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paul reed smith

#2
Yep. They didn't last long. There has been a 4 banger for sale on the Nashville CL for quite a while.

They still do a couple. SE series I think. But they even recently had some higher end ones out. They dabble. I almost wish they would dive in seriously and stick ti a design for a while. But, then again, I probably wouldn't fork over the dough to buy one so I have no dog in the fight.
 
#3
They are finally getting serious about basses. They will have a 5 string SE very soon. They also may have a "cheaper " american made soon closer to 1300 dollar range.....I heard this from the owner of one the biggest dealers of PRS in the US......This place must have a couple million worth of PRS in house.....Amazing. Also the only Alembic dealer within a few hundred miles....No basses in the store except one of each PRS SE.....Kingfisher and Kestral I think. No bass amp in the store!
 
#6
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#8
I playd the first PRS bass decades ago at NAMM, and Mr. Smith asked me what I thought. When I said it had a lot of different sounds, most of which weren't really usefull, and it seemed very much to be a bass designed by a guitarist, he responded with a flurry of disparaging comments including "mindless Fender thumper". I played another more recent one about 8 years ago, and it had similar issues, even with the baked-in EQ that was supposed to be the ultimate studio sound.

Really well made instruments that don't seem to grock what a bass is.

John
 
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#11
I have an early Bass 4 that sounds good in one or two PUP positions, but not the others. Fun to play, it's very well made.

The preamp can make it sound huge and clear, I understand why they appeal to Reggae bassists like Robbie Shakespeare.
 
#12
As a brand, they need to go right back the bass Ahmm drawing board and work out what it is that bassists would be looking for in a PRS bass. Price point, features and tone. At the moment, it is quite clear that they are taking what they already know about their guitarists needs and assuming...hey a bass...that's a variant of a guitar right? So we just make a bass version of what we already do....right? It'll sell right? WRONG.... yes it has strings, wood and pickups and that's as far as the commonality goes. But we are a different breed and look for different things and no our heritage isn't in Gibson, it's in Fender. So Gibson rooted bass has little interest to us. Vintage has little interest to us too. We like woods which are new and modern...ie not just maple and mahoganny. We like finishes which your guitarists would hate...we are not conservative in our likes at all. We like pickups which show a linage from Leo (jazz, P, MM, dual hums) and we don't like to see a pickup which looks like it's just fallen off a P90 mould. EQ wise, we love lots of modern switching, knobs, stack knobs and every bit of modern fun you can fit...hey chop the head off if you like and make it headless...or make it out of graphite....we like all the new stuff....oh...and we don't like gold hardware...that's for the vintage boys....we like black...ok....shiny, matt....but black.
 
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