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John Myung Bongo 4

Cutlass!! Can it get rude!?

S

Samhain

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 5, 2018
Messages
46
I’m looking to get a SSS guitar.
I really dig the cutlass and I’ve watched about every clip on YouTube.
The Cutlass is obviously an amazing guitar.
But! Can it get loud, rude and rowdy?
 
Steller playing sir!!
I dig your sound a lot.
How would you compare the cutlasses pickups to say the Dimarzio Area pups?
 
Yes, yes it can. I run mine through a Bogner Ecstacy Blue into a Class A Laney. It has awesome cut and punch that can definitely damage eardrums.
 
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Daniel, you rock! Cutlass sounds great and that is some tasty playing!

At a distance and in that lighting it looks like the kick and tom shells match your starry night's finish.
 
Thank you for the kind words. I sincerely appreciate that. I’m just trying to keep up with the other guys!
 
Here's one I recorded a few weeks ago.

I was going for the fuzzy old Aerosmith Walk This Way sound, which I think was probably originally done with a P90 (at least that's how it sounds to me). But since I don't have P90s, I used the Cutlass single-coil bridge pickup for the snarly top and a humbucker on the doubling track for the low beef.

I'm new to SSS guitars so I'm learning this as I go. In this video, I had the Cutlass Tone knob full up because thats how I'm used to running my old humbucker guitars for rock sounds. But Ive since figured out that I prefer running the Cutlass with the Tone at around 7 to smooth off some of the useless mess on top.

 
Anyone know how the Cutlass single coils sound in comparison to the Silhouette Special? I have the SS compared to the Area 58s in my frankenstrat and the Areas are a bit more bite to them, but in a good way. The SS pups are a tad warmer. I'd say the Areas can get more "rude and rowdy". Love them both though. SS was the first guitar I didn't change the pickups in.
 
I can actually compared all three (in the neck position only but still). I put Areas in my Silhouette Special and I now own a Cutlass.

I find the Areas and stock SS pickups not dissimilar. I've done A-B recordings and it's really difficult to record the difference that we experience in actual playing. I find one of the differences is that the 58s have a slighter different midrange peak (i.e more upper-mid centered) than the stock SS single coils. And yes, the 58s have more bite, (though not as much as bite as the 61s, which are really steely and also have a thick bottom end. The Area 67s are lowest output, brightest, almost most hi-fi sounding but very sweet).

The Cutlass single coils have an even higher midrange peak than the 58s but without pushing the treble higher. The result is a wonderful clarity and cut without harshness. Brightness without being thin, and in particular they maintain their single-coil sizzle with more gain than the stock SS pickups or the Area 58s. You like "Rude and Rowdy"? The Cutlass can do that better than the Area 58s. It really has tons bite and sizzle and aggression with distortion but without sacrificing a sweet clean tone.

Another difference worth mentioning with the Cutlass is the onboard buffer. There is no treble loss due to cable capacitance, which means really long cables pose no problems and the tone stays consistent as you turn the volume down. In fact, when playing with distortion, the guitars volume knob feels more like a gain knob on a amp because of how the tone is so consistent. It's VERY COOL! The Cutlass is superb guitar. The more time I spend with it the more I appreciate it's uniqueness. Music Man really did a great job.
 
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