• Ernie Ball
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aleclee

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 26, 2004
Messages
252
what Musicman guitar sold it for you in the first place
It was around 2004 and I had Doc Dryer do some setup work on my PRS. He let me check out some of his guitars, a couple EVHs (and some EVH signature guitars made by another company). Even though my PRS guitars got the bulk of my playing time for the next five years, the memory of how the EVH necks fit my had stayed with me. Early this year, I finally decided to take the plunge with a Rosewood ASS. I got a second RW ASS (this one w/ trem) a couple months ago. :D
 

cionian

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 23, 2009
Messages
234
It was Steve Morse. I got heavily into Deep Purple in my high school years after departing from listening to Metallica constantly. When I started working and started getting in some money I told myself I NEED to get me a Music Man...so I started doing research and ultimately ended up here and bought my first Silhouette. Have gone through a few different MMs, but I never looked back and want more :D. Of course it took me a long time to actually get a Morse model...but I absolutely love my Y2D as well as the others I have right now.

Same here ;).. Saw Morse (never heard of him..though was a long time DP fan going way back..) playing it on the London Symphonic orchestra DVD and was hooked. Finally got a Y2D 7 years later after going to the store thinking it was his original.. Didn't even know there was another version..but, v happy with it!
 

cjl5150

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 5, 2009
Messages
167
Location
Beavercreek, Ohio
The EVH was my first exposure to EBMM. I was just out of high school and couldn't even think about affording one. But, a local store had a couple and I loved the feel of the neck, the really awesome headstock, the killer birdseye, etc. I knew that when I was ready to buy a 'serious' guitar it would be and EBMM. When that time came I got a Silo Spec. To me that is the perfect 'Swiss Army Knife', workingman's gigging guitar. Maybe not the flashiest, figured top guitar but it's the one I would hang on to if I had to keep only one. Fits like an old pair of jeans...just feels perfect.
 

lukeuser78

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Joined
Oct 28, 2010
Messages
260
Location
Suffolk UK
gonna shoot myself in the foot and say was never a EVH model fan, way prefered the axis when it came out, even the old style with the pick gaurd!!!!
 

Brand X

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Joined
Apr 25, 2008
Messages
218
Same here ;).. Saw Morse (never heard of him..though was a long time DP fan going way back..) playing it on the London Symphonic orchestra DVD and was hooked. Finally got a Y2D 7 years later after going to the store thinking it was his original.. Didn't even know there was another version..but, v happy with it!

That was a great night - it's weird, they are all pretty iconic in their own right.....the publicity that the EVH bought was incredible and really raised brand awareness, but for all the EB's I've had - the original (and best to me) is the icon...c'mon down Silo's of the world! ;o)
 

Eilif

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Joined
Sep 9, 2004
Messages
1,131
Location
Mililani, Hawaii
I'd have to say the most "iconic" is the EVH/Axis. After all, on which model did EBMM base their 25th Anniversary guitar?

(Side note: It wouldn't surprise me if that gets eclipsed by the JP at some point in time. But for now, it has to be the EVH.)

For me, 'tho, what brought me here was Luke. I knew nothing about electric guitars save that Steve Lukather had his own signature EBMM, so that became my first EBMM.
 

threeminutesboy

Well-known member
Joined
May 11, 2003
Messages
6,907
Location
France
I think that EVH is what brought a lot of people to the EBMM brand including me and I'm not a huge EVH fan and when you think about it, this guitar was only produced during 4-5 years
 

ScreaminFloyd

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 12, 2010
Messages
712
I think someone should invent "New Guitar Smell" spray. The Axis Super Sport was the one that did me in.
 

jeffrey

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 17, 2004
Messages
1,909
Location
Milky Way, Earth, North America, that's as specifi
Man moons ago I managed a guitar store. In I think '88 or '89, Steve Morse did a clinic at the shop. That was the first time I really saw/got to play an EBMM (I played his :D).

I was really taken by the guitars at that time. So to me, the Morse EBMM is easily their most iconic guitar.

The Stingray is easily the most iconic bass.

That being said, the Petrucci line is what made me a complete convert. I own other guitars, but I barely touch'em. My BFR 7's are all I need. :)
 

g60racer

New member
Joined
Nov 9, 2010
Messages
3
Location
San Diego
The Stingray bass is the first thing that introduced me to EBMM... I was heavily into the Cure in the late 80s, and when the song Fascination Street came out I was entranced by the bass groove. It sounded so crisp and distinct from the mushy bass that was popular in most rock songs of the time. HAD to find out what bass they were using for that.

Shortly after, had a college roommate with a Stingray, and I played that sucker every day. Knew I had to have one.

Ended up working in a music store in Santa Barbara while in school, where they sold EBMMs and I was there when the EVH got introduced. Our store owner brought home a few of them and a Peavey 5150 stack from NAMM show that year, and we spent a ton of time playing them. Fell in love with the EVH model, wanted a transparent red so badly...

Alas as a starving college student making $6- an hour a few hours a week, that just wasn't going to happen. Took nearly a decade for me to be in the position where I could invest in the guitar, and then it took me about 7 months to find a transparent red Axis with a quilted top. Found it about a month before my wedding, and was distraught because I knew I should spend the money on my honeymoon instead.

