20 years...

[QuiltTop319]

Enjoyed reading your story. Awesome guitar!

 

[Deleted member 5962]

Thanks for sharing that, V. Great story. I'm a year behind you. My first one is a 97.

 

[vchizzle]

Thanks for all the nice comments. I know the old crew has heard that story a few times, but I figured there were quite a few new members and I wanted to do a little post for 20 years in and thought the story should be part of it. I added a couple pics to the original post. I had a hard time with the sun washing things out and I didn't have a lot of time.

 

[rugerpc]

I've been playing PRS guitars for twenty years now. I've spent a little time reflecting recently and it's been a fun ride! First, I should thank Paul and everyone at PRS Guitars as whole. Thank you for building quality instruments that are beautiful. Thanks for continually pushing to improve the guitars. I don't believe there's many companies that go to the extent to improve their product. Thank you for building a guitar that feels right, sounds incredible and is visually stunning. Thank you for building guitars that I want to pick up every day, that inspire me to create music. That's really the most important part to me.

I first became aware of PRS in maybe 1990. They visually jumped out at me. At that time, I hadn't seen any guitar brand that was making guitars that were that beautiful. So that is what initially grabbed me without knowing anything about the brand. Here's the story of how I discovered PRS. I've told it a bunch of times...

It was in the very early 90’s, ‘91 or so that I saw my first PRS. My father used to take me to Madison, WI about every three months for a doctor appointment. We’d always schedule the visit early in the morning so we could go to some of the guitar stores in town, since we didn’t have much of anything in our hometown. So we walked into a store that we normally stopped in at, and there on the floor we saw about six or seven of the most beautiful guitars either of us had ever seen before. What really stood out the most, was they had unbelievable, gorgeous 3D looking maple tops on them and these fretboard inlays in the shape of birds. We’d never seen anything like these guitars and were just in complete awe! It wasn’t too long before a salesperson came over and asked if we’d ever heard of these guitars, called PRS - Paul Reed Smith. We said no, we hadn’t but, WOW, they sure are beautiful guitars! He asked if I had wanted to plug one in and try it out. Although I really wanted to play one right then, I said no, that’s ok. I knew at that time that they were more than I could afford, or my parents could spend on a guitar. I had only been playing guitar seriously for a year and half, so I thought, man, I’m not even good enough to even pick up a guitar that nice, much less plug it in and play it! So we stood and gawked at these beautiful instruments for a while longer. Especially the whale blue one right out in front. Man, that was the coolest guitar, in the most unbelievable color we ever saw. It was all we talked about the rest of the day! I said, Dad, someday I’m gonna have one of those guitars." I remember that day like it was yesterday.

I finally played a PRS guitar several months later and was just blown away by it. Man, did that thing just sing! And it was still a very thick, rich and full sound as well. It was much easier and more comfortable to play than my Epiphone Les Paul & Gibson Studio LP, but was still thick and chunky sounding on the bottom end. I loved it, but still, not within my budget. Fast-forward to 1995. I was out of high school and had a successful rock band as far as high school bands go, we even had recorded a full length CD in a studio in Madison, WI. I was bound and determined, come hell or high water, to get a PRS. I felt like now I had put in some time on the guitar and accomplished a fair amount of things and I deserved a PRS!!! I had a job, but it didn’t pay a whole lot, so it would take forever to save up that money. One day, while walking through a pawn shop, I saw some second hand Star Wars toys for sale…for A LOT of money. So I thought to myself, I have a ton of these toys, maybe I could find a buyer that would buy all of it. I really had a ton of Star Wars toys, and incidentally, my dad always made me put those toys away and keep things together so I didn’t lose pieces. He made me take very good care of that stuff, more so than any other toys or anything else I had. I even had a lot of the boxes for the ships, instructions and everything. So I started doing research, pricing everything that I owned. It turned out it would be enough money for me to buy the PRS I dreamed about for so long! I then asked my dad if it would be ok with him if I sold it all to buy the PRS. He said, "Yeah, go for it, I know how much you want that guitar." So I found a buyer and shipped him everything and went to the music store to get a PRS!!!

I tried out a few and while talking to the salesman, decided I would special order a guitar, built for me with the options I wanted. I was then pointed to Paul Schluter (Last Crack, Magic 7, Muzzy Luctin) who worked there as well at that time. Paul has serial #5 0057, and has been playing PRS from the beginning. He was the PRS expert around Madison at the time. So I decided, with his help, that I’d order a Custom 22 with bird inlays, 10 top, wide thin neck, stoptail - in whale blue, of course. After a long, agonizing wait(I was soooo anxious for this guitar), 8 months if memory serves me correctly. I got the call. It had arrived. I saw it and it was the most beautiful thing - and it was mine. I briefly plugged it in at the store and it just screamed. So off I went, back home, to show it to my dad. There we sat, in the living room at home, just like the first time we saw a PRS guitar. In awe. My mom was even excited. She loved the whale blue color. That memory will forever be engrained in my mind.

