NGD: R8 replacement, super-lightweight PRS content!

fretfinder

So I traded my Gibson R8 with a great fella @ossyrocks of this very parish for some beer vouchers and this PRS McCarty. It's a 1995 model, so from the second year of production, and is super light at 7.5 lbs. It plays great with superb build quality, like every PRS I've ever had. It has an attractive pale rosewood fingerboard undyed and very natural looking, see pics. I vowed not to get another PRS as my grey-black 10 top McCarty with BKP Mules is all I really need in that department, but this one was too tempting to resist. I love lightweight guitars and contrary to some I don't believe they generally compromise the tone at all - this one sounds great, giving my R7 a run for its money, although it will obviously never sound exactly like a Les Paul. The neck feels like it has just slightly bigger shoulders than on my other McCarty which is a 2001 model. I vaguely remember that at first they had the wide-fat neck and then changed to a McCarty neck but I could be wrong. I'll gig it a few times over the next few weeks and see how I get on with it, but don't be surprised if it turns up in the classifieds one day, to support some other gassage (or the ongoing home improvements that apparently are 'essential'...).  

Hope Rob doesn't mind me 'borrowing' his pics.

http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j359/Fretfinder/IMG_5724.jpg

http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j359/Fretfinder/IMG_5725.jpg

http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j359/Fretfinder/IMG_5729.jpg

http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j359/Fretfinder/F4669D03-9DEB-4B6F-81D1-651CCB5AB5A8.jpg

http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j359/Fretfinder/E72635C2-0D8C-4943-83B0-83B49C2C07F8.jpg

http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j359/Fretfinder/B2A98776-25A3-4596-9D7A-95C0FB51FE39.jpg

mcsdan

Very nice

guitargeek62

fretfinder said:

I vaguely remember that at first they had the wide-fat neck and then changed to a McCarty neck but I could be wrong. 

You are! :P Wide-fat from day one till forever more. You're likely just feeling the effects of hand-sanding differences. 

Lovely purchase though. Given the highly-rounded pickup covers, there's a slim chance that you have a very early one with two covered (neck) Dragon 1 pickups, these were used until the McCarty pickups were finalised shortly after. There was a short crossover period too though so it'd be worth lifting them to see, when you next change the strings.

ThePrettyDamned

Oh man, that's purdy.

Jalapeno

Totally Fab !!!!
B-)

TamDB

That`s a tasty looking bit of kit, the only downside for me is the switch is in the wrong place IMHO, ( but i could probably get used to that  )

A_T_W

TamDB said:

That`s a tasty looking bit of kit, the only downside for me is the switch is in the wrong place IMHO, ( but i could probably get used to that  )

Oh man, I must have just completely skipped that when I first looked ... what the hell?!? Looks like when I try and put IKEA furniture together, there's always one bit left at the end but you can't bothered to work out where it's meant to go. So you just say fuck it and chuck it somewhere random :P

Roland

Beautiful piece of work

not_the_dj

Fantastic looker.

marantz1300

I can see why you picked that over my scabby old Tele.
Very pretty

DrJazzTap

You are not helping my train of thought "if i sell my SG and get some cash uptogether...then I could get another PRS "

Lovely guitar sir, McCartys are one of my favourites.:D

Adam_MD

A_T_W;171860" said:

TamDB said:

That`s a tasty looking bit of kit, the only downside for me is the switch is in the wrong place IMHO, ( but i could probably get used to that  )





Oh man, I must have just completely skipped that when I first looked ... what the hell?!? Looks like when I try and put IKEA furniture together, there's always one bit left at the end but you can't bothered to work out where it's meant to go. So you just say fuck it and chuck it somewhere random :P

It's a different story when you play it with the switch there. It's the perfect place for it you never hit it by accident and pickup changes are absolutely effortless. Trust me and try one.

A_T_W

Adam_MD said:

A_T_W;171860" said:

TamDB said:

That`s a tasty looking bit of kit, the only downside for me is the switch is in the wrong place IMHO, ( but i could probably get used to that  )





Oh man, I must have just completely skipped that when I first looked ... what the hell?!? Looks like when I try and put IKEA furniture together, there's always one bit left at the end but you can't bothered to work out where it's meant to go. So you just say fuck it and chuck it somewhere random :P

It's a different story when you play it with the switch there. It's the perfect place for it you never hit it by accident and pickup changes are absolutely effortless. Trust me and try one.

Yeah, what I said sounded a bit dismissive, when I've got no experience with a switch like that. Perfectly willing to believe it's very functional, it just looks inherently "wrong" to me. Then again I'm a picky bugger so take it with several lumps of salt :P

fretfinder

As @Adam_MD says, the switch is in a great functional position for playing. Not sure where else you'd put it, as I think it would look very odd on the top horn.

marantz1300 said:

I can see why you picked that over my scabby old Tele.
Very pretty

Your Tele was also very tempting and it was hard to decide.

Interesting pale rosewood fingerboard on the Mccarty as well, undyed and very natural looking.

http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j359/Fretfinder/B2A98776-25A3-4596-9D7A-95C0FB51FE39.jpg

http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j359/Fretfinder/E72635C2-0D8C-4943-83B0-83B49C2C07F8.jpg

http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j359/Fretfinder/F4669D03-9DEB-4B6F-81D1-651CCB5AB5A8.jpg

Ossyrocks

Hi Nigel, 

I'm really pleased you like the McCarty, it's one of the nicest I've ever seen. I didn't know about the pickups, I assumed they were McCarty's, but it would definitely worth taking a look to see if they are Dragons.

I'm loving the R8 too, I played it out last night after being asked to be in the house band at a local jam, it is lovely indeed. Full band rehearsal tonight too.

Everyone's happy!

Cheers,
Rob.

fretfinder

ossyrocks said:

Hi Nigel, 

I'm really pleased you like the McCarty, it's one of the nicest I've ever seen. I didn't know about the pickups, I assumed they were McCarty's, but it would definitely worth taking a look to see if they are Dragons.

I'm loving the R8 too, I played it out last night after being asked to be in the house band at a local jam, it is lovely indeed. Full band rehearsal tonight too.

Everyone's happy!

Cheers,
Rob.

Thanks Rob, give the R8 a good thrashing tonight for me!

Cheers

Nigel

equalsql

Bugger.. another really nice looking PRS..  will people stop undermining my PRS prejudice!

guitargeek62

ossyrocks said:

I didn't know about the pickups, I assumed they were McCarty's, but it would definitely worth taking a look to see if they are Dragons.

To be fair, if @Fretfinder hasn't noticed a big difference in output between his two McC's, then these probably aren't Dragon 1's - the bridge pickup would have an output of 19k if so!

fretfinder

guitargeek62 said:

ossyrocks said:

I didn't know about the pickups, I assumed they were McCarty's, but it would definitely worth taking a look to see if they are Dragons.

To be fair, if @Fretfinder hasn't noticed a big difference in output between his two McC's, then these probably aren't Dragon 1's - the bridge pickup would have an output of 19k if so!

Measured on the end of a short lead plugged into the guitar the bridge is 8.5k and the neck 7.62k. No idea if that's normal for McCartys and my other one has BKP Mules in it.

Adam_MD

My old McCarty measured around 8.7k on the bridge and 7.9k from memory. So that's probably about right.

guitargeek62

Pretty much spot on - the factory specs in '95 were 8k for neck and middle, with the bridge pickup having 10% extra turns compared to the neck. They're the same gauge wire (42sp), and magnets (Alnico IV) as the Mule's too incidentally.