2016 is a special year because it celebrates the 20th Anniversary of our custom shop, affectionately known as Private Stock. For this anniversary year, Private Stock has brought back the “Guitar Of The Month” program - a new experimental guitar design will be released in small numbers each month of 2016! Recently, we released the November Guitar Of The Month!

Private Stock is an area of the PRS shop where the most unique instrument building takes place. As a matter of fact, that is exactly how Private Stock came to be. As a builder, Paul Reed Smith felt the urge to try something different and Private Stock was his creative outlet. All of this began in the mid 1990’s, but Private Stock is here today, celebrating their 20th Anniversary, and still experimenting through the Guitar Of The Month program.

We call the November Guitar Of The Month, the "Singlecut McCarty 594"

Singlecut McCarty 594

You may have heard the McCarty story before, but in short, Ted McCarty was the President of Gibson during what many consider to be the golden era of guitar building. During Paul's research on the electric guitar in the early 80's, he kept noticing McCarty's name among patents. He was urged by a friend to reach out to Ted McCarty and interview him. Paul visited Ted and formed a wonderful relationship with him. Consequently, Ted McCarty became a mentor and dear friend to Paul and the PRS company in the late 80's and early 90's.

In 1994, PRS released the McCarty model in tribute to Ted. This original McCarty was built in the pursuit of classic vintage tone and our journey continues to this day. The latest McCarty model, and our November Guitar Of The Month, continues our exploration of what makes a "magic" instrument as Paul Reed Smith often refers to them. With the reliability of modern day manufacturing, players can access the vintage sounds that are known and loved.

The Private Stock team has built the Singlecut McCarty 594 to look as beautiful as it sounds. Some unique appointments for the November Guitar of the Month include paua, mother of pearl, gold and black lip, pink mussel, and black corian “Mosaic” bird inlays on the fingerboard and “Mosaic” Private Stock Eagle with “November” engraved banner on the headstock veneer, mother of pearl side dots, East Indian rosewood binding along the top, Faded Royal Blue Smoked Burst high gloss nitro finish, and 58/15 LT treble and bass pickups.

Only twenty of these instruments will be made for November 2016, commemorating Private Stock’s 20th Anniversary.

See photos below!