Music Man

Which amplifier and/or effect(s) do you use with this guitar? I’ve use dit with an all-tube fender blues junior and many effect stompboxes (blackstar, tc electronics....) I play in almost every styles except death metal, and it shines in all of them. What are your thoughts on the workmanship, electronics, and finish of this instrument? Well, actually… This is a 4000-buck guitar made by Music Man’s best luthiers, so the finish and workmanship are of course excellent. The guitar perfectly keeps in tune, even with a radical use of the tremolo bar. It’s not a Floyd Rose, but it perfectly does the job. Do clean, crunchy and distorted sounds adapt well to different microphone positions? Are the guitar's different frequencies and sounds well-balanced? The guitar features two modes – parallel and series, for a total 10 different pickup positions (5 in each mode). Series mode provides very Gibsonian tones, and even if you don’t getthe exact sound of a Les Paul you get very close to it. Fat sound ahead: from clean to distorted, it’s all about big sounds. Parallel mode almost makes you forget you’re playing on a humbucker-equipped guitar, and delivers the good old beloved fender twangy sound that has graces so many musical styles. Each position delivers different sensations, ranging from mellow to sharp – but always balanced. What are the pros and cons of this guitar? Most of all, I appreciate its unbeatable versatility: it’s perfect for a huge variety of styles – plus it’s beautiful, too! ^^ Even at such a rather high price, this guitar is exceptional and definitely deserves your interest.

The Van Halen model was manufactured from 1990 to 1995 in the USA. The one I was fortunate to test had a Floyd Rose, but there are some rare models with a fixed bridge. Moreover, the guitar I tested had the particularity that its owner had a chamfer set under the Floyd, which standard models don't have. The Floyd rests on two screws that sit on top of the soundboard. As a result, you can really pull the Floyd and make the guitar scream as loud as ever!! The specs of the basic models are: - Basswood body with cutaway, white binding and flamed or curly maple top. - Birdseye maple neck with 22 frets, maple fingerboard with black dot inlays. - 2 Dimarzio Custom humbucking pickups. - 4+2 Schaller tuning machines with pearl buttons. - Chrome hardware. - 1 volume + 1 3-way switch. - Fixed neck or Musicman Floyd Rose-licensed tremolo. Colors of the fixed neck: trans-gold, trans-purple, tans-red. Colors of the Foyd neck: black, metallic gold, natural, sunburst, trans-black, trans-blue, trans-pink, trans-red, trans-purple. UTILIZATION The neck is chubby (it's very round!!), comfortable and you can do bends easily!! What can be really annoying is that the body isn't chamfered, so it's a bit hard, but once you start playing you completely forget about it!! Access to the upper frets is good. This guitar has a sound with a lot of character!! SOUNDS I tested it with a mesa-boogie F-30 and it's so frickin' powerful!! It's a true guitar for hard rock!! It was a real parade of tricks in the store (tapping, sweep, legato) and everything was a real joy!! And the tremolo!! What delight!! To make this guitar scream in a store full of people and having a guy come up to you and say "don't stop!! Keep on playing!!" Man, that feels good!! OVERALL OPINION I have tested it several times and each time I've had the same feelings, it has a sound that stands out from the others!! I recommend people to try this model at least once in their lives because it's surprising and a great discovery!! I have never taken it with me because it's pretty expensive, in comparison to the standard secondhand bargains (they wanted $3200!!) It's a real quality guitar, a one-of-a-kind!! It has a character that won't leave you indifferent, either you love it or you don't!! I think it's a guitar that is very faithful to the sound of its creator: Brilliant, with presence and unique!! Personally, I was ecstatic with it!!

I bought this honey burst quilt top on CL for $1650.00 CAD (approx $1240.00 USD). It was used, but basically unplayed. Incredible value imo. My favourite guitar of my three Ibanez as well as Custom Shop Gibsons, Fender Strat Plus as well as nearly a dozen others. I find the Axis is incredibly comfortable to play because of the neck. I usually like a flatter radius (17") and more shallow C neck profile, but for some reason this works. Additionally I use quite a bit of gain and I can control it a lot easier on my Axis than my other guitars. Not sure why. Has great, and I mean great, sustain and tone. Very even response as well. Great high end, tight bottom end but a little light. Decked trem and locking system keeps the tuning stable. Features only gets a 4/5, because I wouldn't mind a tone control, but not a big deal. Honestly the craftsmanship of this guitar is way above most, they are more like a custom shop guitar imo. I have been using this as my main guitar for about 6 months and I think it will stay that way now. The more I play it the more I love it. I use a DAW with ProTools and Amplitube.

