Hi all,
I'm following up on my experience on the BFR Cutlass HSS guitar that I got about 9 months ago.
I've essentially been playing it every day since I got, so this I think speaks enough on how much I like it.
I realized I love the v necks because of this guitar. Also, because of it I think I'm realizing I love single coils, even though I'm a heavy gain type of guy.
However, I would be lying if I said it's without issues. Some objective, and some subjective, meaning they might not be issues to everyone.
As for the objective issues:
1. Getting the truss rod to the 0.15 clearance leaves very little room in bridge saddles, as I have to get them pretty much all the way down to get 1.5mm from 12th fret to the string (and that's measured with the first fret pressed).
2. Another issue that I discovered while adjusting the truss rod is that when I get the clearance right on the bass side, the treble string has pretty much no clearance, meaning the neck is ever so slightly warped.
3. The finish on the inside of the lower horn has not been properly buffed/polished. I didn't realize this until recently as I don't have a tendency to touch this part, however, there is some orange skin feeling gloss, that's not existent elsewhere.
Some would say I'm picky but the neck is also a missed opportunity as far as the wood piece is concerned, as the flame is only really visible from the upside down, and not from the above, and it also has a big mineral streak on the upper side. It just tells me that no special attention has been payed when this piece of wood was handled. This, plus the above points really get me to think whether the BFR moniker really means anything other than a limited run color, as the quality could definitely be better for a 3k euro guitar.
But absolutely the biggest gripe I have with this guitar is the humbucker. I've been going back and forth with the music man support to figure out if there's anything wrong with it, but honestly I'm loosing faith they will help, which is why I'm also writing here, thinking I couldn't be the only one. Essentially what I complained in my original NGD post is still a thing. I'm not sure if it's something with my humbucker or if this is how it's supposed to be, but it in no way matches the sound of the single coils. The neck single is so much snappier, has more attack, more bass+treble, and what's most weird is it has more output. When going from neck single to bridge humbucker, it feels like pure mud.
I sent recordings to support, so I'll attach them here. I tried two different amps, and have crunch and clean recordings from them, but here's the clean one for now:
It's especially evident in the second part.
You could argue it's psycho acoustics, however the waveform in DAW clearly shows that the single coil neck is louder (the waveform is not from the above recording):
I've tried resetting the pickups to factory spec, raising and lowering the humbucker as far as it goes, but getting it higher just makes it more distorted, not really louder.
The only break through I've managed to do is to lower the pickup but raise the pole pieces. It's still not ideal, as the chords don't have the clarity that I'd want, but it's much better than raising the whole humbucker. In fact, the bit that got me the most, is when I removed the screws altogether and then raised the whole humbucker, thinking it would make it brighter, however, the mud came back. So it seems like the coil that's further from the bridge produces the muddy mids that I hate, but the coil that's closer gives it the attack.
Even though raising pole pieces makes it much closer, the output is still not match.
As I said, I've contacted MM support already, even though I'm well aware that this might be just me realizing that I prefer single coil sound, even though I'm essentially playing metal. The reason I didn't buy an SSS Cutlass, is because I didn't like any of the offered colors, but also because I was worried it would not be enough output for me, which, judging by the neck single in this one, it probably wouldn't be enough for the bridge. The new HT SSS would be interesting, but I doubt MM would be interested to sell me a loaded pickguard with them.
Another weird thing that I checked and got no response from support about is the output impedance. If I measure through the cable I get 1Meg! Isn't that insane for a buffered signal? I've measured the pickup wires instead and they give me 12.4k, 6.3k and 6.2k, going from bridge to neck. Support told me those numbers are fine, but said nothing on the 1Meg impedance on the cable.
TLDR Guitar is pretty solid, although not sure if it's worthy of being called BFR and costing 3k eur, and pickup balance is pretty bad in my opinion.
Thanks all,
Milos
I'm following up on my experience on the BFR Cutlass HSS guitar that I got about 9 months ago.
