What artists influenced or what prompted you to get PRS gear?

[FragileThunder]

I know PRS came into my sphere of guitar appreciation early, through Santana who I’ve been a fan of since I was maybe 12 years old. Of course, that was about 40 years before I bought my first. I’d played a number of them over the years, but never felt justified in buying one because I was only playing guitar to entertain myself, I was a bass player and occasional mandolin guy for my band/gigging situations. As I approached 50 and decided it was finally time to embrace the fact that I had always been a guitar player at heart, it was only a matter of time before a PRS would enter the stable. Now it is the guitar that gets the most play (daily).

 

[Sybo]

Jak3af3r

 

[]-[@n$0Ma☩!©]

There I was, an impressionable young man (he/him/his), rotting his brain in front of the TV. Chances are good that I was also sitting too close.

I was manually changing channels (the upside of sitting too close) when my favourite band (The Jetts) came on American Bandstand. I sat there in awe as they delivered a world-class pantomime of 'Crush On' You'.

I never actually heard that Custom PRS in Vintage Yellow with optional bird inlays. But I had a dream that one day, I'd stop wasting my life in front of a TV and start wasting it in strange new ways. Who could have predicted guitar forums?!?!

 

[Birdsofprey]

My older bro, in 1986 he went into a guitar store in Boston (Wurlitzer’s on Mass Ave.) with an open mind to buy the best electric in the store. Coming from a G background LP/ SG. He walked out with this new brand called PRS, a custom 24 in blue. Still has it to this day zero fade. I played it and it just felt right so as I may have said in various posts here it’s a CU24 for me. And I came from an Ibanez Artist (1978) a brilliant guitar in its own right.

 

[Tony M.]

None.
Nobody.
I fell into this rabbit hole by accident.
The story is in some other thread but
I'm too lazy to look for it right now.

 

[László]

There I was, an impressionable young man (he/him/his), rotting his brain in front of the TV. Chances are good that I was also sitting too close.

I was manually changing channels (the upside of sitting too close) when my favourite band (The Jetts) came on American Bandstand. I sat there in awe as they delivered a world-class pantomime of 'Crush On' You'.

I never actually heard that Custom PRS in Vintage Yellow with optional bird inlays. But I had a dream that one day, I'd stop wasting my life in front of a TV and start wasting it in strange new ways. Who could have predicted guitar forums?!?!

I want to know who the choreographer was.

That dancing is the product of a LOT of rehearsal time!

 

[T3mp]

I had previously owned 2 PRS guitars and eventually sold them. They just weren't for me (at least not yet). Then I heard a DGT and the tone blew me away. When I played one I was hooked. Everything about the guitar is exactly what I want at this time. Then I decided to check out who DG was and found out he lives in my city. I am going to see him soon at one of his local gigs. I own a great Collings SoCo deluxe, a master built strat and a custom shop tele, but they are collecting dust in my closet and likely will be doing that for some time to come.

 

[Rod/]

In the 90’s I saw Warren Haynes playing a Goltop McCarty with the Allman Bros through the same amp as I was using then, an Soldano 100.I traded a guy my aaaa top Lp Classic for his early McCarty..It has a more focused and less bloated tone than my LP had…. love that guitar. It was the first year they made them and had no coil tap.

 

[jak3af3r]

Jak3af3r

I can't take credit for the first one. I may have metaphorically thrown a match in the bucket of GAS to start that fire though...



I personally was aware of PRS from a few sources.

When I started playing in 2003, I was 9. Santana's Supernatural was still new enough to be on the radio which, to a kid in Kentucky, was about the wildest sounding thing out there.

Creed was still a thing and also on the radio so Tremonti was there.

My dad is a HUGE Rush fan and Lifeson's "other" guitars were PRS. Specifically the DVD of Rush in Rio. We watched that so many times I'd be surprised if it still even works.

My dad also plays drums so we'd get musicians friend stuff in the mail and the Custom 24 in emerald just stood out visually but it was expensive.


I ended up with a teacher who was primarily a strat guy (he had around 12) but also has 5 or 6 really nice PRSi.

Then Guitar Hero came out and everyone in school was in on it so Gibson was "the guitar." My dad had also around that time finished machining the tailpieces for the SG GT and reverse flying V so naturally, I wanted an SG.

I went to try one of the 3 pickup worn satin finish SGs at the local music store. Wasn't really crazy about the neck and saw the SE display. Picked up the SE custom and loved the neck shape. So I saved up and bought a black one.

 

[Texas_minor_blues]

Alex Lifeson was the 1st artist I saw with a PRS shortly after that I saw Santana and I was pretty much sold

 

[Robert Fernander]

Im a Santana to Grissom influenced PRS guy.

Carlos got me curious but I didn’t play enough to justify anything more than a garage sale strat.

Fast forward 20 years.

I retired and am playing in a local garage band with a reissue telecaster and a parts caster. I decided to invest in learning how to really play.

I wanted to take it seriously so I decided to invest in a quality instrument. I didn’t want to be like everyone else playing 50’s-60’s reissues from fender or gibson and I wanted a more evolved instrument. Freezing the fifties state of the art seemed silly. I could go the vintage route and start chasing something old or make the leap into a more modern interpretation of those vintage instruments.

I bought an SE, returned it for an S2, returned that and bought a core cu24 A couple of years went by and my skills improved. Over that time I got a better grasp on what I wanted out of the instrument. David Grissom sorted out the details for me. Though Grissom worked on the Mccarty, the current DGT is, in my very humble opinion, the most evolved vintage instrument money can buy. Thank you Carlos, David, Paul and Ted for your creations.