PRS Guitars | 1 decade ago
Learn what Paul Smith looks for when he playtests an acoustic.
When PRS first started, no guitar left the shop without going through Paul's hands. The same is now true for our acoustic line of guitars. Paul's playtesting experience is designed to mirror the experience a customer would have opening a case and playing a PRS for the first time. When Paul comes to the Final Assembly area, he meets a cased guitar. He goes through the motions of opening the case and seeing that individual guitar for the first time. He is checking the look, tone, volume and feel of the instrument. First, he plays the guitar acoustically, making sure that it is up to spec. It should be loud, balanced, musical and have a consistent and clear finish. If the guitar comes with the optional pickup system, Paul then plugs straight into a monitor so he can hear the guitar amplified at its most pure. He plays the strings individually to check for balance. He plays chords to check for overall tone. Each time, he sits in the same spot to try to be consistent as possible from guitar to guitar.
When Paul is done checking the guitar, it either goes out the door to a dealer or Paul will work with the Acoustic team to correct whatever issue he may find and make the guitar better. The goal at PRS is to build instruments that make people want to play music. We know that if we do our job and the quality is there, that you will have a better experience with our instruments. This is just one more step to make sure we're getting the job done.
