McCarty 594 Rewire

[MrMedley]

Hey All!

Picked up this McCarty 594 in January and have been paying it non-stop! I've been planning to do a NGD post but just haven't gotten around to it yet - hopefully soon! I love pretty much everything about it except the white neck binding (needs to be curly maple!!) and...

The control layout. I've never been a Les Paul guy and the 4 knobs really are not doing it for me. I've tried to grow into it, but I really need my Master Volume, Master Tone layout here.

So, I'm thinking about making the upper knobs the masters and then replacing the lower pots with mini toggles to split each pickup. Or...

Still make the upper pots the masters, but then use one lower pot as a blend and the other as a master split toggle.

Now, while I do have some experience rewiring guitars, I've never dealt with coil splitting and nothing of this complexity. Just wanted to get some input from you guys about how difficult this may be to do!

Thanks, everyone!

 

[László]

Gosh that’s beautiful! Just wanted to say that, as I have no expertise with rewiring.

I have 3 PRSes with the four knob layout. It’s versatile as can be, but as you say, there are times a single volume pot is easier/faster.

 

[elvis]

I prefer my P245 controls, but I can live with the SC and Tremonti controls. Sometimes it's nice to have blend control or different volumes for the two pickups.

 

[garrett]

Tons of fun options abound. Simplest would be to convert one of the current volumes to master volume and the other to master tone. You can just leave the two push/pull pots there for coil splitting. Stealth mod!

It'll just be a bit annoying running the pickup wires up to the switch instead of to the pots.

 

[RaySachs]

Really pretty guitar! Is that an ebony fretboard? Might just be the light, but it looks really dark and solid.

I recently got a 594 also, in March, and I’m doing my best to wear out the frets! Pretty incredible guitar - way better a guitar than I am a player... No experience with wiring myself. I play just one pickup or the other often enough that it’s kind of like a master tone and master volume. I play the middle position some, but usually leave both volumes dimed and and adjust the tones, but I usually end up with the tones in about the same place, backed off about the same amount.

There are some pretty cool sounds to be found splitting the coil on one pickup and maybe back off the volume a bit on the other. I’ve stumbled onto some good ones, but I suck at remembering them and have probably never found the same one twice,,, Bottom line - I don’t futz around with the variety of sounds that much beyond sometimes playing split coils and sometime full humbucker. I usually just find a sound I like and try to pry some decent music out of the instrument...

 

[Johan Allard]

Another idea, just to throw it in there, is to have individual volumes on the lower pots, and then master volume and master tone on the upper pots. That way you can still roll off the volume slightly on the neck if you want (handy Les Paul trick) and still have the master volume on the upper.

Or, even funkier, I often like to roll off bass on the neck pickup to reduce some of the boominess that's often there, so you could use neck volume and neck bass roll-off on the lower pots, and master volume and master tone (treble roll-off) on the upper.

Another thing you can do, is to use a variable coil split on the lower pots instead of just the standard on/off push/pull switch.

Lots of fun options and all good fun. Good luck!

 

[MrMedley]

Thanks for the ideas, everyone!

@RaySachs - it is Ebony! It was included as part of the artist package along with the rosewood neck.

I like really like the ideas here about leaving the coil split knobs for stealth, or using the upper knobs as masters and the lowers as individual volumes. Guess I will need to get new wire to solder the pickups to the switch.

Lots to ponder!

 

[dmatthews]

Tons of fun options abound. Simplest would be to convert one of the current volumes to master volume and the other to master tone. You can just leave the two push/pull pots there for coil splitting. Stealth mod!

It'll just be a bit annoying running the pickup wires up to the switch instead of to the pots.

Great idea!

 

[aduayer]

I prefer my P245 controls, but I can live with the SC and Tremonti controls. Sometimes it's nice to have blend control or different volumes for the two pickups.

I used to have a SCHB2 that I loved very much, but couldn't get along with the posiotion of the toggle switch. Sold it and I am thinking about getting a P245 semi hollow