Hi folks;
I picked-up a Kaizen today from Guitar Center. It was brand-new (well, still is!), and on clearance, meaning it came without any return policy. Still, the instrument is brand-new. The strings were very high, the bridge was not setup at all, and there was way too much relief. All easy stuff.
The guitar sounded PHENOMENAL. I knew from the store I'd love it and just couldn't get it out of my mind.
The setup
Anyway I buy it, I take it home, I take off the strings, clean-off the fretboard grime, and install a set of 11-56 strings tuned to drop-C.
And that's when I noticed: the bridge's low-E (in my case, C) and A saddles don't go low enough.
I have the lowest string's saddle maxed down. 0 adjustment left. AND the bridge is fully decked to the top. Meaning I cannot get the string any lower. And it's at 2.5mm off the fretboard!
The nut won't fit a 56. Ooops. Skill issue. That's on me. I normally use 10-52 for E-standard tuning. This guitar goes to drop-C so a 56 seems right. (with the fan, the higher strings will feel very loose, but that's ok, we'll see later if I want to change that. It's important for me to keep the tight lower strings though).
So I'll need to re-file the nut. Not a huge deal, and it's not fair to expect a guitar to magically take a 56 gauge low-E from a 46 factory.
And the nut. It's VERY high on the high-e side. Nuts should be shaved down to about half-way up the string. Hard to do on the thin unwound strings, I get, but here there's a ton of leftover material, which gets in the way of fretting, juuuust in that sharper corner. Though said corner is a little rounded-off here.
Also note that even with the older strings, I had to get the saddle very low to get a good string-height, meaning the saddle screws were protruding high past, and dig into the picking hand.
The bridge covers helps a little, but not all the way.
Due to all of this, I can't quite tell how the guitar's playability potential scales. It plays well right now. But it's definitely not where it should be. There's more work to be done.
The frets
What's even more annoying are 3 high-frets
Since the guitar was on clearance, it's non-returnable and there's no service on it. The strings were mega-high in the shop, so I couldn't tell there were high-frets. It's very apparent now. That GC puts items with terrible setups on clearance then sell them without any servicing is er... not very customer-centric; a bad setup hides such issues as high-frets.
So there's some fret buzz on there. Still, at 1mm on the high-e, there's room for adjusting a little higher if it gets rid of the buzz, so I'm not fully done yet.
Good news is, the truss rod reacted immediately and closed the relief with 0 protests or issue. We'll confirm tomorrow, but looking good so far.
Yes, I could get it fixed. Where I live in the Seattle area, I get charged nearly $600 for a fret leveling (I am not joking). So I'm not too keen on maybe having to do so on a factory brand-new guitar. We'll see how the neck changes overnight and tomorrow I'll see if the frets just need to be hammered down or dressed down.
The hardware
The output jack. It's pretty close to being in the right spot... but just far enough as to be bothering me. Basically when in the classical position, it's barely out of the way, but very much contacts my right thigh and prevents some angles on the guitar. So close. But not quite.
The pickup are... ok? Surprisingly low output, again especially so given the nature of the guitar. The bridge pickup is surprisingly warm and bassy. I'd prefer something a little more aggressive overall. But on a good tone with plenty of gain, the clarity shines. I'll need more time with them. In the store I played it through a 5150 50W combo and it all sounded awesome.
The tone pot seemed to do nothing. I thought it was broken until I listened reaaaaally carefully on some clean tones. But it's working. It's just very subtle.
Speaking of tone, I like the pickup switch, I like the knobs too, though my tone knob has lost its white dot. Not a big deal actually, kind of nice to have it on the volume but not the tone.
The bridge is... weird. It's fanned, of course, so it's large. That's fine. It's smooth enough. It's decked to the body's top, which I like (I ADORED my JP15 but I dislike floating trems in general).
What's weird is that it's 2-pointer, but I don't see how it could be raised to float since the saddles need to be set very low to get an acceptable string height, and rasing the bridge to make it float would require lower saddles which... can't really happen.
The bridge also has an annoyingly loud THOCK when returning to the body. The cons of a resonant body with a large back-cavity combined with a heavy trem hitting it, I guess.
