Paul Reed Smith conducts a Master Class at Washington College
PRS guitars, one of the world's premier guitar makers, is located right here on Maryland's Eastern Shore. PRS guitars are world renowned for their high quality and playability. In addition, the CEO of PRS is not a businessperson lacking any understanding of music; PRS is an excellent musician himself whose expertise in building world class guitars, basses, and amplifiers was earned through decades of first hand experience as a working guitarist.
PRS has twice visited the campus with the Paul Reed Smith Band as a guest of the Music Department and the Musician's Union to deliver a master class which was followed by a concert. Students loved talking about music and careers to PRS and band mates such as Gary and Greg Grainger, Mike Ault and Derek St. Holmes. PRS , Gary and Derek passed their personal instruments around the room for students to play. Needless to say, that was one memorable moment. It would be hard to find musicians who know their craft better than the folks in the PRS band and equally hard to find musicians who are more encouraging and open to young musicians. Imagine if Einstein chose music over physics and spent his career building the world's best guitars and then had the chops to rock the house. Now you get the picture.
Below are just a few highlights from the Master Class.
Paul Reed Smith passing on his wisdom to a student
The Master class was both informative and entertaining. Here Paul amuses the students and Gary while making a musical point.
Kentavious Jones giving PRS's own guitar a workout. KJ is one of several WC grads to go on to become a highly respected professional musician
Paul's own guitar. Not too shabby!
PRS explaining the reasoning between different modes and how you can use them to build a mood
Taking a question from the class
Gary Grainger: world class bass player, gentleman and one cool guy.
The Gary Grainger Signature Bass. It doesn't get any better than this.
To learn more about the world's best guitars, visit