Why do I not like the sound of my beautiful McCarty?

This tone issue is:


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Here's a quick thing to try if you're handy with a soldering iron. Open up the back plate and see if there is a small capacitor between the legs of the volume pot. Unsolder one leg and see if that makes it sound a bit more to your liking.
 
I have a couple early SAS with McCarty PUs...Love them...but, 13 years...I would have tried all your choices above, and if it didn't resolve the issue, trade it for something else.
Lowering the pickups does occasionally fix problems around these parts, though.
Good luck.

(I'm with Hans...Everyone hears Tone differently, so no one will really be able to say it sounds "good vs. bad". (Unless there's an obvious wiring issue somewhere.)
 
I will assume the question is an honest one.

I would bet it is the pickups. Some people love McCarty pickups (me, for example) - I have a set in my 1998 McRosie, and a set of McCarty Archtops in my Spruce HB. Oh, and I guess my 2007 SAS has a set! But they are different enough from other offerings that they can sound "wrong" to a lot of people.

I would try something else - the 57/08s are great pickups, for example.
 
We can tinker at the margins by replacing pickups, changing wiring & cap values, and swapping potentiometers but at the end of the day a McCarty is still a McCarty. Those little tweaks can help, sure, but they’re not going to transform the guitar into something it’s not. If your subconscious benchmark for the perfect guitar sound is a vintage Tele or Les Paul, then - without knowing why - you will forever be disappointed that your McCarty will never sound exactly like one.

If that’s the case here, then either sell it and get a vintage Tele or Les Paul, or keep it and decide to celebrate its McCarty-ness.

I think a lot of the problems people have with gear comes down to expectations and subconscious biases. For the most part, PRS guitars do not look or sound exactly like the vintage instruments we grew up listening to as a kid. A lot of that is because they’re designed and built to much higher standards, use different materials and haven’t aged 50+ years. Personally I see that as A Very Good Thing, but YMMV.

Just my $0.02.
 
Hmm, I have a 98 McCarty and the sound is nowhere as good as my SC 594. Not even close. Big difference in the guitars of course. I'd put my money on the pickups though.
 
The McCarty is such a wonderful guitar.

I really think that different pickups with all new pots, bumblebee caps, and 50’s style wiring will get it just where you want to be. I wouldn’t change the three way switch because it’s so rugged and has such a good feel.

Welcome to the forum.
 
Agree with this...^^^...and I'm Not sure about when they moved from McCarty PUs in SAS to actual SAS Pickups...???
I know around 2000 they came with the McCarties, though.
They switched to "Swamp Ash" Pups in the SAS in 2008, according to the model history. :shrug:
 
Thanks for all the thoughtful replies. I want to be clear that I am not trolling! I have thought about this a long time and I am not here to troll PRS guitars or the McCarty.
To answer a few questions:
- The guitar has the stock McCarty pickups in it. I have done nothing to alter the guitar since I bought it - other than to adjust the pickup height and truss rod (very slightly).
- I have played it through a Fender Deluxe Reverb (silverface, 70's), Fender Pro Reverb (blackface, 60') and a Marshall TSL amp. It sounds a little better through the TSL because the amp has more compression to it, which eases some of the hard attack of the guitar's sound.
- I'll see if I can post sound sound clip, but since I'm new to the forum, the system is telling me I need to create 3 posts before I can add links to my posts.
 
A couple other questions about the guitar:
- Why does it have a bridge that has no adjustable saddles? Is the guitar just so well made that saddles don't need to be adjusted to get it to intonate? What if I change string gauge?
- Has the McCarty 594 made this guitar obsolete or less valuable? Or do people still like the original McCarty design as its own thing?
 
Nooooooo….Original McCarty's kick butt. As far as the adjustable saddles, the Original One Piece Bridge is pretty popular ...
and the overall scale length can be adjusted, but if you are an extreme perfectionist, (as far as Intonation),
or if you go to a larger/smaller string gauge, they do offer a fully adjustable replacement bridge.
I have guitars with both bridges and have no intonation issues with any of them.
Some of each of these bridges have been swapped by folks on here, as everyone has their preferences.

