Compiling A List of Great Music Created With PRS Guitars.

Most of what has been offered above are what I would consider niche or fringe player/acts. The big names were definitely past their prime when they moved to PRS (except for Carlos, that album with Smooth was awesome).

Anyway, to address your OP, I'm going to say that there is a certain amount of guitar snobbery out there. It may be slowly changing (wasn't Gibson notably absent from some recent festival?), but like @GitGuy513 said, part of us lusts for the "classics" no matter that the current stuff is better. BTW, I have long contended that modern guitars are better built than the past stuff.

Side note: I love how Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys utilizes primarily "B" tier guitars.
 
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My classics hang on my guitar racks 85 percent of the time. I rotate practicing on my PRS guitars and rotate my second guitar for a gig mostly using my PRS guitars.
 
la szum said:
I was just curious about all the great music created, recorded, and performed with PRS guitars.

When I was reflecting on this question myself the list was pretty damn short. Like, sadly so. I get it,
PRS has not been around as long as Fender or Gibson, as they had a 30-40 year headstart---give or take.
That being said, I still don't see/hear/notice a lot of music being made with PRS guitars, even though
they are insanely popular among a certain sector of guitar players. Why is that? Thoughts?
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I think a much better question is, given the artists who made the songs that defined and shaped rock, jazz, pop and country music over the last 80 years, if they had their choices of Gibson, Fender, or PRS at the time they recorded, which guitars would they have picked if they had been available?

I’ve had “classic” guitars that I bought in the 70s and I play PRS guitars because they’re better guitars than what I could get that were made in the 60s and 70s. Nostalgia is a mind game, and I don’t let it affect my choices when I spend my money for my music equipment. I want tools, guitars, that get me a sound I like consistently, that I don’t constantly adjust and change.

For each of my Les Pauls, I put in probably three different sets of pickups, trying to find a sound I liked, and, honestly, I never got a sound that really matched what was in my head. My PRS sure do, and I haven’t changed anything on them.

I have my ‘69 Martin D35, but do I play it? Nope, I love my little Taylor, which is much more playable and sounds better. I have my Strats. Do I play them? Very seldom, because they throw fits when the weather changes, so instead I grab one of my PRS which does quite a good version of the Strat sound, and hasn’t reacted to the weather.

Do my PRS nail the Strat sound? No, because they weren’t designed to, but they’re really close, and a Silver Sky or Fiore would and I strongly suspect they’d not piss me off when the weather changes either.

Do I miss my ’61 Strat? Yea, kinda, because, you know, nostalgia, and it’d be worth a LOT of money now, just as my old ES-345 would. But I wouldn’t play them because they didn’t play nearly as well and, honestly, didn’t sound as good.

So, if Clapton, Hendrix, Beck, Page, etc., walked into a music store in the early 60s and had their pick of the current crop of guitars from PRS, Gibson or Fender, which would they have picked? That’s a more interesting question innit?
 
Greg Ferguson said:
So, if Clapton, Hendrix, Beck, Page, etc., walked into a music store in the early 60s and had their pick of the current crop of guitars from PRS, Gibson or Fender, which would they have picked? That’s a more interesting question innit?
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Given the many times that Hendrix was out of tune after abusing the trem bar, I believe that he would grab a modern Superstrat with double-locking trem 🤘🏼

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The irony of nu metal guys (wow gang I left out Chevelle) playing custom 22s and 24s but PRS being thought of as blues lawyer guitars is great.

I definitely got lightly made fun of when I got my first USA. But I also didnt care because it was a fantastic guitar.
 
I went to a PRS exhibit in my town about 30 minutes from his factory in Stevensville, probably 25-30 years ago, and the night it opened, Paul was there and talked a bit about his approach to building guitars. He worked at Venemin's (sp?) music early in his career, repairing and setting up guitars, so he used what he saw in those designs as a way for him to make improvements. He also talked about the woods used on violins for centuries, and my takeaway was that he knew certain woods "worked", so he wasn't out to re-invent that process.

So my overall impression of what he set out to do, was to essentially make better guitars, using methods that resulted in great tone, while also improving some of the flaws he saw in his early tech days. Maybe the fact he chose a 25" scale was the reason his early models shared similar sounds of both Gibson & Fender...?

I remember when I first played my 87 PRS, I thought it had its own sound, one I had never really heard before. And some of the tone combinations were/are very unique.
 
Rich5150 said:
Spits never recorded anything with his PRS's for anthrax he had them when they did there reunion tour years back.




As far as recordings with PRS
Sevendust
Silverchair
Later Limp Bizkit
Rollins Band
Primus
Really pretty much all the 90's was PRS into a Dual/Triple Rec for the most part
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So when we boil it down PRS really = Nu Metal and not classy, khaki inspired suburban blues??

Edit: I see Budda beat me to the punch on that one. :)

It makes sense for the downtuned stuff where a Les Paul can get too loose and tubby, and a
Strat/Superstrat may not have enough ass to convey the meat of a moment when a guitar is
tuned down to D, C#, or C.
 
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GitGuy513 said:
I can’t really name them because I’m not a fan of the contemporary Country scene, but from what I have read many of the studio guys in Nashville are using PRS on much of the contemporary country recordings that make lots of $$. They’re able to get the traditional twang and more with much better reliability.

Santana, John McLaughlin, Al DiMeola, Rich Williams and Alex Lifeson is all I need to consider them legit.
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It's not about me questioning PRS for being legit or not. I own a few PRS guitars. I was just reflecting
on how their popularity doesn't seem to match their creative output in the hands of a lot of artists. That's
a majour disconnect from the consumer end versus the artistic side.

I am just curious why that seems to be the case. That's all. :)

Oh, and I like to push the needle, because my personal identity has never been tied
to any brand. And it is fun to discuss and ponder.
 
la szum said:
...my personal identity has never been tied to any brand.
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Interesting. Mine always has. Gibson, then PRS, now EBMM. Well, and Taylor. When I discover a new-to-me brand, I tend to stick with it for a lonnnggg time.

But I get what you're saying about PRS. It's a good question.
 
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