MEETING THE MARK

Mark Lettieri is one of the most in-demand players in the world at the moment. Aside from his edgy instrumental jazz work with Snarky Puppy, he’s also a close musical compadre of neo-funk stars Vulfpeck. We catch up with him to find out how, with Paul Reed Smith’s help, he designed a guitar to cover all musical terrains – and how tins of soup played an unexpectedly important role in the process…

- Jamie Dickson

How did the idea to do a signature guitar with PRS come about?

“I started working with them primarily with the 594 platform, the McCarty 594, which really was the guitar that turned me on to PRS and reignited an interest in what they were doing. Talking to Paul and talking to the team there, they really made me feel welcome and made me understand that they know how to build a damn guitar. And so when they came to me with the idea to do a model, it wasn’t really on my radar to do something with them. But, you know, it’s not really something you turn down. It’s an interesting idea to dig into the single-coil, bolt-on thing, which they’ve done before with the Silver Sky and in different guitars prior. So I thought it would be a fun challenge for us and for me. And I was convinced we would get something really cool, unique and special at the end of it.”

Why did you choose an HSS configuration over three single-coil pickups?

“I’ve been an HSS pickup configuration person since I was 15 years old. I think I’ve always been into having guitars with different pickup combinations beyond your basic five-way switch…”

And what about the wood selection?