When I was hunting for a killer superstrat type guitar, I looked at several options in my sub $2,000 price point. I looked at Ibanez, Jackson USA, ESP, Carvin, all the usual suspects. However, reviews online kept leading me to this one... the USA made Music Man John Petrucci signature model. I'd heard about Music Man before, but had very limited experience with them prior to October of '09 when I purchased my JP6. Now, I'll say that I'm not normally very gung ho about the idea of signature guitars, but this one was definitely an exception. The feature-set is very lucrative for a lead based guitarist like me. Some of the highlights are as follows: *Basswood body with contoured rib and arm scoops *Maple neck with rosewood fretboard, 24 frets, and Music Man's proprietary gunstock oil neck finish (extremely fast and smooth, plus it is easy to clean as well!) *Dual DiMarzio humbuckers (Models from 2005-2009 have the D-Sonic in the bridge and a Petrucci Special in the neck, whereas the models from June 2009 and onward have the Crunch Lab and LiquiFire in those positions.) I've had both sets of pickups in identical JP6s so I will discuss the tonal differences in the sound column. *Custom designed Music Man recessed two-point tremolo (non-locking) *Schaller M6 locking tuners *Music Man compensated nut *Piezo pickup The guitar is extremely ergonomic and sits very well on the body. While it is heavier in weight compared to say, the Parker Fly's that I've owned, it's still quite light for a standard superstrat. I've had two of them, a 2007 (NOS) and a 2010. Both were very consistent in their features and general quality, which I think speaks very favourably to Music Man's QC department. All in all, this is definitely a very stellar guitar with a feature-set that allows great versatility with the piezo pickup option, but because of its design, it really allows lead players to flourish and play to their best! UTILIZATION As I stated above, the guitar's design is quite ergonomic. It balances very well in sitting or standing positions, and is light enough to not act as an inhibitor to stage antics. The upper fret access is definitely a high point (pun intended) overall. When I would go to play a fast run covering the whole of the fretboard, I never had to worry about my hand hitting a neck joint.. it would just glide to the top. Obviously the system wasn't FLAWLESS (being that the guitar was a bolt on), but as far as upper fret access, I had no real problems with either of my JPs. Possibly the best feature of the neck is the finish. Music Man uses a proprietary blend of gunstock oil and wax to finish their necks, and the end result is a slick and EXTREMELY comfortable neck to play on! This finish, combined with a thinner but manageable neck profile really allowed my fingers to fly about the fretboard. It really made for a killer playability experience overall... and it's definitely one of the biggest, if not the biggest, selling points of the JP6 (or even other EBMM guitars in general.) The other big point about this guitar is the tones that it offers. The JP has a custom wiring scheme that is optimized to offer maximum performance from minimal controls. On the magnetic side, there is a volume, tone, and a 3 way toggle switch. The switch offers three sounds which are different from the typical 3 way setup in one big way. You have your standard neck and bridge pickup settings, but the middle position is actually the inner coil of each humbucker. This provides a very "jangly" sort of tone that has less output, so it allows you to get good cleans just by hitting the toggle and the channel switcher on your amp, as opposed to having to coil tap your humbucker or engage parallel wiring. If this wasn't enough, you've got the option of a piezo pickup. For those who don't know, a piezo pickup is a design that allows very acoustic-like tones. To activate this, there is a second 3 way toggle that selects magnetic signal, piezo signal, or both mixed together (a very unique sound to be sure.) But wait, there's even more! The JP has two 1/4" jacks. One of them is stereo to allow use of the piezo, and the other is magnetic only. What this allows you to do is use the piezo toggle as a kill-switch of sorts... which I found quite cool to have! All in all, this is definitely an extremely versatile instrument that allows a whole variety of tones with very minimal controls which is definitely a great thing! SOUNDS This guitar, being designed for John Petrucci, is obviously going to excel at the sorts of tones that he uses. I'm not a HUGE Dream Theater fan, but I definitely go for a similar tone/rig setup to John's. When I purchased the guitar, I was using a Mesa Boogie Mark III (green stripe) head and a Basson Sound B212 speaker cabinet with Emience Legend drivers. All in all, I was able to get excellent clean, mid-gain, and higher gain settings (more specifically on the 2010 model.) Being that I owned two Petrucci's made three years apart, I have had experience with both sets of the pickups used in the guitars from 2005 onwards. 