He’s 100% right. You have try things for yourself and ignore the internet. I never thought in a million years a sg would end up becoming my favorite guitar.
Same here! Won't say is my favorite, but love it as much as LP's. It's such a fantastic guitar and has its unique vibe for sure. Totally worth it to have an SG and LP for sure. Suprappse my expectations and has actually ruined in way my PRS's lol
The PRS company has always produced the highest quality instruments of their kind on a Mass scale. I respect that. Paul is right, everything matters to some degree.
PRS is the best guitar company on earth. The are absolutely superb, word class instruments. I've been a fan since trying a PRS for the first time in 1987.
Paul Reed Smith is a living legend. He will be remebered in the same league as Leo Fender and Ted McCarty. More than that, he is so passionate about all these subjects, it inspires you. I'd love to sit down with him for a guitar chat.
Reflecting on what I said... I'm sorry for diminishing Paul's accomplishments. I mean, yeah he did copy the strat lol, but he did innovate a lot back in the day with the 24 and all. Leo Fender is just the greatest of all time in guitar/bass/amp building.
Never thought I'd find a better instrument that my vintage 65 and 69 Strats and my Clapton CS Strats. But I picked up a silver sky and there it was. Now it's all I play. It's just that good. Best treble pickup ever for a single coil. And everything is just perfect from the factory. I felt the same way about the 594 compared to Les Pauls. PRS is doing something right.
Now Paul has me super curious to the development of this new sound! Wish we could have heard it, however, I understand why we didn't! One of the things I like about Paul is, he gleans from the best to become the best. Example, Neil Peart the drummer of the band Rush was a piece of every great drummer from the past to the present, which in turn made him the Greatest of all time due to him taking what they did and making it better! Great interview guys!
@@drsrsv8884 There are plenty of winners who are not hated by the people they lead. People hate guys like Steve Jobs because they have no humanity, no tact, and no respect for other people. It can be argued that we need people like Steve Jobs, but to say they are hated for being winners is inaccurate in most cases. Yes, everybody has haters, but not everybody has a reputation for being evil towards others.
I love this guy, and his guitars.. I've got a Core, Private Stock and I'm saving for another PS.. He was also gracious enough to sign my limited edition PRS book from 2007.. what a classy man and a classy company., reminds me of Taylor in many ways.
Couldn't agree with you more. That was the most enjoyable interview I've heard with Paul in a long time, and I love his interviews. He got as close to personal as I've ever heard him.
I totally agree! It's not just one thing that makes a guitar sound the way it does, it's all of the parts of the guitar that make it sound that way. A house could look great & at the same time fall apart in 10 years because of sub par materials. The tone wood argument will go on until people realize that EVERYBODY means it's one part of a guitar. Why do people change parts of the guitar? Why aren't the after market parts sold with the guitar when it's purchased? Because the builder wants it to sound like their product.
Paul,... if you read this I want you to know one thing.... I have a 2006 Custom 22 ... and I LOVE my rotary switch!... lol and the single'ish tones are great... I use a boost to bring the volume back up and roll the tone knob back to 5 or 6 and I'm getting killer single coil tones and the volume drop is gone... it is a dream guitar for me! Thank you!!
I have always been a PRS fan, and one of the SE models is a likely candidate for my next guitar. I haven’t played a PRS in years, but I loved the ones I played back in the day.
Paul - very often - seems like the uncooperative defendant. I kind of like that in him. He is absolutely driven to make better products, a trait that is becoming more rare in today's world. He's as ambassador for better quality and better consistency in everything they make.
Hey guys.....if you were to ask Paul to have the SE DGT in Dark Cherryburst, their prettiest finish, put into production, he'd probably get it done....he obviously likes you. 😅
Unfortunately I have had 2 DGT SEs both with QC problems, the first neck the 2nd switches. I would highly recommend the factory QC is looked at not just for final inspection, but also for parts sourcing QC. I have been in computing and networking production high volume so it is obvious the SE factory has problems. I would ask Paul to take a look please. For me I shall never buy another PRS SE.😢😢
I have several guitars les pauls , fenders, Gretsch and only one PRS, reason is that when i got the PRS i was done searching i was done buying, it's the one i can't put down.