Here is my first PRS, which I still own and will probably go to the grave with me. It's a great sounding guitar that is very resonant and the one that started my 20 year addiction to PRS. It's got a ton of sentimental value to me. Since my dad pretty much bought the guitar and he passed away about a year after I got it, it means a lot to me. I don't gig with it anymore, but I play it at home and use it in the studio at times. It can be heard in this song(it's the overdubbed guitar that's kind of in the the background underneath the verses and choruses):
https://soundcloud.com/goplaygod/evelations

Here's a picture of Paul and myself the first time I met him at a store seminar several years back:

Last year I decided to build a Private Stock. It was a tough decision for me because I don't really have that much money to throw at a guitar. I've wanted to build one for years, maybe from the time that the PS program started. I found a piece paper awhile back inside an old PRS catalog that I had some specs written out on. I was able to sell a couple guitars and pull the money together over the course of several months. The timing felt right as I was coming up on my 20th year playing PRS. My dad would've been 70 years old this year as well, so I thought it would be nice to put what would've been his 70th birthday on the back of the headstock.
I have to thank JFB for giving me the push and convincing me to do the build. Also need to thank Brian at Brian's Guitars for providing an incredible experience and making it possible for me to go out to the factory and pick my own woods, it was really important for me to do that. Thank you to Paul Miles, Tina and the entire Private Stock team for knocking it out of the park with this guitar. It's the best guitar I've ever played or owned.

Here's a couple pics:

Here's a link to an album of the whole build trip:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/vchizzle/albums/72157656576207115

Link to the build thread for the new people here:
http://forums.prsguitars.com/threads/prs-ps-5905-wood-selection.14879/

There's a lot to why I love PRS. To much to try to list and verbalize. Hopefully I've gotten some of that across here. Hopefully PRS, as a company, knows and understands how much I appreciate their guitars, amps and cabs. Anyway, thanks for doing what you do PRS!

My original plan was to get a group pic of my first PRS and PS together, but it's pretty overcast today and I'd like some natural light. I also plan to do some clips or video of both guitars soon. I'll edit this post when I get them done.

I gotta say, this story made me a little misty....

 

[Deleted member 5962]

I absolutely LOVE both of those guitars!

 

[Bill SAS 513]

Great story, Vaughn...Its neat how music , which we can all relate to, and family are tied together with your story. Side note: my dad signed for a small loan for my first real guitar...Hagstrom...wonderful memories. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Shawn@PRS]

Rock on, Vaughn!

 

[midrange]

Wow, what a fantastic story. I'm typically not as huge a fan of quilted maple or less traditional colors but your guitars are gorgeous. That Private Stock is a phenomenal instrument.

 

[xrtjrp]

Very cool Brother.... I'm sure a similar story will be written one day remembering the fond memories of the two men and artistic, innovative guitar family that inspired both of these beautiful pieces of art.

Thank you for sharing your heartfelt story.
JRP

 

[Grizzlee]

Great story and a couple of stunning guitars

 

[11top]

Vaughn's the dude, right Taylor?

 

[GuitarsFromMars]

I really enjoyed the OP's story. Sometime in the late 1980s, I remember walking into a little music store across the street from the Virginia Avenue shop and, I saw the most beautiful Whale Blue PRS I had ever seen. It haunts me to this day.

 

[vchizzle]

I really enjoyed the OP's story. Sometime in the late 1980s, I remember walking into a little music store across the street from the Virginia Avenue shop and, I saw the most beautiful Whale Blue PRS I had ever seen. It haunts me to this day.

Thanks for bumping this thread! Almost to year 24. It was fun for me to read my post again(even the typos), it’s crazy how time flies.

 

[Alnus Rubra]

So glad this was revived! Great thread Vaughn, that guitar! Bro!!

Here’s to you rocking out for another 24 years!

 

[ScottR]

Probably the best zombie thread in the history of zombies or threads!!

Great story V! So glad that I stumbled across it. I jumped in here in late '17 so I missed it until today!

You're a lucky guy to have that kind of memory with your pops too! Good stuff bro!

 

[vchizzle]

Probably the best zombie thread in the history of zombies or threads!!

Great story V! So glad that I stumbled across it. I jumped in here in late '17 so I missed it until today!

You're a lucky guy to have that kind of memory with your pops too! Good stuff bro!

Yeah, my 7-10 year old self would’ve loved to take the Jawa sandcrawler, R2, C3PO and a bunch of other stuff out to the sandbox for some lifelike reenactment. I remember being mad at him on a few occasions.
Lots of cool and fun memories of road tripping to lots of music stores too. I’m thankful to have all those memories. It was great that they supported me so much.