PRS Guitars is an American guitar manufacturer headquartered in Stevensville, Maryland. PRS Guitars was founded by guitarist and luthier Paul Reed Smith in 1985. Paul Reed Smith Guitars is a leading manufacturer of high-end electric guitars. PRS guitars, originally crafted for local guitar players, have become highly prized by musicians and collectors around the world.

PRS is known for "popping the grain" on their figured maple topped instruments, a process that accents the '3D' quality of the maple through a multistep staining process. Finishes are transparent, translucent (often with bursts), or opaque and are automotive-grade polyurethane or satin nitrocellulose, meaning that in some instances, the paints were intended for automotive use.

Pickups are designed and wound in-house; PRS is more secretive about magnet and wire type and construction than some aftermarket pickup manufacturers. PRS humbucking pickups have gone by many names, including HFS (Hot, Fat, and Screams); Vintage Bass; McCarty; Santana I, II, and III; Archtop; Dragon I and II; Artist I through IV; #6, #7, #8, #9, and #10, RP (after the initials of the designer, Ralph Perucci) and Soapbar. Further adding to the obscurity, many of the above pickup types are actually a pair of pickups wound in opposing directions, one intended for the neck and one for the bridge position.

The bodies of PRS guitars are crafted of mahogany, with a maple top on most models. They often feature highly figured tops, including flame maple, quilt maple and figured maple creating the effect of tiger stripes. PRS necks are usually made from mahogany, although some models feature maple or Indian or Brazilian rosewood necks; fingerboards are made of rosewood. PRS's signature fret markers include the lower end moons, and the higher end birds. The moons appear similar to standard dot inlays, but have a crescent more prominent than the rest of the dot. The bird inlays feature nine or ten different birds inlayed at the appropriate frets. Inlay materials have included semiprecious stones; iridescent shells, including abalone and abalone laminates; gold; and even unearthed ivory from the (extinct) woolly mammoth.