markd21
New Member
Here's the tale of a man's transition from a bunch of random guitars to being an avid lover and user of PRS guitars.
It begins with my band splitting up. We had spent nine years in the original scene, and for a multitude of reasons that are now obvious, we never got a stable following. As soon as tension began to build, after NINE years (not too bad, really), we decided to call it a day. I was pleased because I had lost faith in our material and presentation, among other things.
I have always had a lot of guitars, but with the band over I began looking at diversifying my collection. I had been playing USA Select and Custom Shop Jackson guitars. I had grown bored with the concept of the shredder guitar. Over the years my Jacksons had gotten more "traditional" - fatter necks, smaller radius, no inlays, simple colors or quilt tops...still had the Floyd though!! Before Fender bought Jackson I was even ordering the "Sears" headstock (pre-Fender PC-1 head) instead of the pointy head. I was ready for a change. The Jacksons went up for sale and sold pretty quick.
I began focusing more on session work. As a school teacher, I always did local sessions during the summer...bass, drums, and/or guitar for a lot of project studios. I tended to work on singer/songwriter projects the most. Because of that, I went and got the "traditional" standards - Strat, Tele, SG (hate the LP, lol), 335. About a year after that I joined a country band. Got me some Gretsch guitars for that gig. My collection grew to a HUGE variety of brands where no two guitars was alike. Cool, huh?
Nope. There were so many I never used unless it was for a specific application. Sessions dried up for a while and I began working on a new project with a female singer. She wanted to do the songs in Drop C. None of the guitars I had were cutting it.
It was at this point I decided to try PRS again. I went to the GC and bough an SE Custom 24. While I never cared for the 24 fret guitars in the past, this SE felt and sounded great for the tunes she and I were writing. I got used to that guitar, and ended up moving some other guitars out and got three more SEs.
Pretty quickly these became my main guitars. In particular, the Bernie was extra special. It became number 1.
Fast forwarding a bit to shorten the tale (lol). The Gretsch guitars became my studio/session guitars and the PRS SE guitars became my live guitars.
One day I was sitting around, kind of depressed, my wife and I began talking. She started talking about our studio, my going nowhere Drop C project, and the number of guitars I had. Her focus was on how many guitars I have. I began to get annoyed. She caught on and told me listen to what she had to say. It came down to a specific question:
"If you could have ANY guitar in the world, what would it be?"
I laughed. I told her I already had a ton of guitars and that is what was annoying me - I went from having a ton of EXCELLENT quality instruments to a bunch (except for the Japanese Gretsches) of stuff that was good but that I am always modifying to make "better". I told her I was frustrated and sick of spending the money "fixing" guitars up.
She asked her question again.
I told her I ALWAYS wanted a PRS, but that I had them before and they never clicked.
She told me to research them and see if anything had changed. We got Burluck's book. It was a good read, but it didn't cover anything that was "new". I did learn about the reasons behind making the 22 fret guitars. I had ever tried one - only CE24 and CU24s. I began looking at the PRS website to se if anything interested me that wouldn't cost a fortune. That's when I saw the S2 Standards. My interest was peaked. THEN I saw the "Metallic Color" editions. THAT'S what I wanted to try.
I searched for one online, since NOBODY local EVER gets any "cool" PRS'. I found the one to try at Dave's Guitars on Reverb.com. An Ice Mist (or Ice Blue Mist - whatever in the hell it's called, lol) S2 Standard 22!!!
Everything about the guitar was brilliant. The paint is GORGEOUS. The neck is orgasmic. The pickups are PERFECT!!! I made the right decision. There was something nice and "new" about these PRS S2 instruments. I also liked that the guitar was not a "traditional" PRS - you know...pretty woods, pearl birds, etc. The S2 Standard was a PRS like I had never seen or played!! I was hooked.
THIS became my number one guitar and I began moving other guitars out. Originally my plan was to buy one of these in each Metallic color.....MAN - look at that flake!!! It is AWESOME!! Typical, of these guitars it has an amazing fretboard...
This was my guitar of choice when I joined the band I am in now. I used it exclusively for the first couple of months while I began selling more random guitars and further researching the brand....
It was the guitar I used on my debut show with the band. It blew me away. It was SOOO easy to play and tonally FAT and smooth!!!
