The McCarty Hollow body 1 model is the least expensive of the models. It comes with a Maple top and Mahogany back and sides. This model sports a manufacturers list price of  $3,600.00. (Street price will probably be under $2,700.00) , I measured the thickness at the rim  at 1 3/4"  and at the top of the peak of the arch 3".  There are no birds, gold or fancy quilted  maple (of course these items as on most PRS guitars are optional for an extra cost of about $2,000.00 additional. Personally I like the thicker version much much better than the thinner version. The Thinner version is by far overpriced. The Thicker full Archtop version is only about $100.00 more but it offers a host of reasons why it is better. (More on that later).

The McCarty Hollow body II differs slightly from the basic model by the use of Maple on the back instead of Mahogany.  I found it a little strange that PRS opted to use Mahogany on the sides instead of Maple. I don't think it was a design mistake, but maybe a marketing mistake because it might alienate some cosmetic conscious buyers away from the model.  It is much cheaper for PRS to build the sides from Mahogany simply because the sides are hogged out on a machine the way a canoe is built. Personally I feel that Maple or Rosewood would be a much better choice.

This is the larger body version of the "Hollow body" it is exactly one inch thicker at the edge and one inch thicker at the peak of the arch and only $200.00 more.  Although In real life it will cost you about $100.00.

This is my favorite guitar that PRS makes today. It has absolutely no competition. (The thinner one is ridiculously overpriced because there are numerous other better and cheaper products.) The Archtop is a guitar unto itself. No other manufacturer makes a guitar quite like this one.  I like the way it plays and I like the way it sounds. The Archtop also tends to have nicer looking top wood than the thinner Hollow Body  model.

The Archtop guitar is also a  lot louder than the Hollow Body and therefore the guitar is a wonderful bedroom or parlor guitar also.

I absolutely do not recommend the LR Baggs Piezo system that is available for these guitars. There is a much newer technology now.

I suspect the street price will reflect a larger increase in price due to consumer misunderstanding.  There is a ridiculous notion out among the uninformed consumer types that "Jazz boxes have to be expensive to be good".  Many dealers and manufacturers know that if they mark something at a fair price that the uninformed consumers will think there is something wrong with it simply because the price is low.  Consequently there is a whole cottage industry of archtop builders that are unfairly commanding huge sums of money for their wares.  (I will take the PRS over those Idiots any day).  Not that the PRS is low priced but I think that if you buy the lower priced models they are not a bad deal.  Heritage is probably the absolute best bang for the buck.  They come in at less than half of a PRS and they are full Jazz Boxes in the traditional sense.  D'Angelico's are available again and they are priced at approximate 3,000.00

I am selling solid Brazilian Rosewood complete neck blanks for 125.00 just like PRS used on the $9,000.00 Rosewood Ltd. I am buying these blanks from Craft Supplies in England which I understand is the same supplier that sells PRS.  That's the whole neck!!!  How much could just the fingerboard cost???   My highest guess is about $15.00 cost

How could that be better than a 10 top. I thought that a 10 top was measured on a scale of 10.
I quote one of the greatest guitarists alive,  Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap: " ...But these amps go to eleven."
Just for the heck of it lets say it's an 11 top. OK add $75.00 at the absolute absolute  most.

OK here we have a slightly noticeable difference, I honestly have no clue what it costs to do this. I would guess about $25.00 to $40.00  but because I simply don't know I'm gonna allow $100.00 for the purpose of this comparison.

This is something I do on most of the guitars I build, I use scrap rosewood, ebony or quilted maple and I generally don't even charge for it unless I have quoted too low on another component and I need to make it up.  The most I ever charged for this was $50.00 and as I mentioned it really costs nothing to do. Many companies do it Standard and off-hand I can't think of anyone who charges for it.  But for the sake of this commentary I have to assign a value so I'm gonna give 'em $15.00.

The People at PRS are true geniuses at guitar finishing. Not only do their finishes look fantastic but in my opinion most of the other people in the industry including myself have learned a lot of our techniques directly from Paul Reed Smith's finishing.  Some people learned it from working there and some people like myself learned it by trial and error until it looked as good as theirs, but the bottom line is PRS was the first company to popularize the double stain finish. Basically a double stained finish is where the first stain usually a darker stain is applied. This serves to raise the grain and enhance the 3D effect of the final product.  The darker stain is sanded down so that it highlights the edges of the flame or quilt. Then the color stain or dye is applied. The end result is truly spectacular. I think that in the early days PRS used this technique on many of their regular models. The retail cost of doing this from my paint shop is $100.00. Again for the purpose of this article I am going to allow a $50.00 cost which is worth it.  However many of PRS's stock colors employ the same method for no extra cost. You just have to know which colors to order.  (The ones on this page prove it)

It's a little hard to see but if you look closely you will see the buildup of 1 1/2 " of solid body filler on this guitar.