PRS Guitars Private Stock team is celebrating their 20th Anniversary
this year with the return to the program that started it all: Guitars of
the Month. Each month in 2016, the Private Stock team will deliver a
unique design in limited numbers, highlighting the detailed
craftsmanship and exquisite materials that define Private Stock.
February’s Guitar of the Month is the McCarty 594. Named after
Paul’s mentor, Ted McCarty, the McCarty 594 pays homage to vintage
“Golden Era” instruments while incorporating modern build techniques for
an instrument that is at once incredibly familiar and effortlessly
playable.
There are several details that PRS has incorporated into the
594’s design that contribute to the guitar’s tone and feel, including:
- A 24.594” scale length, just slightly longer than 24.5” and where the model gets its name
- “58/15 LT” pickups. LT meaning low turns, which give this guitar a sweet lower-output tone
- 2 volume and 2 push/pull tone controls positioned so players
can roll off both volume knobs at the same time, and with the added
versatility of coil splits for more tonal options
- A new Pattern Vintage neck carve. This neck carve shares the
same width measurements as PRS’s Pattern neck, but is slightly thicker
front to back and features an asymmetrical carve with a little less meat
on the treble side, a little more on the bass side of the neck.
- Tweaked Phase III tuners that have an added set screw to pull
the tuner’s shaft, gear, and worm together, but with the tuner button
taken out of play, to promote tone transfer from the string directly
into the guitar itself with as little energy as possible being
detracted.
Twenty six of these instruments will be made for February 2016, commemorating Private Stock’s 20th Anniversary.
“The 594 is the best new guitar I've played in years.
It has a vintage heart and soul but without the technical limitations
that usually come along with an old instrument. What good is an old
guitar if you can't get all that feel out of the upper frets, or the
intonation is off? To hear that old PAF sound but be able to articulate
the notes in a way that only modern manufacturing could allow is so
exciting. This one's going all over my new record, because it sits so
nicely between all of the sonic identities we all know and love. And it
plays like a dream.” – John Mayer
Private Stock Guitar of the Month
The original Guitars of the Month were cased between December
1994 and March 1996. They provided the opportunity to experiment
with new ideas and led directly to the Private Stock to the
creation of the Private Stock program with the first
“official” Private Stock instrument casing on April
19, 1996.
“At the time, the original Guitars of the Month program
was a way for us to experiment with new designs and features. To
this day, that innovation and specialization is still at the
heart of the Private Stock program, and we are very excited to
try out some new ideas for our 20th Anniversary year.” – Paul Reed Smith