PRS Guitars
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. (February 2008) |
 |
|
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Guitar manufacturing |
| Founded | 1985 |
| Founder(s) | Paul Reed Smith |
| Headquarters | Stevensville, Maryland, USA |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Key people | Paul Reed Smith |
| Products | Guitars, Bass Guitars, Guitar Amplification |
| Parent | self-owned |
| Subsidiaries | PRS SE |
| Website | http://www.prsguitars.com |
PRS Guitars also known as Paul Reed Smith Guitars is an American guitar manufacturer headquartered in Stevensville, Maryland, founded by guitarist and luthier Paul Reed Smith in 1985. PRS has a reputation as a manufacturer of high-end electric guitars made in the US, and known for their custom shop instruments. However since the 1990s they have expanded production to Asia, where they manufacture the more affordable 'SE' line of instruments. PRS Guitars also manufactures guitar amplifiers. One of PRS's most notable endorsers is Carlos Santana.[1] In addition to this, many other artists endorse the company, including Clint Lowery, Gustavo Cerati, Mark Tremonti, Zach Myers, Orianthi, Paul Allender and Dave Navarro.[2]
Contents |
History [edit]
Paul Reed Smith was a guitar player who began building guitars while he was in college. Early guitar players to use his hand-built guitars were Derek St. Holmes (of Ted Nugent's band) and Howard Leese (then with Heart), but Smith's big break came when Carlos Santana began playing the still hand-built guitars, which at the time looked like a Gibson Les Paul with a double cut-away and were made of expensive woods like curly maple. Larger-scale production began in 1985 with the Custom, with a different body design.[3]
Construction [edit]
Materials [edit]
The bodies of most PRS guitars are crafted of mahogany, with a maple top on most models. They often feature highly figured tops, including flame maple, quilt maple and figured maple creating the effect of tiger stripes. A small number of bodies are made of korina wood. PRS necks are usually made from mahogany, although some models feature maple or Indian or Brazilian rosewood necks; fingerboards are normaly made of rosewood. PRS's signature fret markers include the lower end moons, and the higher end birds. The moons appear similar to standard dot inlays, but have a crescent more prominent than the rest of the dot. The bird inlays feature nine or ten different birds inlayed with often expensive material.
Hardware [edit]
Nuts are synthetic and tuners are of PRS's own design, although some models feature grover tuners. PRS guitars feature three original bridge designs: a one-piece pre-intonated stoptail, vibrato, and wrapover tailpiece. The pre-intonated stoptail is unique to PRS, however, this design does not allow intonation to be adjusted to compensate for variations in string thickness or drop tuning. The PRS vibrato resembles a vintage Fender Stratocaster unit, and the more recent compensated wrapover tailpiece allows for minimal intonation adjustment. An adjustable wrapover bridge is available as an extra.[4]
Pickups [edit]
Pickups are designed and wound in-house. While most of the pickups are humbuckers, some are actually a pair of single coils wound in opposing directions, one intended for the neck and one for the bridge position.
SE (Rumored to stand for Student Edition) models [edit]
PRS introduced a new, affordable, line of guitars in the late 1990s referred to as the "SE". The SE line is manufactured to exacting standards in Korea.
Many students, as well as adults purchase these models due to the relatively low cost as compared to the higher end PRS guitars. These models feature many of the very same ergonomics, style, and recognizable name as their more expensive cousins.
"Students often upgrade these guitars with bone nuts, high output pickups, and better electronic parts to really deliver a lot of bang for their buck.[5]"
Models [edit]
PRS Guitars releases a new product catalogue every year, with special edition and new versions of previous models being released.
Acoustics [edit]
-Angelus ® Cutaway
-Cody Kilby Private Stock
-Martin Simpson Private Stock
-Tonare Grand ®
-Tony McManus Private Stock
SE Acoustics [edit]
-PRS SE Angelus ®
Solid Body [edit]
-305
-408 Maple Top
-408 Standard
-513 Maple Top
-Custom 22
-Custom 24
-DC3
-Mira
-NF3
-P22
-Paul's Guitar
-SC 245
-Starla ®
-Studio
Hollow Body [edit]
-Hollowbody II
-Hollowbody 12
-JA-15
-Singlecut Hollowbody II
Signature [edit]
-Al Di Meola Prism
-Brent Mason
-Cody Kilby Private Stock
-Dave Navarro
-DGT
-Gary Grainger 4-String Bass
-Gary Grainger 5-String Bass
-JA-15 (Paul Jackson Jr.)
