andy474x
Knows the Drill
We all know this story - go to the shop, grab a guitar to try something else with, and next thing you know, there's a guitar stuck in your head!
Well, that's how it happened to me. Was at the shop trying a pedal a few weeks ago, grabbed an S2 594 just for something familiar, and just couldn't stop thinking about that guitar afterward. It seemed to sustain forever on the open strings. Went back last week to give it another shot, yep - something very special about this one, the sound was great, and the setup was dialed right in to what I liked. I tried it along with a couple others on the wall, including one with a killer cherry burst top, but there was just something to the sustain and sweetness, and feel, of that one I'd tried before. Visually, I wouldn't call it plain, it looks good, but it certainly wasn't the standout of the bunch. Which kind of relieved me, that I was able to get past the look and really hear what was best.
Don't get me wrong, there wasn't a lot of variance between them, we're talking single digit percentage difference in most regards.
I've been hoping to find a "beater" 594 that I can take out with less worry when the occasion calls for it. Between the hot/cold extremes going in and out in Michigan winter, and the potential for a guitar to mysteriously walk away in seedier places, I'm not too keen to take my AP/WL 594 out in every situation. Mission accomplished!
My constructive criticisms of the S2 are, one, that the "S" version pickups don't have the fidelity of the USA models, and two, the finish has a lot of swirling and micro scratches when the light hits it right. Personally, I don't care too much about point 2, I didn't buy it to look at it. Just an observation. In all other regards, the attention to detail is excellent!
So, if you don't believe this stuff finds us... the pickups did it, too. There's a fairly well known boutique pickup company that I recently learned is within a stone's throw of my office, and I've been wanting a guitar to put their pickups in, all my other guitars have PRS pickups that I'm very happy with. They have the old winders that wound the pickups for the vintage Gibson guitars, you know, the 59's and all that - major cool points! Their website states shop tours by appointment, so I was pretty excited to check it out. Phone call... oh, yeah, no shop visits since COVID started, and the guy had about as much enthusiasm to talk to me as a wet sock. No shop tour, I can deal with that (although, it's been almost 3 years guys, maybe update your website???), but if my inquiry to buy a $600 set of PAF's is a nuisance to you, hard pass. So, called the shop where I got the guitar, let's try something a little different... Thornbuckers! Should be in from their warehouse in a couple days. Those days pass and I call, and "oh, we had a little kerfuffle with those, we don't have a neck pickup and we don't know when we will." Ok, well what do you have? Do you have any of the 58/15LT sets?
You bet your @$$ they did.
It's supernatural gear, I'm telling you, this stuff was out to get me.
The new pickups definitely solved the fidelity issue, I'm hearing everything in the signal that I hear acoustically. This 594 has more twang to the notes, almost tele-like in some regards, whereas my core version is smoother on the note attack. Both are good things, just application dependent. The S2 also has an astonishing sustain on the open strings, I swear you'd think it's starting to feed back on itself even unplugged! It definitely out-sustains the core model on those open strings, but it's not all bad for the core, because it starts to win the sustain game moving up the neck. Pretty cool to have both personalities of 594, I really can't say one is definitively better than the other in sound, just different.
Yada yada yada... pics.
Surgery!
With the LT's (and Schaller S locks)
With big brother
The brisket I made New Year's Day, because I know you want to see it. Am I just adding it to this thread to keep your attention, like Sweetwater does with their little bags of candy? Absolutely. Maybe I'll start my own online shop, except I'll give out smoked meat instead of candy.
Well, that's how it happened to me. Was at the shop trying a pedal a few weeks ago, grabbed an S2 594 just for something familiar, and just couldn't stop thinking about that guitar afterward. It seemed to sustain forever on the open strings. Went back last week to give it another shot, yep - something very special about this one, the sound was great, and the setup was dialed right in to what I liked. I tried it along with a couple others on the wall, including one with a killer cherry burst top, but there was just something to the sustain and sweetness, and feel, of that one I'd tried before. Visually, I wouldn't call it plain, it looks good, but it certainly wasn't the standout of the bunch. Which kind of relieved me, that I was able to get past the look and really hear what was best.
Don't get me wrong, there wasn't a lot of variance between them, we're talking single digit percentage difference in most regards.
I've been hoping to find a "beater" 594 that I can take out with less worry when the occasion calls for it. Between the hot/cold extremes going in and out in Michigan winter, and the potential for a guitar to mysteriously walk away in seedier places, I'm not too keen to take my AP/WL 594 out in every situation. Mission accomplished!
My constructive criticisms of the S2 are, one, that the "S" version pickups don't have the fidelity of the USA models, and two, the finish has a lot of swirling and micro scratches when the light hits it right. Personally, I don't care too much about point 2, I didn't buy it to look at it. Just an observation. In all other regards, the attention to detail is excellent!
So, if you don't believe this stuff finds us... the pickups did it, too. There's a fairly well known boutique pickup company that I recently learned is within a stone's throw of my office, and I've been wanting a guitar to put their pickups in, all my other guitars have PRS pickups that I'm very happy with. They have the old winders that wound the pickups for the vintage Gibson guitars, you know, the 59's and all that - major cool points! Their website states shop tours by appointment, so I was pretty excited to check it out. Phone call... oh, yeah, no shop visits since COVID started, and the guy had about as much enthusiasm to talk to me as a wet sock. No shop tour, I can deal with that (although, it's been almost 3 years guys, maybe update your website???), but if my inquiry to buy a $600 set of PAF's is a nuisance to you, hard pass. So, called the shop where I got the guitar, let's try something a little different... Thornbuckers! Should be in from their warehouse in a couple days. Those days pass and I call, and "oh, we had a little kerfuffle with those, we don't have a neck pickup and we don't know when we will." Ok, well what do you have? Do you have any of the 58/15LT sets?
You bet your @$$ they did.
It's supernatural gear, I'm telling you, this stuff was out to get me.
The new pickups definitely solved the fidelity issue, I'm hearing everything in the signal that I hear acoustically. This 594 has more twang to the notes, almost tele-like in some regards, whereas my core version is smoother on the note attack. Both are good things, just application dependent. The S2 also has an astonishing sustain on the open strings, I swear you'd think it's starting to feed back on itself even unplugged! It definitely out-sustains the core model on those open strings, but it's not all bad for the core, because it starts to win the sustain game moving up the neck. Pretty cool to have both personalities of 594, I really can't say one is definitively better than the other in sound, just different.
Yada yada yada... pics.
Surgery!
With the LT's (and Schaller S locks)
With big brother
The brisket I made New Year's Day, because I know you want to see it. Am I just adding it to this thread to keep your attention, like Sweetwater does with their little bags of candy? Absolutely. Maybe I'll start my own online shop, except I'll give out smoked meat instead of candy.
