Paul Reed Smith Guitars McCarty Archtop II

Flamed maple top - not a 10 top but still nice. I really like the size of the guitar. It's like a miniature archtop.

First of all - there's almost no difference between the PRS hollowbody and the archtop in terms of acoustic sound. Both are very quiet, due to their small bodies and their hard woods. I A-B:d a Hollowbody II Private Stock and an Archtop II.

The guitar sounds great. It's not an L5 and it's not supposed to be one either. I played pretty loud but there were no signs of feedback. Impressive.

Everything is good about this guitar except for one fact - the width of the neck. I don't use a pick and the string spacing is simply too narrow for me. This shouldn't be a problem to most of you out there. If I'd have been playing with a pick I would have bought the guitar. Now I'll get a custom made guitar which pretty much will be a copy of the Archtop II. I will actually pay exactly the same for a custom built guitar as a PRS. There's no question about the fact that these guitars are overpriced, they are still very good though.

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I think PRS are good guitars but the way they are priced I might as well get a custom made guitar to my exact specifications. With my pref's the cost will be pretty much the same.

1998 Mccarty Archtop II by Paul Reed Smith guitars. I think you guys know what this beauty is all about but anyway. It is an archtop guitar in the shape of a PRS custom 22 but with a box comparable in deepness to the 175. The box is "tapered" I mean that it becomes deeper the more you go near the bridge where it reaches its full deepness. Woods are flamed-quilted maple top and flamed-quilted maple back with mahogany sides, rosewood fingerboard on mahogany set in neck. The woods are not "10" (there's not that little "10" wrote on the back of the headstock) but anyway the woods are quite spectacular. They are not clean flamed or clean quited. The fiugres are big flames and quilted design (not tubular) that are all around. I think it is because the figures are not regular this top didn't win the "10" medal of honor. But nevertheless it is spectacular. Equally spectacular as a 10 top but less regular and ordinary in a sense. I like the woods very much. Color is a splendid cherry sunburst. PRS are the best guys when color time comes. You know I'm not lying. Maple top and back woods are VERY arched. I mean you have to touch and see the guitar personally to fully experience the full beauty of this guitar. Pictures don't do her Justice, absolutly. Pickups are two special PRS archtop humbuckers, hardware is gold and it has moon inlays. Two controls (volume and tone) and a selector switch with three positions. The common features of an archtop guitar. The ones that you need if you play Jazz by the way. Schaller's on the headstock with ebony pegheads. A really NICE touch that I appreciate a lot. If I have to rate the features here I would give this guitar a ten cum laude. This is one of the seven marvels in the world. You know PRS guitars are some of the most amazing guitar you can find around. In terms of quantity of features I would say it has the features of a simple guitar, in the old tradition. It's not a space shuttle but it's not intended to be. It has its versatility but it's the very high quality of the instrument that determin its versatility not the number of features. It is of course a fantastic guitar to look at, probably one of the best I have ever seen, www included. Some people here in Italy dealers included don't even know PRS ever did such a thing. So when I show my guitar to them (I saw it happen every time) you can see the shock in their eyes! They can't believe to their eyes. This guitar is an ISTANT HEARTBREAKER! PRS are usually rare to see in shops here in Italy, I think vervy very few archtop were imported at the time. VERY very few. Mine was bought in USA and taken in Italy by its previous owner who sold this guitar to me a month ago. The finish was perfect (under the dirty) and everything work pretty well. I only changed a pickup cover which had its gold covering damaged. Now the guitar after a professional setup is as PRS made it 6 years ago.

My rating for this guitar is top obviously, it is a marvellous built instrument. It does not have flaws of any kind, absolutly. I'm an expert player and collector,I know guitars. I own some of the best Jazz guitars in the world, L5, X700 stuart, 175, 355, George Benson etc. You can trust my opinions. Woods were very well chosen for this guitar, finish is spectacular, hardware is perfectly assembled. The project is exceptionally beautiful and interesting ... a small archtop with PRS charachter was a splndid line extension for PRS I think, I don't know why thy discontinued it. I really can't understand .. ... this small archtop is amazing. Let's move quickly to the sounds section and I'll tell you how it sounds....

