Inside Private Stock | Story and Factory Tour | PRS Guitars

[Music] when people ask me what i do for a living i usually boil it down to i make guitars i graduated from maryland institute college of art in 1991. there was this place in annapolis called prs guitars i knew nothing about all the stuff that i learned in college translated right into making guitars when i was given the task to oversee private style i knew what it was going to take to do the job creating some of the most custom one-of-a-kind unique instruments i think private stocks are ultimately works of art each one is unique each one is handmade it's one thing to have something on paper but it's another thing to take it from paper to an instrument it's like a sculpture at that point [Music] the original name of private stock wasn't private stock it was private stash because it had a drug connotation which was never intended it was intended to be this private stash of wood that was a mouse trap for rock stars if a rock star got near this stuff they'd want to make guitar out of it because it was so beautiful private stock is really a boutique team inside of prs all the employees have been here for at least 15 years i've had the choice pick throughout my tenure here it's a true custom shop build this is the story of private stuff we started this program and it was one at a time it wasn't a batch of 30 or 40 it was one at a time the really unique stuff started in the vault when people wanted to order something nobody ever had ever the private stock process always starts with an order sheet the order sheet travels with the guitar that way each team member knows exactly what they are responsible for on the guitar we have build sheets that go back to the very first private stocks that we built the private stock experience is different from just a regular prs experience because you can actually come here and pick your own woods for your guitar in the private stock vault there's over 50 species of wood from all over the world tops backs necks fingerboards veneers everything that you can assemble your guitar right in front of you they get to pick out their dream guitar it was intended as a sales tool i don't think there's another wood library like it i've never heard of one i've never seen one it was an invention to survive because of the relationship that our wood team has with these outside mills when they get something special they call us the acquisition of these extraordinary woods is done by a team of experts who used to log themselves or be furniture makers or woodyard managers we've got a highly skilled group of people buying this stuff that know what they're doing we have a lot of specialty woods in private stock and they have to go through a pretty extensive drying process depending on the wood how dense it is some of these woods take years to dry normally when we get a mahogany maple it goes into hot rooms and goes through our hot room cycle until we get the moisture somewhere between five and seven percent we have a pallet of wood of pale moon ebony that so far has taken two years to dry once the wood is ready it's milled down cut for production as we're manufacturing each piece we have built-in dry time so every time the wood is cut it sits acclimates to fit our process we do that to ensure the guitar is stable down the road my understanding of how the wood affects the tone of the guitar has increased over a long period of time it turns out in just my experience that the less water it has in the wood and the more the resins are crystallized the more the guitar sustains private stock is still split up between a wood shop a finish hall and final assembly we all have a common goal and that's to get guitars out they don't need a lot of guidance they know how to get the job done they work well with each other in order to get this guitar right everybody has to be on the same page because of the customization that comes with a private stock we have a full-time cnc operator we're able to take different packages and transpose them onto a different guitar enabling them to have a custom one-off guitar five-way rotary instead of a three-way toggle putting an extra sweet switch in there or something that takes it to single coil with a couple extra switches all those things are possible under the private stock umbrella one of the most important aspects of our guitars is the neck the whole neck process is the core of guitar making the only way you know it was done right is the guitar is playing in tune it's staying in tune and there's some sort of extraordinary comfort level and the guitar has some sustain if you don't make the neck right that the node will die it's a very complicated thing making necks and the private stock team there are people on that team that do nothing but make necks what's different about a private stock neck is not only the wood but it's also the inlay most of the private stocks have old birds but customers and dealers can pretty much do whatever they want they can have their own design they can have their name on it a lot of times they just like to work with me to come up with a cool unique design the work done in the wood shop is like building the foundation of a house you're putting the body and the neck together you're getting the intonation points right you're getting the neck angle right you're getting the sanding right if it's not sanded right the finish isn't going to lay on it right so it's very important to get the first steps done before it passes on to the finish hall once a guitar is final sanded in the wood shop now we're ready for stain that's when the guitar comes alive one of the more unique aspects of private stock is helping a customer develop color it's our job to be able to capture that emotion or their vision in that color if paul miles and his team want to go for a new color they don't have to clear it with anybody they have a free hand it's really nice it's beautiful actually we don't only stay in the top of the guitar we'll stain the neck we stain fingerboards backs tuner buttons knobs if it's maple it can be stained i've never seen a combination of art and production in the same environment like this ever in a way that's what private stock is it's a production facility doing art final assembly is the last stage of the building process a private stock final assembler is not just building the guitar but they're checking every spec that was on that sheet all the way back to woodshop to make sure that before they put that guitar in a case that it is exactly what the customer dealer wanted the private stock assembler does everything from electronics soldering wiring they're putting the strings on they're internating it's a full setup of the guitar that's the way the assemblers are every day they're literally taking this guitar and putting it together and it comes alive in their hands [Music] not only do the final assemblers play each private stock but paul smith comes in and plays each one before it goes out he takes time out of every day to come down and make sure that he checks every private stock before it goes out the door and that's not only the electronics it's the feel of the guitar it's the look at the guitar it's everything i like going down and checking the guitars it's a big part of my day paul and i meet almost daily to me i'm just trying to get the formula right so every time somebody picks up the guitar it's the best one they ever touched that's what i'm trying to do [Music] the signatures on the back of the headstock are basically the stamp of approval it's the last thing that's done before the guitar hits final finish i love private stock because it operates semi-independently from the rest of the factory core guitar building team help private stock all the time and private stock helps them it's pretty integrated it's like a dovetail there's hundreds of years of combined experience making guitars between this whole group of private stock craftsmen our best guitar makers get to move up from production into private stock so it's a thing that these craftsmen want to be a part of once a customer gets their private stock guitar our goal is to take their breath away aesthetic arrest when somebody opens a private stock case i want them to have aesthetic arrests if you're going to trust us to make you that level of instrument what you deserve is your expectations being exceeded the passion that exists from the employees on private stock is truly amazing just shows the love of the guitar shows the love of the instrument the people around them it really is a family a very very honed team and paul's part of the reason what keeps me coming to work every day is there's always something new there's always something of interest there's always something that's challenging us when i was given the task to oversee private stop i knew what it was going to take to do the job creating some of the most custom one-of-a-kind unique instruments that we call private style [Music] so [Music] i like this guitar and what's not to like about the way that sounds it's got a beautiful tone to it

Channel: PRS Guitars

Views: 244,020

Keywords: PRS, PRS Guitars, Electric Guitars, Guitar Amplifiers, Acoustic Guitars, Paul Reed Smith, Amps, Maryland, electric, guitar, Private Stock, Private, Stock, Inside Private Stock, Story and Factory Tour, Paul Reed Smith Guitars, PRS Private Stock, Private Stock Factory Tour, Private Stock Story, PRS Guitars Private Stock, Stash, Paul, Smith, Paul Smith, Paul Miles, Miles, handmade guitar, custom shop, one of a kind, unique guitar

Id: 75D7sucxc84

Length: 10min 2sec (602 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 05 2021