Soul is in a players fingers, heart, and soul! Prs are great guitars! There is lots of great guitar companies! It's up to each individual guitar player what guitars move them! Whatever guitar company!
Paul has been building guitars for year's. Built a company from the ground up. Every part makes a difference. Cheap parts, cheaper cuts of timber can make a difference. Ask guitarists like Greg Koch who has played 100s of guitars,levels of the budget
20:15 when Paul said “our window is narrower… my job is to keep moving it up” that was 100% right. PRS is too perfect because it is so dialed in that it just feels too perfect and might take away from the soul.
prs is cool and all: except he never explained if the mary cries has enough headroom to use as a "mastering compressor." looking for an la2a to put last on my board. thoughts?
The problem is that you have to have confidence in your own ear and be good enough to trust it. Everyone is justified to their own opinion just make sure it’s yours and not somebody else’s. Sheep.
The Internet personalities who make those “no soul” comments like guitars that look like they came out of the Death Star trash compactor. Somehow that gives them “soul.”
PRS got true knowledge. I my self I have worked with engines and as tuning in manufactoring processing lines for decades. There is an chain where every bit counts wrenching one point only will not do as them parts are to play smothly togheter as rowers on a boat But not so with guitars..no no no 🤣
I had a PRS SE 24 for many years, it was one of the first SE that had the bird inlays, but a few years before the signature was added to the headstock. This was my main guitar for a few years and I absolutely loved it, but I grew from it and it just didn’t speak to me anymore. That’s not to say that this guitar suddenly sucked, or that if I ever got another PRS that wouldn’t speak to me either. How many guitar companies can you name that have such close quality from there under 1k line all the way to their 5k and up line?
Normally I would never buy a guitar online I bit the bullet and bought a PRS silver sky SE online. It came tonally it was outstanding. It was sent back because after adjusting string heights the nuts and the relief even slightly above factory specs the EA and D string buzzed. And I actually like my action a little low like 4/64 at the 12th fret. It also felt like a toy in my hand. It felt like a $ 400 guitar not a $900 guitar. But that doesn't matter it was unplayable I wasn't going to readjust the neck angle on a brand new guitar I bought that should have been 80% set up.
I had completely the opposite experience, my silver sky se maple was fantastic from the get go and the pickups and resonance was far better than usa fender standard stuff not to mention Mexico. Now its not core quality attention to detail and the neck is slightly thinner and less wide but as an instrument its really good
I bought 2 SE guitars online. Both pretty spot on. I did a setup anyway as that’s just what I do with any new guitar. Your experience sounds very odd when it comes to PRS. Even the SE line. “Unplayable” ?? lol I’ve played several silver sky SE’s although I don’t own one. Not a single one has felt like a “toy”.
Curious to hear your perspective on online vs store bought instruments. I'd almost never buy a guitar from a store because most local ones don't take care of their guitars at all. I played a Fiore and Silver Sky recently that felt terrible because the strings were at least a year old, and the fretboards were absurdly dirty and dry.
Cherry Sunburst Les Paul's have sold like hot cakes since Jimmy Page. It's because of him that all the Standards in Cherry SB go for $300 more than the other colors for half a century now.
Great interview, great guitars! A huge pet peeve of mine all across the media outlets….if PRS is coming up on their FOURTIETH anniversary now is it that they constantly move FO-WARD? Come on newscasters, weather reporters, talking heads, and video content people…The word is FOR-WARD, thats, 4-WORD! Not FO-WARD…
Once agian Paul using another flawed tonewood argument. Nobody thinks the 70 hemicuda runs better with the original bumper. People just pay more for all original. However, love my prs guitars. Get some proof Paul.
He hasn't played as consistently in recent years, so he is a bit rusty. Still, he gets great tone out of each note he grabs. He also has a really musical vibrato. Even in his 60s, if he decided to shift his focus to playing and had anything to prove, I'd bet you that he'd get the job done.
I call horseshit Paul. Les Paul's have always been a thing. The Allman Brothers as the Allman Brothers Band always play Les Paul's. I remember seeing you at Merriweather Post pavilion in Maryland whining that that neither Warren Haynes or Derek trucks was picking up your PRS you had on a stand on the stage they insisted on playing their Gibsons!!?