Also I don't use the trem normally, so I don't really care all that much.
The tuners are... frustrating. They work great. The concept is interesting, though does more for the looks of the guitar than the actual tuning experience. The gear ratio is great and when they turn, they are smooth.
But... they can be hard to turn. And they're hard to reach with the right hand as they're under the headstock. Overall I think the advantages don't outweigh the compromises made on comfort.
The build
Given the rather, let's say, futuristic nature of the guitar, I expected some more fine-tuned construction. No inserts for the bridge posts? That's risky, especially given how high they are to the bridge pickup's cavity (which may be why inserts weren't possible, but then that's another issue entirely. Why are the posts so close to the cavity?). No inserts on the giant back cavity? Thankfully with the trem being non-floating, I won't need to take it out very often, but how about... magnets? Or two covers, the trem one with magnet, the electronics cavity one with inserts? I don't know. Screwing things in wood works (until it doesn't) but feels very 1954.
The guitar is otherwise built impeccably. Everything is straight and tight. 0 issues there.
Me
I've owned 12 or so Music Man guitars over the years and honestly, I've loved ALL of them. This is the only one I have now (I have incurable cancer and I've been simultaneously downsizing and de-nichifying my guitars, to try different things and not leave my family with tons of unsellable niche instruments), but this Kaizen also the only one I ever had with such weird issues/design choices overall.
Wait no I lie. I had an Albert Lee PDN (Starry Night) where the nut slots were cut way too high from the factory. MM took care of me though I did have to pay for shipping it back.
This Kaizen sounds absolutely insane though. Just incredible. Loud as hell. Tight but wide. Expressive. Dunno man, acoustic sound doesn't matter much on electric guitar but it sure makes it satisfying to hear. And the pickups are very clear. There's tons of potential there for sure. By 'potential' I mean I'm the bottleneck, not the guitar. I love that.
The case
Beautiful and high quality. VERY tight though, we struggled to put the guitar in. The key is to go headstock first and then ease the bottom into the foam cutout.
Oh it comes with 3 wipes and weirdly, a truss-rod spokewheel too. I have thousands (... maybe not. Maybe just hundreds) of allen keys at home that'd do the trick, but I mean, it's something.
So what then?
Pros:
* Sounds.
* Looks.
* Speaking of looks, the new enlarged headstock looks very good on this guitar! Funny how the curvy headstock fits on the angular body. It works for me.
* Weight (6.3 pounds. I have headless guitars that weigh more than that).
* Comfort (how did I not bring this up yet?? Between the weight and body carves this guitar just hugs you. Amazing).
* Straight-forward electronics and good tones.
* Neck (duh, it's a Music Man), though very flat, and I wasn't expecting that. It's not unpleasant.
Cons:
* Gimmicky
* Mild fan on a 6-string, that's a gimmick. 24.75 to 25.5", so still within standard-tuning range. I'd imagine a lot of the target audience of this guitar would de-tune? Hey maybe I'm wrong. I get that it's impossible to cater to the impossible combinations of personal preferences out there, but it does make sense to cater to standard-tuning, so I get the compromise.
* Gearless tuners, those are gimmicks. About that; Steinberger has some warning about soldering the ball-end wraps and asks to pull the high-e extra tight through the tuner by using the tremolo to bring it forward... I found there was no need. But all of that made feel, yup, that's a gimmick, and there are compromises to having the gimmick too. I LOVE the Schaller locking tuners MM use. I'd have preferred these. But they'd have made a straight string-pull tougher on this new headstock. Give some, lose some. I think I can live with them.
* Setup: high frets and nut. I also have no clue how a factory guitar ended-up with three times as much relief as it needed and the saddles way too high and the strings totally out-of-radius. I'd like to think it wasn't on MM. Disappointing of GC eithe way, they should stand behind their guitars even if on clearance.
* Output jack location.
To me this means the guitar requires a little fine-tuning. The blueprints are there; weight, shape, comfort, tones, neck... it's just not quite there yet maybe?
Then again I am, obviously, very picky. And I love it, so who cares.
