Paul Reed Smith of PRS Guitars
Paul Reed Smith of PRS Guitars  
Podcast: Inside The Noise with Gabe Dalporto
Published On: Tue Jan 06 2026
Description: In this episode of Guitar Center’s Inside the Noise with Gabe Dalporto, our CEO travels to the PRS Guitars headquarters in Stevensville, Maryland to tour the manufacturing facility and have a casual and informative chat with founder Paul Reed Smith. The two leaders detail business struggles and successes and dig into Smith’s enthusiasm for “just wanting a chance” when artists try his guitars. Smith kicks things off by having Dalparto tap a block of tonewood to experience its bell-like resonance. PAUL REED SMITH ON WHY HE STARTED PRS GUITARS“I had prototypes, and I wanted the guitars made. I went to piles of companies to get them to do it, and it became very clear that unless we did it ourselves it wasn’t going to happen. What you’re looking at engineering-wise didn’t happen in one day. It wasn’t some grand plan to make Cogswell’s Cogs like in The Jetsons, where you put the stuff in one end and it comes out the other. This has been a really long journey, and the fascinating about it is that so many people have joined together to try to make nothing into something.” PAUL REED SMITH ON HIS TOUGHEST DAY AT PRS“There was a time when there were 400 guitars in the hall and we had no home for them. I told Warren Esanu—our Chairman of the Board—that we had a big problem. He said, ‘I don’t even know how I know this, but I think you can muddle through and somehow put it together.’ I took him at his word, kept swinging and we got out of it. How did it happen? It was done with an incredibly determined teamwork of people who kept their heads down to find a way.”Follow Guitar Center:https://www.instagram.com/guitarcenterFollow PRS Guitars:https://www.instagram.com/prsguitars#prsguitar #paulreedsmith #guitarcenterpodcast #gabedalporto #guitarcentersinsidethenoiseChapters00:00 – Inside the Noise at the PRS Guitars Factory00:26 – Inside PRS Private Stock: Choosing Wood with Paul Reed Smith01:05 – How PRS Private Stock Guitars Are Born01:40 – Burl Tops, Figured Maple, and Rare Tonewoods Explained02:15 – How Private Stock Became a Core Part of PRS02:36 – Tap Tones, Harmonics, and Why Wood Rings02:55 – Meet Paul Reed Smith, Founder of PRS Guitars03:18 – Why Paul Reed Smith Started PRS Guitars03:39 – Early Prototypes, Rejection, and the Decision to Go Independent04:27 – Raising Capital and Taking PRS on the Road05:20 – Building PRS One Baby Step at a Time06:08 – Carlos Santana’s Endorsement and the Turning Point for PRS07:50 – Earning Trust: What It Took to Win Santana Over08:24 – Why Great Artists Decide for Themselves09:16 – The Reality of Building a Guitar Company09:53 – Stone Soup: How PRS Was Built by a Community11:12 – Longtime Employees and a Culture of Innovation12:16 – The Hardest Moments in PRS History13:12 – Leadership, Teamwork, and Finding a Way Forward14:17 – Solving Problems When There Is No Obvious Solution15:12 – Why Listening Inside the Factory Matters16:34 – Execution, Strategy, and Building Great Teams17:00 – Continuous Improvement and Engineering at PRS18:13 – The Future of PRS Guitars and Industry Innovation18:36 – What Paul Reed Smith Wants for PRS Customers19:07 – Chasing Better Tone and Playability: PRS's Approach20:06 – New PRS Tones, Prototypes, and Sonic Innovation20:48 – Hendrix Amps, Transparency, and Letting Artists Be Themselves