Question for 40th Anniversary Dragon Guitar Owners

Pearl123

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Jul 28, 2024
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Hi all, I’ve been fortunate enough to own a 40th Anniversary Dragon Guitar (my first Dragon), and I’m curious to hear from other owners—do you play yours regularly?

Personally, I’ve been adjusting to the fretboard, especially since it doesn’t have inlay markers. I’ve found that when I look down while playing sitting down, the fretboard can feel a bit visually busy (though it’s better when standing up since my sight is at the topside of the fretboard). I guess I'm used to plain regular fretboards. That said, I really love the guitar overall—it’s absolutely stunning, even more so than the pictures in the PRS advertisements. The real-life version isn’t as dark as the pictures online.

As for the feel, I think I still prefer rosewood for the fretboard, but the playability and tone of this guitar are phenomenal. It’s definitely a joy.

I’d love to hear your thoughts—how are you liking the fretboard feel and the overall experience of playing it? I’d also love to know how you maintain your Dragon guitar. Do you have any specific care routines or products you’d recommend to keep it in top shape?

Looking forward to your replies!
 
I don't have a dragon but I can tell you that I never see the birds on my fretboard once I grab the guitar to play it. At that point the birds become something for people watching play to look at. I have seen plenty of posts from people that can't play a PRS with birds because they are not the standard dot fret markers that they are used to. That has never been an issue for me. I learned to navigate from the side dots many moons ago. I play a lot standing up and it is pretty difficult to see the frond of the fretboard in that position for me. I would encourage anyone to learn to navigate by the side dots on the fretboard. That is what they are there for.

I did have a guitar built for me that I specified to use abalone for the side dots. My thought was that they would use the lighter more light reflective pieces since they were for side dots. Well, they didn't. There were a few that were the darker green abalone. After making some pretty bad sounding mistakes at gigs, I had to have those drilled out and replaced with white material so I can see them. Thankfully it was an easy job and the luthier I had do it didn't charge me too much to do it. I don't ever want to repeat that situation. Some of the old PRS metal side dots were hard to see as well. They were pretty small.
 
I like LED side dots on my Alembic, you can now get them aftermarket
ricf.jpg
fretfx is the place
 
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