Recently Kristi and I took a little overnight trip to Lexington, KY to Wilcutt Guitars, for a PRS Guitars Road Show, which is part guitar clinic, part performance, part Q&A and part story telling, by Paul Reed Smith and special guests Howard Leese and David Grissom. I got to see both of these artists last year at PRS Experience 2008, and hope to see them again next month when I go back to Maryland for Experience 2009.
We got there just when it was starting and had horrible seats, in the back. That was totally fine for Kristi, who was there to support her nut job guitar geek husband, but I wanted and needed to get up close to take photos and video, so I snuck up close and started snapping and shooting. It was really fun to see the 3 of those guys do some impromptu jamming throughout the night as they would finish talking about all things PRS, like the stories of the signature guitars that bear Howard and Davids names, along with PRS amps and acoustic guitars.
There were also some brand new models that Paul showcased— the Dirty 100, which is a private stock grade maple top guitar, but whose maple has some mineral deposits in it and the brand new 59/09 pickups and new moon inlays. A top that nice with mineral deposits would never leave PRS as a private stock guitar, so they decided to build these 100 guitars out of almost perfect tops, and it was one of the best sounding guitars I have ever heard. Also debuted was the Ted McCarty DC 245, which is a regular PRS shape body with a short scale neck, a first for PRS.
Another debut of sorts for them was the new Sweet 16 amp, which David Grissom was not only playing through, but actually had a hand in designing it with Doug Sewell. Amazing sounding amp, as all of theirs are, I just wish they were affordable! Maybe if they put out a 10w amp, I will be able to swing one of those in the future. I’ll find out what’s on tap for 2010 next month!
After the Road Show was over, I got to meet Paul, and had him sign a photo for me as well as pose for a photo. He was very nice and it was a pleasure meeting him. Same goes for Howard Leese, who not only signed my PRS book, but signed a reprint of the Vintage Guitar magazine cover that they had on hand, since Howard was on the cover with his now famous PRS. Howard was incredibly nice and easy to talk to, which was a very pleasant surprise. I also got my photo taken with him. To round out the trio, I got David Grissom to sign my PRS book as well, and then shortly after that, we took a quick peak back at the guitars inside where the event was held and began our trek back to Bardstown, where we were staying for the night.
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