My custom DF is 10 years old now!!!

[Notes_Norton]

I can't believe it. Time flies when you are having fun. It's still my new guitar, I'm still delighted to play it, and it's still everything I need in an electric guitar.

DF522NN model (NN for Notes Norton).

Regular USA Dragonfly/Maxxfly but with 2 Duncan P-Rail pickups giving me 4 sounds

• P-90 (my absolute favorite and I use this 90% of the time
• Rail (probably the weakest but if I play both pickups in the rail position it sounds strat-ish enough
• Series Humbucker (sounds like a mini-humbucker)
• Parallel Humbucker

Plus it has the piezo under the bridge. My fx pedal has a better sounding acoustic model than the thinner sounding piezo in the guitar so I use it if I want an acoustic sound. On the other hand blending the piezo with the mag pickups adds some sparkle and twang and gives me more varieties of sounds.

Before COVID (and hopefully after) I brought this to the gig, and I gig for a living. I play sax, wind synth, flute, and guitar on the gig so depending on the gig and the audience, the guitar gets from 40-60% of the songs. There is virtually no fret wear but a little fretboard wood wear (not enough to be concerned about). It still stays in tune remarkably well, it's of course still balanced and comfortable, and I can't think of playing anything else on the gig.



The guitar still looks like this except for some pick wear on the body. Sometimes I wish I had put a clear scratch plate on it, but it's too late for that.



The little slide switches give me the pickup combinations.

So on Monday 2020/11/23 it's "Happy 10th Birthday" to my new guitar.

Insights and incites by Notes

[vjmanzo]

Terrific-looking Guitar, Notes! Congrats on closing the first of many decades to come with this beautiful instrument!

[mmmguitar]

Terrific guitar, Notes. As scary as it is, I often daydream of mounting P rails with triple shot rings on one of my pre-refined Flys. I plan to get that out of my system with one of my Steinbergers, instead.

[Notes_Norton]

Thanks for the kind words about my guitar.

Terrific guitar, Notes. As scary as it is, I often daydream of mounting P rails with triple shot rings on one of my pre-refined Flys. I plan to get that out of my system with one of my Steinbergers, instead.

I had the Parker factory do it. I suppose I could do it myself if the guitar was routed for two humbuckers.

I played a Gibson ES330 at home and a Faux-LP (LTD) that I put GFS Mean 90s on for the gig. I can solder and follow instructions so it wasn't too bad. The difficulty was working in tight spaces and being farsighted since I was a kid.

Then I bought a DF524NS. After playing P90s on the gig for a few years, anything else just sounds dull. I loved everything else about the guitar immediately, except for the loss of the P90 sound.

So I had Parker make the DF522NN for me. I had investigated P-Rails/triple-shot rings and everybody I wrote to loved them, so I took the chance. I'm glad i did.

Some nights the guitar never gets off the P90 configuration. Some songs need the humbucker sound, and I hardly ever use the rails, but they are there if I need them.

At home I practice with the 524 and I bring the 522 to the gig. If something ever happens to the 522 I'll use the 524 and look for something I can put P-Rails into (pehaps an SG).

Since I switch instruments a lot, sometimes every other song, I like a light guitar. The sax is heavy enough, I don't need another heavy instrument. We've been known to play 4 hours straight without a break (we do charge them for that and they know they can ask for it).

Here are both of them:



Ntes

[Mr303]

Soon it will be old enough to go to the bar by itself.....they grow up so fast.

[Notes_Norton]

I hope they don't ask for the car keys

[Notes_Norton]

Thanks for the kind words about my guitar.

Terrific guitar, Notes. As scary as it is, I often daydream of mounting P rails with triple shot rings on one of my pre-refined Flys. I plan to get that out of my system with one of my Steinbergers, instead.

I had the Parker factory do it. I suppose I could do it myself if the guitar was routed for two humbuckers.

I played a Gibson ES330 at home and a Faux-LP (LTD) that I put GFS Mean 90s on for the gig. I can solder and follow instructions so it wasn't too bad. The difficulty was working in tight spaces and being farsighted since I was a kid.

Then I bought a DF524NS. After playing P90s on the gig for a few years, anything else just sounds dull. I loved everything else about the guitar immediately, except for the loss of the P90 sound.

So I had Parker make the DF522NN for me. I had investigated P-Rails/triple-shot rings and everybody I wrote to loved them, so I took the chance. I'm glad i did.

Some nights the guitar never gets off the P90 configuration. Some songs need the humbucker sound, and I hardly ever use the rails, but they are there if I need them.

At home I practice with the 524 and I bring the 522 to the gig. If something ever happens to the 522 I'll use the 524 and look for something I can put P-Rails into (pehaps an SG).

Since I switch instruments a lot, sometimes every other song, I like a light guitar. The sax is heavy enough, I don't need another heavy instrument. We've been known to play 4 hours straight without a break (we do charge them for that and they know they can ask for it).

Here are both of them:



Notes