Paul Reed Smith Guitars EG-3 Bolt-On

i have an eg made presumably in the mid nineties. i have looked for serial number info on prs's website and e-mailed them for the particulars and have had no luck. serial# 353027. H-S-H configuration. a red to black sunburst finish. presumably an alder body with a three-piece maple top and a rosewood fretboard and maple neck. locking tuners that are the easiest to replace strins with i have ever had. love those tuners push-pull coil tap on tone knob. puchased used for 600 dollars around 98. still seems like a great buy.

sound is always a bit subjective i suppose. to my ears the single coils sound as good as most i have heard. i play a good deal of blues and 80's rock. through my fender twin it is very smooth through the humbuckers and when you pull the coil tap it sounds very good. on par with any strat i have heard. through my mesa mark II it produces a good solid distortion. to me all prs's are a bit dark sounding which i think is why they sound so good through what is generally thought of as a middy amp such as a boogie. through the fender she sounds a bit darker than most fenders. but i like that. with the coil tap and those two amps it is a very versatile guitar.

the guitar was purchased used and i then had it re-fretted. whoever owned it befor me had done quite a number on the set-up. the frets were ground down to a nub and the action was extremly low. i had it re-fretted and set up a bit more middle of the road. otherwise the fit of the guitar is great. no complaints. my small complaints start with the finish. the neck finish has few worn spots and chips. no big deal it is an old well-traveld guitar. the issues i have are with the finish on the body. admittedly i do not go to great lengths to baby the guitar. it has nicks and bruises. the finish is starting to crack ever so slightly below the bridge, right in the middle of the fat part of the top of the guitar. hardly noticeable yet.

seems very reliable. have traveled with it very little. again, i do not baby this guitar and have had no problems other than the finish.

again, e-mailed for some info. did not purchase the guitar new from them so i am sure they are busy.

i have been playing for about 25 years on and off. more on lately than off. in addition to the prs i own a melancon vintage artist and an epiphone 335. it it were stolen i would not buy this again simply because i would spend more money next time. still a great buy though. again, i love the tuners, the coil tap and the pickups. i do think that it is a dreadfully ugly guitar. so at least my guitar and i match. i was looking at a strat at the time and this was cheaper and seemed like a better guitar. i still think so. great little axe.

This is a PRS EG 3 made in USA during 1993. Alder bodied (3 piece), sunburst, wide fat neck w/jumbo frets, 3 ?Fralin? Domino single coils, std PRS hardware incl mid-boost on pulling out the tone control, nickel locking phase 1 tuners, etc?.
What stroke me as unusual was the thinness of the body (about 4/5 of a std Fender guitar) and the neck joint which incorporates a 4-bolt maple neck that attaches to the body mainly on 2 of the screws. Actually, the screws are one pair of std length mounting bolts and a second pair underneath the neck p/up of two shorter bolts, that their designing purpose seems to be the retaining of a straight neck joint that won?t twist. Note that the neck uses a ?lip? that slips into the body, under the neck p/up and I repeat, it?s fairly obvious that vibration transfer resides solely on the first pair of (lengthier) bolts. In contrast with a usual Fender-type neck joint, the EG?s joint is fairly more delicate, as the neck is finally bolted on a surface that measures only 1/3d of my Telecaster?s neck heel depth. Read more to find out why I insist on this one.

This is a very ? very interesting guitar sound-wise, with a personality almost its own.
First impressions lead you to the Strat camp, but this is not a Strat clone, not even a ?superstrat? as one stated once in a review. Played unplugged, shows no signs of heavy compression as does the majority of bolt-on guitars, and it has a strong midrange voice, that?s hopefully translated through the Fralins into a dominant, healthy presence.
It?s not a metal monster like its costlier cousins, mainly due to the vintage personality of the pickups, but it retains the attitude found on other Smith designs, which contents a vowel ?like quality when played with gainier distortion, and a very usable clean range of tones that?s topped by a terrific middle pickup that has a tone all its own.
As a session player myself, I quickly found that positions 2 and 4 are extremely useful during mainstream sessions, while the middle and bridge p/ups are very good when played with tubescreamer ? type od?s .
The EG sonically finds its position between the CE and the Swamp Ash as a Fullerton ? ispired instrument that shares many of the tonal qualities of other PRS guitars that lean towards the budget ? end of the production line.

