My first PRS!! First impressions... (it's a long one)

[krugerj]

Okay hey guys, update on my "First PRS NGD" thread. Before I start, the seller actually found the tremolo arm and sent it over to me! Just a disclaimer before I get into it, THIS IS NOT A HATE THREAD!!!! This is just my first impressions, and most importantly MY OPINION! I am not bashing anyone else, I just want to put this stuff out there.

Alright, here goes.

I've done some inspecting and some playing around with the 1999 PRS Custom 22 that I ordered, and while it is a very nice well-built instrument, I have found some significant issues...

First of all, the pickups. I can't seem to bond with the Dragon II pickups that are in here. I play a lot of jazz and blues, and those pickups don't seem to stand up nearly as well to the other humbucker guitars I own on cleans, and sound a little like a blanket is covering the speaker. With some gain, the neck pickup has a bit more life, but the bridge isn't the nicest sounding, especially in a mix for my uses. The neck pickup is definitely a bit more usable than the bridge pickup though, which I find pretty honky and "loud".

Second of all, the 5-way rotary switch. I find that only the "10" and the "6" are usable (bridge and neck), with "7" "8" and "9" being completely unusable for anything I need. Playing, the volume drops by more than half when using any of the middle positions, and they sound too "quacky", for lack of a better term (and not like a single-coil S-type nice "quack"). Also, the switch itself is pretty unwieldy in a live setting for switching back and forth quickly. Now, I know there is a pretty simple mod to change this to a 3-way switch, but I wanted to put it out there.

Third of all, and this is entirely related to this specific guitar, the 7th-fret inlay (which has this the word) abalone seems to have cracked down the middle and has sunk pretty far into the rosewood (I can feel the crack in the abalone, and the sharp ridges of the fretboard around the inlay when I run my finger over the inlay). I don't know what could have caused this, but I am a little worried about the integrity of the neck (see photo below, although doesn't really show in a pic).

Honourable mention is the gen. 1 wing tuners, which seem like a pretty innovative design in theory, but in practice have caused me nothing but stress when I have to restring the guitar. It feels like I need 3 hands just to restring it!

And finally, and this is just going to need a set-up to see, but the tremolo is as of now pretty unusable. A preliminary check looks like it should stay in tune, but any use of the bar throws the whole guitar wildly out of tune. This should be easily fixed though.

Let me know what you guys think, I think I need some encouragement here...

Thanks for reading!

 

[Bill SAS 513]

Wow...love the color...Congrats. Any second hand guitar can use a tune-up, to bring it to your personal specs. I am a fan of the Dragons...for rock stuff, mostly, so it makes sense that you might consider swapping them out. A good pro set-up could make a big difference. Good luck. And the inlay...I haven't seen that before...??

And swapping to a 3 way toggle would be simple...btw...many prefer that over the 5 way rotary.

 

[Screamingdaisy]

It took me awhile to bond with positions 7 and 9.

Where I came to appreciate them is that we have a couple songs where the rhythm was originally done on an acoustic, and for live performance an electric was too strident and punchy. Those in between settings scooped and softened the guitar enough that it sat further back in the mix, giving us the effect we wanted, then would punch forward for leads when set to position 10.

Beyond that... Dragons are rock pickups.

 

[merciful-evans]

Hi. I have never experienced Dragon II pickups but your description reminds me of the 1st impression I had of one of my cheaper guitars. I eventually 'tamed' it by backing off volume to 3 or 4 along with more extreme (than usual) EQ control at the amp/signal proc. end.

I mention this only because eventually I found a wonderful and unique jazz tone on that guitar. Hopefully you wont need to swap out the pickups, but sometimes its the only option. Good luck.

Nice looking guitar too BTW

 

[Rider1260]

Congrats on the new guitar !!!!
Pickups - Dragon II s are hotter pickups the bridge runs 11-12 K the neck Dragon II is one of my favorite neck pickups, I had great luck dropping the Bridge pickup down pretty low and it became very nice.
Also the longer I own PRS guitars the more useful I find the controls, I've found useful tones all over the place on the vol and tone controls
Inlay - You have nothing to fear as far as neck goes and the inlay could be replaced by PTC ( PRS Tech Center ) if it bugs you it is possible that is a natural flaw in the inlay material and does not go all the way thru, If you look at the videos the inlays are glued in really well.

 

[gush]

I have 3 prs with rotary switch. I do find the in between positions useful but I use them with volume rolled down for a cleaner tone.

I had a cu22 with dragon 2s and I liked the guitar a lot when I was using my 5150 cabs. It was my cover all the bases guitar. I switched to celestion loaded cabs and all my guitars sounded better except the cu22.

I traded it to rider 1260.

Adjusting height on prs pickups makes a huge difference and I recommend trying that.

I can't get along with wing tuners but then why should I when ph2 and pH3 tuners are the bomb??????

 

[gush]

I will also add that the prs trem is pretty good. I can't say it is as stable as a floyd but it's close. Sergio seems to have the magic touch to make them work really well.

I bought a beater ce22 some time ago and the trem claw was screwed tight to the body so the trem was resting on the body.

The guitar has the midi pickup screw holes in the body and cracks in the neck pocket.

I replaced the springs, set the trem up correctly including resetting the fulcrum screws and replaced wings with brass post ph2s. THAT FREAKIN GUITAR ROCKS!!!! And it's probably the most stable prs trem I own. I can push bar to the body and still come back in tune. The dragon 1s rock to hell and back. Even though it's a beater I just can't sell it. Never.

I also open up the radius on my trem arm a bit so it's not parallel to body anymore so when it hits the body, it's down there.

There is hope sir.

 

[Herr Squid]

That guitar should be pretty great with a bit of TLC.

Dragon II pickups are alright for RAWK with a high gain amp, and sorta OK with clean-clean tones. But PRS started making drastically better pickups 10 years ago, and not many people miss those Dragon IIs. If you're thinking you want different pickups and a 3-way switch, yeah you're right. Don't second guess that.

The winged tuners were designed for quick string changes, and they do work for that. One thing to know is that you don't need to clamp down the little levers before you start winding the string. If you line things up right, you can just drop the string in the slot on the collar, then turn the tuning key to tighten the string. If you're turning the right way, the collar will grab the string and tighten. Then give the lever little push to snug it down and then finish tuning the string. A photo of the headstock would show us if it's strung right.

That one inlay may have a problem, but PRS necks are very stout and what you're seeing probably doesn't mean the neck is bad.

 

[AP515]

Dragon II's are a love hate relationship. Probably the set most replaces of all PRS pickups. Drop some 57/08's in there and get a set up from the PTC and you will have a lifelong playmate!