I lost a lot of respect for Paul recently when he tried to convince people that his choice to use plastic tuner knobs was in order to somehow improve sustain and not just about saving money.... The laws of physics don't change on this earth, so mass and resonance being directly related, we can verify that Paul flat out lied.... His plastic tuner knobs if anything in theory according to the fundamental principles of physics that govern our world..... would reduce sustain, not increase it. Anyone who can do basic math could figure that out, and its the fact he thought we were all too dumb to do basic fucking math, and saw fit to lie to us and treat us like morons which I found rather offensive. PRS guitars have always been accused of lacking a soul and with business practices as such, I don't see that narrative changing anytime soon.
If the details matter then why the heck wouldn't you make your bottom horn cut out low enough to be able to hit the last fret on the 24 fret guitars? Or why only a 10 inch radius, or why no stainless steel frets? It seems like his guitars were designed to accommodate his own playing instead of much more accomplished musicians. He's an arrogant person.
Tone wood is a myth. Yes there is a basic starting point with wood, but the incremental improvements in sound is a myth. No you can’t make a guitar out of cardboard and expect it to sound like a ‘59 burst. Nor can you tell the difference between a maple or mahogany cap, short or long neck tenon, chambered or not etc….. Start with basic quality materials and add great pickups and a great amp.
Maybe it would be more helpful to change the word "tone" with EQ instead. EQ-wood or maybe sustain-wood. You would want the wood to give the strings all the sustain and clarity they can put out. Some parts can add or subtract for example wood moisture content or density. I always come back to an Ibanez PGM301 I had for a while. It was a basswood body, hardtail 6 saddle steel bridge, maple neck and a pretty thin one Ibanez-style. It had Dimarzio PAF-PRO humbuckers which were higher output but that guitar always sounded very thin, very little bass albeit the pickups should have had a ton. It was a nice guitar but not very musical sounding.
smith is full of it. If you listen closely, he never really says anything. just a lot of marketing doubletalk. And he refuses to let customers know exactly what his components, like pickups, are made of. Everyone else does? What's he hiding. I'd never buy a prs. PRS. Phony, raunchy shit.
He’s 100% right. You have try things for yourself and ignore the internet. I never thought in a million years a sg would end up becoming my favorite guitar.
Same here! Won't say is my favorite, but love it as much as LP's. It's such a fantastic guitar and has its unique vibe for sure. Totally worth it to have an SG and LP for sure. Suprappse my expectations and has actually ruined in way my PRS's lol
I borrowed an SG and I love it. I played gigs with it for a few years.
The internet is the sum total of all human idiocy and hubris. 😂
@@MezzMcGillicuddy1 It didn’t start quite that way, but we have had thirty years to distill it down to its true essence.
You're exactly right I played OneNote on an PRS S2 Standard 24 and I know I was screwed because I bought it and I absolutely love that guitar.
The PRS company has always produced the highest quality instruments of their kind on a Mass scale. I respect that.
Paul is right, everything matters to some degree.
PRS is the best guitar company on earth. The are absolutely superb, word class instruments. I've been a fan since trying a PRS for the first time in 1987.
Paul Reed Smith is a living legend. He will be remebered in the same league as Leo Fender and Ted McCarty. More than that, he is so passionate about all these subjects, it inspires you. I'd love to sit down with him for a guitar chat.
Leo Fender invented the bass guitar, and all the classic amps, and everything else. PRS copied the strat. There's no comparison.
Reflecting on what I said... I'm sorry for diminishing Paul's accomplishments. I mean, yeah he did copy the strat lol, but he did innovate a lot back in the day with the 24 and all. Leo Fender is just the greatest of all time in guitar/bass/amp building.
Never thought I'd find a better instrument that my vintage 65 and 69 Strats and my Clapton CS Strats. But I picked up a silver sky and there it was. Now it's all I play. It's just that good. Best treble pickup ever for a single coil. And everything is just perfect from the factory. I felt the same way about the 594 compared to Les Pauls. PRS is doing something right.
I truly appreciate Paul Reed Smith's perspective.