Like other PRS?s, the EG 3 is very easy to play with a gorgeous neck profile that?s never gonna bother you. Action can get fairly low, and with a set of 011?s you have the best of both worlds : fat highs and nice playability.
The finish is a passable topic for me, as all polyester ? coated guitars share the same pros and cons.

You?re not going to like this. I purchased this guitar 9 months ago from a great guy that runs a small store in NY (goldenageguitars.com), after an extensive search through ebay and gbase for an alder EG with no maple top, and no cracks in the neck pocket area. The PRS arrived in Greece in no time and in perfect condition (thanks again John !) and being in the middle of a summer tour of a top-5 band that I?m involved with, I simply changed strings, adjusted the rod and got in the plane for the next gig. For the next month (and after 2 full setups of the EG) I had a very versatile tone, and as the soundman stated, way better overdriven tone, but the guitar needed retightening of the neck bolts and messing around with the rod almost every 2 shows. Plus, the use of the tremolo bar made me want to step on my tuner more often than I did with a CU24 that I had some years ago, which is really an issue when you need to perform in front of 2000-3000 people every night.
Needless to say, my Melancon Tele got soon the rest of the gigs, being a true workhorse during summer tours here in the Greek islands.
Frustrated, I had the EG collecting dust until the autumn when the new recording sessions begun, and that?s when she really started to shine.
In the controllable environment of the studio, the EG 3 proved itself to be a marvellous instrument, with all the tonal qualities that I describe above, and she quickly became my number one recording guitar.
Bottom line is that, for me at least, this should not be your only guitar if you?re a gigging pro that travels a lot and has his/hers instruments facing climate and humidity changes between hours. There?s a risk here and I don?t think that my EG will be travelling again.
Keep that in mind !!

Prices seem slowly rising for the US made EGs and that puts them in a price range that does not justify their durability. But, nevertheless, they are great utility guitars, and should become a really serious recording tool for anyone into home or pro recording.
Be careful though, and think twice if you?re into buying one, as their exceptional tone obviously had its price on their designing delicacy and manufacturing instability....

USA made, tri-color sunburst, 2 piece alder body. Black pickguard, beautiful thin nitro-like finish. H/S/H with Seymour Duncan in the middle. PRS HFS HBs. Maple neck and rosewood board. The frets are medium jumbos, bigger than my Jazzmater, thinner than my SG. Wide thin profile, feels thicker than my Fender, yet thinner than my weird transition SG with its 50s neck. Push-pull coil taps that DO make a difference. Bought it to replace my G&L F100. Has almost as many tonal options, the next best trem and GREAT workmanship. Only complaints are the wierd PRS lock tuners that I still can't get used to after all these years.

Extremely versatile. I play mostly my own comps, instrumentals. Lots of guitar textures, hooks, classic and otherwise and I want it all, funk, blues, bluegrass, whatever. Although it has more Strat DNA, it seems to be happier being a Les Paul/PRS. The HFS HBs are very confident and break up excellently. Even the middle PU sounds good on its own. The coil taps double the tonal options, though the single sound is definitely on the skinny side. Works great with my Mesa rig and most effects. Took home the model with 3 Fralins at first, but I needed something with more balls that could punch through during live (loud) performance. The humbuckers took care of that. The key here is versatility as opposed hyperbole. It's not the best most authentic sound, but it'll do a Strat (especially the clonky stuff) and still give you the Fripp or Zappa.

Was perfect from day one. Though it came with your usual hex and truss tools, I never had to adjust anything until I changed to heavier 10-54 a few years ago. This is easily the most precise neck in my collection and I realize how much I've grown to like the PRS scale (25") and radius. No buzz, no choking - pretty happy neck. The burst finish looks like it will age gracefully and is beginning to show a few hairline checks, but nothing hideous like the discolored poly-coats on most modern guitars.