2007 JP6 - I found the Petrucci Special neck pickup to be extremely smooth and vocal like. It had medium output, so I found that it cleaned up very well using the volume control on the guitar, but it also took gobs of gain quite well. I used it only for lead passages or clean tones, relying on the bridge pickup for all of my rhythm based sounds. The D-Sonic was a fairly hot pickup... though it didn't have absurd amounts of output. I found it to be a bit more sterile on the cleaner and low gain type of sounds, which was something that I didn't care for. The higher gain tones were nice, but I found that it didn't have the tightness that I was looking for (I found it to be more of a looser vintage vibe, but still with lots of output available.) It's definitely a great sounding pickup, just not for the modern high gain type of tone that I expected it to do. 2010 JP6 - The LiquiFire neck pickup carries on where the JP Special left off. It retains a lot of the liquid like quality of the JP Special (hence the name), but I found that it had a little more output overall and seemed to have a little more kick to the sound. I found myself using it in the same manner that I had the JP Special, but I was trying different settings (IE: Less gain, more high end, etc) with better results. The Crunch Lab is what I expected the D-Sonic to be. It had a tighter attack and took high gain a lot better. Where the D-Sonic might have gone a little bit muddy, the Crunch Lab stayed nice and chunky, even at very high gain settings. All in all I felt these pickups were certainly an improvement over the JP Special and D-Sonic due to the fact that they simply sounded more like the pickups I expected from a John Petrucci signature guitar. Being that the current production models (from June 2009 onwards) have these new pickups, I have no problem recommending a new JP6 to someone who really wants a great modern sounding superstrat. OVERALL OPINION When I was shopping, I tried various "mass production" guitars from Ibanez, Jackson USA, and Fender, and looked into guitars by companies like Carvin, ESP, or Parker (I own a Fly Deluxe, so I considered complimenting it with a NiteFly or another USA Fly.) However, in my seaching online, I kept coming across Music Man, Music Man, Music Man. It was my first foray into the "boutique" world and I haven't looked back since. The Music Man guitars have a great thing going for them. Sterling Ball is notorious for his stance on quality control, and I can safely say (having owned two JPs and played numerous JPs, Axis' and Silhouettes) that it's all for something. The guitars are extremely consistent and play/feel like very few others do and that's a great selling point. The Mystic Dream flip/flop finish is really eye catching and really made me stand out on stage in any setting, which was great as well. My only real caveat with the guitar was a personal one, and that was the fact that it said John Petrucci on it. I'm not JP, so it felt very odd to have a guitar with his name on it. Ultimately it sort of limited me, as I found myself playing mainly Dream Theater type riffs or JP type lead lines. Obviously this would be more of a psychological thing, but in the end it was a bit frustrating. The other thing of note is that EBMM guitars almost always develop paint cracks by the neck pocket. At first I was scared and thought they were wood cracks, so I arranged to have a replacement guitar shipped in via my dealer. However, after doing research I realized that they were finish cracks only. It's nothing to worry about structurally, but it is an annoyance for sure, and you would think that Music Man would make inroads to fix it in some way... ah well. All in all, the EBMM JP6 is truly an awesome "shredder's" guitar. It has a killer design, great neck profile with that gunstock oil/wax blend finish, plus now it has been updated with the stellar DiMarzio LiquiFire and Crunch Lab humbuckers. A great guitar that I would surely buy again if I was in the market for that specific type of guitar. However, I realized that a Les Paul was more my speed, so I no longer own one.

