Letter from Paul - NAMM 2010

To All of Our Customers, Dealers, Distributors, Media, Artists, and Friends:

Twenty-five years ago, I made the move from my garret shop to the first PRS factory on Virginia Avenue in Annapolis. That day marked the beginning of our company’s journey to continually improve the instruments we make. We are constantly learning new things about building electric guitars, acoustic guitars and amplifiers, and we persistently apply what we learn to our product lines. The past year has been a good example of that in many ways.

At our annual open house — Experience PRS — held in September 2009, we introduced an entire line of guitars to celebrate our 25th Anniversary, as well as new amplifiers and SE models. These products are all excellent examples of our constant improvement ethic.

Likewise, on January 14th, 2010, we are introducing more new products at the Anaheim NAMM show. Every few hours, I will be personally demonstrating most of these 25th anniversary instruments as well as products that will first been seen in 2010. Please stop by our demo room (room 210B) to see and hear for yourself. If you are not attending the show, check out our website, which has been updated to include all these new models.

Amplifiers

At the 2009 NAMM Show, we introduced our paisley line of amplifiers. We received “Best of Show” that year, and they have been well received by our customers, artists, and musicians since their release. We now have a solid foundation as an amp company that compliments our quarter century of guitar design. I am very pleased with our amp offerings for 2010. Let me introduce you to the new products:

Our Tuxedo Family of Amps

  • The Sweet 16
    Hand wired 16 watt with reverb, full tone stack, and our transparent PRS master volume circuit.
  • The PRS 30
    Cathode biased English vibe amp with an American twist.
  • The Dallas II
    50 watt amp for the working musician.
  • The Texaplex II
    British-inspired with a perfect blend of smooth and gain in a 50 watt package.

Our Hand Wired Family of Amps

We’re very excited about this collection of amplifiers as well as our wide range of cabinets and are looking forward to getting them in the hands of more players.

All of our amplifiers are currently offered in the United States and Canada. The Tuxedo amplifiers will commence shipping internationally in the first half of 2010.

To make room for these new offerings, as of NAMM 2010, we’re saying goodbye to the Blue Sierra and Dallas models, as well as our inaugural paisley covering. There are some still at our dealers…when they’re gone, they’re gone.

Acoustics

In 2009, we introduced the Angelus and Tonare models. We hope you’re enjoying these instruments as much as we are. Recently, our wood buying team has found extraordinary new Private Stock grade woods, providing the opportunity for our customers to design and order truly unique acoustic guitars through our Private Stock program. It is an exciting time for PRS acoustics.

If you will be at the Anaheim NAMM show and haven’t heard our acoustic pickup system, come and hear Tony McManus demonstrate every couple of hours in our demo room (ROOM 210B). Our proprietary system is essentially a natural-sounding pickup glued to the bridge plate and fed into a modified, discrete, vintage Ampex-style tape machine amplifier running on two 9 volt batteries. We’re extremely happy with it and we think you will be too.

Electric Guitars

At Experience PRS 2009, we introduced a line of electric guitars to celebrate our 25th Anniversary. These 25th Anniversary models are handsome, play great and are highly musical. I will be personally demonstrating these models at NAMM, along with the rest of our current products. Proudly included in the 25th Anniversary lineup are new features, such as our new 57/08™ Narrowfield pickups, new neck binding, special inlays, woods, finishes, stains, and necks. Our Dealers and Distributors will only be able to order these instruments until September 2010 when we will formally discontinue our 25th Anniversary offerings and move on with the next chapter for PRS Guitars.

SE Guitars

Our SE line of guitars is expanding with models featuring many firsts for the SE line. Our bird inlays have been more successful than I ever imagined, and we’re happy to bring these popular inlays to some of our SE models, including the 25th Anniversary SE Custom 24.

We’re introducing the SE Torero, whose ‘PRS firsts’ include a Floyd Rose bridge, EMG pickups and neck through body construction. Our new, updated SE Paul Allender also includes some of these new features to create a guitar that is, according to Paul Allender, “More metal than your gran’s left hip.”

Another first for SE’s: We’re introducing two new models featuring solid Korina: the SE One Korina and the SE Singlecut Korina.

We have several new artist models this year as well, including Orianthi, Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt, Black Label Society’s Nick Catanese and Shinedown’s Zach Myers. We are happy to welcome all of these talented artists to the PRS family and to introduce their new signature models. These guitars all feature unique appointments specified by the artists and add new depth to the SE line.

Our Next Chapter

So what’s next for PRS Guitars? I see the history of our company in three phases:

In the first phase of our business, we opened the doors to our factory on Virginia Avenue in Annapolis. There, we launched the first PRS guitars: the Custom, 10th Anniversary Models, the McCarty, the Signature Series, our first Bass, EG models, CE models and many others.

The second phase of our business coincided with the opening of our factory on Log Canoe Circle and included the launches of the Hollowbody line, 513s, Artist Models, many Limited Editions, 20th Anniversaries, 25th Anniversaries, Private Stock, SE Line, SCJs, Paul’s 28, and many other models.

The third phase of our business commences with the beginning of production in our new state of art factory. This will be the start of a whole new sound, look and feel for our instruments.

My love to all of you who support our product lines and our company. Without you, none of this would be possible. Thank you! See you at NAMM and Experience PRS 2010.

Sincerely,

Paul Reed Smith

Paul Reed Smith
January 2010