Fortunately, I've got a real keeper for a wife... she bought it for me as a wedding present :) Kept both ever since!
 

peterd79

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 27, 2005
Messages
2,881
Location
NOR*CAL
great story G60

i'm looking for a keeper of a wife who understands my addiction to these fine pieces of art...
 

bazxkr

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 15, 2010
Messages
428
Location
London, UK
Same here ;).. Saw Morse (never heard of him..though was a long time DP fan going way back..) playing it on the London Symphonic orchestra DVD and was hooked. Finally got a Y2D 7 years later after going to the store thinking it was his original.. Didn't even know there was another version..but, v happy with it!

Hey guys, I was at that London Albert Hall Orchestra show and it was something else. Met Gillan before the show and Morse/Glover & Dio after. One hell of a night. An emotional night being the 30th anniversary of the concerto

Spoke to one of the orchetsra string fellows (3rd violin or something) and he was knocked out with the style of Steve Morse and couldn't believe how well he played and the speed 'with that cackhanded/wierd action on the picking hand'
Many people in the bar talking about Steves 'unusual' guitar too.

Morse no 1 had no problem keeping up with the orchestra.

Wow, isn't nostalgia a wondferful thing... 11 yrs gone in no time at all.

Cheers Baz
 

lukeuser78

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 28, 2010
Messages
260
Location
Suffolk UK
Think the albert lee model needs a mention, never really liked it when it first came out but the new models are just awesome!!!
 

slukather

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 17, 2003
Messages
1,589
Location
Melbourne, Australia
Definitely Eddie Van Halen for me. Not sure I had heard of EBMM before him. Did I ever tell you my Manny's story?!?

When the EBMM EVH was first announced in 1991, I was a HUGE Eddie Van Halen. When I saw the first photos, I was shocked at the departure from Eddie's Strat-style Kramer. It took a few weeks for the body shape to grow on me, not because I thought it was ugly, but just different. Then I saw a magazine article with Eddie playing a purple quilt EVH, and I was done. I HAD to have one!

Remember that this was before the Internet, and it was not easy finding a local EBMM dealer. I remember receiving a mail-order catalog from Bill's Music House in Maryland, and I called them to ask if they had a purple quilt EVH in stock. They said they didn't, but it could be ordered for $1499. I was a senior in high-school at the time, and $1500 was an awful lot (about 6 weeks' pay at my job at the deli), particularly via mail order for a guitar I had never touched/played (or even seen one in person). I needed some time to think about it...

A few weeks later my friend Chris and I headed into NYC for (I guess) a concert. I asked him if we could go over to 48th Street to see if any of the guitar shops there had EVH's in stock so I could play one. We walked into Manny's and there, low and behold, hanging on the wall were three EVH's -- a Pink one, an Amber, and a Sunburst. I asked for permission to try out the pink one and started jamming. My God, I was blown away. This thing destroyed the I****z I had been playing.

But I really wanted a purple quilt... So I asked the salesman if he had any in stock. He said he had one upstairs in the store room, and that if I was serious he'd bring it down and open it up. I told him that, if the guitar looked and felt as good as this pink one, he'd sell it to me that very day. So he called for it to be brought down from the store room.

I distinctly remember every minute of this: The salesman pulled the hardshell case out of the cardboard shipping box, and he set the case down on top of the glass counter. He then clicked open the left latch, then the right, and then the middle one. He opened the case. The smell of the case (come on, you know that wonderful smell) hit me, and then my eyes focused on THE guitar! It was stunning. My heart was racing. He handed it to me. I plugged in and played. I was a religious experience. A done deal -- I HAD to have this guitar. Here's the conversation that followed:

DiBart: "I'll take it!"

Salesman: "OK. How are you going to pay? It's $2199."

JDB: "What?!?"

S: "I said it's $2199, plus tax."

JDB: "What do you mean $2199?!? Everyone else is selling it for $1500!"

S: "Do they have any in stock?"

JDB: "Well, they can order it."

S: "But do they have any in stock?"

JDB: "No."

S: "We do. And they're $2199, plus tax."

JDB: "That's not right."

S: "It is what it is. How are you going to pay?"

JDB: "Hold on, man. You can't be charging $2200 for a $1500 guitar!"

S: (getting visibly angry) "You said if I brought the guitar down you'd buy it. Don't be giving me a hassle. $2199 is the price, and that's that."

JDB: "But I don't --"

S: "Get out."

JDB: "What?!?"

S: "You heard me. Get out. Get outta my store."

JDB: "F*** you, man. Where's the manager?"

S: "I am the manager. Now get out."

So Chris and I walk to the door and we're stunned... We step out on the sidewalk and start walking toward 7th Ave.

I say to Chris, "Can you f***ing believe that?!?" and he's shaking his head 'no' as the door to Manny's opens and the salesman comes out on the sidewalk, with his fist in the air shouting, "And don't ever come back in this store again!"

The next morning I called Bill's Music House and ordered my purple EVH.

And, P.S., at the salesman's request, I have never set foot in Manny's since, even though I work 6 blocks from there. And now I own 50+ Ernie Ball Music Man guitars... Looks like that idiot f***ed up that day and lost out on a LOT of commissions!!!!

:D

What a prick. Well it's his loss, he's lost out on a lot of sales.

My first experience was with the EVH, although l was aware of EBMM, the Silo and Morse, it wasn't until l saw the EVH and it was such a different body shape, and also was used to seeing Ed play Strats, I played one and loved it, but not sooner after when the Luke being released (and me being a major Luke Freak), i played the Luke and had to have one, a bit of saving up and a couple of years later a Blue Luke was mine and still is.
 
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