Are PRS Guitars priced so highly that only “dentists and doctors” can afford them? Paul Reed Smith responds: “We’ve done everything in our power to make the SEs affordable”
Paul Reed Smith of PRS Guitars has responded to comments about the brand’s prices, and the ongoing joke that their models are only affordable for those in medicine or dentistry.
Reed Smith was asked directly by a viewer during a Q&A with Andertons why PRS only makes guitars for dentists, and while he laughs it off, he also provides an explanation behind some of their more high-end model price points, and brings one of their more affordable models into the conversation.
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The question is asked right at the start of the Q&A, with Reed Smith responding (via Guitar World), “I didn’t know Carlos Santana and John Mayer were dentists,” pointing to two of the brand’s signature artists. “The question implies that only dentists and doctors buy the guitars. It’s just not true anymore.”
Reed Smith goes on to make reference to the SE Silver Sky to back up his point. The guitar, launched in 2022, sits around the £800 price point. It scored a 9/10 in our review at launch, and was even the best-selling guitar on Reverb from its release until 2024, when it was dethroned by the Fender Player Telecaster.
“I mean, there was a time in the late ’80s [when] maybe that was true, but Sweetwater did a thing: the most expensive guitars. We weren’t in the first 10. We’ve done everything in our power to make the SEs affordable,” he adds.
“These S2s are really affordable. Look, you can say that to some people, a Private Stock’s not affordable [priced at $8,000 – $14,000], but that’s an awful lot of time and energy and skill level for what we charge for them. So I’m okay with it.”
To watch the full Q&A, including discussions around the never-ending tonewood debate, you can check out the video below:
And speaking of tone, Reed Smith has even explored how hardware impacts a guitar’s overall sound. In a 2025 YouTube video for PRS’ Rules Of Tone series, he said: “In a lot of the past videos, I’ve stated that whatever the guitar string touches is God.
“To exaggerate that, if the bridge is made of rubber, the nut is made of rubber, and the tuning peg is made of rubber, the guitar is not going to have the kind of high-end that it would have if these things were made out of metal.”
Learn more about PRS Guitars.
The post Are PRS Guitars priced so highly that only “dentists and doctors” can afford them? Paul Reed Smith responds: “We’ve done everything in our power to make the SEs affordable” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
