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“The SEs were going to go away. We were having trouble with sales”: Paul Reed Smith on the near-fateful end of the PRS SE Series – and what saved it from extinction
It's commonplace for big guitar companies to have more affordable sub-brands and lineups. PRS has its often-celebrated SE electric guitars – but the models were very nearly killed off.
The PRS SE Series isn't short of stand-out six-strings. One of its latest, the SE NF 53 is a smart-looking single-cut that might just be 2025's best sub-$1K guitar. In March, Paul Reed Smith's company also gave some of its most beloved SEs an exotic wood makeover. These are all guitars that wouldn't exist if it weren't for one saving grace.
“At one point, the SEs were going to go away; we were having trouble with sales,” Paul Reed Smith confesses to Guitar World in the new print issue, before revealing how the line received a miraculous second-wind.
“All the guitar teachers in America made their students buy SEs because they couldn't teach kids how to play guitars that wouldn't stay in tune,” he reveals. “The teachers saved the line, and we were back at the races. But it was almost done. That happens a lot in the guitar business.”
Reflecting on the history of the PRS SE line with GW last year, COO Jack Higginbotham believes that a lot of its success stems from its economic ethos.
“We make guitars, and then we make money,” he reasons. “And whether we’re successful or not isn’t necessarily about how much money we’re making; it’s about how much impact we’re having on the instrument, the market, and the consumer.”
You can read Smith’s full interview in the new print issue of Guitar World, which takes an in-depth look at 2025 in gear. Grab a copy from Magazines Direct.
A freelance writer with a penchant for music that gets weird, Phil is a regular contributor to Prog, Guitar World, and Total Guitar magazines and is especially keen on shining a light on unknown artists. Outside of the journalism realm, you can find him writing angular riffs in progressive metal band, Prognosis, in which he slings an 8-string Strandberg Boden Original, churning that low string through a variety of tunings. He's also a published author and is currently penning his debut novel which chucks fantasy, mythology and humanity into a great big melting pot.