I picked-up a Kaizen today from Guitar Center. It was brand-new (well, still is!), and on clearance, meaning it came without any return policy. Still, the instrument is brand-new. The strings were very high, the bridge was not setup at all, and there was way too much relief. All easy stuff.
The guitar sounded PHENOMENAL. I knew from the store I'd love it and just couldn't get it out of my mind.
The setup
Anyway I buy it, I take it home, I take off the strings, clean-off the fretboard grime, and install a set of 11-56 strings tuned to drop-C.
And that's when I noticed: the bridge's low-E (in my case, C) and A saddles don't go low enough.
I have the lowest string's saddle maxed down. 0 adjustment left. AND the bridge is fully decked to the top. Meaning I cannot get the string any lower. And it's at 2.5mm off the fretboard!
The nut won't fit a 56. Ooops. Skill issue. That's on me. I normally use 10-52 for E-standard tuning. This guitar goes to drop-C so a 56 seems right. (with the fan, the higher strings will feel very loose, but that's ok, we'll see later if I want to change that. It's important for me to keep the tight lower strings though).
So I'll need to re-file the nut. Not a huge deal, and it's not fair to expect a guitar to magically take a 56 gauge low-E from a 46 factory.
And the nut. It's VERY high on the high-e side. Nuts should be shaved down to about half-way up the string. Hard to do on the thin unwound strings, I get, but here there's a ton of leftover material, which gets in the way of fretting, juuuust in that sharper corner. Though said corner is a little rounded-off here.
Also note that even with the older strings, I had to get the saddle very low to get a good string-height, meaning the saddle screws were protruding high past, and dig into the picking hand.
The bridge covers helps a little, but not all the way.
Due to all of this, I can't quite tell how the guitar's playability potential scales. It plays well right now. But it's definitely not where it should be. There's more work to be done.
The frets
What's even more annoying are 3 high-frets
Since the guitar was on clearance, it's non-returnable and there's no service on it. The strings were mega-high in the shop, so I couldn't tell there were high-frets. It's very apparent now. That GC puts items with terrible setups on clearance then sell them without any servicing is er... not very customer-centric; a bad setup hides such issues as high-frets.
So there's some fret buzz on there. Still, at 1mm on the high-e, there's room for adjusting a little higher if it gets rid of the buzz, so I'm not fully done yet.
Good news is, the truss rod reacted immediately and closed the relief with 0 protests or issue. We'll confirm tomorrow, but looking good so far.
Yes, I could get it fixed. Where I live in the Seattle area, I get charged nearly $600 for a fret leveling (I am not joking). So I'm not too keen on maybe having to do so on a factory brand-new guitar. We'll see how the neck changes overnight and tomorrow I'll see if the frets just need to be hammered down or dressed down.
The hardware
The output jack. It's pretty close to being in the right spot... but just far enough as to be bothering me. Basically when in the classical position, it's barely out of the way, but very much contacts my right thigh and prevents some angles on the guitar. So close. But not quite.
The pickup are... ok? Surprisingly low output, again especially so given the nature of the guitar. The bridge pickup is surprisingly warm and bassy. I'd prefer something a little more aggressive overall. But on a good tone with plenty of gain, the clarity shines. I'll need more time with them. In the store I played it through a 5150 50W combo and it all sounded awesome.
The tone pot seemed to do nothing. I thought it was broken until I listened reaaaaally carefully on some clean tones. But it's working. It's just very subtle.
Speaking of tone, I like the pickup switch, I like the knobs too, though my tone knob has lost its white dot. Not a big deal actually, kind of nice to have it on the volume but not the tone.
The bridge is... weird. It's fanned, of course, so it's large. That's fine. It's smooth enough. It's decked to the body's top, which I like (I ADORED my JP15 but I dislike floating trems in general).
What's weird is that it's 2-pointer, but I don't see how it could be raised to float since the saddles need to be set very low to get an acceptable string height, and rasing the bridge to make it float would require lower saddles which... can't really happen.
The bridge also has an annoyingly loud THOCK when returning to the body. The cons of a resonant body with a large back-cavity combined with a heavy trem hitting it, I guess.