The Musicman 212 HD amplifier is a cool little Fender type amplifier. You have two channels of operation and two separate to 12 speakers. The look of this guitar amplifier is extremely similar to a fender twin reverb amp. It has virtually the same type of controls and sound you could find in a Fender twin amplifier. It is a huge 130 W of power so it does get a load of sound and volume push through these two 12 inch speakers. UTILIZATION You have one channel with two inputs bright switch, volume, trebel, mid-range, and bass controls. The second channel features two inputs as well along with the bright switch, volume, trebel, mid-range, bass, reverb, and also the tremolo intensity in speed controls. There's also a deep switch included with the master gain control for the power section. SOUNDS The tone of this amplifier is a pretty good sound. It's very well built and can carry a great solid versatile tone for pretty much any style of music. It's not going to be a amplifier that you can get a load of distortion butit will give you the similar type sound you would find any Fender amplifier. And fact this amplifier was designed by Leo Fender himself. This is a great amp that takes pedal controls such as overdrive or distortions and delays very well. It's one of those tones that is very crispy and clean sounding that has a load of versatility for most styles of music. OVERALL OPINION These amps have been discontinued for a while but you can certainly find them on used classifieds and certainly eBay from time to time. There's very great sounding amplifiers and if you can work up the price for the used one which many of them run around anywhere between $500 and $900 depending on whether it's a head or combo version. So if you're looking for a great solid built amplifier that has the unique presence and tone of your Fender twin then this is right up your alley.

* Poplar body * Custom MusicMan textured finish * Standard MusicMan-style string-thru-body bridge of chromeplated steel with bent stainless steel saddles * Diamond-plate aluminum pickguard * 25-1/2" scale * 10" radius * 22 frets, high profile, medium width * 1-5/8" width at nut, 2-1/4" at last fret * Rosewood fretboard * Black painted maple neck and headstock * Chromeplated, enclosed, non-locking tuners * Adjustable truss rod * 5-bolt attachment * Volume and tone controls * 2 custom humbuckers pickups * 3-way toggle pickup selector * Weight 6 lbs. 5 oz. varies slightly This is an american made silhouette, called the SUB 1. Which is basically a stripped down version of their silhouette to offers it more at a way more affordable price point. Mine was the HH version with all satin black and a black pickguard, it was sexy as hell!! UTILIZATION Great guitar! Very plain in reality but such a great guitar! The body's perfectly sized, very very comfortable, and the neck is the most important part. All musicman guitars have gained fame for their super 10" radius necks! This is no different! So comfortable, easy to play and setup well from the beginning also. The switching is easy to do as well, 2 humbuckers with a 3 way and 1 vol and 1 tone, can't get any easier than that! SOUNDS Sounds quite good actually. Although this is probably where they slacked the most to cut costs, the pickups still sounded decent for medium gain, clean stuff. I wouldn't say they're the greatest, they had some sterile moments, especially the distortion. It was generally raspy and a bit fizzy. Couldn't do high gain well either, it just seemed to be way too much for the pickups to handle. Otherwise, for a more versatile set of sounds, one would probably need to upgrade the pickups. OVERALL OPINION This is a great guitar at an affordable price. The look is great too! Some of them come with a variety of different pickguards, mainly the chrome one or cool satin finishes in different colors. The neck is always tried and true and feels great. The hardware seems fine as well, and the frets of course are nothing to complain about since it's an american made guitar! It's near perfect for those wanting a silhouette on the cheap!

