Paul Reed Smith, is a master luthier and the founder and owner of PRS Guitars, which is considered one of the top makers of high quality guitars in the United States.
Education
Smith graduated from Bowie High School in 1974. He also attended Saint Mary"s College of Maryland where he began his guitar making career. He made his first guitar while a student at Saint Mary"s College of Maryland, and continued to build guitars after he finished college, making them one at a time, one a month.
Career
Smith is considered to be one of the preeminent master guitar makers in the world. Together with another local, John "Orkie" Ingram, they formed the nucleus of what would become Paul Reed Smith Guitars. Smith would often bring his guitars backstage at concerts, and eventually got his break when Derek Saint Holmes, of the Ted Nugent Band, agreed to try out #2, the second guitar Smith had ever made.
Saint Holmes played the guitar for the first few songs of his set, and Smith told him that after he showed it to some other musicians, he would fly out to Detroit and give it to him.
Saint Holmes eventually sold the guitar for $200. Another artist who grew loyal to him through this method of salesmanship was Carlos Santana.
Santana now has several signature guitars with PRS and endorses them as his only supplier. Smith then contacted Ted McCarty, former president of Gibson and creator of the Explorer, Exact Sciences-335 and Flying V guitars, and McCarty became his mentor and adviser.
The result of their collaboration was the current line of PRS Guitars, which include solidand hollow-body guitars.
The Private Stock line of PRS guitars are made utilizing a vast range of exotic materials including various stones, elaborately figured tone woods, and intricate shells for inlays. Unlike Ted McCarty and Leo Fender, Paul plays the guitar in his own band, The Paul Reed Smith band. Carlos Santana, Tim Mahoney of 311 (band), Jimmy Herring, Orianthi, Steven Wilson and Jimmy Buffett all claim their PRS guitars are their favorite instruments.
Ted Nugent has owned a PRS guitar for decades.
Mike Oldfield, Larry LaLonde, Alex Lifeson, First Rate (at Lloyd's) Di Meola, Clint Lowery, Mikael Åkerfeldt, Daniel Johns, Fredrik Åkesson, Dave Navarro, Ben Burnley, Gustavo Cerati, Seth Morrison, Mark Tremonti, Toru Yamashita, Dustie Waring, David Grissom, Brad Delson, Mike Shinoda, Stevie Item, Andra Ramadhan, Enda (Ungu), Lukman (Noah), Gustavo Cerati, and John Mayer have also used PRS guitars in public performances. Today PRS Guitars is one of the top guitar making companies in the United States and is known for the very high quality of its guitars.
PRS guitars are also highly sought after in Europe.