The only "fault" (hardly a fault) discussed on here has been the slight
volume drop when going to single coil sounds on the original McCarty guitars.
PRS has since rectified this with adding a capacitor (???...I know they added something to the pots) to more recent models.

Side note: I've seen people actually spend hours checking intonation ONLY,
before buying a guitar with a one piece bridge (especially on better Acoustics)…
I've never gone that far, but than again, I'm pretty much a basement hack. :)confused:eek:_O:D)

*****EDIT: What Tone-y said below!!! :D
 
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There should be a grub screw at the back of each side of the one piece bridge, these can be used to set the intonation at each of the e strings. All of the other strings should then be close enough using standard size strings.
I believe the volume of the split coil sounds had been improved by a resistor rather than a capacitor.
 
I would seriously think about my suggestion of disconnecting the treble bleed cap on the volume pot if that is within your skill set. I find these add a brightness and sound 'modern' if that makes sense. It's a quick thing to do that can easily be changed back which is why I often suggest it, and it really can change how the guitar sounds and feels.
 
A couple other questions about the guitar:
- Why does it have a bridge that has no adjustable saddles? Is the guitar just so well made that saddles don't need to be adjusted to get it to intonate? What if I change string gauge?
- Has the McCarty 594 made this guitar obsolete or less valuable? Or do people still like the original McCarty design as its own thing?
I have a few PRS with the fixed saddles. I’ve used 9, 9.5, 10, 11 gauge without issues. Paul specs the fixed bridge because he believes there is a better tone with the simpler design. He almost always uses it on his own guitars.

The 594 doesn’t obsolete the original McCarty. Some people prefer the longer scale and the simpler electronics.
 
A couple other questions about the guitar:
- Why does it have a bridge that has no adjustable saddles? Is the guitar just so well made that saddles don't need to be adjusted to get it to intonate? What if I change string gauge?
- Has the McCarty 594 made this guitar obsolete or less valuable? Or do people still like the original McCarty design as its own thing?
The McCarty family of guitars incorporates a lot of different models, with a wide variety of pickups, scale lengths, electronics, hardware and body styles. The original McCartys are awesome, and are in no way superseded by other models. It comes down to choices, options and what works best for you. FWIW I have nearly a dozen McCarty variants, and my #1 songwriting tool continues to be a 1999 dead-stock McCarty soapbar.
 
Guitars come and go. It's part of their charm. Also, PRS guitars are their own thing. Somebody else mentioned this as well. They are very evocative of other brands, but not intended to be exactly the same. The 594 and the Silver Sky ARE meant to essentially be a vintage Les Paul and a vintage Strat with modern consistency and playability, but the rest of the lineup is meant to be a PRS.

If you can get your hands on a 594 give it a try. If that's not your thing try a Suhr or an Anderson or another Fender or a Gibson or anything else. Guitars are great and meant to be fun. Obviously most folks here are huge PRS fans, but they don't HAVE to appeal to everyone. If the guitars doesn't "speak" to you, then get a different guitar.

If you are committed to keeping that guitar and making it sound the way you want then new pickups are a great place to start. A different amp may also be the way to go.

The quest for tone never ends. That's both a good thing and a bad thing.
 
David, the thing you don't talk about is the type of amp you're playing and the style(s) you're playing in. I'd guess you're in a 60s-70s rock or blues vein with a vintage-style Fender or Marshall type amp? If so, those McCarty pickups are going to be... not great. Up until about '08, PRS guitars trended towards 80s-style sounds: they were great with dirty, gainy preamps and super-clean effected sounds. A lot of vintage-leaning players who bought PRS guitars replaced the pickups.

That changed in '08 with the introduction of the 57/08, 59/09, 53/10, and followon "number" series pickups, which were the culmination of a whole lotta pickup research by Paul Smith into why vintage pickups sounded the way they did. PRS pickups went from good/okay-ish to great.

In short: it's probably your pickups. You can buy much better-sounding ones from PRS or other makers.
 
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