Why does PRS still manufacture and sell Dragon II pickups but not Dragon I pickups?

[Going Modal]

While I appreciate the technical differences in how they are made, I don't hear pickups via knowing the magnet type or DC resistance. I hear them by playing in a guitar.

How do they sound once installed? Anyone have any actual experience doing an A-B comparison?

I agree. While I do appreciate the actual specifications being far different (I too often dwell on technicalities), in my real-world playing and feel experience, I tend to associate them together as similar/surrogates of each other. For example, on paper that Dragon 1 bridge pickup should be ridiculously hot (like, beyond Seymour Duncan JB type hot) but in reality it isn't.

 

[Lewguitar]

I agree. While I do appreciate the actual specifications being far different (I too often dwell on technicalities), in my real-world playing and feel experience, I tend to associate them together as similar/surrogates of each other. For example, on paper that Dragon 1 bridge pickup should be ridiculously hot (like, beyond Seymour Duncan JB type hot) but in reality it isn't.

The Dragon I is a stronger pickup with more push than the JB. The JB is not as hot or thick sounding as a Dragon I bridge pickup. I've had them in the same guitar.

When I see a 19K pickup with a ceramic magnet I KNOW it's going to be much thicker sounding and push my amp a lot harder than an 8K pickup with an alnico 2 magnet.

Can't predict if I'll like or not or if it'll sound like a Duncan Distortion, a Dimarzio Super Distortion or a PRS Dragon I.

But I KNOW the direction the designer was aiming for.

 

[shinksma]

Can't predict if I'll like or not or if it'll sound like a Duncan Distortion, a Dimarzio Super Distortion or a PRS Dragon I.

So I have a set of Dimarzio Super Distortions from a late-70s or early-80s Fly V clone made by El Degas. Strangest place to find them, in retrospect, but apparently El Degas put them in a number of models.

I don't play that guitar at all any more (it's a heavy plywood beast)...maybe I should take out those pups and put them in something that I do play...

 

[gush]

While I appreciate the technical differences in how they are made, I don't hear pickups via knowing the magnet type or DC resistance. I hear them by playing in a guitar.

How do they sound once installed? Anyone have any actual experience doing an A-B comparison?

Yes....I have both in guitars.

They are nothing alike in my opinion.

I've mentioned this before but I have 5909s in a 2011 cu24 and I hear traces of tele bridge pickup but on steroids. It cleans up very quickly when rolling back vol pot and gets brighter.

1997 Ce22 D1s.....I have these mounted pretty low in the pickup rings so they're more articulate but rolling vol pot down in all 5 positions really creates a pleasing tone, a little more thick or rich.

I hear early Bad Company tones with this guitar set up this way.

This particular CE was purchased AFTER hearing folks on here rave about D1s AND I wore I'd never like rotary switching. This guitar won me over with rotary switching. Thought I'd just swap it out but never felt the need.

I think I've had this CE for ten years now. It is a beater and I think I paid 900.00 for it. Had to do a couple of things to it to make it right but other than pickup rings and ph 2 tuners it is the way it was when I got it.

I gave away two sets of wing tuners during that time, probably should have kept the tuners but WTH?????

 

[Lewguitar]

So I have a set of Dimarzio Super Distortions from a late-70s or early-80s Fly V clone made by El Degas. Strangest place to find them, in retrospect, but apparently El Degas put them in a number of models.

I don't play that guitar at all any more (it's a heavy plywood beast)...maybe I should take out those pups and put them in something that I do play...

Tom Scholz made a fortune with that sound. Go for it!

 

[Lewguitar]

Yes....I have both in guitars.

They are nothing alike in my opinion.

I've mentioned this before but I have 5909s in a 2011 cu24 and I hear traces of tele bridge pickup but on steroids. It cleans up very quickly when rolling back vol pot and gets brighter.

1997 Ce22 D1s.....I have these mounted pretty low in the pickup rings so they're more articulate but rolling vol pot down in all 5 positions really creates a pleasing tone, a little more thick or rich.

I hear early Bad Company tones with this guitar set up this way.

This particular CE was purchased AFTER hearing folks on here rave about D1s AND I wore I'd never like rotary switching. This guitar won me over with rotary switching. Thought I'd just swap it out but never felt the need.

I think I've had this CE for ten years now. It is a beater and I think I paid 900.00 for it. Had to do a couple of things to it to make it right but other than pickup rings and ph 2 tuners it is the way it was when I got it.

I gave away two sets of wing tuners during that time, probably should have kept the tuners but WTH?????

I find the rotary switch on my 90's CE22's to be inconvenient to use, but I love the otherwise unobtainable sounds it gets.

I like that #3 position of the rotary switch which is not the two humbuckers combined, but instead one coil of each humbucker in series to create the sound of a MIDDLE HUMBUCKER.

I'd never change it and I think of my '95 and '97 CE22's as being collectible guitars.

But my '00 CE22 had already had the original pickups removed and a 3 way installed when I bought it. The 3 way is much easier to use and the BKP Abraxas pickups I put in sound great.

I have a push/pull switch on the tone control for the single coil stuff.