Three decades after defying the odds and persuading Carlos Santana to try out his hand-built guitar, Paul Reed Smith's quest for perfect tone is still reeling in enthusiasts from all over the world.

Despite the world economic downturn, his company has built a new multimillion dollar factory and is looking at multiplying revenues while other instrument makers report declining sales.

More than 1,700 guitar dealers and customers travelled to a festive open house at Mr Smith's Maryland headquarters this past weekend to see his newest guitars and tour a factory that turns out over 16,000 handcrafted instruments each year.

The crowd - which included dealers, doctors, investment bankers and ordinary guitarists - ordered more than 500 guitars ranging in price from several thousand dollars to as high as $70,000, for a grand total of well over $1 million.

Over the past 25 years, that kind of excitement has made Paul Reed Smith (PRS) Guitars the third largest US electric guitar maker, helping it to squeeze older names Fender and Gibson and capture 40 per cent of the high-end guitar market.