I'm a Jazz player and I bought this guitar to play Jazz. I have several jazz guitar but everyone has its own personality, ESPECIALLY this one. If I want to play different styles I use different guitars, maybe solidbodies. I don't think a guitar like this should be your only guitar (unless you are a Jazz player). You have to own at least a solidbody, an acoustic etc. But if you play Jazz the PRS archtop surely could be your only guitar.I think you know what I would like to say. This PRS is a guitar that is thought to be played in a certain way. Sure it has its versatility in a sense, but in my personal opinion, to play this guitar with distortion is like using a race car to go off road. It does not have any sense. Use a good telecaster or a good strato or even one of the thousand modern axes to play distorted leads. But if you play with the clean sound this guitar has a personality that will totally conquer you! Totally! It suites my style perfectly. I play Jazz in the bop tradition. I play long articulated Jazz runs, I pick fast with light attack and I play a lot of notes and cromatisms. I have chord melody skills and I'm able to harmonize and play by myself any standard tune you can find on the Real Book. With this guitar I use a Mesa Boogie Lone Star 2x12 (which I consider an unbelievably clever and good sounding amp), a Soldano Decatone head and cab (4x12), a Fender Twin 1965 reissue and sometimes a Pod xt (which I consider a very usable tool to shape sounds). Actually I can play a Carl Martin chorus X12 with the Lonestar (a friend of mine gave it to me) and I find the overall sound extremely satisfying.

Talking about the sound personality of the guitar (we're still talking about clean sound and Jazz approach) I can say that it is a very powerful instrument. Probably it depends on the woods. The maple top and back give the guitar a very punchy attack. The attack is not that soft. It is not mellow like many Jazz guitarist prefer. The attack is powerful. You can clearly hear that you DON'T have a laminated 175 in your hands. And that you don't have an spruce top which is a softer topwood than maple. The PRS does not have that soft attack. It has more strenght, more energy, more power in itself. The notes come out very affermative and authoritative. When you play chords the sound is always very balanced between mids , highs and lows. Probably it does not have all the dynamic in the world due to this powerful personality, but when you play Jazz with a full combo I think this character could be of great help "to cut through". The hollow body of the guitar adds a very acoustic quality to the electric sound of the guitar. Obviously I'm talking about the neck pick up alone here. I don't think there is the need in talking about the other selector positions. You'll never use them in Jazz. I think there are a lot of reviews which talk about how good this guitar sounds distorted, I don't want to talk about it. It don't interest me at all. Uh, feedback problems ... I don't know what are those? Absolutly no feedback problems and some very nice overtones from the guitar at thigh volumes.. The overall sound is on the bright side comparing the pRS with let's say a 175 or even an L5. But to be more puctual in the end I would say it has more attack, more power than these two guitar I mentioned. I don't think 175 has enough dynamics too but for the opposite problem. It's tone is amorph, def, where the PRS has too much power ...

Last thing. You can play the guitar seated and stand up with great comfort, something you can't say of the traditional Jazz boxes. it is light but it gives you a very nice sensation. You feel at home, comfortable, confident and ready to fight!! You know she won't let you down! I love it!

The guitar is six years old now. It has been with another owner that played the guitar for sure but nevertheless the wood finish is still very near perfect. The frets have all their lives in them. I point out that the gold hardware was vanishing but it is a common thing that happens to every guitar that has a gold hardware. The case has seen some travels and it presents an unglued broken section in the neck part. You can't notice if you don't know there is and it isn't a major problem but ... I mean, It is a very nice case but not too solid I would say. The case seems new, but has suffered some damages not visible but they are real.

Apart from these case problems and gold hardware decoloration which is common, the guitar has no flaws of any kind after six years. I will baby this guitar so hard times are gone for her. She will be cherished for long long time now.

This guitar is very well built and like all the archtops in the world will stand the test of time with ease if you tke care of 'em. Consider that I am very careful with my instruments, so I'm not worrying at all. It will live forever!!!

I wrote to the USA customer service to know if they could send me a pick up cover to replace the damaged one. They said they couldn't help me because they don't sell that parts separetly from the pick us, but they answered in a couple of hours. Very very good.The italian dealer answered immediatly too and has been very helpful and kind. Very very good I would say. Perfect would be if they were kind enough to go the extra mile to make me happy, maybe sending me a pick up cover even if they normally don't sell that part. I mean, how much could cost to them? 1 dollar? With few dollars more for the shipping cost they had a new supporter for life ... they didn't want to go the extra mile and I think its a shame, but anyway their customer service is very good.

I think I have said enough about this guitar and that you guys have understand that I really love this instrument. It is a special guitar even among a very good, complete archtop and jazz guitar collection. It is visually astounding and sonically very near perfection. If I could change something I only would add a little more dynamics. That's all.

