Chasing that Dragon...

[Lewguitar]

Loving this '00 PRS CE22!

It's a little heavier than my '95 and '97 CE22's. But it's more resonant.

The previous owner replaced the original PRS pickups with a Seymour Duncan JB and Duncan Custom.

I decided to keep the JB, and put in my own Duncan 59n neck pickup.

My other CE22's have Dragon I pickups. For rock and rock overdrive tones, Dragon I's are my all time favorite set.

But I was surprised that this stock JB sounds so much like a Dragon 1!

The JB has that high output, big, deep, solid bass, and thick mids that get that "ow" sound with overdrive.

The biggest difference is the treble: the stock JB has just a bit more sizzle on top compared to the Dragon 1.

I just turn the guitar's tone control down 1/2 way or lower, which I always do anyway because I don't like a sharp sound.

I like an "ow" vowel like sound from my bridge pickup. If you turn the tone down all the way you get Clapton's "woman tone".

I was also able to reduce that sizzle by replacing the polished Alnico 5 magnet in the JB with a ROUGHCAST Alnico 5 magnet.

Now I like it even more!

Yesterday I replaced the volume and tone pots in the '00 and used a .02 Sprague Orange Drop tone capacitor.

Because I don't want the neck pickup to get muddy when I turn the volume pot down, I reused the PRS treble bleed cap on the new volume pot. I like it. It helps.

I kind of feel like I'm playing a real '59 Les Paul when I play this CE22!

https://imgur.com/lVquVJm

 

[RickP]

Sweet guitar!

 

[Lewguitar]

BTW, I also tried an Alnico 8 magnet in the JB. A8 has almost as strong a magnetic field as a ceramic magnet. The Dragon 1 has a ceramic magnet.

Anyway, I didn't like it. It was hotter but for me it just didn't have the tone.

So that's when I tried the roughcast alnico 5 and liked that immediately.

It's going to stay there.

 

[vchizzle]

Dimarzio super distortion should give you similar heat with rolled off treble compared to JB.

 

[Lewguitar]

Dimarzio super distortion should give you similar heat with rolled off treble compared to JB.

I would think so.

I think of Tom Scholz and Boston tones when I think of the Super Distortion.

That soaring Les Paul through a Marshall sound.

It's a great sound. That's kind of where I've been going with all of this experimenting.

The Dragon I bridge pickup can get that sound, and the JB can too.

 

[Longneck Tenon]

It's a little heavier than my '95 and '97 CE22's. But it's very resonant.

The previous owner replaced the Dragon II pickups with Seymour Duncans. He sold the Dragon II's.

I decided to keep the JB he put in, but I put in my own Duncan 59n alnico 2 neck pickup.

My other CE22's have Dragon I pickups. For rock and rock overdrive tones, Dragon I's are my all time favorite set.

I was surprised that this stock JB sounds a lot like a Dragon 1.

The JB has that high output, big, deep, solid bass, and thick mids that get that "ow" sound with overdrive.

The biggest difference is the treble: the treble of the stock JB is a little brighter.

It has a little more zing and sizzle on top than the Dragon I bridge pickup.

It disappears by turning the guitar's tone control down 1/2 way or lower, which I always do anyway because I like a vowel like sound. If you turn it down all the way you get Clapton's "woman tone".

I was also able to change that sizzle by replacing the polished Alnico 5 magnet with a ROUGHCAST Alnico 5 magnet. Now I like it even more,

Yesterday I replaced the volume and tone pots in the '00 and used a .02 Sprague Orange Drop tone capacitor.

Because I don't want the neck pickup to get muddy when I turn the volume pot down, I reused the PRS treble bleed cap on the new volume pot. I like it. It helps.

I'll tell you what: I kind of feel like I'm playing a real '59 Les Paul when I play this CE22!

https://imgur.com/lVquVJm

https://imgur.com/0e4uBkO

Very cool!

 

[Lewguitar]

The Dragon 1 has an 8K alnico 4 neck pickup so yesterday I replaced the magnet in the 59n and put a roughcast alnico 4 magnet in it instead.

