“He says to me, ‘You’re a legend.’ I said, ‘Are you kidding? You’re a legend. You’re the new Leo Fender. You’re the new Les Paul. You’re the new Orville Gibson’”: Randy Bachman on the guitar builder who’s up there with the greats of the industry

Randy Bachman has hailed Paul Reed Smith as one of the undisputed “legends” of electric guitar making who deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Leo Fender and Orville Gibson.

In a new interview with Guitar World, Bachman says he bumped into Smith over the holiday season last year, and that Smith said he might just have a new guitar that Bachman would love. If it has the initials PRS on the headstock, and birds on the fingerboard, chances are he will.

“I was in Nashville at a Christmas party for Kevin Shirley, the producer,” says Bachman. “He’s a really good friend of mine, and he produced my Heavy Blues album [2015]. At his party, I got to meet Paul Reed Smith, who says to me, ‘You’re a legend.’ I said, ‘Are you kidding? You’re a legend. You’re the new Leo Fender. You’re the new Les Paul. You’re the new Orville Gibson.’”

This meeting was too ‘legendary’ for the phlegmatic über-producer. “Two legends get together, what are you going to do?” was his dry observation.

But it didn’t burst the spell; the mutual admiration between Bachman, the man who gave us one of the best fuzz tones of all time, and Smith, the man who redefined the commercial end of high-end electric guitar design, was clear.

And also, this was no idle praise. Bachman loves Smith’s work, true. But more importantly, he needs his help. Bachman’s recent health issues have left him looking for a new instrument, ideally one that will be a lot lighter and easier to manage. Smith says he might be able to help him out – and by the sounds of it, this guitar that’s under development at PRS’s Maryland HQ might be what countless players and their chiropractors are weighting for.

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“I said to Paul, ‘I’m looking for a lighter guitar, even lighter than my ’57, because I’ve got a back issue,’” says Bachman. “I had my left knee replaced. I’m a cancer survivor. I had four cancers, and I can hardly stand up. I’m learning to walk and balance again.

“Standing on one foot and operating your pedals is like tap-dancing, and I can't do that yet. I'm still building up. I work out every day in a pool with weights. And he said, ‘I’ve got a new guitar. It’ll be under 4 lbs.’ So I got his number. I’m typing him a letter right now.”

You can read the full interview in the latest issue of Guitar World. Head over to Magazines Direct to subscribe – there are some super-affordable deals on subs at the moment. The new issue features interviews with Jerry Cantrell, Jimmy James, Michael Schenker, and more. And of course it’s got this magnificent anecdote from Bachman about how his epic collection of Gretsch guitars saved Gretsch the company after a devastating factory fire.