The Musicman Silhouette is one of the first electric guitars that Musicman put out. The Silhouette is a classic design based on the Fender Stratocaster concept. This guitar takes the traditional woods and construction and changes it a bit to fit different playing styles. This guitar has an alder body which is common with strat type guitars. The neck is a bolt on construction similar to that of a strat but their construction system features 5 bolts for an extra sturdy fit. The neck is made out of mahogany with your choice of rosewood for maple for the fretboard material. The model I am reviewing has a rosewood neck. The neck has the standard 25.5 inch scale like most every Fender and is pretty narrow. The neck has 24 jumbo frets on it with dot inlays. Up top there is the traditional Musicman 4+2 headstock which saves space and weight.This model features the classic design except instead of a humbucker in the neck it has a single coil in the neck position. This model comes with a set of Dimarzio pickups in an HSS configuration custom wound to Musicmans specifications. The controls on this guitar are pretty simple. There is a master volume knob and a master tone knob with a 5 way pickup selector. The guitar features Musicmans's trademark Silent Circuitry that all but eliminates the noise you would get from the single coil pickups. There is a proprietary Musicman non locking tremolo system for the bridge and locking Schaller tuners up top on the headstock. UTILIZATION This guitar plays a lot like a Stratocaster. The neck is pretty narrow compared to many modern guitars. The finish on the back of the neck is very nice. It is not glossy at all and is finished with some kind of oil or wax and it gives a very smooth feel. It almost feels unfinished. The guitar is very light compared to most of the stuff I play. It is only around 6 pounds. I am not a big fan of tremolos but the one of this guitar is decent and the locking frets help it stay in tune with a non locking tremolo. I think every guitar tremolo or not should come with locking tuners at this point. The frets are nice and big and help to let you really dig in. The radius has a pretty vintage feel to it. The radius is only 10 inches so the fretboard is not super flat but the big frets help flatten out the feel of the action. The small headstock helps with keeping the balance well and you will not hit it on things as much. SOUNDS This guitar has great stratty tones. With the quiet wiring you do not get any of that annoying single coil hum. The single coils get very bell like clean tones and have good spank and bite. The neck position is smooth but still retains the single coil clarity and ring. You can really rip some nice clean passages or leads with the neck position. The middle position is not that great on its on traditionally but sounds great when combined with either the neck or the bridge. The humbucker in the bridge is nice and beefy and compliments the single coils well and even sounds good split. The bridge pickup can handle more gain the single coils can naturally so it is great for your rhythm playing parts. OVERALL OPINION Musicman makes some good solid guitars but they are not played by many people. I see their basses played out more often than their guitars. Their guitars have many big name endorsees but they dont seem to have caught on with the public much. This is a shame because they are very nice guitars and are a twist on a traditional design. This is the model for you if you are looking for a Musicman Silhouette that gets more stratty tones than the normal model. The single coil in the neck lets you get more classic tones than the normal model can and you can really bust out with the twang on this model.

The Music Man HD 150 is a guitar amplifier head, which I have used with a Music Man cabinet. The amp head has two channels, with two 1/4 inch inputs for each of them. It has a speaker cabinet output to send the amp to a speaker cabinet (the one that I used with it was two 12" speakers). The amp has built in reverb and vibrato. UTILIZATION If you know a little bit about guitar amplifiers, the Music Man HD 150 won't be anything out of the ordinary for you. The first channel is really simple, consisting of solely parameters for volume, treble, and bass. The second channel has those same parameters in addition to a mid range EQ, reverb, intensity and speed for the vibrato, and a master volume control. I've never seen a manual for the Music Man HD 150, but don't think one is necessary for use. SOUNDS While the Music Man HD 150 doesn't have the same twang as a Fender, it is definitely a good substitution for a Fender tube amplifier if you can't afford one or don't have access to one. For me, Fender is the king when it comes to making tube amps, but the Music Man HD 150 is overall a pretty sweet amplifier. It has the same make up as a Fender Twin Reveb, and does have a similar type of sound as well. It certainly sounds like the tube amp that it is, but doesn't necessarily have the crispest sound in the world for a tube amp. I've used the amp with a Fender Stratocaster and an Ibanez Tube Screamer in the recording studio for the most part. OVERALL OPINION The Music Man HD 150 isn't an amplifier head that I sought after as it was one that was a spur of the moment type of usage in the recording studio that I used it in. It actually ended up doing the job very well, with a lot of punchiness to it. I don't know at all how easy a Music Man HD 150 would be to find, but it won't be all too expensive for a nice sounding tube amp, so if you're in the market for a tube guitar amp head and come across one of these, definitely give it a serious look.

