Regular production McCarty 594?

PRS is responsive to the market, and in an innovative way. They are building what the market wants, with PRS quality and design. You see that they have identified the current 'craze', tooled up, designed and have run with it 'like a whirlwind'. Yet you don't give them credit for knowing which way the wind is blowing. Looks like they see the current pressure gradient pretty well.

According to your estimate, PRS has 10-20 years to recognize and adapt to your predicted huge shift in the industry and the future (now relatively indigent) affluents. That's a really long time in the retail world. Things change MUCH faster than that. I suspect that there will be changes next year, next month, next week that will catch the attention of Paul & Company and if the changes look promising, they'll be on them like (insert your own metaphor for ravishment here).

By your own reasoning, the market you think he is ignoring isn't even mature (in many meanings of that word) enough yet for high end guitars. They have PS tastes but Ibanez wallets. When that segment gets to the point where they can afford a quality instrument, PRS will notice and build what they want and can newly afford.

Faulting the company for not making those guitars now and letting them sit unordered in the factory doesn't make any sense.

And of course you don't need to try a 594 to be able to tell us all about it...
 
If they make this a production model, how am I supposed to choose between a 594 and a regular McCarty?

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In 10 or 20 years, there is going to be a huge shift in the industry. These boutique fad 50's pickups and the vintage spec guitar craze is going to go away, as older players stop playing and/or buying. Guys like me, who grew up as children of the 80's and 90s, are going to be the ones with the wallets and expendable income. We won't be looking for guitars that sound like 59 Les Pauls.

Ibanez, Kramer and all the other superstrat manufacturers thought the same at the 80s-90s. ESP thought the same at the 90s-2000s. Line6 thought the same at the new century with its modellling.
Here we are in 2016 paying 6000$ for a True Historic Les Paul and 5000$ for a vintage handwired amp. PRS knows the market, and offers the best he can manufacture to satisfy that demand.
 
And of course you don't need to try a 594 to be able to tell us all about it...

Oh geez. As I said, my post wasn't about the guitar itself. Its going to be a fine instrument. I was referring to direction and direction only using the guitar as an example. You guys like to twist things.

The modern guitar market Paul is ignoring is THERE. It may not be at its pinnacle yet or even close but its taking hold. . Suhr and Music Man have run with it. Kiesel too. Guys want baritones and extended ranges. They want guitars with higher powered pickups, midi switching options, etc. A lot of these guys do have cash. This includes me. I do well for myself. This is the market that will grow as the boutique vintage market declines. Paul is completely oblivious to this. I wish he wasn't. PRS would sell a bunch of 7 string core guitars....easily. Paul refuses to do it. My belief is he simply won't go routes he isn't personally familiar with. The guy is something like 60 years old. The guitars he is making are what he grew up with. That's fine, but PRS appears to have no eye toward the future. You don't wait for the market to be established. You get into and take a foothold while its establishing. Part of me thinks Paul doesn't care about the future because he is nearing retirement and will probably sell his stake. All the power to him. The man is entitled to his choices. I am entitled to voice an opinion. In the end, its just an opinion. Be nice to me!
 
PRS would sell a bunch of 7 string core guitars....easily. Paul refuses to do it. My belief is he simply won't go routes he isn't personally familiar with. The guy is something like 60 years old. The guitars he is making are what he grew up with. That's fine, but PRS appears to have no eye toward the future.

This is a complete falsehood, a fabrication, nonsense, and a lie.

Did Paul grow up with 408 pickups? A 513? Archtops with one piece carved bracing? Narrowfield pickups? The new trem technology? No. Nor did he grow up with many, many innovations that are constantly sprouting up on PRS.

And of course, PRS has a baritone and 7 string in the SE lineup.

I'm very familiar with Suhr guitars, one of your examples. They're merely hot-rodded Strats and Teles. Period. There isn't a thing innovative about their construction, pickups, etc. Suhrs are nice guitars for what they are, but there's not anything as innovative as PRS' 408 or 513 pickups and switching systems, narrowfields, and many other PRS innovations. Suhrs are a high quality re-hash of what Fender was doing 65 years ago.

