Thousands of PRS Guitars fans had planned to descend on the company’s factory headquarters in Annapolis, MD last weekend for their tenth “Experience PRS” event, salivating over lovingly crafted works of art and learning insane guitar licks from the best of the best. Of course, the Covid-19 pandemic put that to a screeching halt. But you can’t beat the crafty Paul Reed Smith and his dedicated team of guitar geeks from having a party, even if it’s virtual.
The virtual Experience premiered on the PRS YouTube channel on May 9th with how-to discussions on bettering your music skills and clinics on playing riffs, all delivered from top PRS artists Tim Pierce, David Grissom, Bryan Ewald and more. As a special surprise, founder Paul Reed Smith introduced a new video series “Long Distance: Paul Calls…?” where he chatted with Mark Tremonti, Steve Vai, Warren Haynes, Neal Schon, Al DiMeola, Orianthi and Alex Lifeson about the world of guitar. Paul asked PRS artists and friends questions that he had never asked them before, and each artist turned the tables back to Paul by asking the guitar maker a question or two of their own. The discussions that ensued from the fourteen artists that participated were both intimate, entertaining, and educational. Each will eventually run in full on the PRS YouTube channel. By the end of the weekend, the Experience event videos had accumulated over 25,000 views. You can watch each of them below:
“As soon as we realized we would not be able to host Experience PRS this year, we knew we wanted to find some way to still connect and celebrate with our extended PRS family. We ended up premiering these artist videos on YouTube so we could have a ‘live’ feel and get to hang out in the comments with the presenting artists, customers, and fans,” said Judy Schaefer, Director of Marketing for PRS Guitars. “There were lots of familiar people watching along together, and that feeling of community that is so palpable during our Experience events was present in a very real way. I couldn’t be happier with the outcome.”