Never had it serviced. Worry a little about the neck joint, but mine is still rock solid. I can pick it up a month later and its still in tune so I think it's stronger than it looks. It helps of course, that it has the great PRS trem, that goes almost two whole steps in either direction (one of my original requirements) and stays in TUNE! Almost as good as the Dual Fulcrum on the G&L.

Never. Heard they are great though.

Have played it for 12 years. Bought it in 93 at Sam Ash. Was looking at Strats then which seemed overpriced and poorly built. I tried the PRS and fell in love instantly. You just want to play this thing when it's near you. I've been trying to get rid of it so I can get a real Las Paul, but this thing keeps saving my butt and now I'm nervous to part with it. If I were going to be stranded on an island (with a full recording console of course), this might be the one I take with me. Now I've got to come up with some other stupid reason to get rid of this thing. It's a beautiful and practical - workingman's PRS.

Early 90's PRS EG3. Sunburst finish. 3 Domino looking Fralin Zero Hum pickups. Pearloid pickguard. 5 way switch and push/pull tone/mid range control. Looks like a wilkinson bridge.

Nice guitar. A friend just gave it to me last night! So, I got a chance to play it for several hours. Great neck. Harmonic, rich tone both unplugged and plugged. No problem with false harmonics anywhere on the fretboard.

It feels nice. Action is a bit higher than my main guitars which are a few teles, a strat and a 67 335. However, the higher action is still incredibly comfortable to play. The fit and finish on this guitar are among the best I've ever seen regardless of it being a bolt on. When you pick it up, it just feels like a solid, quality instrument. Plug it in and all doubts are erased! Nice, nice axe. I don't think it will replace my #1 homebrew tele, but I'd be happy if this was the only guitar I had.

1993 with 3 Fralins. Whale blue finish over a 3 pice quilted maple top, pearloid pickguard. Alder body. Mine is dead stock.

Love the sound out of it, so does my band. I own a lot of guitars (mostly PRS, but Strats and Les Pauls as well) Lots of positive comments on the tone of this guitar. I hear people complain that it doesn't sound like a strat or a paul, but that's because isn't!! It really has it's own thing going, which I like. I play mainly through a musicman 210-65 with a boss GT-6. Very versatile, although I'm not sure that the coil tap adds that too many tonal options.

I bought it used on e-bay about a month ago. Did a set up, and now it's my main guitar. The truss rod cover is a little wierd, only one screw to hold it in place so it rattles around a bit. I tried taking the neck out to shim it, and couldn't becasue the neck pocket is so snug. I guess this is a positive. The 3 piece quilted top is interesting, but a 2 pc would have bben better. Most I've seen though are solid finishes. Fortunately the previous owner took care of this.

#1 guitar ATM, get's used every weekend. Very reliable. My only nit is that the pickup wires seem REALLY thin, but they've lasted 10 years so far...

NA

I've been playing forever, and this is a special guitar, hand made back in the old factory. It's comfortable, lightweight and versatile with it's own tone going on. You're not going to sound like every other player with a strat or a paul, that's for sure. I can't really say anything bad about this one, my first PRS bolt on, I'll probably look for another as a back up.

I want to update my extremely negative review below as I have made extensive modifications to the guitar, and in the process have completely dismantled it. So, I can evaluate every single component part on it's own merits, as well as comment on the tonality of these guitars in general.

The first modification I did was to replace the funky tuners with regular Schaller tuners. I'm not sure that really had any effect, but I was less annoyed afterward.

Second, three years ago I fixed the neck flexing problem by injecting toxic floor glue into the neck joint with a syringe over the course of several days, flexing the neck afterward and then regluing until it became solid. Do I recommend that you do this? No. If you must have a PRS, get the set neck. These are not like Fenders where the bolt on neck may add to the bright tone; here, the neck tenon is thin and wouldn't add much to tone transfer, so why not have the stability.

