PRS Guitars

Est. 1985 Website ↗

About

PRS Guitars builds high-end electric and acoustic guitars known for figured maple tops, versatile humbucker-plus-coil-split electronics, and exceptional build consistency. Founded by luthier Paul Reed Smith in 1985, the company has grown from hand-built instruments for artists like Carlos Santana into the third best-selling guitar brand in the world.

History

Paul Reed Smith built his first guitars by hand while still in college, crafting an instrument for Peter Frampton in 1976 that helped establish his reputation among working musicians. In 1980 he built a custom maple-topped guitar for Carlos Santana, a relationship that would become the company's most famous artist endorsement. Smith debuted his 'Custom' model at the 1985 NAMM Show and opened a factory in Annapolis, Maryland the same year; the company built its 1,000th guitar within a year of opening. The ornate Dragon series and the vintage-voiced McCarty model, named for former Gibson president Ted McCarty, arrived in the early-to-mid 1990s, and Santana became PRS's first formal artist endorser in 1995. The company moved to its current Stevensville, Maryland facility in 1996, the same year it introduced the Private Stock custom-order program. PRS launched the more affordable SE (Student Edition) line in 2000 to reach players outside the premium market, and added acoustic guitars to its catalog in 2008. By 2024, PRS had grown into the third best-selling guitar brand in the United States, behind only Fender and Gibson.