“He said the first guitar was an accident of God. By the fifth one he said, ‘OK, you’re a guitar maker’”: Carlos Santana was one of Paul Reed Smith’s earliest champions – but he thought his first guitars were too good to be true

Carlos Santana was one of the earliest champions of Paul Reed Smith’s guitars, first playing custom electric guitars before agreeing to a collaboration that helped catapult PRS with a landmark signature guitar.

However, as Smith himself explains, Santana wasn’t immediately taken by the PRS design brief. Rather, he took some convincing. Not because PRS guitars were bad, though. On the contrary, it was because they were too good, and Santana thought them too good to be true.

Speaking to Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto in an upcoming episode of Guitar Center’s new ‘Inside the Noise with Gabe Dalporto’ podcast, Smith looks back on the early days of PRS, and reveals how his partnership with the man who helped transform PRS fortunes first came about.

“Three years of making him guitars,” Smith says when asked how long it took to convince Santana. “The first guitar he said was an accident of God. The next one, he said it was an accident. Third one, he didn't say anything.

“By the fifth one, he called me up and says, ‘OK, you're a guitar maker.’ In other words, the first one was an accident, it was that good.

“It was almost like somebody written him a hit song, and he didn't trust the next song to be hit. But after the fifth, he goes, ‘Okay, you're in.’ He made me earn his trust. He didn't give his trust, which I thought was really grounded.”

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Smith draws parallels between his early days working with Santana and his experiences working with John Mayer and other big-name players. Namely, they have a set idea on what they like, and they’re not afraid to fly in the face of convention to get it.

“The thing I like about Carlos and John Mayer and all these great musicians is, they don't decide they like something because somebody told them to like it,” Smith says. “They decided to like something because they decided that's what they liked.”

Santana became one of PRS’ earliest major endorsers and elevated the brand onto the global stage, helping the company on its way to becoming the major industry player it is today. Over the years, the flagship Santana I model from the mid 1990s has been rebooted and refreshed with a run of SE, Private Stock and standard signatures.

Smith’s full interview with Dalporto will be released in the near-future. Inside the Noise with Gabe Dalporto will feature a run of behind-the-scenes interviews with high-profile musicians and industry execs.

The first episode, which features current Fender CEO Andy Mooney, arrives today, and will be followed by interviews with Smith and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer, Chad Smith. Blu DeTiger, Kenny Aronoff, Martin CEO Thomas Ripsam and more will also feature on future episodes.

Visit the Guitar Center YouTube channel to watch the first interview. Season 1 episodes will drop weekly on Tuesdays at 3pm PST.

Last year, Paul Reed Smith sat down with John Mayer and Guitar World to discuss the making of the Silver Sky.