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Three caught the attention of record producer Brett Hestla. Rich and his bandmates flew to Orlando to record a demo in 2008, and performed a showcase at the old Venice hotel for Capitol Records. Ultimately, Rich realized that his dreams of being a musician didn’ t correlate with the standard of living he was willing to accept.“ I was raised around music, it’ s what I love.” But music doesn’ t usually pay the bills.“ I balanced the two for 20 years. Music is my love and work is a bittersweet kind of love, but I enjoy them both.” It consoles him to“ hold a role within something that you believe in and means so much to other musicians. I don’ t feel that I sacrificed. I’ m fortunate enough to be able to work making guitars. Guitars have always been a part of my life, so why not make the best ones there are.”
BUILDING AN EMPIRE We enter what is called the“ wood library”— which literally houses the building blocks PRS guitars are made from— to meet guitar making legend and owner Paul Smith. Paul is an easygoing, friendly guy with a charming, playful smile that makes you believe he might be concealing a few secrets. And when he talks, I find him to be open and honest, putting me at ease. At 57 years old, Paul guides one of the top three U. S. guitar manufacturing companies, in good company with well-known brands Gibson and Fender. Paul grew up with a father who was a bigband leader, and a mother who played acoustic guitar.
Influenced early on by artists like The Beatles, Santana, the Allman Brothers Band and Ritchie Blackmore, Paul recalls one record that solidified his love affair with music.“ My brother tells me about a band from England that’ s going to be really big. We get this record, and it’ s got cellophane on it. There’ s a guy with a big‘ fro, he’ s got two eyes on his shirt, and there’ s two other guys with‘ fros just as big. And I didn’ t even know what I was looking at.” When Paul’ s brother left, he tore open the 1967 release by Jimi Hendrix Experience.“ I listened to the whole thing, and by the time it got to‘ Are You Experienced’ at the end, I was done, I was cooked.”
Paul found himself torn between his passion for playing music and the more practical aspects of life.“ I was a young hippie living in Bowie, Md., wanting to play guitar and dreaming about making guitars at the same time. I must have been in 30 bands.” The first few guitars he made were copies of Les Paul designs.“ It’ s like when you first start to play music, you cover other people’ s music. But within a very short period of time, I was making
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my own guitars. I went and interviewed everybody I knew and asked millions of questions. I cut the guitars out with a chisel, a bandsaw. If I could’ ve played guitar for a living, I would have done that instead. But I was a better guitar maker than I was a guitar player.”
And now, Paul has unique opportunities to play with musicians he admires.“ Creed asked me to play with them one night. [ I was ] deeply appreciative they let me into a club I’ m not allowed into.”
Another time, Paul remembers
“ sitting in the Allman Brothers Band’ s dressing room, and Greg Allman was sitting right next to me. That’ s a big deal, he’ s a legend. I work hard at making guitars for top-level artists and musicians of all stripes.”
Paul moved his shop from Annapolis to the current location in Stevensville in 1995, expanding because“ I knew I wasn’ t going to be able to make enough money to have a house or put kids through college with a one-room shop.” His vision at the time was“ not to be broke,” he says, laughing.“ It wasn’ t a vision, it was a need.”
Now, almost 30 years later, the 120,000- square-foot operation produces 50 + guitars per day, handcrafted by over 200 dedicated employees. PRS offers three classes of electric guitars— the Core line, averaging $ 3,000 made here in Maryland, the Private Stock line, which costs an average of $ 7,500, and the more affordable SE line, averaging $ 800 and crafted overseas to PRS strict specifications.
Paul takes pride in the fact that almost every part used in making his guitars is proprietary.“ Paul is always innovating,” Rich says.“ In my experience as a guitar player, most guitar companies find something that works and they run with it. Paul is the one that says,‘ Ok, that works. Now how can we make it better?’” His visionary business sense also helped PRS through the recession.“ Paul decided to get aggressive when the economy tanked, instead of recoiling and pulling back like so many other manufacturers did,” Rich says. The result: New lines of acoustic, electric and bass guitars coupled with amplifiers were added, both filling artist demand and diversifying the PRS offerings. It’ s this
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