NGD - McCarty

[DougUSMC]

Lefty. McCarty.
Two words I never dared hope I'd be able to say together, but here she is!
Not "new", but new to me. She's an 04, in really great shape!!

I do have a couple of questions, for any who are more knowledgeable:

• She was listed with Bareknuckle PuPs, and a push/pull added after the fact, so I asked the seller if he had the originals. He responded that he had all original parts, but nothing else came in the case. I assumed that the Bareknuckles were NOT stock, and that his reply meant that he'd send the originals. Can someone confirm what should have come with the guitar? I want to reach out and ask the seller what happened, but don't want to be accusatory if she could've come from the factory this way
• Ditto on the truss rod cover. I'm used to seeing McCarty on it, but is that maybe a new thing, and an 04 wouldn't have had it?
• If I'm right, and the seller doesn't have the parts, can I still get the PuPs and truss rod cover?

Thanks for the help!!

 

[Alnus Rubra]

Congratulations Doug, nice score. Best of luck getting the original bits.

 

[Stephen J.]

McCarty pickups would have been in it from the factory. Push/pull would have been standard as well.
Did the seller say, “Yes, I have the original parts,” or “Yes I have the original parts and they are included in the sale.”?

 

[DISTORT6]

<reverses image...>
OH! There we go.
Beautiful guitar in a beautiful finish!
HNGD!

 

[DougUSMC]

McCarty pickups would have been in it from the factory. Push/pull would have been standard as well.
Did the seller say, “Yes, I have the original parts,” or “Yes I have the original parts and they are included in the sale.”?

Awesome, thanks for the info and reply. I've been doing some homework, but it's tough to find anything that specific on a 17 y/o model.

The posting (it was on Reverb) said:
It has Bare Knuckle Aftermaths wired with a Mad Hatter solderless kit. The tone knob is push pull for coil splitting and also has a Schaller Signum bridge in chrome and Gotoh locking tuners.
There are a few blemshes shown in the last photos.
Comes with PRS case.
No trades.

I asked "Hey XXX, is this still available? Do you have the original parts (Pups, wiring, bridge, etc)? Is the case original, and do you have the case candy?"

He replied "Yes it is. I have the all the original parts and the PRS case. Unfortunately the only "case candy" is a blank warranty card and the key."

He included the case, warranty card and key, but no original parts.

Are you saying, given his answer and what he included, that I should not have expected the PuPs, bridge and PRS tuners? I want to be fair here, which is why I'm asking. IMO, my question and his response mean that he has them and they're included. Now that I know they weren't, I really would have expected him to say "I have them, but if you want them they're $xxx extra". I'm going to reach out to ask him what happened to the original parts, but plan to take folks' input here into consideration when deciding how hard to push back.

<reverses image...>
OH! There we go.
Beautiful guitar in a beautiful finish!
HNGD!

Lol, welcome to my world, I do that all the time!!

 

[garrett]

Cool!

It would have come with McCarty pickups. Aftermaths would certainly take it in a very different tonal direction.

For the truss rod cover, I am going to guess the blank one is stock. Since they so rarely do lefties, I don't know if they would have made upside-down McCarty covers.

 

[garrett]

Oh yeah, since it's Whale Blue, it would have had cream pickup rings and switch tip.

Toggle has been replaced, too.

 

[QuiltTop319]

Beautiful finish on the guitar. Nice score.

 

[bodia]

Yeah, man, that's awesome!

 

[DougUSMC]

Cool!

It would have come with McCarty pickups. Aftermaths would certainly take it in a very different tonal direction.

For the truss rod cover, I am going to guess the blank one is stock. Since they so rarely do lefties, I don't know if they would have made upside-down McCarty covers.

Oh yeah, since it's Whale Blue, it would have had cream pickup rings and switch tip.

Toggle has been replaced, too.

Dig it, I need to figure out what's up with the pups. Upside-down covers?? I assume you mean "right-side-up" covers?

