"Is that a PRS?" I think this turned into a rant.

[LucSulla]

I don't know why, but for some reason it annoyed the hell out of me when I used to own my Studio and Special when I would pull my guitar out and everyone would go, "Is that a PRS?  Nice!"  It continues to annoy the hell out of me when I pull my DC Custom Shishkov out of the case when it still happens on occasion.

Nah, that's a lie.  I do know why it annoys me - 

What generally follows is a  "No" from me, followed by this look from them that generally translates to, "Oh, I'm so sorry for you that that isn't actually a PRS. I'm sorry I've drawn attention to your having to buy a PRS clone."

When I posted pics of my DCC, one guy I know replied, "Welcome to the club; Nice PRS!" and replied something like, "Well, you'll be able to get one one day," when I said that was actually not a PRS. 

I usually explain that PRS wasn't the first company doing a spin on a LP Special DC, and if that doesn't lose them, the trying to say anything about Hamer usually does. 

Now, I know that I shouldn't give a damn.  What does it really matter that people live in this benighted state of thinking Paul Reed Smith is the Alpha and Omega of the double cut guitar and that we plebs are simply to be pitied for being unable to acquire such a holy guitar, instead casting our meager wealth after these false prophets of the wood and string?  In all reality, it doesn't matter at all.

Perhaps this is a product of really starting to play out a lot in the mid-90s.  From about 96 through whenever The Strokes and Jack White made post-grunge about as hip as Lawrence Welk, I played with so many gosh durned bands wielding shiny new PRSi and Mesa Rectifiers that were financed by daddy that I doubt I could count them. And more than a few of those bands thought they and their gear were the bleeding edge simply because it cost so much and was so exclusive. 

And they all sounded exactly alike.   I actually didn't know that Mesa's had a clean channel and didn't have to sound like Godsmack for years.  

Now, my old man did fund some of my gear too, and I think it would be disrespectful to pretend he didn't.  Actually, his buying me my first crappy little Ibanez in 10th grade completely changed my life, and for the better.  \Between him, me, and an insurance check from getting my car robbed, I had a G&L Legacy, an old Les Paul Custom, a Marshall JCM 2000 TSL 60, and a Marshall 4x12 cab.  That's all I had or could afford to have from 1999 - 2011 or so - really around the time I joined this forum, as I joined to find out more about Hamer DCs when I started expanding my gear collection.  My TSL actually sounded pretty fucking killer despite their reputation, and that was because for years I messed with tubes out of necessity until stumbling into the old Ei 6AC7s and Electro Harmonix 12AX7s.  Well that, and I just got lucky to buy an early one that, for whatever reason, managed to not melt the shitty PCB Marshall used in those first runs. 

I learned how to solder from repeatedly having to fix that godforsaken 6 pin din footswitch it came with.   Chops or not, I've always been pretty good at getting a good sound out of an amp if it was there to be had, largely due to playing on that sucker for 12 years. 

But don't get me wrong; twas not the mortal sin of jealousy from which I suffered.  I was able to admire my neighbors shiny gear while not coveting his possessions; at least not his guitar rig.  I loved my gear - still do love that guitar actually - and wouldn't have traded it for anyone's rig at the time.  What left such a negative impression were the numerous guitar players that would ask me why I wasn't playing on new gear like theirs, even at shows where I'd have a couple of other guitarists asking me at the same time how the hell I got that model of Marshall to sound so huge and where they could contact the person who modded it.  

Ironically, I bet a lot of these guys on shiny new PRSi and truck-bumper Mesas at the time are the same guys who would build the Dumble-clone and $5k vintage-relic market several years later.  

I'd roll into a tracking session for my band, and before even hearing a note, the producer or engineer would ask, "hey, why don't you borrow XYZ's PRS and we just rent a triple Rec for this?"  I'd have to beg to just have a chance to track with my gear first.  Long story short, I never rented a Mesa or borrowed a PRS.  I did use the hell out of a Bad Cat at one studio though... but I mean, sometimes you just have to tip your hat to the winning team. 

Anyway, years of this drove me batty. 

So all this time later, when I whip out a DC guitar that doesn't say PRS and go through the above ritual, in my head I always think, "Man, fuck PRS! And fuck you for being a fanboy!"  Which I also know is irrational, ridiculous, and a perfectly shitty thing to say to someone just trying to make small talk about gear.  But man, there is certainly that little voice in my head.

However,  the flip side of this is after a show when, many times, they come back wanting to know more about the guitar because it sounded so good, particularly in the case of the DCC because that guitar is possibly the only thing I own built rather bespoke in someone's small shop.  It's nice to think maybe I'm turning new people on to something I think is worthy of recognition outside of us already in the know.

...But seriously, I almost want to by an old Sunburst just to say, "Nah, this guitar was built before PRS was a company, actually."

