Gentlemen, behold! Trampasaurus Rex in all her glory! (P22 RW Trem Trampas Fade!)

[Blackbird]

Beautiful finish and killer specs, congrats!

 

[jfb]

Trampasaurus makes me think of something else, but I approve.

Great looking axe. Glad this worked out.

 

[Egads]

Yeah, um...WOW!

 

[ElrytNamrogo]

Beautiful!!! Congrats!!!

 

[Aeetus]

Absolutely awesome!

 

[HighGain510]

Thanks guys! Figured I'd pop in now that I've had the chance to spend a good deal of time with this beauty! WOW, what can I say?! PRS really went above and beyond for me here, and the guitar they delivered is just outstanding! I've owned several Private Stocks and honestly this thing feels just as nice as any of those! I'm not sure if the neck received the special treatment they offer at the PTC or not but she feels SUPER smooth, almost like she was oiled and then buffed/polished up quite a bit. Still feels like natural wood but significantly smoother feeling than any of my prior rosewood-necked PRS in the past. Whatever they did, it's perfect.

I personally LOVE the original P22 (which were basically 53/10's wired for 4 conductor operation) pickups and I was fortunate enough that they were able to hook me up with another set for this one because they are just magical with a solid rosewood neck! Rosewood necks have that unique mid-range honk to them that in some guitars works well, in others it can be almost overbearing. The original P22 pickups had a nice way of evening out a solid rosewood neck (the first P22 I owned was a 10 top with an IRW neck) so that is not nearly as noticeable as it would be with other pickups that really add to those midrange frequencies that are less-than-desirable to most folks. This one sounds great, chords ring out clearly, single note runs have a good deal of bite to them and the IRW neck adds that extra bit of snap to the attack as well. Mahogany necks seem to have that blooming decay, whereas rosewood necks seem to have that instant attack that just sustains and sings a bit, I love them both for different applications! Since a lot of stuff I play is either high gain (metal, hard rock or alternative) or super clean, the rosewood neck works out very well as they seem to stay very clear with high gain metal riffing!

I was SUPER fortunate in that I missed out on the P24 limited run from the Experience this year but PRS told me for this one even though the original was the standard P22 hardtail model, they had no issue with giving me the P22 trem version which is awesome as my other P22 (10 top, Solana Burst finish, 2012 model w/ original P22 / 53/10 pickups) has the original hardtail piezo bridge so the variety between the two is excellent! The saddles on the PRS piezo trem feel wonderful, if (when... haha) I spec out a Private Stock, it will definitely have this bridge on there. The saddles on some piezo-equipped bridges can feel a bit awkward with the piezo elements sticking out too far, but the PRS trem feels very natural, so kudos on the brass saddles you guys put together with the piezo elements in there, very well-done IMO!

Piezo tone as anyone who has tried a P22/P22 Trem can tell you is just outstanding. The PRS/L.R. Baggs piezo preamp is one of the most natural-sounding piezo preamps on the market, again just IMHO. I've tried a bunch of them including the Graphtech Ghost and L.R. Baggs Ctrl-X preamps (the Ctrl-X is close, but the PRS version seems tweaked to sound a bit sweeter to my ears?) but the PRS unit just sounds the best as far as I'm concerned. Absolutely love it! It almost makes me want to save up and buy a nicer acoustic amp like one of the AER models just because it sounds so great, it seems like it would be worth it to have even nicer amplification for the piezo than my humble Roland AC60 is able to offer.

Fit and finish is top notch as always, I mean c'mon.... it's a PRS. As I mentioned previously, I'm totally stoked with how well the finish team was able to match the requested Trampas Fade sample I sent them! I've seen quite a bit of variation in the staining (I know some of it has to do with the original shade of natural maple, the darker the maple the darker the stain will come out, etc.) of the Trampas Fades floating around out there, so I selected one that was on a guitar I desperately tried to grab and missed out by a day and I was blown away when I opened the case and saw that they nailed it perfectly!!! I'm pretty picky too, this stain is truly fantastic and I'm VERY appreciative of them going the extra mile and selecting a piece of maple that was both highly figured Artist Package grade flamed maple and that it was just light enough to allow the finish folks to knock that stain out of the park!