Are you 100% sure on the rings and tip? It's interesting to me that they were able to swap both out to black...

How can you tell the goggle is different? Is it b/c the pic I took didn't have the tip on it? I've since put it on, and it's black if that helps.

Thanks for all the awesome details, it's super helpful!!

 

[CandidPicker]

Last one on Reverb:

https://reverb.com/item/37527166-prs-mccarty-humbucker-set-2000-nickel

Now the bad news.

It's from Germany and there's int'l shipping

 

[Keith B.]

Is the top HORN a bit longer on the models that a bit older (more mature, I like to say)? Seems this 2004 extends to right over 14th fret. I'm new to PRS, have a 2020 CE24 and the top horn on that baby is not quite to the 15th fret. Maybe it's just the angle of the photo, but I was curious about the body history. thx.

 

[DougUSMC]

Last one on Reverb:

https://reverb.com/item/37527166-prs-mccarty-humbucker-set-2000-nickel

Now the bad news.

It's from Germany and there's int'l shipping

I saw that one, I'm looking through Reverb as well. The thing I've noticed is that the pickup rings may be even harder to find!

I'm using this search right now:
https://reverb.com/marketplace?quer...&category=guitar-pickups&make=paul-reed-smith

There are a few more options there, but any thoughts on whether a 90s pickup set would be different than a 2000s? I found good info on the PRS site here:
https://www.prsguitars.com/index.php/support/article/model_history
It looks like they came w/ McCarty pickups through 2007, but nothing about whether there were differences in the model years.

 

[CandidPicker]

Doug,

My 2015 has 58/15™ pups in it. Although they're not TCI, they're clean, bright, articulate, and do the guitar justice.

You might have better luck finding these than standard McCarty pickups, and they might sound "better" than what you have currently.

 

[veinbuster]

Sweet.
It’s always nice to see a lefty get the goods.

 

[garrett]

Dig it, I need to figure out what's up with the pups. Upside-down covers?? I assume you mean "right-side-up" covers?

Are you 100% sure on the rings and tip? It's interesting to me that they were able to swap both out to black...

How can you tell the goggle is different? Is it b/c the pic I took didn't have the tip on it? I've since put it on, and it's black if that helps.

Thanks for all the awesome details, it's super helpful!!

Whale Blue was always cream plastics.

Toggle body being black is a dead giveaway that it's aftermarket. Stock would have been nickel.

 

[CandidPicker]

Gonna guess that the adjustable bridge is also a drop-in replacement with new bridge studs. Not sure that '04s had these on McCarty's then.

 

[Stephen J.]

Are you saying, given his answer and what he included, that I should not have expected the PuPs, bridge and PRS tuners?

No, but I wouldn't put it past someone to use the technicality to get out of giving them to you with the purchase. Let's hope they are not like that. I think you have grounds to get the original items or a partial refund to compensate.

I like the McCarty pickups, but I don't know that they are so special that I would go out of my way to buy a set over something else. Unfortunately, listings for used items seem to be way beyond what I would pay. Might as well buy new in many cases. I think the older ones with more rounded corners have a higher desirability than the ones with sharper corners. I don't know that they actually sound different, but I think Paul allegedly said they were better, so they have a little more unobtanium factor.

 

[Stephen J.]

Is the top HORN a bit longer on the models that a bit older (more mature, I like to say)? Seems this 2004 extends to right over 14th fret. I'm new to PRS, have a 2020 CE24 and the top horn on that baby is not quite to the 15th fret. Maybe it's just the angle of the photo, but I was curious about the body history. thx.

Likely the difference in a 22 fret neck and a 24 fret neck. The pocket is in the same place, but the nut and frets move closer to the body on a 22 fret neck and the bridge moves back a little as well.

 

[Glenn Gross]

I’m in Pennsylvania with a set of 1999 McCarty pickups. I replaced them with 57/08s. Feel free to message me and I’ll contact you if you want them, as we can’t do that here per forum rules.