How many PRS guitars produced to date?

[shinksma]

I tried searching to see if this was a duplicate question, since I'm sure it gets asked every now and then, but no luck...

I'm staring at a Guitar Afficianado calendar a co-worker gave me, with the "Two Millionth" Martin featured for January 2017.

It occurred to me that PRS has probably not produced even a million guitars yet, but they must be well on their way to half a million, perhaps.

According to the Year Identification page of the PRS Customer Support Center links, the year 2014 would have seen serial numbers in the 206xxx range for set-neck guitars. And a recent guitar I spotted in the Dealer's Forum section here has a 2016 with SN starting with 231xxx.

So PRS seems to be above a quarter million set neck core builds, S2 would seem to be well into the 17000s, over 33000 original CEs, over 3000 SASs, etc.

Might leave the SEs out of this question, because:

Are the SEs produced with truly serial numbers, or do they reset after the letter changes? I have a 277 Semi-hollow with serial number Q076xx, bought in October (new headstock design, so recent build), and I found an SE Holcomb with SN "Q11xxx", also new headstock design - I doubt only 12000-ish SEs have been produced in total.

I'm guessing PRS has produced over 300,000 total US-made specimens.

So was anything done for the 250,000th "Core" or US-made PRS guitar? Or the core set-neck with SN xx250000? Did anyone even notice?

Any good estimate for total tally to date?

 

[shinksma]

Oh, replying to myself:

I just found this quote from March/April 2013:

This year the Stevensville, Md. plant will turn out 13,000 guitars; another 25,000 models (the $700 Student Edition) are made in Incheon, South Korea.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/karsten...tars-chasing-perfection-profits/#190d110977da

(Still not sure about how the SE serial numbers are assigned or if they are truly sequential.)

 

[gush]

I would like to know this as well. Just curious.

 

[László]

I don't know how many have been made, but I'm pretty sure that MA Pete has owned at least half of them.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

I don't know how many have been made, but I'm pretty sure that MA Pete has owned at least half of them.

LOL!!

 

[alexanderraimo]

Student Edition...

Is that what SE officially stands for??

 

[bodia]

I don't know how many have been made, but I'm pretty sure that MA Pete has owned at least half of them.

Bwahahahahahaha!!!!!

 

[shinksma]

Student Edition...

Is that what SE officially stands for??

According to PRS today, no, not officially. Although it seems that was indeed the moniker that PRS themselves threw around when they first came out, and seems to have stuck.

 

[sloanthebone]

I don't know how many have been made, but I'm pretty sure that MA Pete has owned at least half of them.

Priceless!!

 

[HANGAR18]

Student Edition...

Is that what SE officially stands for??

That wasn't what PRS had intended for it to stand for but that has become the unofficial, official meaning that everyone on the planet has associated with that particular line.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

A brazillion.

 

[László]

According to PRS today, no, not officially. Although it seems that was indeed the moniker that PRS themselves threw around when they first came out, and seems to have stuck.

That wasn't what PRS had intended for it to stand for but that has become the unofficial, official meaning that everyone on the planet has associated with that particular line.

I'm going to throw out a crazy idea, just because it kind of -- maybe -- fits.

Antonio de Torres is known for developing (not inventing) the acoustic guitar, and coming up with various ideas that turned it from a very quiet parlor instrument into today's modern classical guitar. Paul Smith has mentioned in connection with the ideas for the PRS acoustic that he investigated de Torres instruments. De Torres originally made guitars in Seville (Spain, not the car).

de Torres took a break from guitarmaking for a short time, and was the proprietor of a china shop. But he went back to making guitars, this time in the city where he had the china shop, Almeria. Some of the best known de Torres guitars were made during what is called his "Second Epoch," thus they are sometimes referred to as his "SE" guitars.

Paul is a student of the history of the guitar. I can't help but wonder if there's a connection between the "Second Epoch (SE)" of de Torres, and the SE moniker on PRS guitars made in another place?

 

[drdoom8793]

That wasn't what PRS had intended for it to stand for but that has become the unofficial, official meaning that everyone on the planet has associated with that particular line.

I've heard it stands for Student Edition. I've also heard it stands for Seoul, which is of course where World Musical is located. It seems that PRS has never clarified exactly what it means.

 

[bodia]

I'm going to throw out a crazy idea, just because it kind of -- maybe -- fits.

Antonio de Torres is known for developing (not inventing) the acoustic guitar, and coming up with various ideas that turned it from a very quiet parlor instrument into today's modern classical guitar. Paul Smith has mentioned in connection with the ideas for the PRS acoustic that he investigated de Torres instruments. De Torres originally made guitars in Seville (Spain, not the car).

de Torres took a break from guitarmaking for a short time, and was the proprietor of a china shop. But he went back to making guitars, this time in the city where he had the china shop, Almeria. Some of the best known de Torres guitars were made during what is called his "Second Epoch," thus they are sometimes referred to as his "SE" guitars.

Paul is a student of the history of the guitar. I can't help but wonder if there's a connection between the "Second Epoch (SE)" of de Torres, and the SE moniker on PRS guitars made in another place?

Great hypothesis.

 

[Huggy Love]

I'm still doing my research as to the volume of PRS production, so that I can implement my strategy to buy, pilfer, or steal every one ever made, in my evil plan to gain world domination.