Interested in Music Man Sabre. Where can I try one near Palm Springs?

[Markcarl]

I’m interested in buying a Music Man Sabre guitar. I live in South Dakota and there are no Music Man guitar dealers in the state. I’ve seen videos from Cooper Carter and Rabea Massad talking about their Sabres. The guitars look striking and sound like something I’d like. I want to play one. I’m visiting my brother in Palm Springs for a week. Does anyone know of a store relatively close to that area with those guitars? I went to the Guitar Center in Palm Desert but they didn’t have any Music Man guitars other than a used Mariposa (which I liked a lot).

I have another question re: the Sabre guitars. I see two different types of Sabres listed on the Sweetwater website - HT and non-HT. The HT models are a little more expensive. My understanding is that HT indicates heat treated pickups. I’m curious to hear from people who have tried both models. How would you describe the difference? Is there one you prefer?

 

[Ted]

I've heard that stores like Guitar Center rarely stock high end guitars like Music Man in their physical stores-- they stick to more low and middle range instruments.

There seems to be a trend with some of the more boutique dealers who actually stock Music Man guitars to be more of a " by appointment only" kind of affair. From what I gather, you have to contact them and tell them in advance which instruments you want to check out and they get them out of storage when you get there or something. There's a store like this in my city that stocks EBMM guitars and I'd like to try some of them out but I'm not exactly looking to buy another new one right now at today's prices-- I had sent them an email last year telling them I had just bought an EBMM Valentine somewhere else that I was having an issue with and I wanted to compare it to some they had in stock to help me solve my issue-- and they never responded.

It really pissed me off- I got the feeling like since I wanted to look at their guitars but not buy one at the moment-- that I wasn't worth their time. (Oddly I did end up buying a second Valentine used 6 months later in a small store that happened to have one hanging on the wall and I wasn't even looking to buy but it just played and looked so amazing and it's become my #1 daily player). The bummer about this store is they used to carry more EBMM instruments and only have one Axis now- and just seem to keep stocking nothing but PRS SE and Eastman instruments mostly, which I have zero interest in.

Yeah, I really want to go try out some other models besides the incredible Valentine, but I feel like my only option is somewhat of a high-pressure sales situation where I have to pretend I'm looking to drop ~$3k on any given day. One plus however of the "appointment only" model is that it does seem to decrease the number of random people manhandling the merchandise and putting potential wear, dings and scratches on the instruments in the shops.

Regarding HT pickups, I am also curious. it seems like there are fewer tone review videos of HT pickups than I would expect. I'm somewhat interested in the Cutlass HT as a future upgrade for some of my Stratocaster needs-- especially with the push/push boost which is one of my most used aspects of the Valentine. I really wish there were more in-depth sound examples to be heard and seen.

 

[Sweat]

You may just have to try a Sabre sight unseen, I did and love mine. Mine is a DuBaldo Music custom build with non HT pups and love everything about it.

I have a Sting ray with the HT pups and like it as well, they are different though, not great at describing this sort of thing but I like them both.

Hit Pete up at DuBaldo Music , not sure if he has a Sabre in stock but is the best EBMM dealer out there.

 

[Warmart]

I actually lucked in to my Sabre HT at GC, had only been there a few days and locked on a hanger.

The HT are higher output but with tons of character and dynamics.