Third, I took out the Lindy Fralin Coils and dismantled them. They coils appeared haphazardly overwound, the wiring splayed out all over the bobbin. I know a pickup maker and he would never have approved this, I'm pretty sure Mr. Fralin wouldn't either. Undoubtedly there were any number of shorts and flaws in these pickups. As stated before, I tried a number of excellent replacement pickups the same result a lot of the time. That is, a thick muddy tone that sounded like Santana with distortion and dark and farty played clean. The best tone comes from the neck pickup, and the best sounding pickups have been Wolfetone humbuckers and Tom Anderson HBs. The wolfetones provided an almost endless sustain, while the underwound Anderson's provided the same tone but added some treble response and articulation which the guitar seems determined to suck out.

Finally, the tremolo. The saddles were replaced with stamped steel saddles, which added a little more presence. The sustain block appears to be milled steel, but is much lighter than a vintage strat block, which makes me think it is aluminum. The bridgeplate is probably steel. My complaints here would be the light sustain block, and the tremolo mounting screws, which turned out to be BRASS. Wow, that seems like a really bad idea, not only because of bad tone transfer to the body, but because brass wears out. So don't spend a lot of time adjusting the height of your bridge-when the brass screw has had enough, the head will just twist right off, and then your really screwed, unless you don't care anymore, like me.

There are only two reasons I can think of to use brass for the tremolo mounting screws. One is to save money, which is a poor reason for Paul Reed Smith, whose guitars are too expensive. He could use the best materials available and still make money. But perhaps brass was used to mellow the tone of the steel bridge out and make it sound more like a Les Paul. Either way I think it's a poor idea, if this guitar sounded any more mellow even Bill Frisell would find it unuseable.

I'll probably never be satisfied with the bridge pickup position in this guitar, but right now the neck pickup has a really nice, sweet jazz tone and gain tone. Regardless, I will probably replace some or all of the bridge components, because like I said, I don't care about the guitar much. Nobody else makes the grooved mounting screws so the nice tremolo action will be gone. I should care, but I don't.

Finally, I replaced the graphite nut with a delrin nut, which has the same values but comes in white. No tonal change.

It is comfortable, really nice to play, and looks cool. Those are the best features.

The PRS EG3 went into production in 1992 and is a USA hand made model before PRS went into machine manufacture mode. The guitat features alder boy, 22 frets, dot pearl inlays, lindy fralin passive pickups; humbucker with coil tap in the bridge position and two single coils, 5 way pick up selector switch, 1 volume and 1 tone pot, prs tremelo and locking machine heads. The guitat came with a PRS hard case and the original hand written card with serial number.

I play rock and currently have a Gibson Les Paul with active EMG's. Not the most versatile guitar but great for cetrain things. This guitar compensates for all the sounds that I can't get out of my Gibson... after all it was PRS' answer to a strat and a strat and les paul are on opposite ends of the tonal spectrum.

When I plugged it in I was amazed at the sound, which defintaley compensated for the bland looks. This guitar is VERY VERSATILE and sounds great playing all styles of music from Metal through to indie open chords. Also the Fralin pickups are very quiet considering two are single coils. Its a very different and not to mention unique sound when compared to current PRS' and that is not a bad thing at all.

I use a Marshall anniversary 6100 blue 3 channel valve head through a Groove Tubes 4 x 12 and it sounds awesome.

Considering this was second hand twice over (been in finland for 10 years) it was in good nick... couple of battle scars but the neck is a perfect fit and scale length for me... if you like PRS' this ooozes typical PRS playability. The guitar needs a setup and I reckon it will play EVEN BETTER, and the trem stays in tune quite nicely.

This guitar is definately more fragile compared to my Gibson. I havent gigged with it but will be using it for live work. Even though there are some scratches the finish is very nice (sunburst). I'd probably bring a backup live though.

Never dealt with them.

What can I say... I bought it thinking I'd probably sell it off a couple of years down the line but NO WAY. This guitar represents a piece of PRS history and plays and sounds great. It also looks very unique and I doubt I'll ever part with it. Great guitar.

Built in 1993, special order pearloid scratchplate, H/S/H pick ups (lindy fralin stock single coil), coil tap tone control, quite possibly the smoothest best damn trem in the world.

