More than 400 students from Musicians Institute attended an exclusive clinic with Dweezil Zappa and Paul Smith in Hollywood on February 10. Zappa demonstrated complex riffing techniques using his mandolin style signature model alongside co-guitarist and Musicians Institute instructor Jamie Kime. Students eagerly asked questions and watched intensely as Dweezil and Jamie broke down some of Frank Zappa’s most complicated and prolific arrangements.

PRS kicked off its 2011 partnership with GRAND-AM Road Racing at the Rolex 24 Hours At Daytona last weekend. At the end of the historic endurance event, the overall win went to the Ganassi team of Pruett, Rojas, Rahal and Hand. Pruett and Rojas took the 2010 championship and are no strangers to PRS guitars as they have scored a total of nine trophy guitars for the Chip Ganassi team.

Handmade in Stevensville, Maryland, PRS’s new 2 Channel “C” and 2 Channel “H” 50 watt amps feature two channels with independent master volume, treble, mid, bass, and gain controls with global reverb. The unique lead channel offers powerful, smooth distortion with liquid sustain, while the clean channel has shimmering, clean highs and extensive headroom but can be overdriven at maximum settings. Both amps feature effects loops with adjustable send and return and are fixed bias.

PRS Guitars is proud to announce a new partnership with Van Damme Cabling, one of the world’s premier cable suppliers. This partnership adds a quality cable that will carry the signal produced by PRS guitars and amplifiers without compromise to PRS’s product offerings. Founded by Niall Holden (now Managing Director), Van Damme offers a comprehensive range of cables widely found on A-list tours and in studios around the world, broadcast and post production arenas, in commercial and corporate installations and even super yachts and hi-end sports cars.

While acoustic guitars are a newer venture for PRS, the concepts they are based upon are as old as the company itself. PRS is proud to continue growing their acoustic line at Winter NAMM 2011 by adding to the already acclaimed Tonare Grand and Angelus Cutaway. The Collection Grand as well as signature model acoustics from Tony McManus and Martin Simpson will add to the list of instruments offered within the PRS Private Stock acoustics line.

For more than 25 years, PRS Guitars’ culture of ingenuity and continual improvement has pushed their guitar manufacturing bar to new levels. The 2011 PRS product line exemplifies this culture with the execution of a thorough plan to enhance each instrument. Innumerable changes have been put into action to improve the appearance, playability and tone of PRS instruments. Whether it’s the new 53/10™ pickups, two-piece bridge, steel bridge components, new neck shapes, V12 finish or new PRS Phase III locking tuners, the amount of time and energy PRS has invested reviewing, enhancing and implementing high impact changes in their quest for tone is unprecedented, even by PRS standards. Whether obvious or subtle, every modification is born from PRS’s desire to give musicians the highest quality instrument to create their art.

As the world moves more and more towards home recording, PRS is offering the new full production run Recording Amp. This “universal” amp is ideal for recording and for producing heavy tones, super clean tones, and everything in between. External switches on many internal gain and tone components normally inaccessible on other amps provide a nearly infinite tonal and gain palate. Two distinct covering options are available for both the head and cabinet. Covering is available in both Stealth (black Tolex) and Paisley, and both options come standard with distinctive curly maple panels.

Whether it’s the newest signature model SE from 311’s Tim Mahoney, the new SE 245 with pickups optimized for its shorter 24.5” neck or the introduction of bird inlays to the SE Custom 24, SE Singlecut, SE Custom Semi-Hollow, and SE Singlecut Trem, the SE line continues to push the quality envelope. Gigging musicians are relying on SEs to deliver rich tones and a wide variety of sounds.

PRS’s new 22 fret, 25” scale length Studio model electric guitar is a fresh, modern rendition of a traditional single-single-hum guitar set up with the beauty and brightness of a maple top. The possibilities are vast with PRS’s proprietary 57/08 Narrowfield pickups in the middle and bass positions in conjunction with a 57/08 humbucking bridge pickup. Screaming lead tones, crisp rhythm tones and 5-way blade switch also enhance the flexibility of this guitar in the studio or on stage.

Limited to a run of 50 guitars, the new Dweezil Zappa Private Stock semi-hollow model features a unique Custom 24 mandolin shape and is modeled after the guitar Dweezil designed with the Private Stock team.