people at Gibson…. This is what a guy from Maryland sounds like. He just happens to be Paul Reed Smith.
Paul is his own biggest fan.
Saw the post and thought I'd put in my 2 cents on the topic…I worked with Paul Smith continuously at the West Street shop from 1980-85, then at PRS from 1985-2004. I was the lead tech at PRS during that time as well as R&D etc. And I remember things… this is what I remember about the subject at hand…Paul and I had been winding and rewinding a lot of Gibson and Duncan pickups, mostly humbuckings with 42 ga plain enamel wire..this was around 1982..I was fascinated and even obsessed with the process. Paul was an excellent teacher and taught me pickup theory and all aspects of the guitar and pickup building process..as I recall, I was doing most of the pickup winding, assembly and potting at that point…I remember Paul traveling to the Kramer factory in NJ at least once during that period and I stayed behind to hold down the fort..some assembly of an EVH guitar allegedly took place on one of his visits to Kramer…Kramer was not known to be the most savvy guitar builder on the planet but on a good day knew enough to get by….we had been rewinding a lot of pickups around then and some time later I was informed that one of our pickups had ended up in an important EVH guitar…I remember not thinking much of it at the time and shrugged the whole thing off..Paul and I both worked on those pickups so I cannot say with 100% certainty whether it was my work or Paul's…probably a collaboration…the pickup in question was likely a rewound Duncan so perhaps no one noticed.. therefore Paul's claim is likely credible except for the important detail of me, John Ingram, being involved and possibly being the actual hands on builder of the 5150 pickup…
and the first pickup that went into Frankie was an unpotted PAF out of a 62 ES335 he latter potted that pickup wich I think he destroyed the first couple of pickups when he started experimenting
Eddie made the original
Paul is just an odd duck.
Becoming the Billy Corgan of guitar builders
Paul worked at Kramer for a minute, he may have helped making some striped guitars but THE Kramer 5150 was already out.
Paul looks a wee bit drunk in this recording. ????
Paul Reed Smith is the reason people don’t like PRS guitars…
It needed to be said… ????????????
A lot of jealous comments. People seem to want Paul to be aloof and too cool for an interview. Maybe grunge music will make a comeback
Although, I wonder if Paul had some of that Lagavulin before this interview
One thing i cannot stand is Misinformation! PRS did NOT make "the 5150" pickup! First off there is No "5150 pickup"!
Eddie used a few different models. The one he used in the Kramer 5150 was a Seymour Duncan that was originally a JB
but was either damaged or modded? It is the same pickup that dimarzio and peavey used as a template to make the pu for the bridge
model in the EBMM EVH and the PV Wolfgang guitars. Jim Decola made the wolfgang pu's for Eddie/Peavey before he went to gibson and had that duncan JB as a template to make the bridge one. He still has that same JB to this day.
I love my PRS SE DGT, but watching this makes me want to go home and kiss every one of my Gibsons! ????
Paul Reed Smith is a great guitar maker, but he’s a little drunk on his own success it would seem. This isn’t the first time I have watched an interview where he is kind of obnoxious.
Paul is tipsy lol
Eddie Van Halen was in fact not great at all to Pat Smear…the story is wild, look it up, I won’t bore you with the details in this comment but let’s just say Eddie was drunk and backstage at a Nirvana show and was making really cringe comments about Pat’s skin color and ethnicity.
I admire PRS for what he has achieved in his lifetime. But I cannot listen or watch the obnoxious, snarky condescending twunt.
12:08 man Paul, I am your fan Forever! You were a big part of music itself! If you created that pickup, you.ere a part of music itself!¡ bottom line brother!¡ if I could afford one of your cakes I'd be more than great full brother!! If only, thing is paul I'm poor? But I'll always be a fan man!!
Made it a minute before ejecting. Dude is hard to listen to.
Took PRS 22 seconds to flex his homophobia ????????♂️
Prs did not make the 5150 pickup, that was Seymour Duncan
Dont get it twisted
John Mayer is the most overrated guitarist of all time. No originality He brings nothing to the table whatsoever. A total guitar lick copycat. And a terrible human being. He's a disgrace.
Paul,your drunk
????????????