Follow the Guitar: HARP and PRS Guitars at South-by-Southwest
by Randy Harward
DAY ONE
In theory, it’s simple: take two guitars to Austin’s South-by-Southwest music festival and get them in the hands of cool bands for at least one song. Since guitar players are loyal to their gear, it’s easier said than done. But both HARP and Paul Reed Smith were pretty confident we could sell some of these guys on the instruments we were packing. To wit:
We had a black SE One with a sleek mahogany body and 22-fret neck, single cutaway, with a soapbar pickup at the 0PRS bridge and a lone volume knob for ultimate simplicity. Suitable for indie rockers, alt-country twangers and mop-topped garage guys, it’s capable of crisp clean chords or bright, dirty ones. The other instrument was PRS’s Mira, a mahogany machine with a 24-fret neck, two humbuckers—bridge, neck—double cutaways, three-way blade and quell tap switch. Even more versatile than the SE One, its allure is immediate and relentless.
So it wasn’t a surprise that less than two hours after we landed in Austin, we already had a Mira onstage, tuned and ready for action. Walker Howle, guitarist with Athens-based buzz band Dead Confederate, snatched it off the stand for the band’s second song at the Athens in Austin party. Though accustomed to his trusty Strat, Howle coaxed big sounds from the Mira on "Start Me Laughin'." It was only one song, but it felt like an entire show, with seething verses and slashing choruses that even had the back patio freeloaders looking up from their free hot dogs and beers.
Howle rode the Mira hard and put her away sweaty, but ready to go for tomorrow’s shows with The Canon Logic and Gil Mantera's Party Dream, whose Ultimate Donny will certainly give Mira a workout to remember.
DAY TWO
Last night I fell asleep playing the Mira. Don't judge; we were friends first. After a leisurely breakfast of swag bag delicacies we hit some gifting tents, then jumped into a cab to the Creekside Lounge with Brooklyn’s The Canon Logic. Guitarist Mark Alu immediately tuned up the Mira for TCL's first song "New York, New York." The guitar sliced through the mix like Excalibur, and after the song Alu said he liked her quite a bit.
I took her right back to the hotel, lest she be damaged in the seven hours ‘til a full gig with Gil Mantera's Party Dream at 10 p.m. in Emo's Main Room. That, and she might’ve needed a rest considering the things I’d heard about the Youngstown, Ohio duo—and unlike most rumors, they turned out to be true. Gil and singer-guitarist Ultimate Donny danced and played—and showed—their asses off. Donny clearly dug Mira the most, ‘cause those guitar faces can't be faked. Plus, after the show he raved about her and even thanked PRS for allowing him the privilege to play her. Then he lovingly wiped all the sweat from Mira’s glistening body, bagged her up and handed her down to me saying, “I’d play this every night.”
DAY THREE
Today was the day for the big Yep Roc/HARP/PRS party at the Dirty Dog Bar, which evidently gets its name from the copious nude pictures of (largely female) patrons adorning the west wall. Chuck Prophet, The Sadies, Heloise and the Savoir Faire, Liam Finn, The Golden Dogs, The Iguanas and Chatham County Line all played, as did American Princes and Reckless Kelly, who both played PRS guitars before the packed crowd. Post-fest, HARP caught up with American Princes’ David Slade to ask him how he liked the mean machine PRS sent him.
Which PRS guitar did you play?
I used a black, high-gloss finish SE One. We were given a vintage cherry version as well, but I prefer a guitar that is the color of my evil, evil soul.
How loyal are you to your regular rig?
I love my rig to the bitter end, but that's almost completely irrelevant when playing at SXSW, where every venue seems to have an angry, overworked stage manager who insists that you use the backline of Peavey Bandits and Gorilla practice amps which, if you are lucky, are plugged into a functional power outlet. That said, I got to try out the PRS under adverse circumstances and was really pleased with how it held up. Since it's just got a bridge pickup and a volume knob, there wasn't a whole lot of guesswork involved in getting a good, consistent tone. I got to plug it through a bazillion amps (sometimes even my own!) and it was really great each time.
Did you play for the whole set or just one song? How did you like the sound?
I used it for every song in all six of our shows. I really enjoyed playing it and was very pleased with how reliable its sound was.
Would you play a PRS guitar again?
Without a doubt. I'm looking forward to incorporating the guitar into our live set. I really like how it held up for me in Austin, and based on that experience, have great faith in its value to me on the road as well as in the studio.
DAY FOUR
South-by-Southwest is like a big video game in that you have your objective, but there are all kinds of things ready to trip you up. Namely logistics—just getting from Point A to Point B is like a perverse blend of Frogger and Super Mario Brothers. You weave in and out of little clusters of festivalgoers, hop over bums and buskers, try to hail a taxicab without getting slammed by a pedicab. And if you manage to get a cab, sometimes you get where you’re going and sometimes you don’t—at least not on time.
What we’re gettin' at is we missed our gig with David Bazan—you’d know him as the guy who ran the show in Pedro the Lion—by scant seconds. The cab dropped us off two blocks from the show due to traffic and despite some uncharacteristically athletic maneuvering—including a polite plow through the crowd to get up and, hopefully, pass this slick black SE One to Bazan—it just wasn’t happening. He might’ve grabbed the guitar in mid-set, but when the Seattle songsmith plays, it’s often with eyes closed.
It didn’t stop him from asking to play her after the show. On the street outside The Mohawk, Bazan strapped on the SE and noodled around for a bit before he had to scoot. En route to the hotel for a breather, we ran into Bobby Bare, Jr., who asked to have a look at the SE. “This looks really nice,” he said Bare.
We agree.
At 9 p.m., Brooklyn anklebiter punks Care Bears on Fire took their turn with the SE—and for her size, 12-year-old singer-guitarist Sophie can wield an axe. Slapping a black strap with pink polka dots on the SE, she tuned it up, bashed out a few chords, and set it on a stand until the fifth song of the set, “Mine.” Not only did Sophie play it like a pro on the new non-album track, she later gave a great quote straight out of those guitar mag ads: “It plays well, feels great and looks amazing!”
Naturally!