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tjon901 « One of Musicmans first guitar designs »
Published on 07/10/11 at 21:00The Musicman Silhouette is a classic design now. It was first introduced in the 80s when Musicman was getting back into making guitars. They were already well known for their basses but they wanted to get into the guitar market. This guitar is bassically a modified strat with many improved features. The guitar has an alder body with many choices of finishes. The guitar has a bolt on neck which uses 5 bolts instead of the 4 that Fender use for an improved fit. The maple neck has 24 jumbo frets on it with dot inlays and comes with your choice of maple or rosewood for the fretboard. The pickups in this guitar are custom spec Dimarzios in an HSH configuration. The controls are pretty basic with a master tone and volume knob with a 5 way switch. The bridge is Musicmans proprietary hardtail bridge which is a very beefy design and reminds me a lot of the Leo Quan Badass bridges people use to put on their basses back in the 70s. Up top is Musicmans traditional 4+2 headstock with Schaller locking tuners.
UTILIZATION
These guitars have always had great playability. Musicman guitars are known for their small necks. They are small in every way they are pretty narrow so it may take some getting use to for some people use to wide modern necks. The neck has a pretty vintage 10 inch radius so it is not very flat either. The large frets help make up for this by letting you dig in without fretting out. The locking tuners on a hardtail guitar are something I love. I wish every guitar came with locking tuners even if they dont have a tremolo. The neck joint is nice and sculpted and feels good when playing on the high frets. With the hardtail you do not have to worry about going out of tune and changing strings is easy. This guitar is nice and light so it will be easy on your back and neck. It is only around 6 pounds.
SOUNDS
With the HSH configuration you can get a ton of different tones with this guitar. The Dimarzio humbuckers are smooth and with the single coil in the middle you can add a little top end bite to every position to get some top end clarity. The bridge position is nice and beefy and has nice bottom. When you mix in the middle single coil with this pickup it just adds a bit of spank and sparkle on the top end and your chords and really shine out accentuating every note in the chord. With the neck position you get the super smooth tones of the neck position that you would expect. The tone here is super warm and fat. With some middle pickup mixed in with the neck you can get some extra clarity and add a crisp top to the smooth bottom.
OVERALL OPINION
This is a classic Musicman design now. This guitar has been made for about 20 years but it still is not a very popular model. Musicman has a ton of great artists playing them but normal every day players seem to ignore their guitars. Their basses are well known to be some of the best basses money can buy and their guitars are good too they just dont have the reputation of the basses. If you are looking for a superstrat guitar that leans more towards the strat end of the spectrum the Musicman Silhouette is a great option that wont break the bank.
UTILIZATION
These guitars have always had great playability. Musicman guitars are known for their small necks. They are small in every way they are pretty narrow so it may take some getting use to for some people use to wide modern necks. The neck has a pretty vintage 10 inch radius so it is not very flat either. The large frets help make up for this by letting you dig in without fretting out. The locking tuners on a hardtail guitar are something I love. I wish every guitar came with locking tuners even if they dont have a tremolo. The neck joint is nice and sculpted and feels good when playing on the high frets. With the hardtail you do not have to worry about going out of tune and changing strings is easy. This guitar is nice and light so it will be easy on your back and neck. It is only around 6 pounds.
SOUNDS
With the HSH configuration you can get a ton of different tones with this guitar. The Dimarzio humbuckers are smooth and with the single coil in the middle you can add a little top end bite to every position to get some top end clarity. The bridge position is nice and beefy and has nice bottom. When you mix in the middle single coil with this pickup it just adds a bit of spank and sparkle on the top end and your chords and really shine out accentuating every note in the chord. With the neck position you get the super smooth tones of the neck position that you would expect. The tone here is super warm and fat. With some middle pickup mixed in with the neck you can get some extra clarity and add a crisp top to the smooth bottom.
OVERALL OPINION
This is a classic Musicman design now. This guitar has been made for about 20 years but it still is not a very popular model. Musicman has a ton of great artists playing them but normal every day players seem to ignore their guitars. Their basses are well known to be some of the best basses money can buy and their guitars are good too they just dont have the reputation of the basses. If you are looking for a superstrat guitar that leans more towards the strat end of the spectrum the Musicman Silhouette is a great option that wont break the bank.