-Mark Tremonti
-Martin Simpson Private Stock
-NS-14 (Neal Schon)
-NS-15 (Neal Schon)
-Santana
-Tony McManus Private Stock
SE [edit]
-SE 245
-SE 245 Soapbar
-SE Custom 24
-SE Custom 24 7-String
-SE Custom Semi-Hollow
-SE Singlecut Trem
-SE Torero
SE Signature [edit]
-SE Bernie Marsden
-SE Clint Lowery
-SE Dave Navarro
-SE Fredrik Åkesson
-SE Mark Tremonti
-SE Mark Tremonti Custom
-SE Mikael Åkerfeldt
-SE Mike Mushok Baritone
-SE Nick Catanese
-SE Orianthi
-SE Paul Allender
-SE Santana
-SE Tim Mahoney
-SE Zach Myers
Special Edition Guitars [edit]
(Brazilian or East Indian Rosewood necks)
-Modern Eagle, -Modern Eagle II, -Modern Eagle III, -Modern Eagle Quatro, -NOS Modern Eagle (Current model.)
Legal issues [edit]
In 2001, when PRS released their "Singlecut" guitar—which bore some resemblance to the venerable Les Paul. Gibson Guitar Corporation filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Paul Reed Smith. An injunction was ordered[6] and PRS stopped manufacture of the Singlecut at the end of 2004. Federal District Court Judge William J. Haynes, in a 57-page decision ruled "that PRS [Paul Reed Smith] was imitating the Les Paul" and gave the parties ninety days "to complete any discovery on damages or disgorgement of PRS's profits on the sales of its offending Singlecut guitar."[6]
In 2005, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed the lower court decision and ordered the dismissal of Gibson's suit against PRS.[7] The decision also immediately vacated the injunction prohibiting the sale and production of PRS’s Singlecut Guitar. PRS announced that it would immediately resume production of its Singlecut guitars.
Gibson tried and failed to have the case reheard by all sixteen active Sixth Circuit judges (denied in December 2005)[8] and then by the United States Supreme Court (denied June 2006),[9] which was their last chance to have their original injunction upheld.
While no changes to the design of the Singlecut occurred as a result of the lawsuit (given that Gibson lost), some Singlecut owners and sellers have adopted the term 'pre-lawsuit' to differentiate their Singlecut from others.[10][11][12]
References [edit]
- ^ Bennett, Joe (2002). Guitar Facts. Hal Leonard. pp. 122–23. ISBN 9780634051920. Retrieved 28 November 2012.
- ^ [1]
- ^ Marten, Neville (2009). Guitar Heaven: The Most Famous Guitars to Electrify Our World. HarperCollins. p. 184. ISBN 9780061699191. Retrieved 28 November 2012.
- ^ [2]
- ^ Foley, Bill, Luthier, Interview (2013)
- ^ a b Gibson Guitar Corp. v. Paul Reed Smith Guitars, L.P., 325 F. Supp. 2d 841 (M.D. Tenn., 2004)
- ^ Gibson Guitar Corp. v. Paul Reed Smith Guitars, LP, 423 F.3d 539 (6th Cir. 2005).
- ^ En banc rehearing denied by Gibson Guitar Corp. v. Paul Reed Smith Guitars, Ltd. P'ship, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 29220 (6th Cir., Dec. 30, 2005)
- ^ Certiori denied by Gibson Guitar Corp. v. Paul Reed Smith Guitars, LP, 126 S. Ct. 2355 (June 5, 2006)
- ^ Gibson Guitar Corp. v. Paul Reed Smith Guitars, LP, 423 F.3d 539 (6th Cir. 2005), footnote 13.
- ^ Marchisotto, Paul Anthony (2006) "Note: Gibson v. PRS: the Applicability of the Initial Interest Confusion Doctrine to Trademarked Product Shapes" —Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal 24: pp. 883-917
- ^ Haggerty, Thomas P. (2006) Note: "A Blue Note: The Sixth Circuit, Product Design and the Confusion Doctrines in Gibson Guitar Corp. v. Paul Reed Smith Guitars, LP" Tulane Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property 8: pp. 219-230
