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Do PRS Dragon II pickups suck?


alphamarquis

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I'm always curious about questions like this. On the one hand I'm tempted to say, "Absolutely: Paul Reed Smith gave 'em a listen and said, 'Cool, these really suck: I want them in as many two-thousand-dollars-plus guitars as we can stuff 'em in from here on out!'"

 

On the other, I know (think?) the OP intended a serious question. Therefore, I'll offer my personal opinion: I prefer McCarty's (and, yes, I know Ed Roman hates them :)), but the Dragons most certainly don't "suck". :rolleyes:

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I am pretty sure the dragons (at least the dragon IIs) are alnico. the HFS was ceramic.

 

 

 

that would really explain a lot as to why i prefered the dragons over the HFS as i really dont like what ceramic magnets do to the tone.

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I have a set of Dragon IIs in my Ibanez SZ and I can confirm that(for me at least) they most certainly do not suck.

The bridge pickup is not too dissimilar to the JB i have in another guitar, but with a bit less bite in the midrange, a lovley smooth fat sound for leads and nice chunk for heavy rhythm. The neck pickup can get a little muddy, but is real rich and warm sounding with some great harmonic overtones.

clean tones can sound a little dull depending on amp, but with a bit of overdrive they can really sing.

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Everyone is going to like and dislike different pickups. Furthermore, what may sound good on one guitar may not on another. If you don't like them at first, experiment with your settings and if after awhile you still don't like them, get something else.

 

For example, almost everyone loves a JB in their bridge but I find them too harsh. But that's just me.

 

Billy

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The Dragon II's are great pickups. I have them in a CE22. The bridge pickup measures 12.7 K and the neck is 7.8 K. This combination works really well when you combine the the inside or outside coils of each pickup in parallel, you get very usable faux single coil sounds that really sound like single coils. The bridge pickup really cooks for leads and beefy power chords, and the neck pickup is perfect for rhythm or jazz sounds.

 

I own at least 12 very nice guitars with humbuckers (Fender, Gibson Rick, Gretsch, PRS). I even have one of those ultra expensive EVH relic pickups on one of my Les Pauls. The Dragon II's are right up there with the best of the hotter PAF's that I play which, besides the EVH includes Duncan Pearly Gates, BB Pro, 57 Classic Plus, TV Jones Classic Plus, Custom Shop Seth Lovers with Alnico V's, and so on.

 

Some players complain about the darker sounding Dragon II neck pickup, but you don't want your neck pickup to sound just like your bridge pickup, do you? It's supposed to sound different. You have to spend time with neck pickups and see what they can (and can't) do. There are so many cool textures that you can do with a neck humbucker on a PRS, especially with the high quality pots and caps that they use. You roll back the tone and crank the volume so it's just starting to break up a Fender Deluxe and it's like heaven.

 

OK, I'll step down off my PRS soapbox.

 

But I gotta post a photo:

 

prsp2.jpg

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wait for the new james tyler pickups. i was at a pseudo "focus group" over the weekend and got to hear all of his new pickups. friggin amazing. people are going to be saying "bareknuckle who?"

 

seriously. james tyler knocked it out of the park with these.

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I see, I think I am not used to such powerful pickups, the strongest thing I have in my arsenal regularly are P-90s or a Duncan Seth Lover (in an ASAT).

After playing some more, I find that I can really dial in a sweet dirty tone with my OCD running into my Maz 38. But when I run it clean it seems a little lacking.

 

So I think they just aren't my taste, albeit a great pickup, a bit strong for me. I don't feel like going on a swap frenzy yet, so I'll just keep noodling.

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