Dan Gardner
02-16-2004, 10:15 AM
Hi Everybody,
First off, it's good to be back here at BAM.
You may have seen the post about my new McRosie BLE over at the gear page, but now that I've had more time with it, I have more to say. And that is simply, "What a wonderful guitar." I've been playing a CU24 for the past few years, and while I was happy with it, I continually wished that it had something more. I'm not into the "modern" types of tones, and this seemed to be what the Custom is geared towards. While I had never played a McCarty at the time I had ordered it, I'd certainly learned a lot about them over at the old Forum, and I had an idea that this would be the PRS for me. Well I was right. This guitar just sings. It works great for Allman Bros. types of stuff on the neck or both pickups and the gain channel on my Shiva, I get really satisfying tones for jazzy stuff on the neck PU and the clean channel. Add a Fulldrive II in front of the clean channel, and I can get all kinds of neat "edge of breakup" types of blues tones, from any PU setting. When I want to really rock, aka Led Zep., Spinal Tap (yes, Spinal Tap :) ), and even Rage Against the Machine, the bridge PU, with more gain from the amp, is just chock full o' crunchy goodness. The split coils are actually really nice for finger pickin', as they are nice and crisp and sparkly, particularly with a Z-Vex Super Duper in front of the amp. The IRW neck is also a joy to play, for reasons that have been repeatedly stated in these forums, i.e. super smooth, drag-free, and it's great to feel every note resonate from it. As far as playability goes, it's what I've come to expect from PRS: superb.
I guess I should say a few things about the top/looks of the guitar as well, since that's all anybody around here cares about ;) . The top is great, IMHO. It's perfectly bookmatched, and has a nice 3-D quality to it where it changes appearance depending on the angle that you're looking at it. I had ordered violin amber burst, but I ended up with McCarty burst. It's a finish that I probably never would have even considered, but I actually love it. It's got a great caramel to amber to pure gold thing going on, and it looks just great. There's some pretty cool streaking in the IRW neck, and the BRW freeboard has really nice figuring. The headstock overlay/TRC on the other hand are just spectacular. Very nice red/brown/black streaks that are simply eye popping. The pink heart abalone birds are pretty colorful, but I think I actually prefer plain abalone, as it seems much more luminescent. All in all though, the guitar just oozes class.
So in case you couldn't tell, I like this guitar. I think I'll keep it. :) Has it cured my GAS? Actually, yes it has. Probably not forever, but for now, there's nothing more I could want in a guitar. If you don't have one, get one :) .
Dan
http://home.comcast.net/~danielgardner/mccarty.jpg
Edit: Second pic. added.
http://home.comcast.net/~danielgardner/ble1.jpg
First off, it's good to be back here at BAM.
You may have seen the post about my new McRosie BLE over at the gear page, but now that I've had more time with it, I have more to say. And that is simply, "What a wonderful guitar." I've been playing a CU24 for the past few years, and while I was happy with it, I continually wished that it had something more. I'm not into the "modern" types of tones, and this seemed to be what the Custom is geared towards. While I had never played a McCarty at the time I had ordered it, I'd certainly learned a lot about them over at the old Forum, and I had an idea that this would be the PRS for me. Well I was right. This guitar just sings. It works great for Allman Bros. types of stuff on the neck or both pickups and the gain channel on my Shiva, I get really satisfying tones for jazzy stuff on the neck PU and the clean channel. Add a Fulldrive II in front of the clean channel, and I can get all kinds of neat "edge of breakup" types of blues tones, from any PU setting. When I want to really rock, aka Led Zep., Spinal Tap (yes, Spinal Tap :) ), and even Rage Against the Machine, the bridge PU, with more gain from the amp, is just chock full o' crunchy goodness. The split coils are actually really nice for finger pickin', as they are nice and crisp and sparkly, particularly with a Z-Vex Super Duper in front of the amp. The IRW neck is also a joy to play, for reasons that have been repeatedly stated in these forums, i.e. super smooth, drag-free, and it's great to feel every note resonate from it. As far as playability goes, it's what I've come to expect from PRS: superb.
I guess I should say a few things about the top/looks of the guitar as well, since that's all anybody around here cares about ;) . The top is great, IMHO. It's perfectly bookmatched, and has a nice 3-D quality to it where it changes appearance depending on the angle that you're looking at it. I had ordered violin amber burst, but I ended up with McCarty burst. It's a finish that I probably never would have even considered, but I actually love it. It's got a great caramel to amber to pure gold thing going on, and it looks just great. There's some pretty cool streaking in the IRW neck, and the BRW freeboard has really nice figuring. The headstock overlay/TRC on the other hand are just spectacular. Very nice red/brown/black streaks that are simply eye popping. The pink heart abalone birds are pretty colorful, but I think I actually prefer plain abalone, as it seems much more luminescent. All in all though, the guitar just oozes class.
So in case you couldn't tell, I like this guitar. I think I'll keep it. :) Has it cured my GAS? Actually, yes it has. Probably not forever, but for now, there's nothing more I could want in a guitar. If you don't have one, get one :) .
Dan
http://home.comcast.net/~danielgardner/mccarty.jpg
Edit: Second pic. added.
http://home.comcast.net/~danielgardner/ble1.jpg