If they have an extra string, how's that big deal innovation? There have been guitars with lots of different string setups since the 1500s. Here's a little 7 string "innovation" from 1839.

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How about an 8-string "innovation" from 1820?

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There really isn't much to say at this point except that you're now flame-worthy because you're either ignorant or fabricating something to make a point.

As to Paul being 60, wow, that's utterly irrelevant. John Suhr, your example, is around that age, if not older, as are lots of the folks owning companies you call innovators.

I don't know how old you are -- at some point you might learn to look at the whole picture -- but certainly you're just making stuff up to be a contrarian, and frankly, it sucks. It also makes you appear to be ignorant. I doubt you're ignorant. I know you're into being contrary just to stir the pot.

Finally, as a guy who evidently likes to call people out and accuse them of living in the past...please identify one single innovation you've made in your entire life that the world should take notice of? Do you own one single patent? Paul has lots of them.

I'm guessing there hasn't been one. Otherwise we'd be on the Drew Forum instead of Paul R. Smith's.
 
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I'll try to reserve judgement until I get to play a 594, if I get that chance, but at the moment, the things I love about my PRSi are mostly what is unique to them: 25" scale length (love the feel), double cut (unique look - not personally wild about PRS SC looks) great pickups that nod to vintage but offer versatility the traditional brands can't touch, and on my CU24, a trem that works without extra hardware or hassle. I'm not looking for a LP or Strat substitute (still have those, they barely get played).
If I play one of these and decide it's the greatest thing since sliced bread, I'll happily admit it, but for me at the moment, this seems to be answering a question I didn't ask.

Tom
 
Guys want baritones and extended ranges. They want guitars with higher powered pickups, midi switching options, etc. A lot of these guys do have cash. This includes me. I do well for myself. This is the market that will grow as the boutique vintage market declines. Paul is completely oblivious to this. I wish he wasn't. PRS would sell a bunch of 7 string core guitars....easily.

Oh, no! Nu-metal again, no, please :confused:
 
the thing that intrigues me about the 594 has nothing to do with the exact scale length, but with the control layout being the same as an LP with the switch finally in the right place, with a two piece bridge..... ON A DOUBLE CUT!!!!! Finally a classic guitar that is a little bit more comfortable to play!
 
Guys want baritones and extended ranges. They want guitars with higher powered pickups, midi switching options, etc. !

I can't disagree with this comment...and these are the guys buying MusicMan/Suhr/etc. There are also many of us who like what PRS is doing, are buying his guitars, and will continue to buy his guitars. Quality/innovation(whether you see it or not)/ and quite frankly some of the most beautiful instruments on the planet will always be sought after...because the same reasons they were first popular , why they are popular now, and why they will be in the future. They SOUND GREAT! Unless there's an evolutionary change to human hearing, these guitars will be always popular.
 
How about fusion? 7 string guitars actually started in jazz.

Funny that you accuse Paul Smith of living in the past; the Fusion trend started 46 years ago in 1970 with Miles Davis' Bitches' Brew, 15 years before PRS became a company.

But 7 string electrics were being made in the 1930s for George Van Eps, and in the 50s and 60s by Gretsch for his sig model. Fender had one in the late 80s.

These are NOTHING NEW.

If PRS made them in the Core line, it would NOT be an innovation in any way.

Nothing pisses me off like ignorance of historical fact.
 
I'm a fan of leaf blowers actually.

Regarding the scale length, I can never tell these things unless I'm playing two guitars side by side and swapping every minute or so. Regarding the control layout, I don't much care where the knobs and switches are, but I do like having separate tone and volume controls for each pickup. Me personally? This thing doesn't have anything to do with a Les Paul, and I don't care how much people (including those at PRS) might interpret the scale length and switch layout. I might get one if I like the way it sounds and plays. I'll bet a ton of money though that they won't feel and sound any more similar to a Les Paul than a McCarty does, or a DGT does. We'll see...
 