I have been playing for 18 years, I'm into Jazz, bebop, fusion, shred and musician's music whatever it could be. Even indian karnatic music! If it were stolen I would buy another one. If I couldn't afford it probably I would sell an archtop of my collection to get another one (but I think they are very rare, especially in Italy so I had to be very lucky to find another one used here... probably I'd use the www to find another one). I read a lot of reviews by competent dealers saying that the PRS hollowbody is not even comparable to the PRS archtop and that they can't understant how Paul could discontinued this model. I agree. I think that it is a fantastic value because PRS is a brand which is gaining more and more success and this item it is so rare, so glamour, so enchanting that it's an instant collectable. It was born a collectable. The fact that they stopped the production added even more desiderability to this guitar. It will gain money value in the years that will follow. Consider that actually if you want an archtop you have to enter the artist series and you have to pay an incredible amount of money to have one built for you. And it would not be the ORIGINAL serie. It is a keeper for me. It is not one of those toys I buy and sell in a couple of days. It is firmly established as one of the brightest stars in my collection.

PRS did it so big this time that I think they discontinued it to make the archtop one of the highest star in their line of guitars. It deserves that position because the guitar is fantastic.

This guitar was born in 1998 in Maryland and is a carved solid maple top black burst just like my CE-24 bolt-on. The controls are simple, volume and tone with the McCarty pickups.The tuning knobs are black Ebony and the tailpiece is chrome adjustable. The neck is just fat enough. For what is does and is suppose to do the 9 covers it well.

I really wanted an L5-CES or a fully acoustic archtop for serious jazz work, but this guitar really covers all aspects of playing music. When I first played this instrument, it was through a Johnson J-Station and I recorded the song "Stella by Starlight" to my Computer on Cakewalk. It was very resonant and full, kinda blossomed through the Grado 325's that I was monitoring the song. Then I hooked up the Peavey 50/50 power amp to the Mesa Boogie Studio Preamp and searched for that same sound. The speaker was the Mesa Thiele 12 inch and I was afraid to turn it up too loud. I did not find the sound util we giged at this venue outside. I never heard a guitar sustain as beautifully as this on did. The sound was heavenly, it was bright it was dark it was full, it was thick it was everything that it needed to be. I was using 52-12 flat wound strings. However, I do wish that it was a classic archtop, but if it was, it would howl instead of sustain.

Excellent!

It is a wooden woman, it is as durable as you handle it. I would gig without a backup, on a dependable gig.

Every question I have ever called and ask them has been promptly answed. This was including the use of Mequires auto wax to keep them in tip top shape!

I have been plaving for 20 yrs and own at least 6 other guitars of which one is a 68 goldtop Les Paul,a Paul Reed Smith CE-24, and a Washburn J-6 Montgomery. To replace this guitar, I would do it! The style is so different I would keep it.

Last may I purchased a 1999 archtop II with double 10 top in amberburst,birds and adjustable stoptail. the headstock has nice indian rosewood veneer.volume,tone and 3 way switch with the ever popular McCarty special voiced pickups. List on the guitar was $5,500.00 I paid 3,400.00(big discount because of 2 tiny scratches on the neck).

I have been playing guitar for twenty five years and never liked any hollow body,that is,until this archtop.Running straight through my boogie or through the Johnson amp I can get about any rock,jazz,blues sound I want. Playing clean it is mellow but very clean.When I do need to kick in the overdrive it does the job.For clean sounds with some power this guitar is it. The 12s are a bit heavey for bending but 11s are perfect

The guitar,in spite of sitting on display for over a year wwas set up perfectly.Again,The standard 12s were a bit heavey. Pickups at the right height. The three dimensional flame on top and back were exquisite better than most normal 10 tops.the binding and workmanship was incredible.The look,feel,sound and setup is what I would expect from a guitar in this price range,Better than any gibson hollowbody I have played.

This Guitar has never let me down. I have owned several other PRS guitars and expect this one to be as reliable as my others.

I have dealt with the factory and customer service since 1990 I have always had a great deal of personal attention. Over the years Paul or one of the staff has always addressed the few repair issues I have had.Guitar Center where I purchased this from in Clackamas Oregon did go out of their way to make this purchase happen in a smooth fashion.