Brought used from a small shop in the uk, there it was in the window, and i thought i'd try it....WOW!

it sounds....different, in a very refreshing way, the coil tap is great if a little weak if i was being really honest, but i really am splitting hairs there. Also the pick ups are noisy, but i like that!

action was perfect, quite lucky really! everything was present and correct for a guitar that was 9 years old and had been WELL played in when i came across it

the guitar has done many gigs and has a couple of battle scars but it all adds to the charachter, i have used it with no backup without a problem

no reason to contact

by pure fluke i found this guitar and would sell it only after selling my grandmother, beautiful axe, and i'd get another one if i could find one!

Mine is an early model, so the body is indeed alder, a real plus for this model. (later models used mahogony, and I've seen lots of complaints on these)

Three single coil "Fralin" noiseless pickups. Funny thing about these pickups -- I talked to Lindy Fralin and he says "they ain't my pickups!', meaning I think, that they aren't voiced to his liking. Personally, I think they're great pickups.

Master volume and tone, with a push-pull feature on the tone control that lets you get a focussed midrange honk as you roll the tone off in the 'up' position.

PRS tremelo (they don't work as well as they'd have you believe! but they're ok)

Pickguard, strings, etc, you know the rest!

This guitar, if you get an alder body, sounds sort of stratty, with a bit more midrange, and a bit less low end. The neck and middle pickups really have excellent blues tone to them. Driven hard, they have a real snarl to the sound, if that means anything to you. Sounds just great, and I've had numerous strats the don't sound as good. In fact, I cant find ANT strat that sounds this good.

And now to the bridge pickup. It's a little thin -- like a strat -- and really it's just OK. I would have thought Paul would have beefed this one up a bit to give more versatility.

Pickup switch positions 2 and 4 give a nice 'snarky' sound. Really useful.

In short, there's a whole load of useful and wonderfully musical tones to be had here. I've had mine about 10 years, and have played the crap out of this thing, and it's still in great shape and is my main guitar, despite my spending (wasting really!) thousands of dollars trying to de-throne it from it's top spot in my line up of guitars. I'll never sell it, and may in fact buy another if I see one on ebay. LOVE this guitar, and I'm NOT easily pleased. I give this a full 10 on a scale of 1-10.

OK -- here's a few minor complaints. The neck indeed does seat into the body in a smallish pocket, so the neck joint is not overly robust. The neck flexes a bit more than would, say, a strat, when you swing the neck while playing. I've gotten used to it and it doesn't really bother me. Probably not a guitar for Pete Townsend antics though!

The varnish on the neck was a little weak in spots, and has a few chips and wear spots that really shouldn't have happened, as I'm really careful with my stuff.

The finish on the body is really superior. excellent work there.

The trem goes a tiny bit out of tune at times, in spite of the locking tuners. I am nut much of a trem person though, so no biggie.

see comments above.

Excellent. I had problems setting the guitar up, and sent it back to the factory for them to have a look. Paul's personally set it up and had his assistant call me to talk about what to do in the future. IMPRESSIVE. That was in 93 -- I don't imagine you'd get this treatment today with the company's growth.

A real find, if you can find one! Not sure why they stopped making them.

This is a 1993 model with 22 frets
alder body with 2 piece maple top 3 split single coil pickups with 5 way selector switch and push pull tone control that offers a sweep from a precence to a medium high mid very effective
There is a grest finish on this guitar flamed maple with a beatifull transparent purple-burst
it features prs locking tuners that dont really appeal to me because i find them akward to use
al feature work great tremlo great feel and holds tuning very well

this guitar is very versatile and can easily cover any style of music
i am using it with a mesaboogie mk4 with an ibanez ts9 and boss od1 and i am delighted i could not ask for anything more

i bought this guitar used so i cant comment on factory set up
every thing is very well finished and comfotable

i have one complaint about this guitar the neck is not fixed to the body very solidly and i can feel it moving in use and this is a condition that will continue to get worse

i am not happy but everything else is flawless