It's not 8K, it's more like 7.5 K, but it changed the sound quite a bit. Now it does sound a lot more like a Dragon 1 neck pickup.

Not as bright and bassy as Alnico 5, but brighter, deeper and stronger than with alnico 2, and the alnico 4 magnet retains some of those chewy mids of alnico 2.

A good change.

I'm going to put an alnico 4 magnet in a 8K 59B next, and use it for the neck pickup.

Stay tuned...

 

[gush]

Loving this '00 PRS CE22!

It's a little heavier than my '95 and '97 CE22's. But it's more resonant.

The previous owner replaced the original PRS pickups with a Seymour Duncan JB and Duncan Custom.

I decided to keep the JB, and put in my own Duncan 59n neck pickup.

My other CE22's have Dragon I pickups. For rock and rock overdrive tones, Dragon I's are my all time favorite set.

But I was surprised that this stock JB sounds so much like a Dragon 1!

The JB has that high output, big, deep, solid bass, and thick mids that get that "ow" sound with overdrive.

The biggest difference is the treble: the stock JB has just a bit more sizzle on top compared to the Dragon 1.

I just turn the guitar's tone control down 1/2 way or lower, which I always do anyway because I don't like a sharp sound.

I like an "ow" vowel like sound from my bridge pickup. If you turn the tone down all the way you get Clapton's "woman tone".

I was also able to reduce that sizzle by replacing the polished Alnico 5 magnet in the JB with a ROUGHCAST Alnico 5 magnet.

Now I like it even more!

Yesterday I replaced the volume and tone pots in the '00 and used a .02 Sprague Orange Drop tone capacitor.

Because I don't want the neck pickup to get muddy when I turn the volume pot down, I reused the PRS treble bleed cap on the new volume pot. I like it. It helps.

I kind of feel like I'm playing a real '59 Les Paul when I play this CE22!

https://imgur.com/lVquVJm

https://imgur.com/0e4uBkO

My 97 ce22 is the heaviest prs I own. Heavier than my 2000 McCarty

 

[Lewguitar]

So I changed the neck pickup in this guitar to an 8.1K 59B bridge pickup and changed the magnet from alnico 5 to alnico 4.

Similar A4 magnet as used in the 1990's Dragon I neck pickup and similar DCR.

It sounds a lot like the Dragon neck pickups in my other guitars.

A good move. And it doesn't overpower the JB bridge pickup, which is good too.

There's a nice balance.

But the JB is still a little trebly. I have to turn the guitar's tone down to 4 or 5 when soloing on the JB and then when I play cleaner chords and rhythm on the neck pickup I have to turn the tone control all the way up again.

I never use the tone control when playing on the neck pickup. I could disconnect it and not miss it.

That way I could leave the tone knob dialed to the sweet spot of the JB without affecting the neck pickup tone.

The tone control would work when both pickups are combined in the middle position.

 

[Lewguitar]

Next week I'm getting a pickup set from John Suhr with a bridge humbucker that at 17K has a slightly higher DCR than the 16K JB but not quite the 19K DCR of the Dragon I.

It's supposed to keep all the good qualities of the JB and have none of the bad.

The bad being a certain sizzle in the treble and a honk in the upper mids that actually sounds cool for those anthem type rock solos.

The Suhrs come with 4 conductor cable and I might just restore this '00 CE22 with a 5 position rotary switch. I have one not being used.

The restoration on my CU22 turned out so well I might do that to this CE22.

Fill the 1/2" hole the previous owner enlarged for the 3 way switch and redrill it for the smaller rotary switch.

Wish I had a set of Dragon I's for this guitar but it's nice having one that sounds a bit different.

I do think it sounds best with a hot bridge humbucker.

When I tried Duncan Antiquitys with vintage output pickups they looked great in this guitar but sounded weak, I think because of the vibrato losing bass or something.

https://imgur.com/bwR32Rb

But those same pickups that sounded weak in the CE22 guitar with the vibrato, sound killer in my SE Singlecut without a vibrato.

https://imgur.com/XG49DmR