I have been playing for over 25 years and own other PRS guitars besides the archtop II. I also own Zion and godin products.I find that the smaller manufacurers do take better care of their customers and put out a quality product. I have played the Gibson hollowbodies which did sound good but the workmanship was not there.My students have also had too many horror stories about the large factories not standing behind their products.

This is a 1999 model with 22 frets, standard flame maple top and back, abalone bird inlays, and it has a rosewoood veneer on the headstock. It has an adjustable bridge and 2 archtop pickups.

Playing anything, this guitar is amazing in the sound category. I mainly play Chet Atkins style guitar, and with both pickups engaged, it gets a classic CA sound. It also sounds good for any pop/rock/blues music I throw at it. The tone knob is great, totally functional from 0 to 10. The sound is pristine and shimmery. I have never heard such sounds from a guitar. It also sounds great cranked up through a Tube Screamer. AND this is in spite of my sucky solid state amp.

It is perfect. A knock-out. The top and back are perfectly bookmatched, the finish has a killer shine, and the binding is gorgeous. The action was awesome right out of the box... low and fast.

I must admit that I am slightly nervous when I take it out of the house because it cost so much money, and it is a hollow body, so that makes it inclined towards accidents. However, I do play it without a backup every time, and it is totally dependable. The finish will never wear off of this beauty.

The bridge chrome pickup cover is getting dirty b/c I play so much palm muted style for the Chet Atkins songs, and it is hard to clean b/c the action is so low.

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I have been gushing thus far, so let's cut the crap. I rarely play this guitar because the 12's are a bit awkward for rock and blues, but I am considering trying 11's on it. I was overall dissapointed with the jazz tones, as that was kind of the point of getting an archtop. I advise you, if you want jazz tone, get a Gibson ES-175. That's why this guitar has been relegated to rock and blues status.

This has good all around sound for a multitude of styles, so it gets big points for versatility, it's just that the jazz tone should have been the primary focus of this guitar, and it takes a back seat.

My AT was made in 1999 at the US PRS factory. It has 22 frets, highly flamed curly maple "10" top & back in "violin amber" with mahogany sides & neck and an Indian Rosewood fingerboard with abalone bird inlays and gold hardware. Just like the other AT's, it has two specially voiced McCarty Archtop humbucking pickups, volume, tone and a 3-way selector switchf (all passive electronics). The body style is the standard PRS shape, though it's thick -- Depth: 2 3/4" at rim; 4" at bridge -- as it's a full hollowbody. Thankfully, all AT's came with the adjustable PRS bridge and the simple stock PRS McCarty Tuners with ebony knobs. The only thing this guitar doesn't have is the LR Baggs piezo acoustic bridge.

I play in a funk/jazz/jam band. Prior to acquiring this guitar, my main instrument was a Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion. Moving to the PRS was the best thing I ever did. It has a great warm tone, and because of the hollowbody, there's really a lot of meat behind each note. I play the AT through a series of pedals including a Dunlop Hendrix wah, T.C. Electronics SCF, Electro Harmonix Micro Synth, 2 Ibanez Tube Kings (one for a little hair, one for a lot), Line 6 Delay Modeler, Boss Octave and a Carl Martin Compressor and then into my Fender Customshop Vibroking. This guitar is truly amazing and I'm able to get a very wide variety of tones from warm jazz (neck pickup) to articulate funk (both pickups on) to great grind (through the bridge pickup). I've had really no issues with feedback.....in fact it the sound is loud enough for that, the feedback works perfectly to sustain notes during lead playing a la Trey from Phish. The sound is the reason why I bought this guitar. There's NOTHING else like it on the market.

This PRS I boughts from Rudy's Music Stop in New York, NY, so I expect it to be set up immaculately. In fact, the only adjustment I've had to make was to re-set the intonation when I changed the string gage to 11's from the stock 12's! Going straight to rehersal from Rudy's and playing for 3 hours with 12's for the first time was a bit rough to say the least. I like heavy strings....but I also like to bend the strings too. I think the 11's are a perfect fit for this guitar. Only problem has been string breakage (can't get graphite replacement saddles for PRS) but it's nothing that can't be fixed with a really fine file to get those burs in the saddles out. PRS guitars have always had (in my opinion) the best-feeling knobs -- they're sooooooo smooth! Try one out and you'll see what I mean!