YES ! PRS ! Great topic ! And I Agree with Paul Reed ! Great interview guys !
Now Paul has me super curious to the development of this new sound! Wish we could have heard it, however, I understand why we didn't! One of the things I like about Paul is, he gleans from the best to become the best. Example, Neil Peart the drummer of the band Rush was a piece of every great drummer from the past to the present, which in turn made him the Greatest of all time due to him taking what they did and making it better! Great interview guys!
I can absolutely understand how his personality can rub people the wrong way, but he is a fascinating person to listen to.
He rubs me the wrong way.
@@56brever I understand 100%
@56brever you rub me the wrong way
@drsrsv8884 this is true cheers
@@drsrsv8884 There are plenty of winners who are not hated by the people they lead.
People hate guys like Steve Jobs because they have no humanity, no tact, and no respect for other people. It can be argued that we need people like Steve Jobs, but to say they are hated for being winners is inaccurate in most cases. Yes, everybody has haters, but not everybody has a reputation for being evil towards others.
I love this guy, and his guitars.. I've got a Core, Private Stock and I'm saving for another PS.. He was also gracious enough to sign my limited edition PRS book from 2007.. what a classy man and a classy company., reminds me of Taylor in many ways.
Awesome video! I can't believe I spent over an hour watching it, but now that it's over, I wish there was more!
Couldn't agree with you more. That was the most enjoyable interview I've heard with Paul in a long time, and I love his interviews. He got as close to personal as I've ever heard him.
You are a real person and a genius GOD bless you and your family and love your guitars.
I totally agree! It's not just one thing that makes a guitar sound the way it does, it's all of the parts of the guitar that make it sound that way. A house could look great & at the same time fall apart in 10 years because of sub par materials. The tone wood argument will go on until people realize that EVERYBODY means it's one part of a guitar. Why do people change parts of the guitar? Why aren't the after market parts sold with the guitar when it's purchased? Because the builder wants it to sound like their product.
Mr Paul has to be the most passionate guitar builder!!
I love my S2 Standard 24! It’s what I’ve been looking for many years!
Paul,... if you read this I want you to know one thing.... I have a 2006 Custom 22 ... and I LOVE my rotary switch!... lol and the single'ish tones are great... I use a boost to bring the volume back up and roll the tone knob back to 5 or 6 and I'm getting killer single coil tones and the volume drop is gone... it is a dream guitar for me! Thank you!!
I have always been a PRS fan, and one of the SE models is a likely candidate for my next guitar. I haven’t played a PRS in years, but I loved the ones I played back in the day.
This was great! Thank you.
I could watch this cat talk all day. I’m a Fender guy but I love this man.
Paul - very often - seems like the uncooperative defendant. I kind of like that in him. He is absolutely driven to make better products, a trait that is becoming more rare in today's world. He's as ambassador for better quality and better consistency in everything they make.
Brilliant video!
Hey guys.....if you were to ask Paul to have the SE DGT in Dark Cherryburst, their prettiest finish, put into production, he'd probably get it done....he obviously likes you. 😅
So Good!
Unfortunately I have had 2 DGT SEs both with QC problems, the first neck the 2nd switches. I would highly recommend the factory QC is looked at not just for final inspection, but also for parts sourcing QC. I have been in computing and networking production high volume so it is obvious the SE factory has problems. I would ask Paul to take a look please. For me I shall never buy another PRS SE.😢😢
Love AMS!
I have several guitars les pauls , fenders, Gretsch and only one PRS, reason is that when i got the PRS i was done searching i was done buying, it's the one i can't put down.
I just adore Paul Reed Smith. Such an onry & cantankerous S.O.B… He reminds me of me! 😂
Soul is in a players fingers, heart, and soul! Prs are great guitars! There is lots of great guitar companies! It's up to each individual guitar player what guitars move them! Whatever guitar company!
Is that a recently produced 408? Sounds amazing
Is the GDT a good guitar ?
Paul has been building guitars for year's. Built a company from the ground up.
Every part makes a difference. Cheap parts, cheaper cuts of timber can make a difference.
