How I first came to own a PRS Is a pretty complicated story that involves Keith Richards and a robbery and luck. I caught the guitar bug in high school when the British Invasion hit and my first electric guitar was an Egmund (guitar scholars will find that interesting as another George much more talented than I also started with an Egmund).
I really liked to play and I traded up now and again and I saved my money from summer jobs and after school jobs and eventually bought a 1964 Gibson ES335 TD at Rudy’s in Manhattan. It was the best sounding guitar I had ever played until ….). I realized three things however No.1 Keith Richards had the job I wanted and it didn’t look like he was going to give it up soon. No. 2. I would never be more than a slightly less than average musician as I'm just not that talented. No.3 I'm very good at science. So off I went to become a scientist and I would play for fun with friends. That 335 went with me to University, to homes in several states and even came along when we moved to Europe and then returned to the states. But my focus was on my career and family so I didn’t play for years.
Finally the day comes when I said I have time to get back to playing and our 15 year old daughter wants to learn so I set up the Gibson in the man cave. We did not know it then, but she was being stalked by 2 creeps at the high school and they took out a window screen and stole the guitar, waking me up at 4 am as they left. Luckily, I had documentation as to the replacement value of the guitar and I settled with the insurance company and begin to explore what I should buy, thinking I would probably just buy another 335. Months later while I'm pondering what to buy, the guitar appears on my front steps (the cops were closing in on the kid) and I decide to sell it to a high end vintage place near NIH and so I return the check to the insurance company and go shopping. In my research I discover that there is an electric guitar factory not 35 miles away from me on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and people are talking about PRS as the holy grail but I knew nothing about them. I go to a few stores to try guitars and I can’t find a better guitar than a PRS so I order my HBII with piezo and it is the best guitar I have ever played. That was in 2003.
Since then I’ve done the factory tour probably 3-4 times, been to every EXP PRS but one and had Paul and the band out to my College three times for a master class followed by concert. You probably know that Colleges and Universities can give honorary degrees to people who are considered exceptional in their field and I wrote the proposal and navigated campus politics to get Paul a honorary doctorate a few years ago so he is Dr Smith now. I know, some academicians would prefer we give a degree to a person who wrote the definitive work on the eyelashes of the tsetse fly but I thought Paul was more deserving of the honor. He is a very interesting person, extremely bright and a very thoughtful person and I’m grateful that his smarts and ambition have led to the creation of the best guitars that have ever been made. So that’s my tale.