(Originally written by chevaliernoir/translated from Audiofanzine FR) Made in the USA, maple neck (with rosewood fingerboard on some versions). Two pickups: one humbucker, one single coil If we consider the Musicman family the senior member would be the famous Stingray. But it's very heavy and not versatile at all because of its single pickup and very particular sound. The Sterling is lighter (but has the same sound and the same sustain) and has a balance control for serial, parallel and single coil pickup modes. The dual pickup Sterling is available with two humbuckers (Sterling HH) or with a humbucker and a single coil (Sterling HS). I will write about the HS model in this review. This dual pickup Sterling is an improved version of the standard Sterling: it produces a wider sound range and has a thumb rest. All other components are 100% identical to a standard Sterling. In other words it's like a Stingray but better! UTILIZATION The Sterling and Stingray neck is great. The second pickup allows you to rest your thumb. That's very important for me. The balance switch allows you to use the humbucker in serial, parallel or single coil mode. It also allows you to link it with the second pickup or to use the second pickup alone. The switch is easy to use and it's readily accessible so you don't have to worry about moving it by mistake while playing. The bass is much lighter than a Stingray (according to the specs it's only 7 oz lighter but it feels much more lighter). 10/10 SOUNDS When it comes to sound, if you use only the humbucker you get exactly the Stingray sound. The second pickup increases the sound possibilities... and it's very good but it cannot be compared to a Fender Jazz Bass pickup. The sound is typical rock: percussive and with a big low-end, but it's also great for reggae, punk, fusion, ska, hard rock, pop... OVERALL OPINION As I said before, the dual pickup Sterling is better than a Sterling, which is better than a Stingray. I don't understand why it doesn't have a better reputation, especially considering it's quite rare. If I ever sell mine it will not be cheap. (it's new)

‘Fantastic’ certainly describes this instrument, as it should for the price. You get what you pay for. The model in question is a 2019 7-string ‘dark roast’ with a scale length of 25.5-inches (64.8 cm) and an African mahogany body and flamed maple top. It has a three-piece Honduran mahogany neck-through construction with center strip of flamed maple. It has a matching flamed maple headstock with ebony finger board and 24-jumbo stainless-steel frets. The neck has a 17-inch (43.2 cm) radius with adjustable truss rod (no component or string removal required). The Schaller M6-IND locking tuners are one of the company’s best and the bridge is a custom Petrucci floating tremolo with hardened steel and solid steel saddles. The body and neck have a high-gloss polyester finish; and although I usually prefer a matt finish, the neck is very glass-like and smooth. The pickups include a DiMarzio Rainmaker (neck) and Dreamcatcher (bridge), as well as a Piezo bridge, both Petrucci signatures controlled by a custom Music Man preamp (push/push volume for gain boost of upward of 20dB) and 500kohm push/push passive tone for custom 2 pickup configurations (for a split pickup/single-coil result). The pickups are selected via a 3-way toggle pickup selector and a 3-way toggle Piezo/magnetic selector (the Piezo can be off, blended with the humbuckers or on its own without humbuckers). Both humbuckers and Piezo both have their own volume controls. Some aspects are controlled further through the rear panel of the guitar, viz., amount of boost, the mix and EQ of the piezo and operating the guitar in mono or stereo. Wow! Crème de la crème. Both humbuckers sound crisp and clear, although with a modest growl and robustness (a nice amount of grain without muddiness). There is no shrillness to the pickups, but with a slight darkness for that Rock or Metal flavor. The neck pickup is smooth with a good midrange quality (not too fat), ideal for thick and creamy leads, whereas the bridge pickup has a good amount of bite with sufficient fullness. Splitting the pickups offer an intense ‘Strat-like’ quality, but certainly more ass-kicking than a Strat (no matter the pickup selection). The Piezo pickup has good sparkle, clarity and roundness, and it sounds awesome with acoustic simulators/pedals. There is a more ‘calming’ effect when the Piezo is combined with the other pickups, e.g., more ‘organic’ quality that subdues the tone (although crunch and high-gain territory sounds best without the Piezo… obviously). The electronics are super quiet with no noise when flipping controls or turning knobs. Sweet! This is the best playing 7-string I’ve experienced. There is something very ‘finished’ about