PRS Paul Reed Smith Private Stock McCarty 594 Guitar, Dragon's Breath

Player's Perspective

Music Store Live is proud to offer up this McCarty 594 from the Paul Reed Smith Private Stock department. When dealing with a PRS Private Stock, you know you're obviously getting the best of the best. But when we head out to Maryland each year to hand-select woods and appointments for builds, we're designing a lot more than just guitars that look incredible. They still need to sound amazing and the tonewoods need to make sense. So whenever we're putting together some Private Stock guitars with the crew over at PRS, we're still thinking about somebody that's going to play this guitar as well as admire it.

With that said, we have an absolutely gorgeous guitar here finished in a vibrant Dragon's Breath stain. The African ribbon mahogany body is beautifully figured and almost looks holographic in person. The stained flame maple control plates on the back add a beautiful pop of color. The flame maple top has a nice wide curl to it, which we are always big fans of and goes well with the flame maple neck when you spin the guitar around. The finish staining process is always done by hand and they all come out a little different, but we are also absolutely thrilled with how this particular Dragon's Breath application came out!

But perhaps the star of the show is that fretboard. From what PRS have told us, this run of Private Stocks they did for us was the first time that they've ever done a stained reverse birds of a feather inlay pattern like this. The idea was that we wanted it to almost look like the finish from the top was continuing to fade into the fretboard before giving birth to the flock of birds and that gorgeous eagle on the headstock. The result is stunningly beautiful. Some more subtle, but really cool touches on this are also the ebony pickup rings, flame maple fretboard binding, the rear control plates, and the stained flame maple tuner buttons.

The pickups are PRS's 58/15LT pickups. They're like PRS's take on a PAF pickup but with a little bit more oomph to them. There's a perfect amount of brightness to cut through any mix, a smooth mid-range presence to retain articulation and definition, and tight bass response to give your guitar's voice fullness and some warmth. It's a great vintage-inspired pickup that can still hold its own and sound crisp and clear even in more modern settings, including higher gain stuff. 

This guitar is truly a feast for the eyes, the hands, and the ears. It simply does not get any better than this.

Private Stock represents the highest quality of materials, the most personally crafted instruments, and the greatest level of customization available from PRS. Whether you choose one of our Private Stock models or spec a Built to Order instrument, every Private Stock is carefully conceived and built with a “one-off” mentality. Through this program, we strive to deliver heirloom-quality, musical instruments. All woods for this guitar were hand-selected by the dealer during a trip to our Private Stock vault in Maryland.

"I have never seen anyone playing guitar in a bad mood. There’s something magic about guitars because they are simultaneously art, musical instruments, treasured possessions, and tools to joyfully spend time with. If you get an extraordinary instrument from Private Stock that is equally as good as a family heirloom and a musician’s tool to make a living on, we have done our job." - Paul Reed Smith

Some features we'd like to highlight on this Private Stock guitar are:

- The dealer selected all of the woods for this guitar from the PRS Private Stock vault in Maryland
- African ribbon mahogany body
- Stained reverse Birds Of A Feather inlay pattern
- Flame maple binding around the entire guitar
- Stained flame maple tuner buttons

“One of my sayings is that everything that touches the string is God – well, that’s really the bridge, the nut, and the tuners. The updates to the McCarty family make a huge difference in their tone. The guitar sustains longer and the tone has more character,” said Paul Reed Smith.

It’s All in the Details: TCI-Tuned Pickups

Paul Reed Smith is known as a man who studies history, scrutinizes the details, and never stops applying what he learns to his own instruments. It is that passion, care, and tenacity that has permeated PRS Guitars’ culture and led to the constant evolution of PRS products. Last year, PRS announced TCI (tuned capacitance and inductance) pickups on the Paul’s Guitar. But, TCI is more than a pickup, it’s a process. That process has now been applied to all PRS pickups offered on our Core line of instruments, with the exception of a few artist Signature models.

“TCI stands for Tuned Capacitance Inductance. When you wind a pickup, the coils are capacitors, resistors, and inductors simultaneously. Our more refined ability to be able to tune those factors is what we have incorporated into TCI pickups,” said Paul Reed Smith. “To our ears, the results are very musical. We are very proud of how far we’ve come in the understanding and making of pickups. It’s been a fun process.”

PATTERN NECK SHAPES

Neck shapes have always been a high priority for PRS and a hallmark of our quality. A guitar should feel comfortable, like "home," as soon as you pick it up, and the neck is paramount to that connection. These new neck shapes reflect modern tooling and programming that allows us to even more preciously shape and consistently reproduce our necks. The "Pattern Vintage" neck has the same width measurements as PRS's Pattern neck but is slightly thicker front to back and features an asymmetrical carve with a little less meat on the bass side of the neck toward the nut end and a little less meat on the treble side of the neck from the twelfth fret to the heel.

Our in-house guitar tech will inspect, test, set up, and clean all of our instruments on site prior to shipping. All of our instruments are guaranteed to be fully functional upon arrival.

Music Store Live is one of PRS's top independent dealers and is one of only a select few PRS Signature Dealers. If you still haven't found what you're looking for, we are more than happy to help you custom order your next Paul Reed Smith instrument. Our PRS experts can help guide you in purchasing a new SE, S2, CORE, Artist Package, or even your very own Private Stock guitar or bass. Call or message us for details!