NGD: PRS DC3 Review

S

slang05

Guest
Got this guitar for about 3 weeks now, so not much of a NGD! I wanted to wait for the love of the 'new" guitar to wear off a bit so I could be honest and objective. Knowing some of the people on here, I'm sure some of my thoughts will piss you off. But I could care less if I do cause this is how I honestly feel about this guitar. Anyway, I don't think I need to go into details about the specs on this guitar..So here is my review of it...

Finish: Vintage Burst..Beautiful..Very Classy..I don't think anybody does a better job of finishing a guitar than PRS.

Sound: Wonderful, sounds like a strat, but a tad warmer. Obviously he was going for that strat vibe, and he nailed it. I do find it a bit annoying that the 3 pickups are crammed into such a small area. I've had to lower the middle pickup to keep from hitting it with my pick. Not a big deal to me, I rarely use the middle pickup anyway.

Hardware: Stays in tune, wonderful bridge..crappy position for the 5 way switch, crammed between the tone and volume controls make it extremely difficult to switch between pick up positions. The tone control is really nice. It does not make the guitar sound muddy when turned down like a lot of guitars. Actually evens out the thinness of the bridge pick up. Gives it a bit more balls.

Neck: Catch 22. The neck itself is VERY comfortable, and so smooth! But the frets suck. He really screwed the pooch putting Jumbo frets on this guitar. He should have stuck with the regular size frets (medium??medium jumbo maybe??) that he uses on everything else. Here's the deal, if you play this guitar only and you get use to the size of the frets..it plays like no other guitar. But if you are a gigging musician like myself and have to switch guitars every so often (for me its a strat, tele, McCarty, Cu22) it makes very difficult. I find myself over playing when I switch away from the DC3 and I find that I play sloppy when I switch to the DC3.

Overall: On a scale of 1-10 I'd give it a 6. What is the sense of having a beautiful guitar that sounds amazing, looks so nice, and plays so badly? And again, if this is the only guitar you plan on playing, its perfect once you get use to the frets, but its damn near impossible to switch back and forth with other guitars. This guitar is a beautiful, hot woman who is smokin in the sack, but says the dumbest ****! If you never talk to anybody else, you'll think shes the smartest woman alive! Personally, I will not be keeping this guitar. I'm into playing guitars, not storing them! There is no reason for me to have a guitar that I can't gig with! Plus I can get the same tone from my other guitars.

I honestly wish that I loved this guitar, but I don't. I really love the idea of a PRS strat, but I think this guitar will go down as a miss for PRS and be discontinued fairly soon. I just dont think a lot of players looking for a strat type guitar will go into a guitar center, pick up this guitar and immediately fall in love with it. And then pay $300 more than a Deluxe strat that probably plays better to them.

There you go PRS forum world..I'm sure someone is going to rip me for dogging a PRS.
 
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If you want a Strat, I would say get a strat, but playability will be so much better on a PRS than Fender. I have a Fender EJ signature strat and certainly doesn't feel like the PRS maple necks. I like that part, but could not spend that much on a PRS Strat. McCartys, Custom 22s or ME I or II will always be on my short list.
 
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