Me and my guitar: Black Stone Cherry's Chris Robertson

As frontman with Kentuckians Black Stone Cherry, Chris Robertson's love of PRS has been rewarded with this SE signature model.

Signature collection

“This guitar is a dream that became a reality. I started playing Paul Reed Smith guitars in 2011 and I loved the Singlecut stuff… the 245s, I’ve played a lot of Starlas… any Paul Reed Smith guitar you can think of, I’ve played it. This guitar to me was the combination of the best things I loved about his guitars.”

Pickups

“The thing that’s selling the guitar more than my name is the pickup combination. I love bluesy vintage kind of sounds, so we went with an SE Soapbar in the neck, but the bridge pickup is what makes the guitar so special. It’s PRS’s American-made 57/08 unit, which to me is the greatest pickup on the planet. It’s got a coil tap so you can split it so you’ve got five sounds on the guitar. It’s just a really unique design.”

Off the shelf

“There was never a prototype done on this guitar. The models I’ve got are the exact same shipment as the ones that went to retailers. They pulled mine off the pallet and sent them to me. They’re exactly like you see them in stores, except the only thing that’s been changed on this one is I put strap locks on them and my buddy Scott had that truss rod cover made for me.”

Dunlop Deep Conditioner

“I got this one on the first date of the tour in Cardiff and I’ve played it every night since. The only thing I do to them when I get them is I use the Dunlop Deep Conditioner and I put that on there pretty thick. Every so often I do that because I like the way the fretboard feels.”

Fan frets

“I use these guitars for almost the whole show. I’m also playing a fan’s guitar every night. Basically I had someone ask me if they bought the guitar if I would play it - I thought what a cool idea! Not to mention I wanted to see and play as many of them as possible! And most of those are red because these Kentucky Blue Burst ones just came out. People seem to like it, I wanted to have a signature that was affordable for a great guitar. And it’s about £850 or so and it’ll do anything you need it to.”