Ask guitarists like Greg Koch who has played 100s of guitars,levels of the budget
Snake oil salesmen don't thrive for 40 years..not everyone thinks that way about you Paul ❣️
Get Paul plugged into that 6505
20:15 when Paul said “our window is narrower… my job is to keep moving it up” that was 100% right. PRS is too perfect because it is so dialed in that it just feels too perfect and might take away from the soul.
prs is cool and all:
except he never explained if the mary cries has enough headroom to use as a "mastering compressor."
looking for an la2a to put last on my board.
thoughts?
It’s awesome. Yes, it’s a la2a type compressor. The boost is also a nice touch. For me it’s the last compressor I’ll need
The problem is that you have to have confidence in your own ear and be good enough to trust it. Everyone is justified to their own opinion just make sure it’s yours and not somebody else’s. Sheep.
The Internet personalities who make those “no soul” comments like guitars that look like they came out of the Death Star trash compactor. Somehow that gives them “soul.”
PRS got true knowledge. I my self I have worked with engines and as tuning in manufactoring processing lines for decades.
There is an chain where every bit counts wrenching one point only will not do as them parts are to play smothly togheter as rowers on a boat
But not so with guitars..no no no 🤣
32:00 Music City Bridge
I had a PRS SE 24 for many years, it was one of the first SE that had the bird inlays, but a few years before the signature was added to the headstock.
This was my main guitar for a few years and I absolutely loved it, but I grew from it and it just didn’t speak to me anymore. That’s not to say that this guitar suddenly sucked, or that if I ever got another PRS that wouldn’t speak to me either.
How many guitar companies can you name that have such close quality from there under 1k line all the way to their 5k and up line?
Normally I would never buy a guitar online I bit the bullet and bought a PRS silver sky SE online.
It came tonally it was outstanding. It was sent back because after adjusting string heights the nuts and the relief even slightly above factory specs the EA and D string buzzed. And I actually like my action a little low like 4/64 at the 12th fret. It also felt like a toy in my hand. It felt like a $ 400 guitar not a $900 guitar.
But that doesn't matter it was unplayable I wasn't going to readjust the neck angle on a brand new guitar I bought that should have been 80% set up.
I had completely the opposite experience, my silver sky se maple was fantastic from the get go and the pickups and resonance was far better than usa fender standard stuff not to mention Mexico. Now its not core quality attention to detail and the neck is slightly thinner and less wide but as an instrument its really good
I bought 2 SE guitars online. Both pretty spot on. I did a setup anyway as that’s just what I do with any new guitar. Your experience sounds very odd when it comes to PRS. Even the SE line. “Unplayable” ?? lol I’ve played several silver sky SE’s although I don’t own one. Not a single one has felt like a “toy”.
lmao bro you won't get in and move the truss rod a little bit? give up
Curious to hear your perspective on online vs store bought instruments. I'd almost never buy a guitar from a store because most local ones don't take care of their guitars at all. I played a Fiore and Silver Sky recently that felt terrible because the strings were at least a year old, and the fretboards were absurdly dirty and dry.
Mister Paul : My guitar has wood tone, pickups tone, nuts tone, bridge tone, neck tone, tuner tone also . . . .every PRS guitars have jackhole tone . . . .
Glenn Fricker : . . . .WADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
I don't believe in "tonewood", I believe in material density. You can listen to a RUF or Aristides guitar to figure that out.
Then explain a violin.
And different wood species will have different density…
00:50 "you are wearing me out"
Trust me Paul it was more painful for these guys
Cherry Sunburst Les Paul's have sold like hot cakes since Jimmy Page. It's because of him that all the Standards in Cherry SB go for $300 more than the other colors for half a century now.
I like how he alpha chaded you like the boss he is.
Grow up
@didamnesia3575 no you
@@yayayaokoksure great response, what are you like 15?
@@didamnesia3575 what are you like 14?
@@yayayaokoksure Google the words: insufferable, unteachable, worthless
This is why I play PRS. Find a man more passionate about making good guitars who can articulate it. You wont.
Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Great interview, great guitars! A huge pet peeve of mine all across the media outlets….if PRS is coming up on their FOURTIETH anniversary now is it that they constantly move FO-WARD?
