John Mayer's HHH McCarty

BTF83

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Not sure if this is the correct place to post this.

I spotted this Private Stock McCarty John Mayer was playing this week on the Dead & Company tour. It looks like it's a McCarty with three humbuckers. I was wondering how the switching works.
C10YZK4

https://imgur.com/C10YZK4
 
John's been playing "Honey" for the past two tours, I still can't figure out why he ditched the Super Eagle.
This 2021 tour has seen the Silver Sky used on 75 % of the tunes. He's morphed more to trying to cop the Garcia tone vibe in the past four years.
Personally, I loved the muscular tone of the 2015-17 Dead & Co tours...more overdriven, bluesy tones from the Super Eagle into J-Mod and Dumbles.
 
John's been playing "Honey" for the past two tours, I still can't figure out why he ditched the Super Eagle.
This 2021 tour has seen the Silver Sky used on 75 % of the tunes. He's morphed more to trying to cop the Garcia tone vibe in the past four years.
Personally, I loved the muscular tone of the 2015-17 Dead & Co tours...more overdriven, bluesy tones from the Super Eagle into J-Mod and Dumbles.
I agree. While I love the Silver Sky (and I think he's channeling 1972 Super Strat Jerry), I prefer the Super Eagle or Honey for all songs. Honey seems to now be the replacement for the blues songs a la the Platinum Metallic 594 for a couple years.

The only compromise could potentially be Honey with a Silver Sky PUP in the middle. ;). And while I miss the J-MOD, I LOVE the Dumble sound!
 
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My feeling is the SS gets more high end and Jerry tone. This past tour has been my fave JM tone wise. He used the SS for the entire Wrigley shows (that I can remember ;) ) its the SS scale length that makes "it" happen as opposed to the shorter scale of Honey.

To the OP question....Honey is a 594 with an additional middle pickup. The switching is 594 like with a master volume/tone and pickup split switches where the other v/t controls would be. This isn't documented anywhere only what I've surmised over the last couple years.

There is a good story somewhere about how JM released the 594 model before PRS did, Paul took it in stride too.

I like Honey much better than the Super Eagle.
 
Thanks for the info everyone! I wasn't aware that it was actually an old guitar. I hadn't spotted it before. I wonder if this will be the next JM guitar PRS release.
For the switching, I was thinking it might be a two switch system much like what Novo use on their guitars - i.e. one traditional switch for the neck and bridge pickups and another switch which brings in the middle pickup = 7 possible iterations.. and I'm not even counting the possibility to split the pickups
 
I think the maple neck on Honey might also give it a bit more clarity than the metallic 594 that JM was playing during early Dead&Co tours. The metallic 594 always sounded a little muddy to me. Honey isn’t a Garcia tone guitar, but it suits the music perfectly and it’s probably my all time favorite PRS tone.
 
I was hunting for info on Honey recently and stumbled upon a switching diagram, but don't remember where it was. Also curious about the guitar and any future releases.
 
Yes, but not clear if it came from PRS or a guy wanting to make his own version of Honey. If you find out, let us know!
 
Yes, but not clear if it came from PRS or a guy wanting to make his own version of Honey. If you find out, let us know!
I'm pretty sure it was a guy who had PRS build his own version of Honey.

D&C need to start opening up about the gear. The GD did this too, and we didn't get a lot of answers for many years.
 
I saw two D&Co shows this year. During the first one Mayer played the Silver Sky the entire show. The second show he played the Silver Sky the first set and his 3PU Honey 594 the second set. Hand down, the 594 sounded better. It just had more warmth, girth, and presence in the mix. Don’t get me wrong, the Silver Sky sounded fantastic as well, but it sounds less dynamic. I think that guitar is more suited for the cowboy songs and the 594 for everything else.

My favorite guitars—tone wise—Mayer plays in D&Co are: the Honey 594, Super Eagle, Platinum 594 all ranked very closely….and a bit further back the Silver Sky.
 
I agree. The Silver Sky, especially in the bridge and middle position, sounds ok but the 594 and Super Eagles seem to have a little thicker, more robust tone that favors a lot of Dead songs.
 
I dunno, I thought both sounded great and he was sort of channeling different eras of Jerry's playing. A bit of the old strat and Travis Bean days as well as the later stuff. Regardless, it's thrilling to see so an exclusive PRS lineup at such a high-profile show. Never saw that coming - and loving it.

And of course everything is going to sound freaking epic through a Dumble!
 
I saw them Oct 23rd in Denver. The first set was Honey, second was the Silver Sky. One thought was he was no longer trying to channel Jerry, second was how incredible the 3 HB guitar sounded.

I’ve always been a single coil guy but holy sh t that guitar sounded so great. Next day I ordered my first PRS: the humble SE 245. I know it’s not the same guitar but the purchase was directly influenced by Honey.
 
I saw two D&Co shows this year. During the first one Mayer played the Silver Sky the entire show. The second show he played the Silver Sky the first set and his 3PU Honey 594 the second set. Hand down, the 594 sounded better. It just had more warmth, girth, and presence in the mix. Don’t get me wrong, the Silver Sky sounded fantastic as well, but it sounds less dynamic. I think that guitar is more suited for the cowboy songs and the 594 for everything else.

My favorite guitars—tone wise—Mayer plays in D&Co are: the Honey 594, Super Eagle, Platinum 594 all ranked very closely….and a bit further back the Silver Sky.

I'm with you...John could play an SE all night and still sound incredible, It's his tone, his fingers/pick, as well as the rest of the gear. And, let's be honest...Derek Featherstone is arguably one of the best FOH people in the biz, so his mix live and on nugs.net is incredible.

My faves: Super Eagle, Honey, Silver Sky, 594 in that order. I would love to hear the comparison of his playing now through the JMOD, Alessandro Deluxe Reverbs, and the Dumble to see if there's a big difference in the dynamics of those amps too.
 
I saw them Oct 23rd in Denver. The first set was Honey, second was the Silver Sky. One thought was he was no longer trying to channel Jerry, second was how incredible the 3 HB guitar sounded.

I’ve always been a single coil guy but holy sh t that guitar sounded so great. Next day I ordered my first PRS: the humble SE 245. I know it’s not the same guitar but the purchase was directly influenced by Honey.
Yep! This is why as soon as the S2 594 DC in McCarty Sunburst came out I was on it!

The 245 is also awesome. Playing a short scale guitar; it is quite a different beast!
 
I think the maple neck on Honey might also give it a bit more clarity than the metallic 594 that JM was playing during early Dead&Co tours. The metallic 594 always sounded a little muddy to me. Honey isn’t a Garcia tone guitar, but it suits the music perfectly and it’s probably my all time favorite PRS tone.
Hello! Has it been confirmed that the neck is maple? I haven’t been able to find a shot of the back of the guitar anywhere.
 
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