I've essentially been playing it every day since I got, so this I think speaks enough on how much I like it.
I realized I love the v necks because of this guitar. Also, because of it I think I'm realizing I love single coils, even though I'm a heavy gain type of guy.
However, I would be lying if I said it's without issues. Some objective, and some subjective, meaning they might not be issues to everyone.
As for the objective issues:
1. Getting the truss rod to the 0.15 clearance leaves very little room in bridge saddles, as I have to get them pretty much all the way down to get 1.5mm from 12th fret to the string (and that's measured with the first fret pressed).
2. Another issue that I discovered while adjusting the truss rod is that when I get the clearance right on the bass side, the treble string has pretty much no clearance, meaning the neck is ever so slightly warped.
3. The finish on the inside of the lower horn has not been properly buffed/polished. I didn't realize this until recently as I don't have a tendency to touch this part, however, there is some orange skin feeling gloss, that's not existent elsewhere.
Some would say I'm picky but the neck is also a missed opportunity as far as the wood piece is concerned, as the flame is only really visible from the upside down, and not from the above, and it also has a big mineral streak on the upper side. It just tells me that no special attention has been payed when this piece of wood was handled. This, plus the above points really get me to think whether the BFR moniker really means anything other than a limited run color, as the quality could definitely be better for a 3k euro guitar.
But absolutely the biggest gripe I have with this guitar is the humbucker. I've been going back and forth with the music man support to figure out if there's anything wrong with it, but honestly I'm loosing faith they will help, which is why I'm also writing here, thinking I couldn't be the only one. Essentially what I complained in my original NGD post is still a thing. I'm not sure if it's something with my humbucker or if this is how it's supposed to be, but it in no way matches the sound of the single coils. The neck single is so much snappier, has more attack, more bass+treble, and what's most weird is it has more output. When going from neck single to bridge humbucker, it feels like pure mud.
I sent recordings to support, so I'll attach them here. I tried two different amps, and have crunch and clean recordings from them, but here's the clean one for now:
Cutlass - Pickups - Clean
Listen to Cutlass - Pickups - Clean by Milos Jakovljevic #np on #SoundCloud
on.soundcloud.com
It's especially evident in the second part.
You could argue it's psycho acoustics, however the waveform in DAW clearly shows that the single coil neck is louder (the waveform is not from the above recording):
I've tried resetting the pickups to factory spec, raising and lowering the humbucker as far as it goes, but getting it higher just makes it more distorted, not really louder.
The only break through I've managed to do is to lower the pickup but raise the pole pieces. It's still not ideal, as the chords don't have the clarity that I'd want, but it's much better than raising the whole humbucker. In fact, the bit that got me the most, is when I removed the screws altogether and then raised the whole humbucker, thinking it would make it brighter, however, the mud came back. So it seems like the coil that's further from the bridge produces the muddy mids that I hate, but the coil that's closer gives it the attack.
Even though raising pole pieces makes it much closer, the output is still not match.
As I said, I've contacted MM support already, even though I'm well aware that this might be just me realizing that I prefer single coil sound, even though I'm essentially playing metal. The reason I didn't buy an SSS Cutlass, is because I didn't like any of the offered colors, but also because I was worried it would not be enough output for me, which, judging by the neck single in this one, it probably wouldn't be enough for the bridge. The new HT SSS would be interesting, but I doubt MM would be interested to sell me a loaded pickguard with them.
Another weird thing that I checked and got no response from support about is the output impedance. If I measure through the cable I get 1Meg! Isn't that insane for a buffered signal? I've measured the pickup wires instead and they give me 12.4k, 6.3k and 6.2k, going from bridge to neck. Support told me those numbers are fine, but said nothing on the 1Meg impedance on the cable.
TLDR Guitar is pretty solid, although not sure if it's worthy of being called BFR and costing 3k eur, and pickup balance is pretty bad in my opinion.
Thanks all,
Milos
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