Come on newscasters, weather reporters, talking heads, and video content people…The word is FOR-WARD, thats, 4-WORD! Not FO-WARD…
Violins are not electric guitars.
Yamaha has made very detailed and high quality guitars, but no one raves about them because of lack of character.
Once agian Paul using another flawed tonewood argument. Nobody thinks the 70 hemicuda runs better with the original bumper. People just pay more for all original. However, love my prs guitars. Get some proof Paul.
ACME Coolness Enhancer lmao
That needs to become a chorus pedal 😂😂😂😂
Not a fan of the person but do enjoy his guitars...
Great interview, but too much of Paul showing his guitar skills. That's not why we check out these interviews
I have a lot of respect for Paul and what he has been able to achieve in the guitar industry but his arguments about tonewood are very weak...
😂
Great guy, absolute! But sorry, he can't play the guitar, very awkward to watch haha
He hasn't played as consistently in recent years, so he is a bit rusty. Still, he gets great tone out of each note he grabs. He also has a really musical vibrato. Even in his 60s, if he decided to shift his focus to playing and had anything to prove, I'd bet you that he'd get the job done.
I call horseshit Paul. Les Paul's have always been a thing. The Allman Brothers as the Allman Brothers Band always play Les Paul's. I remember seeing you at Merriweather Post pavilion in Maryland whining that that neither Warren Haynes or Derek trucks was picking up your PRS you had on a stand on the stage they insisted on playing their Gibsons!!?
I love hearing Paul talk about guitars, I could listen to him all day. But I could never play one because I find them so hideous 🫣
I lost a lot of respect for Paul recently when he tried to convince people that his choice to use plastic tuner knobs was in order to somehow improve sustain and not just about saving money.... The laws of physics don't change on this earth, so mass and resonance being directly related, we can verify that Paul flat out lied.... His plastic tuner knobs if anything in theory according to the fundamental principles of physics that govern our world..... would reduce sustain, not increase it. Anyone who can do basic math could figure that out, and its the fact he thought we were all too dumb to do basic fucking math, and saw fit to lie to us and treat us like morons which I found rather offensive. PRS guitars have always been accused of lacking a soul and with business practices as such, I don't see that narrative changing anytime soon.
I think he went with plastic tuner buttons because the original Gibsons had them.
@@NessKey that makes it worse lol
If the details matter then why the heck wouldn't you make your bottom horn cut out low enough to be able to hit the last fret on the 24 fret guitars? Or why only a 10 inch radius, or why no stainless steel frets? It seems like his guitars were designed to accommodate his own playing instead of much more accomplished musicians. He's an arrogant person.
PRS has really really really really poor reasoning skills.
One of my favorite guitars is a prs ce.
The more I hear him, the less I want to buy his Brand, whatever is on the store
Tone wood is a myth. Yes there is a basic starting point with wood, but the incremental improvements in sound is a myth.
No you can’t make a guitar out of cardboard and expect it to sound like a ‘59 burst. Nor can you tell the difference between a maple or mahogany cap, short or long neck tenon, chambered or not etc…..
Start with basic quality materials and add great pickups and a great amp.
Maybe it would be more helpful to change the word "tone" with EQ instead. EQ-wood or maybe sustain-wood. You would want the wood to give the strings all the sustain and clarity they can put out. Some parts can add or subtract for example wood moisture content or density. I always come back to an Ibanez PGM301 I had for a while. It was a basswood body, hardtail 6 saddle steel bridge, maple neck and a pretty thin one Ibanez-style. It had Dimarzio PAF-PRO humbuckers which were higher output but that guitar always sounded very thin, very little bass albeit the pickups should have had a ton. It was a nice guitar but not very musical sounding.
It doesn't make a difference.
The guitars are okay like most are these days, the guy is a snake oil salesman is all.....fact!
It’s so funny how someone can build such kickass guitar but play so bad hahaha
Ever hear of Leo Fender?
smith is full of it. If you listen closely, he never really says anything. just a lot of marketing doubletalk. And he refuses to let customers know exactly what his components, like pickups, are made of. Everyone else does? What's he hiding. I'd never buy a prs. PRS. Phony, raunchy shit.
Prefer my PRS's to my Gibsons - hey ho!!