PRS DGT review - the story so far and a question...

[Twinfan]

I've had my DGT for a couple of weeks now, and it'll be heading out for its first gig tomorrow night.  I've had to spend a lot of time playing this guitar (leaving my new PS Sig Ltd neglected!) in order to get it dialled in.  It seems to have taken WAY longer than any other guitar to get "right".  I *think* I'm happy with it now, but the gig will be the proper test.  Overall the guitar sounds great, split sounds are really tasty/useful and it's a little smoother sounding overall than the Modern Eagle.  I think the trem and mahogany neck is the factor here, reducing the chime and brightness.  Not a bad thing, just different.

I've found that there's a lot of contrast between the neck and bridge tones, which is good and makes the guitar very versatile, but trying to get the neck "not too boomy" and the bridge "not too spiky" has been a real challenge.  I've ended up with the pickups a bit lower than in any of my other guitars, even though the DC resistances are pretty low.  I'm running them just under 3mm from both E polepieces to the stings when fretted at the 22nd.

It's really highlighted to me the greatness of BKP calibrated sets, where they are well matched and compliment each other.  The DGT pickups' big character difference in each position is something I'm not really used to.  I'm starting to like it though, and it's nice to have it for variety in the arsenal.

What do you guys look for in pickup sets - a big contrast, or a similar theme/tone in each position?

[Telerocker]

I like balance bec I use bridge and neck quite often in one song, but everything depends merely on taste. I can imagine a smooth, darker neckpickupsound is a nice counterpart for a biting bridgepu.

[Afghan Dave]

Just to save you the trouble next week...

http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?board=13.0

 :lol: :lol: :lol:

[gwEm]

i struggled for years getting the neck pickup to sound good in a live situation.

this didn't bother me until i got into uli jon roth, then i just had to have that neck position usable. now to do this i use very bright neck pickups (where i can) - almost as bright as the bridge.

[Twinfan]

Thanks Dave!  :lol:

I'm not planning on swapping pups, I really like them now I've got them set up, and the guitar is great so it's going nowhere either.  It's just "different", which I wasn't expecting!

[blue]

if i remember right, and it's a long time since i read it so that's debatable, he wanted it to be like a more flexible version of a fifties Les Paul Goldtop he had.  might explain why it's different to the other prs'.  it's a very nice looking guitar.  i like how goldtops manage to look understated yet opulent.  it's a more mature look, i think, than all the flamed maple. 

[gwEm]

it's a more mature look, i think, than all the flamed maple. 

I agree, take this guitar for example - sooo immature

[blue]

ha!  :D

very pretty though.  i did manage to do an afghan recently and go out with a 20 year old.  maturity's great an all, but the odd bit of pretty immaturity's hard to beat ;)

[Philly Q]

What do you guys look for in pickup sets - a big contrast, or a similar theme/tone in each position?

I've always liked a big contrast, the more the better really - pretty bright and crunchy at the bridge, really thick and fat at the neck (muddy even). 

I guess it's another manifestation of my liking for simplicity.  Amps with as few knobs as possible; on the rare occasions I muck about with pedals everything's on 0 or 10.  Basically if all gear just came with an on/off switch, then so long as it sounded good in the "on" position I'd be happy. 

Of course, unlike you guys, I don't play live.  In that position I might very well find my soupy neck pickups simply didn't work.

[dave_mc]

Just to save you the trouble next week...

http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?board=13.0

 :lol: :lol: :lol:

:lol:

Regarding the pickup thing- I hate when that happens, too. Though I'll admit I'm not much of a tweaker, I'm more set and forget (and by "set" I mean I'll fiddle about for about 10 seconds and then settle on "close enough" :lol: ).

I haven't really come up with an answer, either- I definitely want my bridge and neck pickups to sound different or there's not much point in having both, but there's definitely a sweet spot where they're sufficiently different to give you a wide range of tones, but not so different that the same amp setting doesn't sound good on each pickup.

In my (limited) experience, I think the hardest ones to match are a bright bridge pickup with a warm neck pickup- that accentuates the differences too much, I think.

[darkbluemurder]

To me the position itself makes enough difference in the final tone (e.g. a pickup in the neck spot will never sound like one in the bridge spot and vice versa) so that when I "calibrate" I look for a neck pickup that is not muddy and a bridge pickup that is not thin with the same amp settings. That allows me to switch between positions during a song without having to adjust the amp settings. So my neck pickups tend to be bright and relatively low output whereas my bridge pickups tend to be on the hotter side.

Cheers Stephan

[Twinfan]

Exactly Dave, which is what the DGT has.  I think it just takes some getting used to, and I can see it being very versatile.

It just surprised me...

[hunter]

I like my neck pickups bell like and not creamy. Hate when the difference is too big.

Sometimes it helps to wire one in modern and one in 50s wiring (as you have two volume pots, you could wire the neck in 50s and the bridge in modern).

Did you leave the 11s on or went to 10s?

[Tellboy]

Although I don't use neck pickups as much as I should I like them to have a woody sound, not too muddy/boomy. Hate it when they are turned up and the distortion sounds like a Kazoo e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC65ufGUvKM .
All my BKP sets have been very well calibrated. Notice the difference when I play my 63 SG where the neck & bridge are roughly the same DC resistance.

I have found with my PRS Studio that the volume changes tone as well as the tone control (low volume fenderish, full volume typical H/B) probably treble bleed caps which I don't normally like but PRS do it very well and the volume and tone control of the guitar is superb and produces an incredible variety of tones without touching the amp..

I would have thought on the DGT setting up the 2 volume controls as well as the tone pot should produce a good blend of the 2 pickups.

P.S. Contrary to some other members comments I like the 2nd volume control and trem  PDT_003 - think the Goldtop DGT is a great guitar. I think if I had your PS Sig and Goldtop DGT I would want to play the f**k out of the DGT all day and probably want to polish and clean the PR Sig in case I scratched it.  :lol:

[Twinfan]

Hunter - I'm sticking with 11s  :)  I can't wire it for 50's or modern easily - it's 50s style only due to the global tone pot:

http://www.prsguitars.com/csc/schematics/schem08/dgt.pdf

Tellboy - it's a great feeling guitar, I can't wait to get it out for its first gig tomorrow night!