Back when I was in high school I'd have to road trip about 150 miles to go see concerts. This was usually in the form of several friends and I piling into a car and driving to the thriving metropolis that is/was Wichita, KS. We'd make a whole day and sometimes two of it. One such trip, not sure which concert, we stopped at a music store. This was maybe early 1985. They had a PRS on the wall. Having seen them in Guitar Player magazine pictures of Santana I stood there and kinda drooled a little. A guy comes up to me and asks, "You want to play it?" I was shocked. Here I was a long haired punk kid with no money getting the chance to play this really expensive beauty. So long story not quite so long, I was plugged into a Roland Jazz Chorus if I remember correctly (and I rarely do). And I was hooked. The guy asked me what I thought and my reply was "No wonder Santana is so smooth." From that day forth I really wanted a PRS. I have no idea what model it was. I graduated high school in 1985 so it was definitely no later than 1985. Possibly the summer. I've always figured it was a Santana. Funny thing, to this day I don't think I've played another Santana model. In 2002 I bought my first PRS, a purple McCarty. The culmination of 17 years of wanting and waiting.
Oh and back then my guitar was Peavey T-60. Not a bad guitar but it was no PRS.