“When I was a teenager, I had a dream about a guitar with a dragon inlaid down the neck. That dream has since become an important part of our history”: How Paul Reed Smith created the ultimate Dragon for PRS Guitars’ 40th Anniversary

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Debuting PRS’s “throaty” new McCarty III humbuckers, the Private Stock 40th Anniversary McCarty Dragon is a work of art and a triumph of engineering – and, says Smith, it’s built to play

PRS Private Stock 40th Anniversary McCarty Dragon
(Image credit: Future / Phil Barker)

Back in 1992, PRS Guitars was just seven years old and plenty of people thought the first Dragon guitar was the beginning of the end.

For a brand in its infancy known for high-end opulent guitars, that Dragon was a ‘love it or hate it’ run of just 50 pieces aimed not for the stage but for very well-heeled collectors. In reality, that particular guitar was more the starting point: a redesign of the recipe.

Up until that stage, PRS’s set-neck guitars were only available with 24 frets. The Dragon introduced a shorter (and stiffer) 22-fret Wide Fat profile neck with a longer heel and a slightly steeper headstock back-angle in an attempt to improve the sound.

“Ralph Perucci and I designed it on my kitchen table at Christmas,” Paul Reed Smith told this writer back in the day. “We talked about the changes, and I knew we had to change the neck. Any time I’d found an old guitar with a short, fat neck it sounded better.”

That first ’92 Dragon also introduced the PRS Stoptail one-piece wrapover bridge and another first was the set of covered humbuckers (Dragons, naturally). This design led directly to the standard production Custom 22 in 1993, followed by the McCarty Model in 1994.

PRS Private Stock 40th Anniversary McCarty Dragon

The inlay design was drawn by Je Easley of Dungeons & Dragons fame – a relationship that goes back to the ’94 Dragon III. The inlay comprises more than 200 pieces including blue Paci c opal, brown scale Juma, and gold, black, white and brown mother-of-pearl. It was realised by Aulson Inlay who continues the work of the late Larry Sifel and Pearl Works, which made the original Dragon inlay possible. (Image credit: Future / Phil Barker)

Priced at $17,500/£18,995, today’s 40th Anniversary Dragon is the 10th Dragon we’ve seen since 1992 and it’s certainly a sizeable investment (although the 2005 20th Anniversary Dragon Double Neck cost an eye-watering £32k on its launch). This latest model is limited to 165 pieces, with 40 heading to the UK and Europe.

The new Dragon is based on the PRS McCarty platform and has a mahogany back and Private Stock-grade figured maple top – “the kinda flame maple people dream of,” says Paul. “This is the rare stuff!” The neck is ziricote and the fingerboard is Gaboon ebony with a pale moon ebony insert. It’s all finished in a gloss nitro Burnt Chestnut.

“I don’t want to just make some piece of art,” says Paul Reed Smith today. “I want it to be an extraordinary instrument. It should be able to be used at a recording session, a gig. It should be a helluva guitar. That’s important to me and that’s what I really like about this 40th Anniversary Dragon.”

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PRS Private Stock 40th Anniversary McCarty Dragon
The production version of that first Dragon (without the inlay) was the 1993 Custom 22, which used the changes in the design and was the first non-limited guitar to feature the Stoptail bridge and (uncovered) Dragon Treble and Bass pickups. The ceramic-powered Treble aimed for a big ‘fat’ voicing “with zero loss of clarity”, said PRS, while the Bass pickup was lower output and more PAF-like with an “angelic” high-end. Those original first-version Dragon pickups are now highly desirable among PRS aficionados. “We always used Dragons to release new pickups,” says Paul today. “While those Dragon Is were about us dipping into more turns to give it a throatier sound, the new McCarty IIIs are throaty but in a very clear way”. As with the first Dragon, the machined aluminium PRS Stoptail bridge is used, but here it employs the small brass inserts under the string break points, another small tonal tweak that’s favoured by Paul Reed Smith, and the same bridge that’s used on his Paul’s Guitar.(Image credit: Future / Phil Barker)

The production version of that first Dragon (without the inlay) was the 1993 Custom 22, which used the changes in the design and was the first non-limited guitar to feature the Stoptail bridge and (uncovered) Dragon Treble and Bass pickups. The ceramic-powered Treble aimed for a big ‘fat’ voicing “with zero loss of clarity”, said PRS, while the Bass pickup was lower output and more PAF-like with an “angelic” high-end.

Those original first-version Dragon pickups are now highly desirable among PRS aficionados. “We always used Dragons to release new pickups,” says Paul today. “While those Dragon Is were about us dipping into more turns to give it a throatier sound, the new McCarty IIIs are throaty but in a very clear way”

PRS Private Stock 40th Anniversary McCarty Dragon

These new McCarty III pickups are “vintage- inspired pickups that bring a vocal clarity to their full, warm tone” – and this is all PRS is saying. Guitarist contributor Neville Marten recently had a chance to play this 40th Dragon and commented: “I was reminded just how good a PRS guitar can sound – that rich, dark avour that cleans up really well and sounds very sweet. It’s a proper grown-up sounding guitar.” (Image credit: Future / Phil Barker)
  • The Private Stock 40th Anniversary McCarty Dragon is available now, priced $17,500/£18,995. See PRS Guitars for more details.
Dave Burrluck
Dave Burrluck
Gear Reviews Editor, Guitarist

Dave Burrluck is one of the world’s most experienced guitar journalists, who started writing back in the '80s for International Musician and Recording World, co-founded The Guitar Magazine and has been the Gear Reviews Editor of Guitarist magazine for the past two decades. Along the way, Dave has been the sole author of The PRS Guitar Book and The Player's Guide to Guitar Maintenance as well as contributing to numerous other books on the electric guitar. Dave is an active gigging and recording musician and still finds time to make, repair and mod guitars, not least for Guitarist’s The Mod Squad.

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