[polara]

I think we've all experienced this. Chalk up a big PRS victory for a company that:

• Stuck to a few defining characteristics form the beginning - the treble side cutaway, the headstock shape, the signature, the fancy tops - while Hamer was building guitars that looked like anything from a Tele to a Jackson to a Gibson to a guy in a yellow sweater wearing a ballcap
• Took a look at where there was an unmet market need and made guitars to meet that need, focusing on that space
• Built quality guitars (yeah, we bitch about the pickups but in the high-gain, rack-mount 80s they got the job done and they now make some stellar pickups)
• Consistently put the product in the hands of high-profile players
• Consistently advertised

Hamer never stayed on message. Hamer vs PRS could make a good business textbook. I just shrug and am happy to pick up a korina Artist for $850 when I'd have to play at least double that for the PRS equivalent. Whatevs.

[django49]

I kinda gave up a long while ago trying to explain.......Best to just PLAY and let them draw their own conclusions. And there were enough times that I would then get comments like, "Gee, I wish I could get THAT tone from MY guitar".

I have to chuckle a wee bit when I see kids without a clue, playing gear that was given to them by their parents. Or anything else.....Like the girl at my high school graduation ceremony who was handed the keys to a brand new Pontiac Firebird. Good ol' Charlene.....Stomped her foot and pouted. "But DADDY! You KNOW I wanted a Mustang! A PINK Mustang!" NOT the world I lived in!

My folks were gracious enough to give me a whole $10 towards my first guitar (well, bass)......I had to come up with the other $40.

A car at graduation? Well, no. Try a suitcase. Now was that a nudge towards the door or what?

[LucSulla]

4 minutes ago, django49 said:

I kinda gave up a long while ago trying to explain.......Best to just PLAY and let them draw their own conclusions. And there were enough times that I would then get comments like, "Gee, I wish I could get THAT tone from MY guitar".

I should do that as well, but I have a bit of a blind spot with both groupthink and gear snobbery.  Most people these days aren't really exhibiting either per se.  A lot of these are folks 10 or 15 years younger than me and grew up in a world where, if you weren't going vintage, you wanted a PRS and kind of relate everything back to that.  I think it was experience that thing years ago just left a lingering bad taste.   Perhaps I am being triggered .

Around here, I think what is more in line with that experience from years ago is the large contingent that think that you have to have vintage gear to get vintage sounds.  I know one cat locally, fantastic player, who has a killer, custom order PRS that he quit playing because the local blues inteligensia (most of whom are under 30) basically shamed him out of it because it just wasn't authentic.  Now that thing is sitting in a closet while he is playing some beat up Strat that needs a setup every other week. 

 

[django49]

5 minutes ago, LucSulla said:

I should do that as well, but I have a bit of a blind spot with both groupthink and gear snobbery.  Most people these days aren't really exhibiting either per se.  A lot of these are folks 10 or 15 years younger than me and grew up in a world where, if you weren't going vintage, you wanted a PRS and kind of relate everything back to that.  I think it was experience that thing years ago just left a lingering bad taste.   Perhaps I am being triggered .

Around here, I think what is more in line with that experience from years ago is the large contingent that think that you have to have vintage gear to get vintage sounds.  I know one cat locally, fantastic player, who has a killer, custom order PRS that he quit playing because the local blues inteligensia (most of whom are under 30) basically shamed him out of it because it just wasn't authentic.  Now that thing is sitting in a closet while he is playing some beat up Strat that needs a setup every other week. 

 

Everyone knows that playing the blues on a PRS is only okay if you are a dentist! THEN it is authentic.

"Woke up dis moanin', had me dem down in da mouf blooz".

"Woke up dis moanin', had me dem down in da mouf blooz".

"If'n I don fix dis fillin', baby ain't gonna git new shoes"

[crunchee]

Image over substance...that must be why PRS sells tons of inexpensive SE guitars with a veneer overlay.  And fanboi kids probably don't know/don't want to know the difference.

[LucSulla]

I think it is impressive that PRS got to a point that they do well with imports, which I hear are good guitars. 

I don't mean to bag on PRS.  I think they are very well built guitars that do a specific thing very well.  And if you like that thing, nothing does it better.  For me personally, I never quite fell in love with that in between Fender and Gibson twang thing, but if I had, I'd still own one.  In fact, I probably should have held onto the seafoam green one I had for awhile.  

[RobB]

“Yeah, it’s a very rare, ‘11-top’ PRS. See, in the mid-90s Paul was going to change the brand name to, ‘Hamer’, as it was easier to read from a distance than a squiggly signature done up in gold.”

[cynic]

Until you play a PRS, you'll never be more than the #2 guitarist in Oxford.

[Biz Prof]

15 minutes ago, cynic said:

Until you play a PRS, you'll never be more than the #2 guitarist in Oxford.

