Dragon I vs Dragon II Pickups

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ChevellePark

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I've only found 2 videos of people demoing the Dragon I pickups and the audio was recorded with the built-in microphone in an old cellphone camera.

What are the differences between the Dragons and Dragon IIs? Which one's are darker? Which one's are higher output?

I play Rock, Hard Rock and Metal but I do like my cleans. The 'Metal \m/' pickups definetly pack a punch which I like but they don't have the right tone for me. HFS is too muddy, but the Vintage Bass is nice. 59/09s are too bright 57/08s are too bright...

I was interested in getting a SE Custom 24 and swapping the pups with a Dragon II and leaving the Vintage Bass in here. I'm wondering if the Dragon I Bridge pup would be better than the Dragon II Bridge pup.

I know my Head and Cabinet will affect the tone but if the pickups weren't important, nobody would care what they had in their guitars.

I apologize if I sound like I'm new to PRS. I kind of am, I'm kind of not. All of my favourite bands have Custom 24s, but I'm no expert on PRS guitars but I definetly know they're beautiful and that I need one... Or maybe 21.

Thanks in advance! I hope I didn't come across as a dick. :)
 
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I just got a CU 22 with Dragon II pickups in it and my tone preferences seem to be similar to yours.
People say that Dragon II pu have a compressed sound and I do hear that. If you hit the string hard, it sounds like there's a limiter in your chain.

The output is not that hot, so you have to compensate with amp settings. It's OK but nothing outstanding.
The cleans are pretty nice in coil split mode but in humbucking mode they're just alright.

I feel like I should change the pickups in this one to get more out of the guitar, so it's interesting to see you do not like 59/09 or HFS/VB.
Did you had a chance to try 85/15? I'm hoping they will be on sale sometime soon.

If you end up swapping, let us know what you went with and how it turned out.
 
I have both. I LOVE drag 1s. They are hot but not muddy or shrill. They respond well to height adjustments, small adjustments do a lot.

My cu22 has drag 2s. Through my 5150 cabs they remind me of 57classics. It was the guitar I would use to cover EVERYTHING. Through my celestion loaded cabs they are blah. All my other guitars sound good through them but not my cu22.

It has been said that dragon 1s sound great in any guitar.
 
A covered DII bass is a magical sounding pickup. The DII treble is a little squishy but the split tones for both are really nice. I feel like they were designed from the split-tones up.
 
jacenty said:
I just got a CU 22 with Dragon II pickups in it and my tone preferences seem to be similar to yours.
People say that Dragon II pu have a compressed sound and I do hear that. If you hit the string hard, it sounds like there's a limiter in your chain.

The output is not that hot, so you have to compensate with amp settings. It's OK but nothing outstanding.
The cleans are pretty nice in coil split mode but in humbucking mode they're just alright.

I feel like I should change the pickups in this one to get more out of the guitar, so it's interesting to see you do not like 59/09 or HFS/VB.
Did you had a chance to try 85/15? I'm hoping they will be on sale sometime soon.

If you end up swapping, let us know what you went with and how it turned out.
Click to expand...

Thank you for such a nice reply!

I've been listening to some more demos of the DIIs and it was actually a video of the Guitar Center 40th Anniversary Custom 22 model that pretty much made up my mind on them. They're not too bright, not too dark. They do pretty well on High Gain and they are very clear. The guy was even playing through a little Line 6 practice amp. I might even forgot about the Vintage Bass and have the DII set.

I personally don't anything too hot. Which I know a lot of people who play Hard Rock and Metal tend to like.

As for the 85/15, I don't think I've heard them before. Definetly will have to check them out. I thought those were in the P22 but those are 58/15s.
 
gush said:
I have both. I LOVE drag 1s. They are hot but not muddy or shrill. They respond well to height adjustments, small adjustments do a lot.

My cu22 has drag 2s. Through my 5150 cabs they remind me of 57classics. It was the guitar I would use to cover EVERYTHING. Through my celestion loaded cabs they are blah. All my other guitars sound good through them but not my cu22.

It has been said that dragon 1s sound great in any guitar.
Click to expand...

With what everybody has said and listening to them myself, I don't know why the Dragon pickups aren't more popular than they are.
 
sergiodeblanc said:
A covered DII bass is a magical sounding pickup. The DII treble is a little squishy but the split tones for both are really nice. I feel like they were designed from the split-tones up.
Click to expand...

I kind of live on the bridge pickup so my assesment is based on that......i bet i didn't have ten minutes of play time on the neck pup of the Custom 22 i had with D2's. Makes me wish i had tried it more.
 
ChevellePark said:
With what everybody has said and listening to them myself, I don't know why the Dragon pickups aren't more popular than they are.
Click to expand...

The Dragons are a popular pick up, it's the Dragon II's that are less well-liked.

WEDGE said:
I kind of live on the bridge pickup so my assesment is based on that......i bet i didn't have ten minutes of play time on the neck pup of the Custom 22 i had with D2's. Makes me wish i had tried it more.
Click to expand...

DII's are cheap enough second-hand. I think you'd really like it in your CE project with the maple fretboard...... but you kinda already filled that hole in. :cool:
 
gush said:
I have both. I LOVE drag 1s. They are hot but not muddy or shrill. They respond well to height adjustments, small adjustments do a lot.

My cu22 has drag 2s. Through my 5150 cabs they remind me of 57classics. It was the guitar I would use to cover EVERYTHING. Through my celestion loaded cabs they are blah. All my other guitars sound good through them but not my cu22.

It has been said that dragon 1s sound great in any guitar.
Click to expand...
I have dragon 1s in a SC Korina SE. They were in the guitar when I got it. It's my 1st and only electric so it's the only sound I know. What do you mean by "responds well to height adjustments"?

Thanks
Tom
 
Mark Ray said:
Dragon 1's ALWAYS for the win!!!
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more. I get that Paul is pushing for the more recent pickups and offerings, almost all businesses cycle through products one way or another. But the lack of offering any Dragon 1's is certainly disappointing to me.
 
I got into prs guitars rather late and dont have any experience with dragon 1 pickups but heard that they were better than D2?
Mor sure about that either. But I love the D2 pickups, especially the neck pup
 
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