2007 Experience PRS SE-ONE Guitar Essay Winner

by Rick Landers.

Modern Guitars magazine is pleased to announce the winner of the 2007 Experience PRS SE-ONE Guitar Essay Contest is David Patton, of Lawrenceville, Georgia, and share his winning essay with our readers. Duane Davis of Gaithersburg, Maryland, wrote the runner-up essay and he'll receive one of the PRS grab bags available to visitors at the 2007 Experience PRS trade show.

As luck would have it, we were able to have veteran rock journalist, Steven Rosen, serve as the final judge for the essays and his selections for the winning and runner-up essays. He gave a nod to stories that were personable, genuine and captured the love of guitars, and PRS guitars in particular, that all the writer submissions shared.

We called Patton at home on June 27 to congratulate him on winning the PRS SE-ONE guitar that was autographed by Paul Reed Smith, Jack Higgenbotham, President, PRS; Peter Wolf, Director of PRS World Sales; Johnny Hiland; Mark Tremonti; and a host of PRS players who attended the first and now historic X-PRS trade show in Stevensville, Maryland, last year. As luck would have it, David was at work, so we left a voicemail and followed up with a confirming email.

The next day David replied with, "Wow! What a great voicemail to receive yesterday afternoon! I just made a digital copy of it for posterity. My wife waited for me to get home from work so she could see my reaction when I heard the news. It took a couple of hours for me to get that silly grin off my face."

When the PRS SE-ONE guitar was safely in Patton's hands, he told us, "It is simply gorgeous. The neck feels excellent in my hand, as is the case with all of the PRS guitars I have played."

We think you'll enjoy reading David's winning essay.

Winning Essay by David Patton

I've been in love with the guitar since the mid-'60s, but in all this time I've played just one perfect instrument -- the Paul Reed Smith. I played it for maybe half an hour. But, the experience still affects me, more than 20 years later.

It was my first trip to the Dallas Guitar Show -- 1986, I think. There were so many exquisite instruments that I was feeling a bit giddy. Being dirt poor, I drooled over all the ritzy high-dollar guitars with their stunning custom artwork. I even got brave enough to play a few. Some were quite nice, but after a while the individual instruments got lost in a multicolored swirl. Too much of a good thing. Gee, another guitar with airbrushed planets. And there's one that looks like an acid trip. I wonder if they have anything to eat around here?

Weary from visual overload, I rounded yet another corner and then came to a sudden stop in the middle of the aisle. I was staring at a long row of the most beautiful guitars I'd ever seen.

The perfect lines and graceful contours suggested the ideal blend of the very best concepts in the history of guitar design. But, these weren't knockoffs of any other instruments. They stood alone, like no other guitars on the showroom floor. The rich finishes on the proud wood grains put all the paint jobs to shame. I walked almost reverently toward the display and reached for the first guitar in the lineup. When I grasped the neck with my left hand I had the strangest feeling of mutual attraction, as though someone had secretly mapped the shape of my fingers and palm and studied the way I played, then crafted an instrument just for me.

My trance was broken by a lanky dude wearing faded jeans and a huge grin. "Hi, I'm Paul Reed Smith. You wanna play that thing?" I cocked my head sideways to read the scrawling signature on the headstock. I must've stammered something to the affirmative, because in a moment I was seated next to a Marshall half-stack while this gifted luthier was pointing out such marvels as the "sweet" switch.

I started playing and he cranked the volume up a bit. Then a bit more. The tonal range of this guitar was amazing. And the feel of it in my hands . . . I'd never played anything that evoked such pure joy. I was so enchanted that I barely noticed the people who had started to gather around the PRS booth. But, Paul Reed Smith noticed them. He grinned at them, like he'd grinned at me -- a proud parent showing off his children. As he talked about the special design of the tremolo system, I added a touch of whammy bar to my playing.

Suddenly, he started giving me instructions. "Play blues," he said. I played blues, and he tweaked knobs on the guitar, showing off the versatility of the PRS. "Play heavy metal." He tweaked more knobs and cranked the Marshall. I got a little crazy on the guitar. "Can you do jazz?" he asked. I did my best "Pat Metheny meets Allan Holdsworth" impression and he tweaked more knobs. I ran out of guitar styles long before the PRS ran out of possibilities.

After playing that guitar, I wanted so badly to buy it right then and there. But, as I mentioned, I was poor. Still, had I known then that I would never hold another guitar that played so beautifully, so perfectly, I would have sold my car on the spot and walked all the way back to Ft. Worth, toting my new PRS.

I've put a lot of miles on guitar strings since that day. But, I have yet to play another instrument that moves me as much as that PRS -- except, of course, for other PRS guitars, which I play every chance I get, in every music store I come across that carries them. As always, there's that sense of mutual attraction, as if the guitar has a mind of its own and recognizes a kindred spirit when its neck is handled, just so.

My children are grown now, and my wife still loves to hear me play. She's hinting that perhaps we're not as poor as we used to be. So now I'm on the prowl for my favorite guitar, a beautiful Paul Reed Smith.

Related Links
PRS Guitars
Modern Guitars at Experience PRS 2007

About Steven Rosen

Steven Rosen has been writing about the denizens of rock ‘n’ roll for the past 25 years. During this period, his work has appeared in a number of publications including Guitar Player, Guitar World, Rolling Stone, Playboy, Creem, Circus, Musician, Classic Rock, Q/Mojo, and a host of others. Long recognized as an authority in the field of electric rock guitar journalism and the culture surrounding it, Rosen has written seminal pieces on a number of musicians including: Edward Van Halen, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Frank Zappa, Billy Gibbons, Ritchie Blackmore, and Zakk Wylde. Rosen has authored five rock biographies: The Artist Formerly Known As Prince; Bruce Springsteen; The Beck Book (Jeff Beck); Free At Last; and, Black Sabbath (currently in a third printing).

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