The Paul Reed Smith Guitar company has been in existence since 1985. Smith built his first guitar in 1975 as a project in college and continually upgraded his design over the next ten years. Before his company was founded, Smith used to go backstage at concerts in his
Maryland home town. He would give one of his custom made guitars to the band’s guitar player telling him that “if he doesn’t like the guitar he needn’t pay for it.” After getting several orders he was able to start his company in
Annapolis,
Maryland. Clever marketing ideas such as that have been instrumental in popularizing the company name. Carlos Santana plays a PRS and endorses it.
Today the company offers a large variety of guitars, some made in the
U.S.A. and some imported The Paul Reed Smith SE Series is a fine electric guitar made in
Korea.