Drew's allowed his opinion (although he knew he was gonna catch he!! when he posted it). I don't agree with it, nor do I like it, but it's just guitars. Sergio's right, there are far more insidious things out there, like leaf blowers, that should get our attention. One vote does make a difference, after all.

As for my slant on this, I'll say this: I was one of those pointy guitar, dive bomb, squeally harmonics guys coming of age in the early 80's. There was a lot of "great" music that I loved at that time. I've had more than my share of Fender, Ibanez, Music Man, Charvel, Jackson, Kramer and BC Rich guitars over the years. I kinda grew outta that though, and now I've discovered PRS (well, way back in '97). I don't really care what they are, or aren't, as long as they are what I want at this time. Really, I don't think there's a finer instrument out there. Just my opinion, of course. I see lots of guys doing downtuned, shredding, etc etc etc with PRS products. I don't think they're lost in the past, or trying to make the past the future. Back to those pointy guitars; I don't have any of them anymore. I have one old Strat, and a JPX. The rest went by the wayside because they just didn't do it for me. To each his own.
 
Nothing? Not even stuff like sexual predators, child abuse, racism, or leaf blowers?

Really? Do we need more fuel to this thread? Why not call someone a "($%*$" or say your mom should have left you in the car in a hot day. Like Bodia said, everyone is entitled to his/her opinion on anything. Don't have to agree with it, its their's, you have your's, I have mine.

Everyone can make their point in a polite way.
 
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A couple of things I didn't see mentioned:

1. As much as people say they want to see something new, you can see in initial reactions to the 594's switch placements, Tremonti's new design, etc. that the initial reaction to something even a little different can be pretty negative in a lot of people.

They may get over it and decide the whole package is still good, but if someone put out a dramatically different guitar I think it would be a tough sell.

2. We've seen PRS expanding baritone offerings in the SE line, and I think if 7 strings and baritones sell well enough there they'll make it into the Core lineup.

My guess is that the numbers aren't there yet for PRS even if some other brands are doing well with those features.

I'm not sure whether or not the 594 should be at the top of my list, but even if it's a bit of a vintage copy in many ways, if it has the right sound I'm definitely interested.

I'm not too old, but I still like the sounds of the 60s/70s and I think that people younger than me still will in the future. I see them listening to that music today, plus we have new music being made with all of this vintage gear or copies of it.

I think another good example of PRS making modern and vintage style gear is in amps. They're making amps like the HX/DA and offering great vintage sounds that many of us still want, and amps like the Archon which is very modern and is getting a lot of positive attention as well.

Personally, those are the top two amps on my list.

I think any guitar company that wants to do well selling high-end guitars and amps right now really has to cater to the vintage market, but I'm glad that PRS is still innovating within that market and keeping the door open for other players to come in.

I hope more will and that we'll see Core 7-strings, baritones, basses, etc. in the future. :)
 
Really? Do we need more fuel to this thread? Why not call someone a "($%*$" or say your mom should have left you in the car in a hot day. Like Bodia said, everyone is entitled to his/her opinion on anything. Don't have to agree with it, its their's, you have your's, I have mine.

Everyone can make their point in a polite way. There's a healthy debate, and then there is just being an a$$. Sheesh.

I think he was actually trying to make the point that this whole discussion is about a relatively inconsequential topic. No one's really hurt by PRS making some vintage-style guitars.
 
Nothing? Not even stuff like sexual predators, child abuse, racism, or leaf blowers?
Really? Do we need more fuel to this thread? Why not call someone a "($%*$" or say your mom should have left you in the car in a hot day. Like Bodia said, everyone is entitled to his/her opinion on anything. Don't have to agree with it, its their's, you have your's, I have mine.

Everyone can make their point in a polite way. There's a healthy debate, and then there is just being an a$$. Sheesh.
Sigh. That's just Sergio's style, man. He's yanking Les's chain in his usual, playful, sparkly way.
 
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