But to us, he shall remain "The Oracle of Oxford".

To me, the kind of person who equates any double cut, carved maple top guitar to PRS are one half-step beyond the novices who ask if you play "lead or rhythm". I have found that the best strategy is to tell folks you buy the absolute best gear money can buy. Then play the frets off of it and leave them with a very distinct impression of your gear. 

[LucSulla]

28 minutes ago, cynic said:

Until you play a PRS, you'll never be more than the #2 guitarist in Oxford.

I need a tele that looks like it was drug behind a truck for 30 miles, or better yet, one that looks like it was drug behind a truck for 30 miles that I paid an extra $3k to Fender's custom shop to make look that way. 

And a Fender Twin because that sweet tone.  Sure, there is nowhere in town that will let you turn one up past 2, but TONE, BRO!

That being said, my next show, I will be playing flame-painted Charvel w/FR through either a Bogner or Mesa head with a white tolex Marshall 4x12.  Takes place in Clarksdale, MS, so I want to keep things very vintage. Robert Johnson, Crossroads, and so on.   

I'm pretty damned close to having Diablo's taste in guitar aesthetics the more I think about it .

[cmatthes]

I think I can honestly say that I don't (and haven't since maybe high school bands) care about what somebody in the audience thinks about what guitar(s) I play.   I play what I like, sometimes what the band likes too, but that part, I do for ME.

[crunchee]

One can only hope that you get the same reaction with your FR Charvel and a Twin as T-Model Ford did with his Peavey Razer.  Funny, I can't find any videos on YooToob that had this level of audience participation when the guitarist was using a PRS...or using anything that was 'blues snob approved', either:

 

[LucSulla]

Crunchee, that there is an Austin hipster.  Don't fall in the trap.  One moment you think you're on the highway to heaven, next moment you're sitting in uncomfortable furniture in her living room having to listen to Decemberists vinyls whilst trying to pretend you care about her passion for organic quinoa and gluten-free beer with no hope of even getting on first.  

[LucSulla]

I can almost guarantee that she went home to her Tumblr and posted a blog about being able to finally check "dancing naughty for an authentic bluesman" off her bucket list. 

[LucSulla]

While I'm on a tangent to my tangent, Skylark still keeping it real in the ATX.  Still a dive because they don't have a choice... love that place. 

 

[belgian]

Love Skylark - in fact looking forward to hang there in a couple of weeks. 

[LucSulla]

Just now, belgian said:

Love Skylark - in fact looking forward to hang there in a couple of weeks. 

I've been drunk there...

...a lot.

My best friend still lives about a mile away. 

[KH Guitar Freak]

Could be worse. They could have told you that you have a nice Gibson

[Disturber]

Hamer is the Citroen of guitars. We who know, we know. The rest just think we are a weird buncha freaks. That JUST how I want it to be. I have an index finger for those cover band morons, they can stick their PRS's up the ****. Haha, really. I just don't care. I love my Hamers, I also have a killer Les Paul. A PRS I will never have. Why? I don't want to join that club you just described so well. 

[kizanski]

6 minutes ago, Disturber said:

Hamer is the Citroen of guitars. We who know, we know. The rest just think we are a weird buncha freaks.

These two points are not mutually exclusive.  

We could all have superior taste in fine guitars AND be a weird buncha freaks.  

[Disturber]

1 hour ago, kizanski said:

These two points are not mutually exclusive.  

We could all have superior taste in fine guitars AND be a weird buncha freaks.  

Yeah but then we would at least have one thing that would make us cool. Now we have nothing. 

[dhuber]

How about, "Is that a Gibson?"  It does not bother me.  I like Gibson guitars I just don't believe they're in the same league as Hamer or PRS where quality is concerned.  As for PRS, Love or Hate, I'm inspired by Paul.  At a young age he has a desire to build guitars.  He found a niche in the market where there was demand and he fulfilled it.  The rest is history.

[velorush]

1 hour ago, Disturber said:

Hamer is the Citroen of guitars.

I grew up reading my dad's Hot Rod, Motor Trend, etc., magazines from the 60's.  The Motor Trend magazines always had these ads with these "interesting" looking cars:

I had (when I was a banker) a dermatologist as a client who was fairly noteworthy for his restoration of very unique and rare Volkswagens and Porsches.  On one visit he showed me his latest project he was restoring for his mother-in-law, a twin engine Citroen, kind of like this mock-up:

At any rate, Luc, enjoyed the rant.  I have enjoyed a few PRSi but never bought one.  I think they're beautiful (and the KL380 remains a bucket list guitar for me), but the ignorance of others mustn't bring us down! 

You're an educator - educate!

[Steve Haynie]

For the record, I want a PRS with an opaque finish or clear maple just to make the 10 top people cringe.