PRS SE Singlecut McCarty 594 Electric Guitar - Vintage Sunburst Reviews

My first electric guitar after getting back into it. Sold all my gear about 10 years ago. Could not be happier with my choice! Researched for a couple months, and this is definitely the one! Such versatile sound with the push pull knobs for single coil action in addition to the warm powerful humbuckers. PRS! Loving it! Thank you Sweetwater for all of the help in particular Adam Cesar!

I'll keep this simple. Copypasta'd of a text I sent my musician buddies this morning:

"So, I ordered this [demo] from Sweetwater. It's their 'bargain basement' 594 McCarty ('Les Paul') guitar. It sat at FedEx for a couple days because I worked a lot this week. Picked it up last night, unpacked and played it. Liked it. Got up this morning, played my Gibson Les Paul Modern for a bit. Nice. Then played the 594 McCarty again. Blows away the LP. In every respect. Superior instrument. I will probably sell my two Gibson Les Pauls. The PRS is just better-playing, better-sounding, and it's more comfortable to wear."

(Side note: props to longtime rockstar sales engineer Richard Whittington)

Owning 4 PRS guitars already I had a benchmark in my mind as to what to expect with this instrument when I picked it up. It did not disappoint at all. I no longer have the desire to spend the kind of money it takes to own a core model so I do not feel I am at all compromising in buying this SE. It plays amazingly well. the fit and finish were awesome. The pick ups were really good. The cleans were clear and smooth and the overdriven and distortion tones were not muddy at all. The gig bag was good. But looking at it a person would think it is way more expensive then it is. Buying at the deal that you can get them at right now it awesome.

First off, thanks Dave Cody for your patience. At first I decided on turquoise. After receiving it, I thought it looked green. Just wasn't happy. Called Dave, and he made it a 5 minute switch. Took about 4 days to send it back and get another guitar.
The sunburst is definitely a step up from turquoise. They don't stain the sides of the top so it looks like a binding. The turquoise didn't have this.
As far as playability, it's easier to play than a Les Paul. But I doubt very much it has the same depth of a higher end Les Paul. All guitars have a place in music, and this one does also.
Looks are smoking. Yes it's veneer. But very well done. Spectacular finish on top. Back is 3 pieced, so there's a bout of difference, but if you'd paint it, nobody would know the difference. Mine is pretty good.
All in all, a spectacular guitar at $ on sale. Seriously. $.
Idont know where PRS is going with the SE line. Because I've got 2 Core PRS guitars. Yeah, they are really nice. But this model (594) is also. And about $ cheaper. It's hard to justify the extra cash, but the SE line wasn't around back then. But I'll still be keeping my P22 & Hollow Body II. They are truly more than spectacular.
This goes well with the PRS SE 24-08 I got last spring. These guitars are a great bang for the buck. But I will say, that at sometime in your guitar days you should pick up an American made PRS guitar. They are on a level nobody else can reach. Except maybe Taylor's 800 & 900 Acoustic series.
Peace everyone.
Let's get along and sing a song.

The guitar is even more beautiful than the pictures of it. Solidly built and flawless. The guitar sounds great and is amazing. The only regret I have is that I didn't have Sweetwater set it up to my own personal taste for the action and feel. That doesn't take anything away from the quality of the instrument. I can tell that it was inspected by Sweetwater and any needed adjustments were done to it before sending it out. I'll have my guitar repair guy set it up to my own specs. The guitar came with a standard set up and was fine and would make most folks happy. I own 2 other PRS guitars but those are made in the U.S. and this is the first time I bought an overseas made PRS, but I trusted the brand name that this would also be a quality instrument for the money. I was not disappointed. It's a great guitar. I own and have owned other pro level instruments, mostly Gibsons and Fenders. This guitar is dang good for the money and it was absolutely a worthwhile purchase. I would recommend anyone looking for a great guitar at a great price point to purchase this one. It's definitely a 5 Star guitar. I also appreciate Sweetwater's customer service, it's definitely a pleasure purchasing from these folks.

This is a truly impressive guitar. It has a beautiful top, the attention to detail was fantastic, and it plays and sounds great. This was the first model from the SE line I've owned. I have a PRS S2 Standard 24, and it was the highest quality, best playing guitar out of the box I've ever owned. This one wasn't far off that level of quality. I generally prefer Fender style guitars and it takes a lot for me to bond with a more Gibson-esque guitar, but I did with this one right away. The shorter than Gibson scale length is noticeable, and it is a nice change of pace. It does have a very full neck profile, but it was not overly so. Someone who usually likes a Fender "Modern C" like myself will find this chunkier, but I get along with it fine. The 58/15 LT "S" pickups are amazing. They have a tremendous vintage sound and they may be my favorite part of the guitar. Also, I wanted to note I purchased this as a demo model but it seemed perfect to me and even knowing from the pictures where the supposed flaws were I would not have complained if it arrived in this condition as a regular "new" model.

If you're looking for a Les Paul style guitar, no matter how much you have to spend, give this one a look.

Craftmanship ,fit & finish are top notch,playability ,sound,& tone great .
PRS created a real winner with the SE McCarty 594.

I am so impressed with this guitar. Solid, well built tone machine. You can feel & hear the sustain with this choice of woods hardware & design. From spanky clean to mean & dirty. So versatile it's great.

The Amazing looks, tone, playability, are out of this world for this guitar. It Looks, plays and feels like a Core PRS Model at 1/3 the price point. the fit and finish are astonishing. set up out of the box was spot on. After playing this for over an Hour I got to thinking that the silly Stoopid grin on my face just may be permanent! Go back and click the "add to Cart" button now and get your bad self one of these now! I know I would!

Pictures don't do it justice. Solid tone woods are great. Hard to beat that this price point

I would have been happy if this guitar was a PRS core "10" top model, but it was a PRS SE McCarty 594 with a gorgeous matched top. PRS has stepped up their SE line to the point where you have to ask why do they still make the S2 line?

I bought my McCarty 594 SE in March 2023, so I believe I have had it long enough to write an honest post-honeymoon review.

So let me first say that I still very much like this guitar. I like the way it looks. I like the weight. I really like the way the neck plays. And since I replaced the stock pickups with some much better pickups, I really like the way it sounds. To be sure the PRS SE stock pickups were good, but a little muddy.

So why only 3.5 stars you ask? Well when it arrived the nut was not correctly cut or correctly finished, and the guitar had some of the worst tuning stability I have ever encountered on a new guitar. Also, the intonation was far from correct. In addition, the nut was about 1.5mm shorter than the width of the neck. So although the nut (with its sharp edges) was flush with the neck binding on the bass-E string side there was a significant gap on the top-E side of the neck. So fairly quickly I had the nut replaced by my local luthier.

The other issue I had was with the 1/4" jack socket, which was such a cheap component that I had to replace it after a few months or so, which I grant is not a big deal.

All-in-all, my PRS McCarty 594 SE is a nice guitar, but the QC was not what it should have been for a $ guitar.

By way of comparison, I also bought 2 other guitars in 2023. The first was a PRS Silver Sky SE, which is a very good guitar and was great out-of-the-box, although I have replaced the pickups and electronics to meet my preferences. I should also point out my Silver Sky SE was a Sweetwater demo guitar, so it may have had much more hands-on than my McCarty 594. The other guitar I bought towards the end of 2023 was a Sire L7V Goldtop with P90s, which was completely flawless out-of-the-box.