Also I don't use the trem normally, so I don't really care all that much.
The tuners are... frustrating. They work great. The concept is interesting, though does more for the looks of the guitar than the actual tuning experience. The gear ratio is great and when they turn, they are smooth.
But... they can be hard to turn. And they're hard to reach with the right hand as they're under the headstock. Overall I think the advantages don't outweigh the compromises made on comfort.
The build
Given the rather, let's say, futuristic nature of the guitar, I expected some more fine-tuned construction. No inserts for the bridge posts? That's risky, especially given how high they are to the bridge pickup's cavity (which may be why inserts weren't possible, but then that's another issue entirely. Why are the posts so close to the cavity?). No inserts on the giant back cavity? Thankfully with the trem being non-floating, I won't need to take it out very often, but how about... magnets? Or two covers, the trem one with magnet, the electronics cavity one with inserts? I don't know. Screwing things in wood works (until it doesn't) but feels very 1954.
The guitar is otherwise built impeccably. Everything is straight and tight. 0 issues there.
Me
I've owned 12 or so Music Man guitars over the years and honestly, I've loved ALL of them. This is the only one I have now (I have incurable cancer and I've been simultaneously downsizing and de-nichifying my guitars, to try different things and not leave my family with tons of unsellable niche instruments), but this Kaizen also the only one I ever had with such weird issues/design choices overall.
Wait no I lie. I had an Albert Lee PDN (Starry Night) where the nut slots were cut way too high from the factory. MM took care of me though I did have to pay for shipping it back.
This Kaizen sounds absolutely insane though. Just incredible. Loud as hell. Tight but wide. Expressive. Dunno man, acoustic sound doesn't matter much on electric guitar but it sure makes it satisfying to hear. And the pickups are very clear. There's tons of potential there for sure. By 'potential' I mean I'm the bottleneck, not the guitar. I love that.
The case
Beautiful and high quality. VERY tight though, we struggled to put the guitar in. The key is to go headstock first and then ease the bottom into the foam cutout.
Oh it comes with 3 wipes and weirdly, a truss-rod spokewheel too. I have thousands (... maybe not. Maybe just hundreds) of allen keys at home that'd do the trick, but I mean, it's something.
So what then?
Pros:
* Sounds.
* Looks.
* Speaking of looks, the new enlarged headstock looks very good on this guitar! Funny how the curvy headstock fits on the angular body. It works for me.
* Weight (6.3 pounds. I have headless guitars that weigh more than that).
* Comfort (how did I not bring this up yet?? Between the weight and body carves this guitar just hugs you. Amazing).
* Straight-forward electronics and good tones.
* Neck (duh, it's a Music Man), though very flat, and I wasn't expecting that. It's not unpleasant.
Cons:
* Gimmicky
* Mild fan on a 6-string, that's a gimmick. 24.75 to 25.5", so still within standard-tuning range. I'd imagine a lot of the target audience of this guitar would de-tune? Hey maybe I'm wrong. I get that it's impossible to cater to the impossible combinations of personal preferences out there, but it does make sense to cater to standard-tuning, so I get the compromise.
* Gearless tuners, those are gimmicks. About that; Steinberger has some warning about soldering the ball-end wraps and asks to pull the high-e extra tight through the tuner by using the tremolo to bring it forward... I found there was no need. But all of that made feel, yup, that's a gimmick, and there are compromises to having the gimmick too. I LOVE the Schaller locking tuners MM use. I'd have preferred these. But they'd have made a straight string-pull tougher on this new headstock. Give some, lose some. I think I can live with them.
* Setup: high frets and nut. I also have no clue how a factory guitar ended-up with three times as much relief as it needed and the saddles way too high and the strings totally out-of-radius. I'd like to think it wasn't on MM. Disappointing of GC eithe way, they should stand behind their guitars even if on clearance.
* Output jack location.
To me this means the guitar requires a little fine-tuning. The blueprints are there; weight, shape, comfort, tones, neck... it's just not quite there yet maybe?
Then again I am, obviously, very picky. And I love it, so who cares.
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