watelessness
Member
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2012
- Messages
- 2,542
My apologies that this is a bit of a long read but if anyone can spot the logic, humor, and karmic retribution it's you forum folk.
My priorities when choosing a guitar: 1) playability, 2) tone, 3) looks.
The 594 model has been out for quite a while but every time I played one there was one glaring issue that i could not get past. I loved the ginormous neck and the McCarty body thickness. I loved the 24.594 neck scale and neck binding. I loved the two-piece tailpiece which I have sought since Andy Bearg had that one-off McCarty a few years back. The LP control layout adds flexibility for those "every once in a while Ace Frehley tricks". This model just felt so comfortable in my hands.
But as much as I loved the playability features of the guitar the one thing i did not care for was the sound. I felt the 58/15 pickups were too muffled and less distinct than the uncovered version, which I do enjoy. Although I've done it before, at this point in my life I had no room for a project guitar for which I'd go down the soldering-and-unsoldering rabbit hole of swapping out pickups. Also, despite my affinity for the 85/15's, and have two guitars with them, I didn't feel there was any sonic room to get a 594 and swap out the 58/15's, especially since I couldn't hear it without committing to a NGD.
I feel it is my duty as a GAS-card-carrying-forum-member to play every PRS that makes its way to my local dealer, yet each time I played a 594 I was underwhelmed by the tone, and subsequently somewhat vociferous about my disdain for the 58/15 pickups.
And then, one day a couple of weeks ago something changed. Was this guitar was set up differently, or the number of windings on the pickups changed? Maybe I EQ'd the test amp differently, or perhaps stopped listening for what I wanted to hear and listened to what the guitar was really saying. Possibly it's how this guitar has tremendous neck resonance instead of the shaking coming from the body. The sum of the parts? Dunno. Sigh.
So, kicking and screaming all the way, I took home this 594 and found that it does have a unique voice in my tonal palette, even with two 85/15-loaded guitars already in the stable (Cu24 birdseye neck, Cu22 piezo). On top of that, it is now my primary classic rock gig guitar, replacing the faithful 513 that I've used for years. As versatile as the 513 is, I've always struggled to find backup guitars that paired well with it considering how I have my amps set. Now I pair the 594 with the Cu22 piezo which gives me complementary tone, but I also get the form factors of one fixed bridge guitar, and one blade-switch wang bar guitar. Add in the piezo? Life is good.
But wait, there's more. How could I possibly have anything more to say? Well, a week later this came into the store...
... and promptly left with me. How? Why? What could I possibly do with another guitar with 58/15's? Didn't I already find the fluke that worked for me? Apparently not.
This one perplexes the heck out of me. When I saw the 58/15's sandwiching a narrowfield I just had a good, hearty chuckle. I mean, I was one of the first guys to get a SAS Narrowfield and a McNarrowfield, and just did not get along with them, so how could putting one between two 58/15's interest me? There's no way I would like this. None. Except, well, I was completely wrong. This guitar has such pleasing clean tones, and the single-coil sounds are just outwordly amazing. I really dig this guitar so much that I was comfortable selling my 513 because the Special Semi-hollow covers so much ground. Yes, that's right, I just did that.
This one weighs a mere 6 pounds, 12 ounces, but feels lighter than that. The chamber gives it a pleasing acoustic presence, perhaps enhancing the resonance because this one shakes all over yet it still has great sustain like it is magically proportioned for efficiency. I'm also overjoyed that there was still a can of Autumn Sky sitting around in July when this one was made. The humbucking grit is there through dirty channels (Archon/C/HXDA/JCM 2000) but this one is much more of a clean guitar for me.
So not only do I eat crow, but I dine on humble pie for dessert, and I wash it down with the kool-aid: the 58/15's are great pickups; I get it now. Thank you, PRS, for continuing to innovate, tweak, and tinker.
My priorities when choosing a guitar: 1) playability, 2) tone, 3) looks.
The 594 model has been out for quite a while but every time I played one there was one glaring issue that i could not get past. I loved the ginormous neck and the McCarty body thickness. I loved the 24.594 neck scale and neck binding. I loved the two-piece tailpiece which I have sought since Andy Bearg had that one-off McCarty a few years back. The LP control layout adds flexibility for those "every once in a while Ace Frehley tricks". This model just felt so comfortable in my hands.
But as much as I loved the playability features of the guitar the one thing i did not care for was the sound. I felt the 58/15 pickups were too muffled and less distinct than the uncovered version, which I do enjoy. Although I've done it before, at this point in my life I had no room for a project guitar for which I'd go down the soldering-and-unsoldering rabbit hole of swapping out pickups. Also, despite my affinity for the 85/15's, and have two guitars with them, I didn't feel there was any sonic room to get a 594 and swap out the 58/15's, especially since I couldn't hear it without committing to a NGD.
I feel it is my duty as a GAS-card-carrying-forum-member to play every PRS that makes its way to my local dealer, yet each time I played a 594 I was underwhelmed by the tone, and subsequently somewhat vociferous about my disdain for the 58/15 pickups.
And then, one day a couple of weeks ago something changed. Was this guitar was set up differently, or the number of windings on the pickups changed? Maybe I EQ'd the test amp differently, or perhaps stopped listening for what I wanted to hear and listened to what the guitar was really saying. Possibly it's how this guitar has tremendous neck resonance instead of the shaking coming from the body. The sum of the parts? Dunno. Sigh.
So, kicking and screaming all the way, I took home this 594 and found that it does have a unique voice in my tonal palette, even with two 85/15-loaded guitars already in the stable (Cu24 birdseye neck, Cu22 piezo). On top of that, it is now my primary classic rock gig guitar, replacing the faithful 513 that I've used for years. As versatile as the 513 is, I've always struggled to find backup guitars that paired well with it considering how I have my amps set. Now I pair the 594 with the Cu22 piezo which gives me complementary tone, but I also get the form factors of one fixed bridge guitar, and one blade-switch wang bar guitar. Add in the piezo? Life is good.
But wait, there's more. How could I possibly have anything more to say? Well, a week later this came into the store...
... and promptly left with me. How? Why? What could I possibly do with another guitar with 58/15's? Didn't I already find the fluke that worked for me? Apparently not.
This one perplexes the heck out of me. When I saw the 58/15's sandwiching a narrowfield I just had a good, hearty chuckle. I mean, I was one of the first guys to get a SAS Narrowfield and a McNarrowfield, and just did not get along with them, so how could putting one between two 58/15's interest me? There's no way I would like this. None. Except, well, I was completely wrong. This guitar has such pleasing clean tones, and the single-coil sounds are just outwordly amazing. I really dig this guitar so much that I was comfortable selling my 513 because the Special Semi-hollow covers so much ground. Yes, that's right, I just did that.
This one weighs a mere 6 pounds, 12 ounces, but feels lighter than that. The chamber gives it a pleasing acoustic presence, perhaps enhancing the resonance because this one shakes all over yet it still has great sustain like it is magically proportioned for efficiency. I'm also overjoyed that there was still a can of Autumn Sky sitting around in July when this one was made. The humbucking grit is there through dirty channels (Archon/C/HXDA/JCM 2000) but this one is much more of a clean guitar for me.
So not only do I eat crow, but I dine on humble pie for dessert, and I wash it down with the kool-aid: the 58/15's are great pickups; I get it now. Thank you, PRS, for continuing to innovate, tweak, and tinker.