the Majesty that screams “high-end.” The frets have no sharp edges and with rounded edges; no dead spots or buzzing; and a great feel of the neck that is neither thick nor overtly thin (although more on the thin side for a 7-string). String action is quite low and with a good amount of slink to accommodate string-bending with ease. The guitar has very good tuning stability considering it is a floating NON-NUT-LOCKING bridge system, which means far easier and faster tuning when required. Even the knobs are custom-made, shaped like protruding castle turrets that are easy to use with their rubber grip rings. As important, the body is highly comfortable and balanced, whether sitting or standing; a perfect degree of tilt for optimum fretboard access when wearing a strap or sitting. Overall, the Majesty is as close to flawless as I have experienced… but is it worth the price? I thought of this guitar over the recent years and was hesitant in the investment, but I have invested upward of 20k in so many other guitars over the years (always chasing the ‘ideal’ instrument), before taking the plunge. The playability and craftmanship of the Majesty are perfection, or as near as one can make it. The sound is full and rich and the ergonomics nothing short of impressive, from its balance to knob and switch placement (and diversity of its tones). The innovation and craftmanship of this instrument would make any review seem like an advertisement, making it difficult to voice any weaknesses. Special thanks to Timber-tones for supply a titanium plectrum for the demo. https://www.music-man.com/instruments/guitars/the-majesty

Made here in the USA, the newest addition to the Music Man Petrucci line. Basically a mixture of the JPXI and the JP6. Like all BFR's and the JPXI this has a mahogany bolt on neck with a mahogany tone block. Other BFR's have Alder surrounding the mahogany tone block and a maple top, while this, like the JP6, uses Basswood instead. The difference between alder and basswood while not huge, is different but I won't go over that in this review. So for the specs: Basswood body with Mahogany tone block, maple top, 25.5" scale mahogany bolt on neck, Ebony fretboard, 24 stainless jumbo frets, 20" fretboard radius, musicman/fishman piezo loaded bridge, coil tapped liquifire and crunchlab pickups, pickup volume/ tone (pull splits pickups)/ piezo volume, 3 way (bridge, both, neck) pickup selector, 3 way (magnetic pickups, both, piezo) selector, 20:1 locking schaller tuners, JP shield inlays with BFR logo at 12th fret. UTILIZATION The body is designed to give as much access to the higher frets as possible without sacrificing strength and stability, and I've got to say this did it right. I can go all the way to the 24th fret with ease. It's also very well balanced. Sitting down or standing up it's lightweight and comfortable. My only reason for not giving it a 10 is while it's amazing for some reason it won't stay in tune. Not bad, but just from playing normally a few strings start to go slightly flat. I'm sure it's a nut problem that EBMM would fix no problem, but haven't played a 2nd one to compare it to. SOUNDS Acoustically this guitar is bright and chime-y but full sounding. Every note rings loud and clear. Compared to the JP6, the JP6 is smoother, quieter, and more even sounding. Neither one is better in that sense, since tone is subjective, but personally I prefer the JP12 tone. Plugged in the guitar is very clear and velvety. Leads are creamy and just sing, while rhythms are thick and crunchy. While not as thick and aggressive as say a Les Paul it's the best thing to do both near perfect rhythms and perfect leads. OVERALL OPINION Overall this is the nicest guitar I've ever played. Take all the playability and feel of the JP6 and take it to another level. Just amazing and near perfect in almost every sense.

I play the bass for 16 years now in a various bands. Most often I play rock, blues, jazz, funk and sometimes classical music. My favourite genre of music is rock (I like it from 8 ears old). I bought this Stingray 1 month ago at www.musiciansfriend.com for 1365 USD. I like almost everything about it. My bass is transparent gold with maple neck. Very good looking, extremely good rocking sound, awesome slap sound, active electronics (9 V power supply) with treble, middle and bass controllers, which gives you more tonal variations from solid and massive to sharp and high sound. Unfinished neck. I affraid that it will become dirty after some time :-) Anyway this natural maple is wery nice for my left hand. Very strong, good done. I think it won't break even cracked to the wall. It's probably the best bass I've ever had. Since I really like to play rock, Music Man Stingray is right bass for me. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com