He told a story about how many classic guitar shapes came to be.... How the Fender headstock was sculpted to look much like the side profile of a violin headstock, and how the Les Paul shape was basically a smaller, solid acoustic guitar shape. Interesting. He spoke a bunch about different types of woods, and how obsessive he is about wood! I can vouch for that, since I've seen the warehouse full of amazing woods at the PRS factory!
Next David Grissom demoed a DGT model PRS, and a Sweet 16 head.
This guy can really play. He seems heavily influenced by Jeff Beck, although when he listed his influences, he named half a dozen guitar players I've never heard of (although BB King was in there, I knew that one). He discussed his move to Austin, TX, and how other guitar players in Austin told him, "You ain't s*** unless you play a strat!". At the time, he did play a strat, but that kind of attitude made him want to play something else, just to go against the grain! That was the beginning of the long development of the DGT model PRS.
Next David demoed a PRS acoustic.... and Paul admittedly committed a huge acoustic guitar faux pas!
He placed a vocal mic in front of the guitar. Eek! It actually sounded halfway decent though! These acoustics are incredible. If you stand just a few feet in front of one when it's in the hands of a real player, there's nothing like it. Very very incredible workmanship.
All in all, it was a fantastic evening!
Quote of the night from Paul Smith : "You wouldn't go to an ice cream shop just to look at the ice cream, would you? You'd buy yourself some ice cream!" This was followed by a gesture towards the wall of PRSes at the shop, and a big smirk. True enough, Paul!
Jonathan
No comments:
Post a Comment