Well, folks, I want to thank everyone on this forum for being incredibly helpful, friendly, entertaining, and just plain good to be around for the past few months. But I'm afraid I'm gonna move on from the 594 despite really loving it in all respects except one. This problem I've been having with playing in the seated position has proven to be more than I'm willing to deal with.
The 594 is in many ways the most perfect guitar I've ever played - it plays incredibly and it's sound had got a harmonic complexity to it (for lack of better words to describe it) that is just wonderful. But playing it in my preferred position on a guitar stool with my right leg elevated on the rail and the guitar on that raised right leg is really fatiguing and occasionally even painful for my back. I know folks suggested moving the guitar to the left leg and playing in more of a classical posture, but that really doesn't work for me and completely retraining myself is more than I'm willing to do to accommodate a guitar. I love playing it but I find myself putting it down after no more than about 15 minutes to maybe a half hour max, while I can play my other guitars for a couple of hours without any issues. It just doesn't make sense to have by far my most expensive guitar be one I can't play near as much as my others.
Before I had the 594, I had an Ibanez semi-hollow (essentially a relic'd finish version of the AS153) that I really loved. It was the guitar that reignited a love affair with humbuckers that had been dormant for decades. And the guitar that inspired me to go all-in and try a 594. And it's leg cut is kind of to the opposite extreme of the 594, back almost to the bridge pickup. It was very comfortable, something I didn't really think about when I had it because I'd never been UN-comfortable playing before. But I'd played a couple of Ibanez models with the same basic body a couple times since (once when I was trying out P90 options) and the difference and the comfort level really jumped out at me.
So I ordered a nicer version of basically the same guitar, an Ibanez Scofield model, the JSM-10. It's only an $1100 guitar new. They have a $2700 model but it's got some features I'm not crazy about (primarily a compound fretboard radius), Scofield doesn't play it anymore in favor of his old AS200 (which the JSM-10 is pretty much a direct copy of), and a lot of user reviews of both seem to favor the cheaper model of the two. It's returnable - I just wanted to play it back to back with the 594 for a while and see how much of a come down it would be to go back to that guitar. And the bottom line is it's a much smaller difference than I feared it would be. It honestly plays as well as the 594 for my money - I sort of prefer the 10" radius on the 594 but I sort of prefer the ebony board on the Ibanez. The neck shapes on both, while a bit different, are both really sublime. So for playability, it's honestly about a tie. In terms of sound, the 594 wins, but when it get's down to personal preference, it's a lot closer than it would be if you were just objectively comparing the two for things like sustain, note bloom, individual notes in a chord being really clearly audible, etc. The 594 is better in all of those respects, but the Ibanez is also damn good and has a certain mojo that I'm just about as fond of. Overall, the 594 tops it, but not by much at all, and I've gotta go with the one I'm gonna pick up and not put down for a while over the one I put down way too fast because of physical discomfort.
So I'm probably mostly out of here - it was my only PRS and the only one I've ever really wanted. I'll probably stop in and window shop all of the pretty tops from time to time, but that's likely about it. I'll be selling the 594 for a pretty reasonable price - the Ibanez is so much less expensive that I'm more motivated to sell it fairly soon than to squeeze every last dollar out of it. I wish I'd realized the extent of the problem I'd have with this guitar within the return period I had on it, but I'd never experienced anything like this before and I didn't believe it was something I wouldn't be able to work out. And I really wanted it to be a lifetime guitar, so I really wanted to make it work. If anyone has any suggestions on where to sell it - I have some ideas of places to try but many of you have a lot more experience selling and buying PRS guitars than I do so I'd surely welcome suggestions.
I really love the 594 - I've got nothing but good things to say about it. Unfortunately, I just can't seem to make it work for me...
Best,
-Ray
). Then again, I’ve been a PRS player for 27 years, so it’s never been an issue here.
