New David Grissom PRS is 'more focused in midrange'

If the gorgeous maple-cap DGT electric from PRS wasn't woody enough for you, Texan session ace David Grissom - who has played for the likes of Buddy Guy and The Allman Brothers Band - now has an all-mahogany DGT Standard model to his name.

Currently available in eight finishes, the twin-humbucker, solidbody electric is likely to appeal to fans of Grissom's fat, expressive tone. We asked him what else they can expect from the new model…

Tell us about the evolution of your all-mahogany DGT Standard model…

"I'm really excited about it. Basically, a guitar that I special-ordered years ago became the PRS McCarty model. I got that guitar in 1992, and played it for the next 15 years - and developed a long list of things that I thought we could improve upon.

"I didn't want to mess with the core design of the guitar that much, so the logical thing was to keep everything intact but just take the maple cap off and do a solid mahogany body.

"In fact, my first PRS had a solid mahogany body - it was a Standard I think. I do so many things, especially sessions, where an all-mahogany guitar will take up a much different space in the mix [to the maple-top DGT model].

"So the all-mahogany body just seemed like the most logical way to go. I got one at NAMM and I was totally knocked out by it so we said let's go ahead and do it."

How does the tone differ from the maple-top model?

"The DGT with the maple cap has more lows and more highs. I don't quite know how to describe it, because every one is a little different. But in a way the maple-top version is a little bigger sounding, whereas the all-mahogany one is more focused in the midrange.

"I've been doing some sessions here at the house and had a chance to really kind of go back and forth between the maple top and the mahogany one and they're really complementary to each other. Even if you double a part and split them left and right, you get this texture that you don't get if you use two different maple-top guitars.

"So it just fills up a different sonic space and a lot of people gravitate towards all-mahogany guitars - like an SG or whatever."

For more on the new PRS DGT Standard, check out Guitarist magazine issue 357, on sale 29 June.