It's been about 14 months for me now and no love lost. I allowed myself one REALLY nice guitar and I'm so glad this one found me. I already had a 2016 LP Standard that I'm still very much in love with but I wanted a gas killer and I found it in my 594. I went thru the same thing with my acoustics, already owning a Takamine Santa Fe and loving everything about it.
When I got on some guitar forums and saw all the penis envy I decided to step up my game and get both an acoustic and electric that I thought stood up well against anything else out there that wasn't stupidly expensive or overly blingy. On the acoustic side that ended up being a Takamine EF75, on the electric my 594 WL.
Again, zero complaints with my LP, it's a hog top Standard with that grunt and growl everyone looks for and hopes to find in their LP. The fit and finish are flawless, no tuning issues and she's a joy to play but I wanted to match what I already did on the acoustic side. The question was, what to look for. I had nothing in mind so I started browsing at Sweetwater in the $4-$6k range and the core models caught my eye.
I'm very particular about what I like and don't like for no apparent reason sometimes and while I really admired the sheer quality level of the core models I wasn't seeing anything that grabbed me. Then I came across the 594s and on paper they were perfect for the music I want to play... classic rock and blues... and blues. In practice it's even better, it does "clean and pretty" amazingly well and I like clean, sweet, and pretty. I have my LP for the other stuff.
I looked for weeks but wasn't seeing anything worth pulling the trigger on. Remember I'm finicky and this is supposed to be a gas killer. I'm not looking for something ordinary, I want extraordinary and everything has to fit me to a T. I just wasn't seeing it. Then out of the blue it pops up at Eddies but it's scooped before I can even order it.
I have a friend who has been a private dealer for over 30 years and has long standing relationships with independent shops all over the country. He somehow is able to get cherry picked guitars at or near wholesale prices and it was him that scooped the one I was looking at from Eddies. He bought it for his own collection but let me buy it from him because he's that kind of guy. I actually ended up getting it for considerably less than I would have directly from Eddies.
He did try to tempt me with a really sweet Tom Anderson drop top and a Gibson R9 but my heart was already set on the 594. The TA was a little less and the R9 a little more but I really think I got more guitar for my money with my 594 than I would have with either of them.
After 14 months all I can say is the gwasshoppa chose well. I still browse guitars all the time but don't get gas attacks. I just like looking and comparing and whenever I do it only serves to remind me how sweet it is to already own one I like better
