When/How did you first discover PRS guitars?

[HANGAR18]

I feel like I've known of PRS guitars forever, but in reality, I can't specifically remember a time before 2003 where I was aware of their existence. The first artist I heard (in a video recorded dialog) recommend PRS guitars was Ted Nugent. Later, as a big fan of the pre-bubblegum era of Nickelback, I became hyper aware of the different PRS guitars that Chad played. Eventually I found a lot of PRS guitars hanging on the wall in a small Ma'&Pa' guitar shop where the owner of the store educated me further on the guitars. Clearly, PRS makes a lot of different models but eventually I settled upon my favorite models and I'm very happy with the ones I still have.

What's your story?

 

[Todd_FindingMyWay]

My guitar teacher...

 

[FennRx]

2013 black friday sale

 

[yankeebulldog]

I remember seeing Tom Johnston playing a Custom 24 in that Doobie Bros. video in the late 80s. That plus the guitar magazine ads were probably my first time I recall seeing them in my early teens. I was a Gibson snob and Slash/Zakk fanboy early on but I do recall my local music store salesman trying to convince me how great his Custom 24 was. About 10 years later bought into the hype that the Las Vegas Leprechaun was selling on the "pre-factory" alder bodied CE 24s and picked up a well used one. I didn't bond with it and it didn't stay long. A few years later, I really got into Alterbridge so I picked up a Tremonti to compliment my Les Paul. Since then I've always had more than a few PRS and I currently have 5.

 

[CoreyT]

I had never heard of PRS before until around June of 2012.
My 2012 Gibson SG '61 Reissue I had just bought in May of 2012 would not hold a tune, so I took it to Guitar Center where I had bought it, and the sales guy who is also the guitar tech for the new guitar player in Queensryche told me the strings needed to be stretched.

While I was there I was looking at some guitars on the wall, and I noticed some PRS with price tags in the $3K plus range, but also some for under $1K.
I told him I had never heard of PRS before, and he explained to me who they were, and the cheaper SE line.
I liked the looks of the SE Santana, but I wanted another place to buy one from, so I called a local shop by me, and they recommend my dealer down in Renton by my work.
Went in there and played a yellow one for a few minutes and I was sold, but I wanted an orange one, so he had to order it.

After that I was hooked, and it was all downhill from there.
Bought my youngest son a 2012 SE Semi-Hollow for his birthday, and he likes it a lot.
My current PRS herd is the SE Santana, SE Custom 24, SE Tremonti Custom (all 2012s), and a 2013 408 MT.
Got them all out for the holidays, as I have been on a 17 day holiday vacation from work.
If you count the two little ones on the Nutcrackers, I am pretty well set for now...
But I may get the urge to get a US Tremonti later.

 

[Chitarrista scarso]

a friend of mine own a musical store; he asked to me for making a demo with PRS guitars, I had never heard before about brand PRS. When i played for the first time a PRS, the love is born!

 

[vchizzle]

Probably 1990 or '91, my dad and I used to hit up a few music stores when I had an appointment scheduled in Madison, WI. We stopped in at a store and they had several PRSi on a center display in the store. We were in awe of the maple 10 tops and bird inlays. I was afraid to pick one up, much less play one back then because it was way outta my price range. I did try a PRS a little while later and vowed to someday get one. 1996 PRS #1 came in...

It's been a slippery slope ever since. :biggrin:

 

[carpincowboy]

my guitar teacher has a c22 stoptail artist with rotary. i said nice guitar.he said here have a play. i fell in love. can't afford a core model so got myself a se245. the rest as they say is history.

 

[CantankerousCarl]

A smaller mom-n-pop music store in early 1992...played my first CU24 then, and was amazed at how it sounded like 5 different guitars with the rotary (unlike my then-current 1990 Les Paul Custom that had sounded like 3 of the same guitars ) Was also amazed by how the neck just seemed to "disappear" in my hand (it was a W/T). Layed the CU24 away that day, had it payed off a few weeks later.

I was amazed at how much better made the PRS was than the Gibson, which I had payed a few hundred more for.

I stopped playing a few years after that, sold off everything (including stupidly that 92 CU24)...stopped playing for more than a decade...got the bug again in late 2011 and haven't looked back!

