PRS Ricky Skaggs, Cody Kilby Models and Collection Guitars: NAMM 2011

By: Staff

If there was any doubt that PRS guitars wouldn’t be making major announcements at this year’s NAMM show, those doubts were wiped away as soon as Paul Reed Smith took to the microphone and begin laying out this year’s new models of amps and guitars, as well as what they have in store for the coming year.

Three of the biggest announcements came near the end of the presentation, when Paul looked over at Ricky Skaggs and Cody Kilby before announcing that they are working on Acoustic models for both of these great artists. Also, Paul went on to announce that PRS is launching a Collection series of guitars, which he describes as “the cherry picked of the cherry picked.”

As always, PRS was leading the way with major announcements at this year’s show, proving that the company has weathered the economic downturn and is heading into the future with a full head of steam.

Cody Kilby PRS Guitar

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Paul Reed Smith: “So, I have another announcement. Ricky are you willing to do a signature name model with your name on the headstock? [Ricky Nods] So, within the next year we are hoping to not only be expecting to have a Ricky Skaggs model, but a Cody Kilby model, as well. Now there’s a collection acoustic here that is very close to Cody’s acoustic guitar. This is basically what Cody’s guitar is going to be, this is the prototype.”

Cody Kilby PRS Guitar

Cody Kilby: “I played this guitar two days ago for this first time and honestly, I have to say, this is the most amazing guitar I’ve ever played. It’s the most genuine sounding guitar. It’s like the essence of being musical, and it’s an honor to be part of this.”

Cody Kilby PRS Guitar

Ricky Skaggs: “When we first started this thing I was telling people that I was working with Paul Reed Smith who was starting to make acoustic guitars, and people would say, ‘Yeah, all right, he’s the electric guy…right.’ But, yeah man, he’s got some good ideas for acoustics.

So, anyway we started working on it five years ago and I said, ‘Paul, we got to get these things to sound good, and look good and play good,’ and then after we got that, now we have to get a pickup system that’s gonna work for people. It’s gonna have a volume control where people can turn it up and down and all that, and oh man, he really reared up about that and he said, ‘Well, what about something under the saddle?’

And I said, ‘Okay, it’s all right.’ For me, I wanted something that would play good, sound vintage, but yet it would have a beautiful look to it as well. I do a lot of television, and so I want people to see something beautiful, as well.”

Ricky Skaggs PRS Guitar

Paul Reed Smith: Here’s another announcement. When you ask your grandmother to make lasagna, do you go and tell her how to do it? You don’t go and tell her what the recipe is you let her do it, right? So, there’s been a very interesting interplay between us as guitar makers and people who are working in guitars. One of the things I’ve been dreaming of doing is making guitars just exactly how I want to make them.

So, we’ve decided to do something in Private Stock called Collection Guitars, make about forty a year in acoustic and about 40 a year in electric, and they’ll be my personal mark. They’ll be called Collection Guitars. There are about 12 of them in the market already, it’s like “Where’s Waldo?” you’ve got to go find one, because those are the prototypes.

This is one of those Collection instruments, this was not ordered, this is something we made by cherry picking from all the Private Stock wood and I don’t know if you can see it, but it’s almost like the spruce is curly. It’s just extraordinary stuff.

It’s the cherry picked of the cherry picked of the cherry picked. And if you want one of these instruments, they’re called Collections and we have this thing called the Internet and you’ll be able to find everyone in stock in 10 seconds with a Google search. There are 12 out there right now. This is my personal mark, we’ve made in Private Stock and I want everybody to be aware that we’ll be doing this.”