Nice necro..
Check out the TED Talk of Paul Reed Smith on tone.
It pretty much debunks the hiyaw concept. He says guitars are subtractive. 6 in and 5.9 out on a really special guitar. You cant have 6 in and 7 coming out.
Wanna bet? I currently have a 1991 PRS Custom 24 that beats the crap out of 99% of ALL PRS. Took me thirty years to find it. It has PLENTY of Hiyaw that a majority of PRS do NOT have.
I was lucky enough to be invited to the PRS Experience in Japan last year -- the only Pinoy to do so. I got to meet Paul and Marty. Shook hands with them AND Paul told me: WTF are you doin here having to fly all the way from Manila?LOL.
Anyway, my friend introduced me to PRS Private Stock Production dude head honcho that I will NOT name. So, I had to spend some time with him because I was one of the only few capable of English. We spent several minutes debating why there were so many bad sounding Private Stock...
To cut thru the B.S., my message take out was they rather produced 90 above average guitars and 10 lousy guitars than to produce 1 exceptional guitar and 99 lousy guitars. At this point in time, Paul has nailed that consistency down pat on his solid body line.
But, today since PRS is still relatively new in producing their acoustic lines, it just makes Paul cry when one exceptional acoustic comes off the line.
So, before you try to disprove what I say: a) Listen to more guitars in person and b) Don't immediately believe what Marketing/Promotion dudes and material say
P.S. I told my friend that I wanted my PRS duplicated because it has such a unique and rich sound that really communicates what the PRS was really about in the late 80s. He told me that he can ask Paul to PERSONALLY make an EXACT copy of it physically and aurally.
I am still debating with my friend because I don't believe that Paul can copy hiyaw and put hiyaw in a guitar purposely. My friend's argument is that no one else has the best chance to put hiyaw into a PRS other than Paul himself.
