Axis Sport, Lots o' Questions...

[cz9091]

Hello People,

I am new to this forum. Amateur instrumentalist w/studio.

Up til now, I've had cheap guitars, but decided to get serious with one as I've been playing a lot more. Hate Fenders. Gibson necks nice, but not all good quality. I hate swimming through 12 of the same guitar to find a 'good' one when I'll never know anyway, since I have to reverse the strings. (lefty)

Really liked the MusicMan necks, so I scoped and bought one.

So I've got lots o questions. Please have patience with me. I'm quite interested in this axe.

1) What do I have here? It's sunburst looking p-90 deal. no piezo. Maple neck all the way. Locking tuners, although I don't see any markers that would indicate they are Schallers or anything...

2) Does the serial number mean anything? I've got a G10673 How can I date it?

3)What is that tremolo? Do I have a Floyd Rose? How would I know?

4) It doesn't look like a Maple top to me at all. No top in fact. Does that mean it's old?

5) Do they make the Axis Sport anymore? What makes it different from a Super versus just an Axis?

6) The Silent thing. I took out the battery an noticed.. uh.. nothing. Or do I need to stick it close to an amp to tell the 60 cycle hum?

Basically, I've looked on the Web and at the Music Man website and haven't found any useful info. But if you a links that would be great. Currently I'm searching on this forum for previous info.

Thank you very much, anyone who can help me out.

I appreciate it,
CZ

 

[Jimi D]

Hello People,

I am new to this forum. Amateur instrumentalist w/studio.

Up til now, I've had cheap guitars, but decided to get serious with one as I've been playing a lot more. Hate Fenders. Gibson necks nice, but not all good quality. I hate swimming through 12 of the same guitar to find a 'good' one when I'll never know anyway, since I have to reverse the strings. (lefty)

Really liked the MusicMan necks, so I scoped and bought one.

So I've got lots o questions. Please have patience with me. I'm quite interested in this axe.

Hey, welcome to the forum! If you're looking for answers about an Axis, you came to the right place. Heck, somebody might even chime in with some correct answers in a little while, but for now, I'll take a shot.

1) What do I have here? It's sunburst looking p-90 deal. no piezo. Maple neck all the way. Locking tuners, although I don't see any markers that would indicate they are Schallers or anything...

Sounds like an Axis Sport MM90. The tuners are Schallers if they're stock (and they probably are). The pickups are Music Man's custom wound P90 style pickup - lots of character, not wound quite as hot as a traditional Gibson P90, very popular in these parts...

2) Does the serial number mean anything? I've got a G10673 How can I date it?

One of our resident EBMM ee's (Derek or Jon or Brian) will drop by with the date of manufacture for you based on your serial #. The numbers are consecutive and aren't "coded" in any way, so you can't tell the date of birth without refering to their inventory database...

3)What is that tremolo? Do I have a Floyd Rose? How would I know?

Well, they didn't ever put an Ernie Ball licensed Floyd on an Axis Sport that I know of. The EBMM "vintage" trem found on all their trem-equipped guitars in the last ten years or so is their own custom job, and it's unique... If your tremolo doesn't look like the trems on the guitars on their website (or on my website, for that matter - see the link below) then you may have a guitar that has been customized. Although some very early Silhouettes could be ordered with an Original Floyd Rose, and some very early Silhouette Specials had Wilkinson trems, the only trem ever used on an Axis Sport to my knowledge is the EBMM Vintage tremolo.

4) It doesn't look like a Maple top to me at all. No top in fact. Does that mean it's old?

The Axis Sport never had a maple top - it's got a solid Swamp Ash body. I would hazard a guess - based on your serial number - that your guitar dates around 2000...

5) Do they make the Axis Sport anymore? What makes it different from a Super versus just an Axis?

The Axis Sport is discontinued, but that only happened a couple years ago... The Ash body is a major difference between the Sport and other Axis models - the Axis proper as well as the Super Sports all have Maple tops, and only the Super Sport MM90 models have Ash under the Maple; the rest are Basswood... Other major differences include the pearloid keys on the Schaller tuning machines that you get on the Axis and Super Sport, and the fact that some Sports came in pickup configurations that the Super Sport was never offered in, such as three Single Coils or S/S/H... The Axis was only ever offered with two humbuckers, a three way toggle switch and a Floyd Rose, so it's quite unique when compared to the Sport or Super Sport lines...

6) The Silent thing. I took out the battery an noticed.. uh.. nothing. Or do I need to stick it close to an amp to tell the 60 cycle hum?

Well, you're likely only to notice a difference if you can hear 60 Cycle hum in the first place - try pulling the battery when you've got a bunch of distortion on the bridge pickup while sitting in front of your computer moniter! If you don't hear a difference then, you probably need to put in a new battery...

Hope this helps!

 

[SGMan88]

Well put Jimi

 

[cz9091]

Thanks.

That would be cool. To know the manufacture date info.

Mine didn't come with a Tremolo. If it did, I wonder how useful it would be, since I play it lefty.

Wonder if there is a lefty tremolo for righty guitars? Hmmmmmm. Metal Shop 101

There's a ding on the bottom. Can authorized shops repair those? (I suppose it adds 'character')

cz

 

[Bassplyr]

JimiD, Thanks for all of the info! You've helped me as well.

 

[jongitarz]

Jimi is the man!