I’ll be honest with you — I wasn’t entirely sure Paul Reed Smith would even remember me. It had been over thirty years since we’d crossed paths, and the man has built one of the most celebrated guitar companies on the planet since then. But the moment I started talking to him at the start of the tour, Paul looked at me, tilted his head, and said, “One thing I do, is recognize people I’ve met before.” Just like that. No hesitation. Thirty years evaporated in about four seconds, and I remembered exactly why I’d always liked this guy. Paul Reed Smith is not just authentic, but the real deal, and so is everything he makes.
From a College Dorm to Concert Stages
Normally JMO doesn’t advocate brand names, but that’s not how PRS Guitars got started. It was one man’s vision for a different, but beautifully sounding guitar using woods that make music sweeter, deeper, and touch the soul.
“Locally owned and operated” was the beginning. And while PRS has grown to be the 3rd largest in US guitar sales. One could truly say that it is one of the most successful locally owned and operated businesses ever.
The story of PRS guitars is one of those genuinely great American origin stories — the kind that starts with obsession, grit, and very little money. Paul began building guitars by hand as a young man at St. Mary’s College of Maryland in the early 1970s, crafting instruments in his dorm room because he couldn’t afford to buy the guitar he actually wanted to play. He wasn’t just tinkering, either. He was studying every detail — the tonewoods, the neck geometry, the way a body resonated — with the focus of someone who already knew this was his life’s work, even if he didn’t have the words for it yet.
What set Paul apart from the beginning was his willingness to put himself — and his guitars — directly in front of the people who mattered most. He didn’t wait for the industry to come to him. He went to the shows, knocked on backstage doors, and got his instruments into the hands of musicians. One of the most famous chapters in that story involves Peter Frampton. Paul famously pitched his guitar to Frampton, one of the biggest rock stars on the planet at the time, simply by showing up and asking. That kind of audacity, backed by an instrument that could genuinely hold its own, made an impression.
He pulled the same move with Nancy Wilson of Heart — another legendary guitarist who appreciated immediately that these weren’t just pretty guitars. They played like a dream.
And then came the moment that truly changed everything: Paul handed a guitar to Carlos Santana to try. Santana, who is as particular about his tone as any musician alive, didn’t just like it. He fell in love with it. He eventually became so committed to PRS that he went exclusively with the brand — a ringing endorsement that told the entire guitar world something extraordinary was happening in a small workshop in Maryland.
And it continues, with greats like John Mayer and Ed Sheeran headlining a whole group of current musicians who use PRS guitars.
Finding a New Home — With a Little Help from JMO
For years, PRS Guitars operated out of Annapolis, Maryland, where the company had grown from a one-man operation into a legitimate manufacturing facility. But growth has a way of pushing you out of your space, and eventually PRS needed room to expand in a serious way. Bursting at the seams was an understatement. When we toured the Annapolis factory in 1995, there was no room to expand within the four awkwardly combined industrial units, let alone within the local community.
The search for a new property led to Kent Island, just across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge from Annapolis — and here’s where the story gets a little personal.
Strangely enough, Gary Moore of Journey Moore Often actually had a hand in identifying the property that PRS now calls home. During the search, Gary came across a site on Kent Island that not only had the square footage PRS needed for a world-class facility, but also included an extra adjacent lot — additional land that has since given the company valuable room to grow. It’s one of those moments where being in the right place at the right time, and knowing what you’re looking at, makes a real difference. PRS found its forever home, and the Chesapeake Bay has been a neighbor ever since.
Inside the Factory: Where the Magic Happens
Touring the current PRS facility is genuinely one of the coolest experiences you can have as a music lover, a woodworking enthusiast, or honestly just as someone who appreciates watching people do something exceptionally well. The contrast with the old Annapolis operation is immediately apparent — the Kent Island facility is spacious, organized, and built around a workflow that balances old-world craftsmanship with modern precision.
Like a lot of tours including castles like Neuschwanstein, or restricted areas in the Oban distillery, the PRS factory doesn’t allow for pictures inside their manufacturing area for proprietary reasons.
