Paul Reed Smith Guitars Artist II

My 1994 PRS Artist II is a fine instrument. (#217 in the series). It features the Artist series Humbuckers, standard trem, locking tuners with the fat & wide Artist neck set into that Sexy PRS body shape, topped with the most amazing quilted maple top known to man.

Sonically, this guitar definitely fits my purpose for getting a dark, rich tone when I play jazz and Fusion rock. It is equally at home in the studio playing all styles of music, where I oft times need a brighter, more Pop-ish sound. The tone is balanced, particularly the top end: it is at the same time strong and pronounced without being brassy or twangy. The mid and low frequencies cut through the mix "Minus Mud" with little or no post-EQ-ing. Clean, overdiriven, or distorted, it never looses tonal quality and harmonic balance. The only sound I cannot get is a true dual-humbucker sound, but hey, I need an excuse to hold on to my Les Paul. Besides, the "Middle Position" is bigger than 99.999% of all guitars out there, the last few being vintage archtops cranked at high gain.

Purchasing this guitar second hand, I immediately had it set up by Gary Erikson, one of So. California's premier luthiers. Needless to say, it plays like a dream. Every nuance of string height, resonance, and intonation was set for my own personal style and ear. I use 10 gauge stinrings on her, and they feel like 9's. There are no flaws in the finish of this guitar (Save for one harmlessly unnoticeable, yet unfortunate small dent on the neck placed there by the previous owner). The top is an amazing quilted Maple staind teal/black. Under stage lights, it appears to be made out of velvet or satin rather than wood. A strip of natural stained "Binding" circumferences the body. The back and neck are satined dark green, which complements the impeccablly straight grain of the mahogany nicely. The fretboard is rose wood, trimmed with inlayed maple binding, and the famous Abalone Birds for fret markers. The headstock iand truss-rod cover are also veneered with maple-bound rosewood. the PRS signature is inlaid in Abalone in the headstock.

This guitar has been especialy good to me. There are only two problems I can forsee. The frets seem to wear a little fast, but it has yet to cause anyt major tonal issues. Also, the plain strings sometimes to not sit 100% properly on the Trem saddles. This, combined with the natural reverb of the springs, can cause a slight loss in sustain and a harmonic "Buzzing". This is usally fixed by a quick hit of the whammy bar. Other than that, I expect this guiatr to last a lifetime. The neck it straight, and seems content to stay that way. The finish, being thinner than normal, needs a little extra TLC after every gig to keep it in pristine condition. String breakage is almost unheard of. It seems all my other guiatrs have been collecting dust since this PRS came on the scene.

I have never dealt with PRS directly other than ordering a T-Shirt. I cannot comment on this area.

If I seem like a man who is in love with his instrument, I am. I have been known among sound enginerring friends of mine as a "Tone-Freak", and I have a soft spot for the vintage sound midst all this modern music I play. If you have the means, a pre-1995 PRS is an investment for a lifetime. Newer PRS guiatrs are quite fine as well, but a bit over-priced for the quality, IMOHO. You owe it to yourself to hunt down and play one of these bad boys.

1993 PRS Artist 2 (#84), made in the PRS Custom shop. Artist grade woods, Exceptionally figured Curly maple top,One-piece Mahogany body and neck Select Rosewood fingerboard,Wide-Fat neck Artist Series neck, Inlaid Signature Headstock, Maple bound headstock and fingerboard, Abalone birds, 25 inch scale and 22 jumbo frets, Thin finish for enhanced resonance,PRS Artist Series pickups, Five-position Rotary, Volume and Tone, PRS Stop-tail, Gold hardware. Awesome PRS Locking tuners, easiest string change in the business!!
This one (#84) is custom colored in a "black sunburst" (think two tone, black to amber).
Features that I miss?? maybe a trem, maybe a different switching configuration (both pickups on), ebony fingerboard....

This guitar has a very "live and open" sound to it. Unplugged the guitar is quite loud and brite, notes jump out at you as you play. Open chords sound very full. Plugged in, the Artist 2 has a very round sound, kinda full and even. The Artist pickups are very refined, not too brash, very smooth. When rolling off the volume on these pickups, they become "pianolike", transparent, very pleasing. The single coil sounds are bright and snappy, bass pickup is clear while the treble pickup cuts through ok but is a little too subdued for my tastes, I like the PRS "HFS" pickup and will probably be putting one in soon..the PRS five way switch provides plenty of variety, snappy single coil to full on humbucking, although I would like the option of combining both pickups ala the les paul's middle switch setting.
The Artist 2 is being played through a 50w Soldano Reverb o Sonic combo with 2 12's..effects are delay, tremolo, and octave divider pedals..
This guitar is by and far the best sounding humbucker equipped electric I have owned as of yet!!

PRS guitars set the standard for fit and finish for electric guitars. This guitar looks and plays great. It's weird, but there is a resonance that you feel while playing this guitar, the vibration of the string is felt through the guitar neck as you play. Others who have played it have felt it too and agree with me, it's wild. I also love the wide fat neck carve on this guitar, it fits my hand perfectly. This guitar is vert light as well, when I first received it, I thought it had the semi hollow option..
Some appearance niggles...the "Artist Grade" maple top on this guitar is really not anything special figurewise, but I think the color takes away/covers up the figure in the wood. On this Artist2 the back and neck is painted black, i guess to accent the darker tobacco burst, i really liked the unpainted wood on the back of my mccarty's and figured that that color would clash with the stained top. gold hardware really doesn't look good with the color also, maybe i'll change that too.. The finish, feel and sound of this guitar more than make up for it's cosmetic shortcomings.

Here is where the true test of this guitar will be..I plan on playing this guitar in bars and at rehearsal. Right now, the guitar is flawless, save a few fine pick scratches that all PRS guitars seem to have. This will be the fourth PRS guitar that I have owned, the others were a CE 24 and two Mccarty's. All of them seemed to hold up to live playing well, the CE being the "most battered" of the three..
The question is, I guess, is if the thin finished "resonance enhancing" finish will last...

In the past, PRS customer support has been notorius for their slow response time, lack of availability, just generally poor service.
I bought this guitar used through a Guitar Center over the internet. The salesman dealing with me was very helpful, however not a lot of info was available on this guitar due to the loss of it's "birth certificate"!! Each Artist is supposed to have a certificate of authenticity when it is made/sold. This certificate outlines the features, options, who made it and when. It is also handsigned by PRS after he plays the guitar. So to find out more about the guitar before I purchased it, I contacted PRS to find out whatever I could about it. My numerous calls were returned the same day, information was useful and helpful. The salesperson who handled me at Guitar Center really took care of me also. He threw in a nice tweed cord, a couple packs of dr strings, but the coup de grace is that the owner of that store found out that i was kinda bumming about the lack of a certificate, threw in a prs autographed cavity cover!!

I have been playing for twenty years, mostly as a hobby, semi- professionally in bar bands on weekends. I was looking for a decent les paulish guitar that was versatile enough to cover the occaisonal strat or tele sound. It had to play great and look cool too. I bought my first PRS in 1990, a CE24. I since upgraded to a Mccarty and now an Artist2. This is the nicest guitar I have ever owned!! I always wanted a PRS Artist , since their introduction in the early 90's. Artist 1's are the based on the 24 fret customs and Signature Series of the late 80's. They are collectible and are getting expensive. The Artist 2's are based on the custom 22, and were made from '93 to '95. These are the cheapest Artists. I got a great deal on mine. They also don't have the really garish abalone purfling or 14k gold birds that the Artist3 and 4 have. If lost or stolen I would definately try to find another, maybe in a different color!!