The PRS SE McCarty 594 is a great example of PRS taking everything players love about classical electric guitars and finding a way to make it work beautifully in a modern instrument. It has the familiar look and feel of a traditional carved-top, two-humbucker guitar, but with the precision, playability, and versatility that PRS has become known for.
And in Vintage Sunburst, it looks right at home. The Maple top with Flame Maple veneer gives the guitar plenty of visual character without going overboard, while the traditional sunburst treatment brings out its decidedly vintage side.
The McCarty 594 is built around a Mahogany body with a carved Maple top, and PRS gives the back a little extra thickness to help enhance the guitar's resonance and sustain. The Shallow Violin Carve is comfortable against your body, while the Pattern Vintage neck profile gives you the substantial, rounded feel that players who love old-school Gibson-style necks tend to appreciate.
The Rosewood fingerboard has a 10" radius, 22 frets, and Birds inlays, and the 24.594" scale length is one of the defining characteristics of the 594. That slightly shorter scale gives the guitar a comfortable, familiar feel and makes bending a little easier, while still retaining plenty of clarity and snap.
Then we get to the pickups. PRS equipped the SE McCarty 594 with a pair of 58/15 LT "S" humbuckers, designed to deliver the warm, vintage-inspired character of the original 58/15 LT pickups. They're clear and articulate rather than overly hot, with a sweet top end and plenty of harmonic detail. These are the kind of pickups that respond beautifully to your picking dynamics and let your amp do a lot of the talking.
The control layout is another reason the 594 is such a versatile guitar. You get individual volume controls for each pickup and push/pull tone controls for coil splitting, along with the three-way pickup selector mounted on the upper bout. That gives you everything from thick, full humbucker tones to surprisingly convincing single-coil sounds.
And unlike some guitars that make you work for those extra sounds, the 594's layout is intuitive. Once you've spent a few minutes with it, you're naturally reaching for the individual volume controls to blend and balance the pickups. It's a very useful setup for players who actually use their guitar's controls rather than simply leaving everything at 10.
The hardware is equally well thought out. The PRS two-piece bridge adds mass and solid string contact, while the PRS-designed tuners with wing buttons provide excellent tuning stability and a clean, understated appearance. Nickel hardware completes the traditional look.
This is exactly the sort of guitar that makes the SE line so compelling. The SE McCarty 594 gives you a distinctly vintage-inspired foundation, but there's nothing old-fashioned about the way it plays or the number of sounds available from it.
If you're after the warmth and feel of a classic carved-top humbucker guitar but want the playability, consistency, and versatility of a modern PRS, the SE McCarty 594 is a tough guitar to beat.