I've been giging 2 nights a week with it since November. It holds up remarkably well in all situations and weather/climate changes don't seem to affect it at all!. Oh yeah....THIS GUITAR NEVER COMES OUT OF TUNE! Man did PRS hit a home run on this one. Too bad they've disconintued this model! You can only get it in the $10,000 Artist version now! What a bummer! I'd love to get my hands on another as a spare......don't EVER play a gig without a backup, no matter how great the guitar is!

I have never dealt with PRS support. I hear they're getting sooo big that it's tough for a consumer to speak directly with any of the luthiers anymore.....but this is only a rumor.....

I've been playing for about 15 years. I've got a Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion (my other favorite guitar), an '81 Fender STRAT (not Stratocaster -- special model back then) that weighs 40 lbs, an '86 Heritage "Stat" -- cross between strat shape and Les Paul construction, a '91 Kramer KnightSwan II (amazing guitar, believe it or not!), Taylor 410 acoustic, Fender Roscoe Beck bass, Fender Customshop VibroKing, Fender Twin Reverb resissue, Marshall JCS 2000 DSL 50 watt head, and my favorite....a class "A" 15-watt Ampeg Jet.

If this guitar was ever lost or stolen, I'd be completely heartbroken.....and wouldn't rest until I had either recovered or replaced it! I hate nothing about this guitar (other than the fact that it's sooooo darn expensive and now discontinued....making it even MORE damn expensive).

If you come across this guitar, buy it. You will not be disappointed. If you have one to sell, e-mail me....I'll probably buy it off you!

This '98 PRS McCarty Archtop II has the moon-dot fretmarkers, and a 10 top and back of solid quilted maple. The sides are mahogany. The fretboard is Rosewood and is the 24-3/4" scale, much more like a rock guitar rather than a "jazz box". I play a few of the more traditional archtops, including the Gibson L-5CES, and this PRS McCarty A-II is no "jazz box" but a great little guitar just the same. It has the wide/fat fretboard/neck, which is surprisingly comfortable and fast. It is by far the easiest guitar I've ever played for fingering jazz chords. The design of the headstock provides nearly straight-pull strings through the nut and tunes up very nicely. One volume and one tone control with the three-way pickup selector is all you can get. For jazz, that's usually more than you'll ever need.
The other details are well described by the writers below. I recommend you read them all, but be leery of the Canadian reviewer--some things don't add up there (ie: "weight" comparable to a Les Paul?), which makes one wonder if he has the right guitar in mind.
I probably paid an extra $400 or $500 just because of the 10-top, which is beautiful but hardly that big a deal. I envy the guy below who paid $2700 for a dark cherry burst. Look around, good deals are starting to show up.

I have a Gibson L-5 which has the '57 Classic humbuckers--a sound that I just love to hear through a little distortion sometimes. But the L-5 is too cumbersome to rock out on, and the reach up the fretboard is limited. I was searching for some kind of guitar to match the sound and feel, but in a package that could stray toward the Allman Brothers' sound, too. I was considering Gibson's new "Pat Martino Signature" model (Custom Shop) or Robert Benedetto's "Benny" when I read about the McCarty pickups designed by PRS to get just that "Greg Allman at the Fillmore" sound. I tried out several McCarty Archtops I & II and the Hollowbody I & II at Willie's American Guitars (St Paul, MN)--a very cool place, BTW--and found everything I had wanted and more in this package.
I think it's important for jazz-box enthusiasts to recognize that this guitar doesn't cut it for that real archtop sound. Unplugged, this McCarty has almost no acoustic sound; maybe about as much as a Les Paul, but not what an ES335 can put out, and that's far below what my L-5CES can do even though it's heavily braced for the double humbuckers. An acoustic archtop with floating pickup is much louder, though not as loud as most good flattops. So this McCarty is nearly silent when not plugged in. That being said, I did detect slightly better sound from the Archtop II than the McCarty Hollowbody I or II. Once you plug it in, though, the sound is all from those gorgeous McCarty pickups and any contribution by the hollowed-out body is hard to prove.
I run this through a clean Polytone amp, but with a SansAmp box to give the tube-distortion effect, which is great--it really does have that Allman Bros sound. But without SansAmp, the guitar is weak and flat through the Polytone; there is not much resonance at all, and the pickups--as much as I love 'em--don't put out as much as my archtops do. A techie will probably be able to explain this, but I think it's important for anyone looking for that true jazz-box sound: despite the rumors, this McCarty Archtop doesn't set the new standard for jazz guitars of the future.