While the SEs re-opened my eyes to the brand, it was THIS S2 that blew the flood gates open!!!!
It begins with my band splitting up. We had spent nine years in the original scene, and for a multitude of reasons that are now obvious, we never got a stable following. As soon as tension began to build, after NINE years (not too bad, really), we decided to call it a day. I was pleased because I had lost faith in our material and presentation, among other things.
I have always had a lot of guitars, but with the band over I began looking at diversifying my collection. I had been playing USA Select and Custom Shop Jackson guitars. I had grown bored with the concept of the shredder guitar. Over the years my Jacksons had gotten more "traditional" - fatter necks, smaller radius, no inlays, simple colors or quilt tops...still had the Floyd though!! Before Fender bought Jackson I was even ordering the "Sears" headstock (pre-Fender PC-1 head) instead of the pointy head. I was ready for a change. The Jacksons went up for sale and sold pretty quick.
I began focusing more on session work. As a school teacher, I always did local sessions during the summer...bass, drums, and/or guitar for a lot of project studios. I tended to work on singer/songwriter projects the most. Because of that, I went and got the "traditional" standards - Strat, Tele, SG (hate the LP, lol), 335. About a year after that I joined a country band. Got me some Gretsch guitars for that gig. My collection grew to a HUGE variety of brands where no two guitars was alike. Cool, huh?
Nope. There were so many I never used unless it was for a specific application. Sessions dried up for a while and I began working on a new project with a female singer. She wanted to do the songs in Drop C. None of the guitars I had were cutting it.
It was at this point I decided to try PRS again. I went to the GC and bough an SE Custom 24. While I never cared for the 24 fret guitars in the past, this SE felt and sounded great for the tunes she and I were writing. I got used to that guitar, and ended up moving some other guitars out and got three more SEs.
Pretty quickly these became my main guitars. In particular, the Bernie was extra special. It became number 1.
Fast forwarding a bit to shorten the tale (lol). The Gretsch guitars became my studio/session guitars and the PRS SE guitars became my live guitars.
One day I was sitting around, kind of depressed, my wife and I began talking. She started talking about our studio, my going nowhere Drop C project, and the number of guitars I had. Her focus was on how many guitars I have. I began to get annoyed. She caught on and told me listen to what she had to say. It came down to a specific question:
"If you could have ANY guitar in the world, what would it be?"
I laughed. I told her I already had a ton of guitars and that is what was annoying me - I went from having a ton of EXCELLENT quality instruments to a bunch (except for the Japanese Gretsches) of stuff that was good but that I am always modifying to make "better". I told her I was frustrated and sick of spending the money "fixing" guitars up.
She asked her question again.
I told her I ALWAYS wanted a PRS, but that I had them before and they never clicked.
She told me to research them and see if anything had changed. We got Burluck's book. It was a good read, but it didn't cover anything that was "new". I did learn about the reasons behind making the 22 fret guitars. I had ever tried one - only CE24 and CU24s. I began looking at the PRS website to se if anything interested me that wouldn't cost a fortune. That's when I saw the S2 Standards. My interest was peaked. THEN I saw the "Metallic Color" editions. THAT'S what I wanted to try.
I searched for one online, since NOBODY local EVER gets any "cool" PRS'. I found the one to try at Dave's Guitars on Reverb.com. An Ice Mist (or Ice Blue Mist - whatever in the hell it's called, lol) S2 Standard 22!!!
Everything about the guitar was brilliant. The paint is GORGEOUS. The neck is orgasmic. The pickups are PERFECT!!! I made the right decision. There was something nice and "new" about these PRS S2 instruments. I also liked that the guitar was not a "traditional" PRS - you know...pretty woods, pearl birds, etc. The S2 Standard was a PRS like I had never seen or played!! I was hooked.
THIS became my number one guitar and I began moving other guitars out. Originally my plan was to buy one of these in each Metallic color.....MAN - look at that flake!!! It is AWESOME!! Typical, of these guitars it has an amazing fretboard...
This was my guitar of choice when I joined the band I am in now. I used it exclusively for the first couple of months while I began selling more random guitars and further researching the brand....
It was the guitar I used on my debut show with the band. It blew me away. It was SOOO easy to play and tonally FAT and smooth!!!
While the SEs re-opened my eyes to the brand, it was THIS S2 that blew the flood gates open!!!!
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