 

[sleary]

I discovered prs in 1985 or 86 ,can't remember lol

Didn't play one until 2008 because I was a Gibson cork sniffer lol....no gibsons in my collection anymore lol....got my first USA in 2012 and have never looked back .

 

[AP515]

In 2006 I had a day to kill in Phx and spent some time in a GC looking for a Les Paul. Nothing I tried would stay in tune. All the time there was this Emerald Green beauty with bird inlays behind the counter where no one could get to it. After trying everything else, I asked the door stop with a pulse behind the counter to get it down. I tried it. I bought it. Didn't even know what model it was or if there were more models than 1. It was what I wanted and I had just gotten my tax return back, so I bought it. I later learned it was a Cu24 Artist Package. The fun part was getting the guitar on the plane home. I kept the cardboard box it was shipped in to GC and I carried it onboard in the box and stuffed it in the overhead. There was no way that guitar was going in with the baggage.

Since then there have been a few other lost battles with GAS...

 

[Jet Whitey]

My doctor and attorney recomended them to me! :vroam:

 

[Texas_minor_blues]

The Rush video for Stick It Out
http://youtu.be/QDjar6OuyZY

 

[RedGuitars]

Told this story before, but OK.

1997 - I was/am a big SRV fan. Was on a pre-forum days email listserv called texasflood where we traded live shows, and kept up with SRV, JLV, and the Double Trouble guys.

This led me to a gathering of the listserv members at a Storyville show just weeks before their debut album A Piece Of Your Soul. Great lineup, Jonny Lang, followed by Reese Wynans and Big Time (great band, not sure if they played many other shows really), and then Storyville. Reese joined Storyville for their encore set, including Superstition.

We listserv members got to attend a meet and greet with all of the bands, and had a private dining room for breakfast the next morning. Tommy Shannon, Malford Milligan, and Chris Layton attended the breakfast. Tommy had SRV's AA coin that he was taking to Stevie's Mother, and he passed it around the table.

Anyway - during the Storyville show I leaned over to one of my listserv buds and casually asked "What kind of guitar is that goldtop that Grissom is playing?"...

The rest is history.

 

[Egads]

My doctor and attorney recomended them to me! :vroam:

:rofl:

I had seen a few artists with them, but hadn't played on until '92. I was in college in TX at the time. My dad and I came up to Denver to visit family and stopped by a small store (National Speaker, on Broadway--awesome guys!) and played a CE24 and Custom (24, I think). The store was trying to clear out old inventory, and offered us an amazing price on the CU and a good price on CE (I think there was about a $50 difference). The CE had dots and the CU had birds. As much as we both wanted to like the CU, we both agreed the CE was the better playing and, to our ears, sounding guitar. It went home with my dad. A few years later, it made it's way to me, then got traded for a SC250 in '07.

 

[David Eaton]

1982 feature in guitar player magazine. I grew up in Annapolis, and as a bold 14 year old I went down to 33 West St and introduced myself and saw what he was working on.

The Virginia Ave factory was right around the corner from my brother's moving and storage business.

Bought my first in 1991 at Chuck Levin's. It was a leftover from a b-stock sale. The next one came in 1999. A few more have made their way to me since then.

 

[Blackbird]

I noticed PRS guitars around 2001-2002. Admittedly, I was a big Creed fan and that was when Tremonti started playing them. Of course I wouldn't be able to afford one for over a decade, the seed was planted. I cut out one of the full page PRS/Tremonti ads out of Guitar World and had it hanging over my headboard all through college (I used to hang reminders of long-term goals over my headboard as constant reinforcement, most of them came true except the Stacy Keibler one.)

I'm glad I had to wait so long to acquire one. Learning for so long on cheaper guitars allowed me to see/feel/understand just how much better PRSi are. If I had started on a PRSi I'm not sure I would know or appreciate the difference.

 

[HANGAR18]

(I used to hang reminders of long-term goals over my headboard as constant reinforcement, most of them came true except the Stacy Keibler one.)
QUOTE]
hahahahah!!! :rofl: :top:

 

[CantankerousCarl]

My doctor and attorney recomended them to me! :vroam:

"As your attorney, I advise you to take another hit..." -Dr Gonzo

 

[DISTORT6]

Sam Ash Paramus, Nj 85-86