The finish is amazing: the "dipped in glass" look is really true, and it looks like it would hold up to hard knocks better than anything else available. For that extra $500 I spent, I can gaze into the quilted maple and almost believe that if I put my foot on it, I'd be standing ankle-deep in water- there's that much 3D in the quilting. (*Either save yourself 500 bucks, or don't do any drinking while you're around one of these!)
Unfortunately, that glassy finish goes right up the neck, and it "grunts" like a snorting pig under my palm when I play fast! It's not so noticable when I'm plugged in, but trying to play this thing unplugged, as quiet as it is, gets annoying hearing that constant "squeak" all the time. This is a minor nuisance, though.
A more important consideration is the feel of the body: these guitars are deep, being about 4" from top to back at the bridge. When I tested the guitars in the store, I was sitting on a stool and the Archtop was quite comfortable on my knee. But when I got it home and slung a strap on, yikes!! I couldn't get comfortable with it at first, and almost turned around to take it back. Fortunately, Willie's Guitars was cool enough to let me try it out for 48 hours, so I waited and the adjustment period was all I needed to get real comfortable with it. Now, I can hardly put this thing down. But it is a strange shape to try playing with a strap at first, even though I'm used to big-box guitars.

These guitars are pricey, even without the super-deluxe top, and it is obvious that the cost is related to the high quality of workmanship and materials. This is probably the best it gets as far as what humans are presently capable of producing. The finish is stronger than any I've ever seen on a guitar--it's more like the clear-coat finish on automobiles. The hardware is all top-notch. You'll be proud of this one forever.

No experience with PRS. Their reputation is excellent. The warranty is only 2 years, which is puzzling considering the high degree to which this guitar was put together; but if you cannot find a flaw in the first two years, you more than likely never will.

It is an amazing guitar to play, and very difficult to put down. It surpasses the hopes I had for it, as a blues-rock alternative to my big jazz-box. With the factory-equipped 12 gauge strings it feels just right to me: not as "tight" as a full-bodied archtop, yet not that spongy feel of the lighter gauges, either. I can bend these 12's, whereas on my archtop I cannot get much bending from the way it's set up. Of course, lighter strings might make this guitar just right for someone else. I strongly recommend test-driving one of these with a strap, if you intend to use one at all. Despite my first-impression panic over the strange body style, it has become a very comfortable, familiar fit to me, and I would have to replace this one immediately if anything happened to it. I will probably continue to search out ways of getting the L-5 sound out of this so that it eventually becomes my one-and-only. Either that or I go back to what I used to play in high school. Eat a peach.

I have a 1999 Archtop II, with SOLID Maple top and back, and SOLID Mahogany sides. It is CNC Carved, with only a soundpost(no bracing) and large F-Holes. Built like a Violin. It has an adjustable wraparound stoptail piece. It has Ebony tuner buttons, which is a nice touch! This guitar is very light, exactly 6.2 LBS, and very balanced. Came setup with 12's. I ordered the Dark Cherry Burst. Mine is not a 10 top, just a very beautifully bookmatched Top and Back. It has nickel hardware. Has a Rosewood fingerboard with Birds inlays. Simple layout of electronics: 2 McCarty 'Specially Voiced' pickups, one Volume and one Tone, and a 3 Way selector switch.

WOW! I too was worried about this guitar after reading the Canadian's earlier review. Well, I think he must have been having a REAL BAD day. When this guitar arrived, I did the unthinkable, for a guitar that has been labeled, a "Jazz Box". I plugged it into a Marshall JCM 900 1/2 stack! Cranked it LOUD, fully distorted, and found that it sounded wonderful! Sustain for days! No feedback at all! Then I played it through a MESA Blue Angel, for a very, very clean thick, rich, beautiful sound. This guitar can do it all! These special McCarty pickups are great. I am really impressed with the Acoustic sounds you can get from this guitar. And,if you prefer, pure Distortion. By the way, you can play Jazz on it too! I am now selling my '72 ES335, because it just cannot compete with the solid wood Archtop. I also looked at the PRS Hollowbody II, which some people seem to see as the more versatile of the 2 hollow PRS guitars. I totally disagree with that. I preferred the Archtop, and think that the Archtop II can do more sonically than the Hollowbody, but, it does sound great too. I think the Archtop is the better buy for the long run. Oh yeah, about that neck joint 'Problem' that have been leveled at PRS lately? Not an issue on the Archtop. This truly is an Electric Violin! WOW!

