NGD: '98 McCarty RW Neck

[hunter]

As announced, now it's arrived.

It was really tarnished, think hadn't been played for a while, so I got out my "Gundel Putz" polish and the 000 steel wool and made it all nice, new strings and all.

Wow, plays and sounds great. Resonates and sings. Lighter than I thought. The pickups are not bad actually, quite vintagey, nice mids and open sounding. A bit harsh on the treble but can be tamed with the presence.

I am really happy about this new member in my family!!

[Ian Price]

Good stuff Hunter. That neck looks awesome!

[roland_rat]

That one nice looking axe enjoy!

[Gooby]

These RW neck McCartys do look rather sweet. Pickup selector and not the silly rotary control, rosewood neck & all sorts of nice features. Not had the chance to try one, but I am fairly sure the neck would make a postitive contribution to the sound.

Martin

[hunter]

Yeah, they are nice. The RW adds a certain dryness, clarity that is lacking on my other guitars. I like it. Plus it gives plenty of brightness on chords, but is not thin when you play leads on the dusty end of the neck.

I am very greatful to Dave who ignighted my GAS for this model!

[Twinfan]

They're great  :)

What do you think of it compared to your other guitars?

[FernandoDuarte]

:o

Ohhh I want!

[hunter]

They're great  :)

What do you think of it compared to your other guitars?

I have to answer that trying to exclude the pickups from the equation, as I am not sure what their impact is, but as far as I can tell.

1. Stays in tune much better than any of my Gibsons.
2. Has an amazingly long, very even sustain. It goes forever and keeps "meat" in the tone as it decays. No other of my guitars has that kind of quality. I would say this comes directly from the rosewood neck.
3. Is incredibly "in tune" up the neck, who needs Buzz Feiten?
4. Has a very even frequency response, gives a lot of crunch.

The only "downside" is that it has a bit less balls than my Les Paul types, but well, it's also 1/3 less mahogany and weight than those.

[Twinfan]

I thought so.  As a man of great taste in amps ( except for the AxeFX :roll: :lol: ) you've always seem to have had cheaper guitars - in the "mid-range" mainly.  I never understood why you didn't have a more expensive guitar.

Has this changed your mind?

[hunter]

I thought so.  As a man of great taste in amps ( except for the AxeFX :roll: :lol: ) you've always seem to have had cheaper guitars - in the "mid-range" mainly.  I never understood why you didn't have a more expensive guitar.

Has this changed your mind?

Hmmm, not sure about this. I am a fan of having less guitars, just due to maintenance and the "burden of choice". But I gotta say that my Edwards LP is also very sweet, as is my Epi LP, I like them all. This is just very different in many perspectves, but the other ones aren't bad because of it. I do consider to cut back some on my collection (e.g. the PRS SE is no longer needed really, also I don't need the Epiphone AND the Edwards, the Baja Tele, well ...)

Other question TF, how did you like those McCarty pickups, or better: what disliked you about them?

[Adam.M]

They're great  :)

What do you think of it compared to your other guitars?

I have to answer that trying to exclude the pickups from the equation, as I am not sure what their impact is, but as far as I can tell.

1. Stays in tune much better than any of my Gibsons.
2. Has an amazingly long, very even sustain. It goes forever and keeps "meat" in the tone as it decays. No other of my guitars has that kind of quality. I would say this comes directly from the rosewood neck.
3. Is incredibly "in tune" up the neck, who needs Buzz Feiten?
4. Has a very even frequency response, gives a lot of crunch.

The only "downside" is that it has a bit less balls than my Les Paul types, but well, it's also 1/3 less mahogany and weight than those.

I think all those four points are just inherent to the PRS design, i'd say exactly the same thing about my Custom 24 and the CE 24 i had.

They sure are great guitars... which SE did you/do you have, by the way?

[hunter]

which SE did you/do you have, by the way?

I own a Singlecut (from the first batch of SC SEs). It's very cool, I got a pair of Rebel Yells in it with split option and it makes for a very versatile, crushing package. Here's a clip I posted a few days ago: http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=16746.0

[Twinfan]

My McCartys have the following pickups:

* Rosewood #1 - VHIIs.  I had spare VHIIs from a sold guitar lying around, and thought I'd try them in this guitar.  The stock pickups were a bit dark here, and as the wiring had been changed anyway I thought I'd try a pickup swap.  I liked them so they stay!

* Rosewood #2 - Holydivers.  I bought the pickups used to compare to VHIIs, as I chose between the two originally and the HDs lost.  To be honest, a small part of the reason for buying the guitar was to fit the HDs in it  :oops:  I'm glad I did, as it sounds great!  This guitar had also had some wiring changes so I didn't mind swapping pickups here either.

* Korina - stock McCarty pickups.  Sounds lovely as standard so I'm leaving it alone.

* 'Regular' McCarty - non-BKP boutique pickups to be fitted in the near future.  I ordered some 'special' pickups a while back with the intention of turning this into my "Les Paul".  As standard, it sounds very thick and a bit muddy.

As you can see, three of my four McCartys have had pickup changes for various reasons.  The stock ones sound pretty good for blues stuff, but a bit unclear for the heavier rock stuff I play with Doppelganger.

Something you may want to do to brighten the guitar up a little and remove some muddiness is to switch it to 50s wiring, rather than modern.  You can see the change here - the pre-2007 guitars have modern wiring, the current ones have 50s......

http://www.prsguitars.com/csc/schematics/schem08/mccarty.pdf

[Philly Q]

Looks great!  :D

But can I ask what you did with the steel wool?  :?

[hunter]

Looks great!  :D

But can I ask what you did with the steel wool?  :?

Made the clearcoat finish shine again, what else?



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Nah, I polished the frets with it, works great, and if you're careful not to scratch into the wood, you don't even have to tape the fretboard. The frets were really corroded and scratchy, and now they're shiny and smooth again.