Here's the letter I wrote to Paul some years back, not sure if I ever sent or emailed it.
Paul,
I would like to say thank you, for your vision, your passion and your determination to build exceptional guitars. They are truly a pleasure to play. Everything from the tone, the beauty, the comfort and playability of your instruments is inspiring to me every time I pick up one of my PRS guitars. They have become my inspiration and paint brush for creating my music for a very long time now. It has been 14 years since I ordered my first PRS guitar and has been a pleasure playing them ever since then. So again, I would like to give you my sincerest thanks.
I have always enjoyed reading interviews, the PRS book, watching the DVD and hearing you talk about the history of everything. It’s a very inspiring story to me and I always like to hear the stories you tell about it all. So I thought I would take a little time to tell you my story about your guitars.
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.
So I decided in 2006, my 10th year playing PRS, I would commemorate that by getting the birds tattooed around my forearm and the first bird above my elbow on the back of my arm(with a 96 in the center of it).
Over the years that guitar has been excellent and has been with me through thick and thin. It now stays at home and gets used at home and in the studio. I have a 2006 Singlecut standard, 2003 and 1998 McCarty standards that have become my live guitars. I really can’t say enough good things about PRS guitars, they are near and dear to me. I obsess about them. I can’t help myself. So I thank you for your innovation and excellence and for becoming a huge part my creating my music.
Sincerely,
Vaughn Klein (aka: vchizzle on BaM)
