PRS 594 Hollowbody II

[Oscar67]

About 14 months ago I was looking for a hollowbody or a semi with two pickups embedded in the guitar’s top. PRS always suits me very well so I that was my starting point. Spent a great afternoon at TFoA in Holland trying out one PRS hollowbody after another (both the 594 HB II and the HB II)… and rejecting them all. To my ears, they all felt and sounded rather lifeless, a bit cold and clinical. Not my cup of tea. Someone handed me a Gibson custom shop ES335 1959 VOS reissue and that guitar had all the mojo that the PRS’s missed, so I went with that (traded a nice PRS solidbody for it). As great as that 335 is, and it’s really great, it turned out to be not right for me. That guitar’s dimensions don’t sit well with me and I didn’t manager to overcome that. Also there’s a certain quality of the guitar’s mids that appealed to me when I played it in the store, but not so much in the 14 months after that. On some days I love it, on other days I don’t. So I kept looking for ‘the one’. And I think I found it.

Spent a nice morning at another shop to try out a bunch of great PRS instruments, including Paul’s Guitar (amazing, but I like my DGT better), a semi-hollow Special (ditto), a Joe Walsh (!) and, again, a bunch of Hollowbodies. And again, they didn’t appeal to me. Except one, a red 594 HB II. Over the last 14 months I must have played about 15 Core Hollowbodies and they all sound different. Quite different, in fact. I don’t mean that as a criticism, just an observation. As soon as I held this one and played a few chords unplugged, I just knew it. It has the dry woodiness of my 335 but it adds so much more harmonic complexity, richness and dynamics to it. It’s incredible. And the guitar’s dimensions just work for me, gone is the bulky sensation of that 335. And its weight, too; the 594 HB weighs nothing. What a wonderful instrument.

#happy #nowlet’ssellsomeotherguitars

[Gladders]

Funny, isn't it? I played one of those the other day, admittedly an SE, and it did absolutely nothing for me. Some guitars feel like they are working with you, some against you. That one really emphasised the negative and minimised the positive. I was hoping to like it. Shame.

Congratulations on yours.

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[Oscar67]

Thank you! I’ve spent a few hours with it, using different amps, and it’s just magical. I’m so glad that I gave this one a shot, I almost passed it over based on my earlier experiences with this model.

[Gladders]

It's certainly beautiful.

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[Max405]

What a beautiful guitar!
I’ve always like these. I had one a few years back and I regret selling it. And you are so right about the weight.
A back saver for the working musician.
Gorgeous woods on yours, I really like the neck binding yours has. My binding was black and I didn’t care for that very much.
Enjoy!
JD

[Doug B]

Which SE did you try? Try and find a SE Hollow Body Standard. They are all mahogany and IMHO they have a richer tone due to being all mahogany. (No Piezo though)

[Gladders]

The one I played was an HB ii SE. It was OK but didn't speak to me at all. Its the only PRS I've ever played, so I'm not drawing any conclusions from it. I'm sure there are many excellent ones out there. It's all about the individual guitar, isn't it?

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[texasdw]

I've got a thing for red guitars, and that's a beautiful one!

[Oscar67]

It's all about the individual guitar, isn't it?

With PRS Hollowbody guitars, yes. Absolutely. But my experience with PRS solidbodies is that they’re very, very consistent. There will always be subtle differences but they’re more consistent than any other brand that I’m aware of.

[Greywolf]

Very nice! Congrats.
I have an HB II Artist and am quite fond of it, initially it seemed thinner than my Gibsons.

As a luthier I can tell you ..every piece of wood is different.With semi's and HB's the wood becomes more of a tonal factor .

As the sound man at a local club there are easy ways to address the sonic issue.

The 58/15LT's are lacking warmth if you run the tone high, back it off and bump the gain/ mids about 6db and they warm up nicely . I run it through an xotic Super Sweet ,clean boost bump the mids ..just the ticket.. grinning ear to ear

The 57/08's are MUCH warmer and still split well so that's an easy swap . I have them in my Walnut LTD semi ..PRS only made 25 unfortunately . I prefer them for Jazz



You were wise to try out many , which is my preferred method . Ignore brand , price within reason... and play many until you find one with magic .. then buy it and don't let go ... it will be worth it .

[ledocs]

I have a PRS Hollowbody II Piezo, and it is currently the guitar, among the seven I own, that I play the most. I bought it online without having auditioned it, largely based upon a general recommendation of this kind of PRS from Rick Beato, who emphasized how light it is. And the light weight is great. For me, the basic sound is unusual, a cross between the Gibson sound and the Fender sound. I had to get used to the sound, it's not the usual mellow jazz tone. I was essentially looking to replace a 335, precisely because the 335 was too heavy, I have back problems. But right now, at least, I love the sound, maybe because it's unusual and just a little different from more common guitar sounds. It's got a lot of "pop," percussiveness. I did see a funk guitar player who was not known to me but seemed very accomplished playing one of these on youtube. Beato ended up buying a different kind of PRS from the one they had lent him and which I had heard him demo, he got a McCarty, more of a rock guitar. It's funny, because when I bought my 335, I tried out about a dozen of them in the store, they had a lot of them, and I ended up choosing the one recommended by the salesman who was helping me. But I don't live anywhere near a big guitar store anymore. Anyway, I'm very happy with my PRS, it was second-hand when I bought it, and still about $4,000 US, nearly twice as much as I had paid ten years earlier for the 335 brand-new. I also have an Eastman Pisano, which I play a lot, but it's got the usual round jazz tone and only that. That's basically an acoustic guitar with a pickup. The PRS is versatile, much more like a 335 in that sense.