PRS McCarty 594 vs Custom 24: Which One Should You Actually Buy?

People ask me to settle this one almost every week, usually while holding one of each: PRS McCarty 594 or Custom 24? They look like cousins, they cost about the same used, and the PRS forums will argue about them until the sun burns out. So here's the short version before we get into the weeds.

The Custom 24 is the modern all-rounder — brighter, tighter, a tremolo bridge, and a switching system built to cover a lot of ground with one guitar. The McCarty 594 is the vintage-leaning one — warmer, rounder, a fixed bridge, and a control layout borrowed straight from the classic two-humbucker playbook. Neither is "better." They're aimed at different players, and once you understand three things — the scale length, the pickups, and the bridge — the right answer usually picks itself.

The two numbers that explain most of it

The McCarty 594 runs a 24.594" scale with 22 frets. The Custom 24 runs a 25" scale with 24 frets. That looks like a rounding error on paper. On the bench and under your hands, it isn't.

A shorter scale means slightly lower string tension at the same tuning and gauge. Bends feel a touch softer, the strings feel a little more "give," and the low end sits a hair warmer and rounder. PRS chose 24.594" specifically to land in Gibson territory (24.75") without copying it — and it does exactly what that scale tends to do: it makes the 594 feel like a set-neck classic rather than a Fender-style bright machine.

The Custom 24's 25" scale is the split-the-difference number PRS is famous for. It's tighter than a Gibson and rounder than a Fender, with clear, bell-like highs and a firm low end that stays defined under gain. The extra two frets and the neck-pickup position that comes with them also nudge the neck tone a little brighter and more articulate. If you want piano-like clarity, the Custom 24 gets there more naturally.

Pickups and voice

Stock, these two are voiced apart on purpose. The Custom 24 ships with PRS 85/15 humbuckers — a fuller-output, wide-range design with strong, clear highs and a lot of usable range. The 594 ships with 58/15-family pickups (the LT, or "low turns," version on the Core), which are lower-output and voiced for that vintage PAF thing: airy, touch-sensitive, and a little softer on top.

In practice, that means the Custom 24 leans modern — it takes gain cleanly and cuts. The 594 leans classic-rock and blues — it cleans up beautifully off your volume knob and rewards a light touch. I'll be straight that a lot of this is a starting point, not destiny; pickups get swapped, and either guitar can be pushed toward the other. But if you want the stock guitar to sound "right" out of the case for vintage tones, the 594 has less distance to travel.

Controls and switching: where they really split

This is the difference people feel first, and it's the one the photos make obvious.

The 594 uses the traditional two-humbucker setup: two volumes, two tones, and a three-way toggle. Each pickup gets its own volume, which is the real trick — you can preset the neck pickup lower for a rhythm sound and flick to it mid-song, or blend the two in the middle position by rolling one back. The push/pull pots add coil taps. (PRS calls them coil taps; functionally they split each humbucker to a single coil for thinner, brighter sounds.)

The Custom 24 goes the other way: one master volume, one master tone, and a five-way blade. The blade gives you the two humbuckers plus a couple of split/parallel positions in between, so you get some Strat-adjacent "in-between" quack without carrying extra knobs. It's a faster, simpler layout — grab it, sweep the blade, and you've covered a lot of ground.

Which is better comes down to how your hands work. If you use independent pickup volumes and toggle-flick tricks, the 594 gives you tools the Custom 24 simply doesn't have. If you'd rather set it and forget it and let one switch do the sorting, the Custom 24 is less to think about.

The bridge question

The Custom 24 comes standard with the PRS tremolo — and it's one of the genuinely great vibrato systems out there. It returns to pitch remarkably well for a vintage-style trem, and you can set it to flutter or dive. The trade-offs are the usual ones: string changes take longer, a broken string pulls the others sharp, and a hard dive-bomb setup is still a setup that needs looking after.

The 594 wears a fixed two-piece stoptail. No arm, no float, nothing to reset. It's dead simple, it transfers a little more of the string into the body, and it makes string changes a two-minute job. For a lot of players that's not a compromise — it's the whole point. If you never use a whammy bar, the fixed bridge is one less thing between you and staying in tune.

Neck feel

The 594 typically wears a Pattern Vintage carve — a fuller, rounder profile that suits its classic character. The Custom 24 usually comes as Pattern Thin, a slimmer, faster shape favored by lead players. Necks are personal, so this is the one spec I'd never decide on paper. If you can, put a hand on each; some players who swear they want "thin" find the fuller carve less fatiguing over a long set.

So which should you actually buy?

Buy the McCarty 594 if you love vintage and classic-rock tones, use your volume knob as an effect, want independent pickup volumes, and have no interest in a tremolo. It's the closest PRS gets to a refined take on the two-humbucker single-cut formula, in a double-cut body.

Buy the Custom 24 if you want one guitar to cover clean, crunch, and high gain, you like a whammy bar, you prefer a fast slim neck, and you want the widest range of sounds from the simplest set of controls. It's the modern workhorse for a reason.

And if you're cross-shopping the tiers: most 594s you'll find used are S2 models (including the semi-hollow Thinline), while Custom 24s show up across SE, S2, and Core. The voicing logic above holds at every tier — the differences are in woods, hardware, and fit-and-finish, not in the basic character of each model.

Buying either one used: what I check on the bench

Both are well-built guitars, but used is used. On a 594, I make sure the stoptail studs are seated square and the intonation actually dials in — and I test every push/pull pot, because scratchy or dead coil-tap switches are the most common gremlin. On a Custom 24, I check that the trem returns to pitch, that the arm isn't sloppy, and that the previous owner didn't leave the claw springs fighting a setup they abandoned. On both, I look at neck relief, fret wear, and whether that gorgeous "flame" top is real figured maple or a photo/veneer top on a lower tier — not a dealbreaker, just something you should know you're paying for.

We rotate PRS through the shop constantly. You can see what's on the bench and ready to ship on our guitars in stock page — and if you're deciding between two specific ones, email us and I'll tell you honestly how they compare.

FAQ

Is the McCarty 594 just a PRS version of a Les Paul?

It's PRS's answer to that formula — short-ish scale, 22 frets, two humbuckers, two-volume/two-tone controls, a fixed bridge — but in a lighter, double-cut body with upper-fret access a Les Paul can't match. It gets you into similar tonal territory without being a copy.

Which one is better for metal or high-gain?

The Custom 24, more often than not. The 25" scale keeps the low end tight, the 85/15s handle gain cleanly, and 24 frets plus the slim neck suit fast playing. A 594 can absolutely do heavier tones, but it's voiced softer and looser by design.

Can I get single-coil sounds out of either?

Yes. The 594's push/pull pots split the humbuckers, and the Custom 24's five-way blade gives you split/parallel voices in positions two and four. Neither becomes a true Strat, but both add usable brighter, thinner tones.

Do they hold their value used?

Both hold up well — PRS build quality and consistent demand see to that. Core models hold value best; S2 and SE depreciate more up front but are excellent buys used precisely for that reason.