The finish is Beautiful, Dark Cherry Burst was my favorite color. This guitar has very nicely bookmatched Top & Back. Has that "Diped in Glass" look. Setup was dead-on like most PRS guitars are. The 12 gauge strings really do feel like 10's. Neck is Wide/Fat,and plays like butter. The F-Holes are very large, and well buffed. Hardware is top of the line. I especially like the new Adjustable bridge on the Archtop. The frets are perfectly seated and polished. The Ebony tuning buttons are beautiful, and the 14:1 tuners are perfect for this guitar. What else can I say? PRS just does it right.

I have played it many times live, no problems at all. I have owned PRS guitars before, so I feel secure that it will last. Strap Buttons are typical PRS,large non-locking buttons, yes you can change them if you want, but they are so large, I have never needed to. One thing I am not crazy about is the case. It is a good solid case, with atight fit, but the outside is made of very thin, flat Tolex, that if you are not careful, will tear easily.

I have dealt with PRS before, and they are quick to help out on any thing that may come up. I do have a problem with the short 2 year warranty, though. For this much money, it should be a Lifetime warranty. But, I had a problem with the locking screws on a 5 year old Custom 22, and they sent me the parts free of charge, so I can't complain to loud!

I absolutely love this guitar! I have played for 25 years, and this is one of if not the nicest I have everplayed. I generally like most PRS guitars, especially when comparing them to new Gibsons. It really is hard to pick apart a guitar like this. It is everything it has been praised for and then some. A Masterpiece! This truly is a guitar that you can play for hours, without even noticing the time flying by! It amazes me that you can jump from such a deep acoustic sound right into hard rock lead with the same guitar!

This beauty is a 1999 PRS Archtop II with double quilt 10 top and back, gold hardware, birds in violin amber sunburst. Those are the options that I ordered, now here are the specs:
CNC machine carved maple top and back (these have to be carved 4 times as opposed to only once for their solid body guitars). It has a wraparound adjustable stoptail to adjust intonation of a would g-string. Mahogany sides, soundpost, and neck with a rosewood veneer on the headstock complete the woods that are used in construction. Ah, except for those little ebony buttons on the gear heads to decrease weight so that the guitar balances well and doesn't get neck heavy.
Speaking of heavy, this guitar is extremely light (not as ridiulously light as the hollowbody of course) but still really light.
Archtops come strung with 12s, they won't feel like 12s until you start to bend them, until then they'll play like 10s.
Oh, and the violin amber burst is the greatest color PRS has next to tiger's eye (which is not really avaiable on most orders). And the quilt top is absolutely breathtaking.
But enough about looks, you buy guitars to play them and not hang them on the wall so... on to sound.

Unlike my the person from canada who reviewed this before me I love my guitar! Now I ordered my archtop back in november and received it early june. So when I read the review below this one I almost had a heart attack. I had played a couple of hollowbodies before (love 1 of them and hated the other one) but had never seen an archtop I started to sweat bullets. So I went to the local guitar center and found that they had 2 archtops and 3 hollowbodies (NEVER BUY ANYTHING FROM GUITAR CENTER BTY) so I sat down in front of a line 6 flextone (the amp I own) and started to play.
Now I can honestly say that they had one hollowbody whose sound blew the rest out of the water. And the archtop sounded pretty good but someone (probably a GC "tech person") fooled around with the action on one of them and it played like ass. Anyhow, I was still worried. I don't know if it was because of the ghastly review that I heard those guitars in a particular way or not but bit my nails until I got mine.
AND I LOVE MY GUITAR! It sounds fantastic. The treble pickup sounds absolutly incredible when you set the eq right. And (again with the amp set up correctly) you get deep rich acoustic depth from this axe. I have completely different settings for the archtop then my McCarty. If I played my archtop with the amp settings that I use for my McCarty I would not bring out the true beauty in the tone of this thing. This guitar sounds far better than my plywood ES-175, even better than any L-5 I've ever played.
One more thing. Yes PRS did away with bracing and had just a sound post holding the top and back together the way a violin is made. And this actually works. This guitar sounds great acoustically, rings forever, and plays like a dream. Granted this is the best Archtop I've ever played, but it kinda makes sense that solid carved wood with a soundpost vibrates well and is acoustically pleasant. After all violins don't come with humbuckers.