Few weeks in and I'm still smitten with this thing, I had another guitar arrive recently and I've been sick for a few days so I haven't even spent much time with that one yet, but I get the feeling while that one will be getting some play time as well, I'm likely going to be spending a LOT of time jamming on this one. Thinking about leaving this P22 Trem in standard tuning to cover standard and Drop-D stuff and then putting my P22 hardtail into Eb so I can cover the Eb/Db stuff easily! All in all, I could not be happier with this guitar and my sincerest thanks to the good folks in Maryland @ PRS for taking such good care of me! Love the guitar, love the company! :adore:

 

[jfb]

Love the company indeed.

:adore:

 

[markie]

Frigg'in Killer Guitar ....................................... Bang a Gong :rock:

 

[CantankerousCarl]

Again, a great story, great company, and great guitar - glad you are in love with her.

Top fade is killer, and I really dig the blonde back with the dark neck.

 

[FunkyFreeman]

Couple more shots of this beauty, the color is absolutely spot-on compared to what I asked them to match!

(sorry one semi-blurry iPhone shot mixed in here! haha)

Congrat! It's my first time seeing trampas green fade. Very awesome.

But P22 neck&bridge pups? Never heard of these before. I guess the correct info should have been 57/08 instead.

This mistake occurred on the hang tag of my 2006 Singlecut too. The tag written Dragon II pups but as I unscrewed the pups to see the model name stamped underneath, they were #7 pups.

 

[HighGain510]

Congrat! It's my first time seeing trampas green fade. Very awesome.

But P22 neck&bridge pups? Never heard of these before. I guess the correct info should have been 57/08 instead.

This mistake occurred on the hang tag of my 2006 Singlecut too. The tag written Dragon II pups but as I unscrewed the pups to see the model name stamped underneath, they were #7 pups.

Nope, no mistake. I requested the original P22 (53/10) pickups for this one since that's what the guitar that went missing had. If you buy a new P22 now, yes, you would get 57/08's as that is what they come with stock currently. In this case it absolutely has "real" P22 pickups, that's not a typo on the hang tag.

 

[HighGain510]

I just realized I hadn't posted the Thanksgiving pictures when I went up to Philly to visit my family (which in and of itself was a miracle, had to work overtime for 6 weeks to make it happen since I had zero vacation time left, totally worth it!), seems we have made another (adorable!) little PRS fan in my niece/godchild, Ava!

It was so cute to see how beyond fascinated she was by the guitar! Getting her into music early, eh? My brother's wife is a beautiful soprano (she sang at our wedding too which was pretty awesome!) so she has the love of music running in her genes for sure! Uncle Matt needs to get her one of those little micro guitars as a birthday present one year, maybe we can kickstart another little Garcia guitarist? :rock:


P.S. Trampasaurus Rex is one of THE nicest PRS I've had to date, feels like a Private Stock and sounds incredible! When I finally get around to ordering my self-spec'd Private Stock, it will absolutely have the P22 piezo-loaded tremolo bridge, I have zero doubt about that! :adore:

 

[studio66]

Beautiful guitar...fades weren't really on my radar but they are now!!
Congrats!!

 

[11top]

That's exceptionally nice.

 

[C&M Music - Lafayette]

Killer fade. Beautiful Guitar

 

[wardog]

When I finally get around to ordering my self-spec'd Private Stock, it will absolutely have the P22 piezo-loaded tremolo bridge, I have zero doubt about that! :adore:

+1 just got a Boyd burst p22 for Christmas and I love the P22 trem. The Boyd burst is awesome. Sorry no pics yet. promised the wife I would put it under the tree. Maybe this weekend when she is not looking.:santa:

 

[rugerpc]

Noice!

 

[technomancer]

Absolutely awesome guitar, love the Trampas Fade

 

[jfb]

Absolutely awesome guitar, love the Trampas Fade

I like it a lot more now that it makes me think of dinosaurs.

 

[BobbyD]

That's a spectacular guitar with an equally awesome name! I always enjoy the reminder that a company that I like really like goes above and beyond to show their appreciation for their customers.

Thank you for the pics and the wonderful story!