The journey of a PRS guitar begins with the wood, and this is where things get interesting fast. PRS works with a remarkable variety of tonewoods — mahogany, maple, rosewood, and others — each selected with obsessive care for grain, density, and resonance. The wood room alone is worth the trip. These aren’t just boards; they’re the raw material of music, and the team treats them accordingly.
The automation in the facility is impressive without being cold. CNC machines handle the precise body and neck routing that used to take skilled hands many extra hours, but the human element is never far away. Every automated step is followed by hands-on inspection and finishing, and the overall feel is of technology serving craft rather than replacing it.
Here’s a detail that fascinated me: PRS completes the neck before the body during the assembly process. The reason is surprisingly practical — wood is sensitive to moisture, and by finishing the neck first and allowing it to fully stabilize, the team avoids the fit and tone issues that can arise when you assemble two pieces of wood at different moisture levels. It’s the kind of detail that nobody outside the factory would ever think about, but it makes a real difference in the finished instrument.
Quality control at PRS works on an elegant principle: every person on the production floor is responsible for inspecting the guitar they receive from the previous station before doing their own work. There’s no separate QC department hovering at the end of the line. The accountability is distributed and continuous. If something is off, it gets caught early — by the next set of hands in the chain.
Private Stock and the Personal Touch
For players who want something truly one of a kind, PRS offers its Private Stock program — custom guitars built to individual specifications, using the finest available tonewoods and materials.
The process often starts in the library – where there are no books, 0nly wood. From all over the world. They treat their selection of wood like a cooper selects wood for wine barrels, often picking specific trees in a forest for their health, structure, shape, and size.
What makes Private Stock special beyond the obvious craftsmanship is this: every single one of those guitars is personally signed by Paul Reed Smith himself.
Not a stamp, not a facsimile, not a digital signature. His actual signature. On every custom instrument.
Paul also takes the time to play each and every Private Stock guitar as the finale of quality control.
That’s a level of personal investment in the product that you simply don’t see often, and it tells you everything about how Paul feels about what leaves his factory.
What’s Up with the Bird Inlays?
One of the most visually striking elements of any PRS guitar is the bird inlay running up the fretboard — a signature detail that has become as recognizable as the headstock shape. What most people don’t know is that the birds were inspired by Paul’s mother, who had a deep love of birds. It’s a personal touch embedded into every single instrument, rendered in genuine pearl shell with extraordinary precision. Watching the inlay team work is humbling — these are tiny, delicate pieces of shell being set into a fretboard with the kind of patience that most of us simply don’t have.
Wait, PRS Makes More than Guitars?
And while the guitars are the headline, it’s worth knowing that PRS also designs and manufactures their own pickups and amplifiers in-house. The pickups are wound right there on the property, giving PRS complete control over the tonal character of every guitar they build. The amplifier line has developed its own passionate following among players who want their signal chain to be as thoughtfully engineered as the instrument making the sound in the first place.
The Merch Store
Every good tour ends with good merch – the place where people find cool stuff to remind themselves about how cool the tour was.
What’s also cool, is that there are some signature guitars in displays that offer more insight to the history that’s transpired.
But don’t expect to buy a guitar here, there are only samples to play and hook you in. You’ll need to go to a dealer to find the end product. This section has an actual studio where not only tracks are recorded, but some of their videos and podcasts are created. If you zoom in on the door, you’ll recognize some of the musicians who have come through and signed the door on their way out.
Go Take the Tour!
If you’re anywhere in the mid-Atlantic region and you have even a passing interest in music, craftsmanship, or just watching genuinely talented people do remarkable work, the PRS factory tour belongs on your list. Running into Paul and having him remember a thirty-year-old connection was a moment I won’t forget — but even without that, this tour would have been a highlight. It’s a reminder that world-class things are being made right here in our backyard, by people who care deeply about every detail.
Journey Moore Often, friends. Sometimes the best destination is the one you’ve been driving past for years.
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*PRS Guitars | 380 Log Canoe Circle, Stevensville, MD (Kent Island) | [prsguitars.com](https://prsguitars.com)*
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