Here is another category where PRS shows us that you get what you pay for. WOOD Beautifully carved and perfectly matched tubular quilt top and back. This really is breathtaking with the perfect dipped in glass coat.
Hardware Fantastic as always. The ebony tuners look solid and feel smooth. The adjustable stop tail is designed very well. One problem is that all of the knobs have to be next to the f-holes (for obvious reasons) so it is a little way to travel in order to adjust volume and tone but I'm getting the hang of it quickly.
Frets I wanted to just point something out here. PRS actually polishes their frets. They file them correctly, and polish them properly. Read all of the reviews of the gibson historic LP '59 (I get a real kick out of them). When you get to this section the ratings are terrible! People complain of unpolished, unfiled, uneven frets, with checking laquer and setups that a baboon could do better. And that guitar is 2x the price of this one!!
Action You won't believe that you are playing 12s on this guitar. I use 13s on my jazz boxes, and 13s feel like 13s, and 12s always feel like 12s. These feel like 10s in the way they play. It is absolutly incredible. People don't believe me that they're 12s until I point out the wound g-string. You have to play one, you'll be fooled.

They come with a great well molded case which protects the neck quite well. The cases for the archtop and hollowbodies are guitar shaped (not rectangles). Hardware and finish are impeccable but need to be taken care of. My only problem is the short warranty. This is where PRS fails over and over. Why don't they offer a lifetime warranty? 2 years is not long enough. But other than the warranty it is built like a rock.

Only dealt with them once. I had a question about how to take care of the rosewood neck on my McCarty RW and they answered my e-mail the next day. I'm serious. I almost fell off my chair. Again warranty is only 2 years

I play for my ears, not for my eyes. I hate the custom 22. I hate the santana. I don't just love everything that PRS comes out with blindly. In fact it was the McCarty that made me even like the company. Trust me, take some time and sit down with a good amp in the music store you know how to use. Then fiddle with the amp knobs until you get the sound that you're looking for. You will find it. One final story to illustrate my point on buying guitars for playing:
When I bought this guitar a lot of the salesmen crowded around to get a good look at it and take some pictures. I asked my salesman (a man I trust and know well) if he had any schaller strap locks (I dislike the dunlop design and only go with schallers). At this comment another one of the salesmen said, "What? You're going to put strap locks on that? Just leave it the way it is. You don't want to change it." Um... HELLO?!?!?! I'll obviously keep the orginal strap buttons but I bought it to play, so I don't want this guitar falling off my body during a gig! If I don't put strap locks on a $3,900 guitar then what am I going to put them on?

You can get all the details from other postings.

I was able to try one of these beautiful looking instruments out a couple of months ago. I wouldn't have made a submission here but the more I thought about how uninspiring it was I just had to let a few people know about my reaction. First impression was heavy. Plugged into a Fender Twin reissue it had a big fat sound from the front pickup...I found it to be a bit muddy on the lower strings. Back pick-up I found bright and annoying. The icepick in the eardrum effect. I doctored the amp and it improved things but then the front pickup was mud. I found very little depth and acoustic quality you would expect from an archtop. PRS has solve the feedback issue to the complete annhilation of acoustic resonance. There are definately some nice tones in the machine but not all with the same amp setting. I couldn't imagine what I would use this guitar for. It's not versitile, there are many jazz boxes out there for a fifth of the price that blow this thing away for jazz and blues. It won't feedback at higher volume but a Les Paul won't either and with the weight factor around the same I'd rather play the Les Paul. I think that PRS forgot that guitars are for the ears first and the eyes second. I figure that if you wanted a candy coated dead archtop that is sonically challenged that this might be the one for you. I can tell you one thing.... your friends and the people you play for that don't understand about the sonic qualities of a good instrument will absolutely love this guitar. It does look good. If I had $5000 Canadian to throw away I might buy one and hang it in a glass case on my studio wall for arts sake. Among my other guitars that I own Les Paul Studio, Strat Ultra, Guild Manhatten, Yamaha AES1500 and various other six string goodies...(my favorite being the Yamaha AES1500) I couldn't find any reason for even picking up this PRS among my small collection. Built for lookers not players.

beautifully finished and action was fine

It felt very solid....probably last forever.

20 years playing live. As I said ...it's FOR YOUR EYES ONLY. I would have never posted this opinion but it still bothered me after two months of thinking was a load of crap some of the write ups I read about this instrument are. Makes me wonder if the testers have ever played other instruments. Payolla must be rampant among reporters. When I think of the guitars I could buy for $5000 Canadian I just shake my head and think of the poor bastard that is going to buy this thing.