PRS McCarty 594 Hollowbody II — Factory Refinished, Vintage Gold

Originally a flamed maple top under aquamarine blue, purchased new in 2021. PRS confirmed in November 2025 that the gorgeous turquoise gradually fading to a dull gray (see photos) was indeed a finish defect and brought it back to the factory for nearly five months — full strip and nitro-over-CAB refinish (neck, headstock, sides, front, back), the same service PRS's tech center sells separately for $1,700. Since the original blue dye had soaked into the wood, a different color transparent finish was off the table, so I chose an opaque vintage gold — and skipped blue entirely, PRS's most fade-prone finish family.

All original hardware: 58/15 LT pickups, tuners, bridge, hard case. Well under 100 hours of actual playing time, never gigged. 5 lbs. 13 oz. — light for this model. Factory setup with 11s.

A guitar with real factory paper trail behind it, refinished right and returned to me in April 2026. This guitar reminds me of my very first guitar purchased at Manny‘s in NYC in 1972 — a cherry red ES-330 with dog ear P90s: feather light, woody, versatile - everything from bell-like crispy to crunchy and thick. (See last photo). But the HBII is all solid wood, no laminates, with more precision, accuracy, fidelity and dynamic range (humbucker/single coil).

The video is in Italian but there is a great demo of the gold top’s various tones at the 1:00 minute mark.