In 1998, four years after PRS introduced the McCarty model, the company added two model variations with an obvious link back to the Ted McCarty era at Gibson – white “soapbar” pickup covers.

The McCarty Soapbar featured two of the single-coil pickups (made by Seymour Duncan) and the Custom 22 Soapbar sported a trio. As most guitarists with a sense of history knew, “soapbar P-90s” made their debut on Gibson’s “goldtop” Les Paul Model – the company’s first solidbody – and were used until the advent of metal-covered humbuckers in 1957. By the late 1990s, the P-90 was once again in demand.

The maple fingerboard – a Fender feature – on this Custom 22 Soapbar seems incongruous with the soapbars’ strong identification with Gibson, and this version of the Custom 22 lasted only through 2001. The McCarty model, however, provided a fitting home for the prickups, and the McCarty Soapbar remains in production.

By the time of McCarty’s death in 2001, PRS had honored the legendary Gibson president with over a dozen model variations.