• Ernie Ball
  • MusicMan
  • Sterling by MusicMan

grayn

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 30, 2011
Messages
100
Location
East Lancashire, England
Went down to the sainted Sound Affects Premier today, to check out some very nice guitars.
Also to say farewell, to soon to be departing manager, Andy.
One of the guitars I'd hoped to try, was a preowned Music Man Artisan Majesty.
Unfortunately it had sold over night but was I down hearted? No.
I still had a PRS DGT in emerald green, a Fender Rarities Strat, a Tom Anderson Hollow drop Top Classic and a Music Man St. Vincent HH to try.
The PRS and Fender were both absolute stunners but I wasn't mad on their necks.
The Tom Anderson was a wonderful super strat but a little too similar to a Suhr I'd recently let go.
As you may have guessed by the post title, it was the St. Vincent that won me over.
The original St. Vincent had 3 mini-humbuckers, this model has 2 full humbuckers and comes in a Blue dawn finish.
Which has a kind of burst effect, with metallic flakes.
The whole design of this guitar is rather unique, with it's geometric, angular shaping, that has a hint of the art deco about it,
which is re-enforced by it's triangular control knobs.
The first thing to get my attention though, was the neck of roasted maple, which is an absolute pleasure to play, as is the rosewood fingerboard and pristine, stainless steel frets.
It was the neck and this Music Man's pickups that really sold this guitar to me.
With 5-way switching, there are 2 single coil options, as well as conventional humbucking.
These 2 HBs are really good pickups.
They are not as loud as the pickups on my Elite Strat but they work distortion brilliantly.
With really excellent definition, that makes complex chords on heavy overdrive sound so effective and single note areruns so responsive, with great reactions to your technique.
Probably the best HBs I have heard/played and they sound great clean, too.
Real sweet, with lots of body and musicality.
You can't get a S/C Strat sound but I've got one of those already and these pickups sound so full of tone and character.
Aesthetically, when looking at the whole guitar, it just works and looks better up close than in photos.
Which is wierd, when you look and those odd, squared off horns, the large space between bridge and rear strap peg and the very conventional headstock against the squared off body.
But yes, all those odd features come together, as a very stunning whole.
The guitar balances well on lap and strap.
I thought, with that long body, it may make the neck stick out, rather like an SG but that doesn't seem to be the case.
As soon as i got it home, I plugged in and ran through a few old songs/riffs and the St. Vincent improved on my usual sound.
It took 5 or 10 minutes tp get used to it's feel and position but I was soon just concentrating on enjoying belting out some heavy riffage and driving lead lines.
Looks wise, it's not going to appeal to everyone, I guess.
But to play and hear, it's a dream.
And being Music Man, everything is built and works just right.
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TripHazard

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 17, 2016
Messages
1,214
Location
Nottingham UK
Stunning. That’s the exact one I’d go for if I was in the market.
Andy is a lovely bloke - really sorry to see him leave.
 

GWDavis28

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 23, 2003
Messages
12,470
Location
Mass
Nice congrats I have to say that's my favorite combination right there!!!

Glenn |B)
 
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