Hey guys,
I've been able to spend some time with a new EBMM guitar in the past few weeks. It's actually not MY guitar, but rather it's my brother's first EBMM guitar. A Mariposa Deluxe in Galaxy Pearl. The Mariposa is not as talked about as other MM guitars so I thought I'd share my experiences and some pics.
For a while now I'd been encouraging my brother to go EBMM with the next guitar he bought. I really wanted him to get something like a Valentine or an Albert Lee-- models I already own and love and can vouch for-- but I think he just kept wanting to get something different. He was looking at Lukes and also StingRays but I was beginning to see that the Mariposa was getting his attention too. And it was a model that intrigued me also.
A few weeks ago we were hanging out, noodling on guitar and surfing guitars online-- and sipping some strong Manhattans. The rye finally got the best of him and he pulled up a Galaxy Pearl Mariposa Deluxe listing and gave me the look like "you dare me to order this right now?" How could I discourage him, haha.
So a few days later he received it. We were both really excited about it. He had to tell me though that he was having mixed feelings about it. Right away, it was absolutely gorgeous and flawlessly finished. Visually stunning. But it did not play as nicely as he expected. There was a lot of tension in the strings and it was unforgiving. Also the tone of the pickups was not something he was liking. I had to work late but I hopped in the car and drove up to his place late in the night to check it out and see what I thought.
I was blown away by the beauty of it. The Galaxy Pearl finish is one of the best blue finishes I've ever seen. The Mariposa model does not have figured maple on the back of its roasted necks like a lot of other models do. It's a plain roasted maple-- and yet my brother's Mariposa came with a nice amount of beautiful flame in it anyway. A nice bonus since he didn't get to see a pic of the actual guitar he was going to receive when he ordered it. The ebony fretboard was top notch. I like the plastic SKB style plastic EBMM cases a lot, but I really love the G&G cases that the Mariposa comes in. Just a little classier and has more mojo.
When I went to play it, I agreed that there was too much tension in the strings and it was not a joy to play like my other EBMM guitars-- but I told him I was pretty sure that the setup was to blame. I had the same experience when I got my first new EBMM guitar-- the BFR Valentine-- my tech had told me the nut was way too high on it-- and once he fixed it, it played like a dream. I told my brother the same situation was probably going on with the Mariposa, resulting in action that was too high.
The poor upper fret access-- we were expecting. But it felt a bit more cramped that I was prepared for. Also one thing I absolutely HATED about it. That etched pickguard. My fingernails on my picking hand were maybe due for a trimming-- but they weren't out of control long either. But the way my fingernails on my picking hand would catch across the etched surface of the pickguard... it was like nails on a chalkboard. Oof.
The trem would not stay in tune at all. One move on the bar and it was over.
Tonally, I was perplexed at how much I HATED the pickups. The lack of a tone control was always going to be a risky feature, but the pickups just had this sound like a wah pedal constantly half-cocked, with some weird midrange filtering to my ears. It was like the tone was an EQ graph boosted in all the wrong places and just not good. Especially with high gain sounds. I did not like it. Also the articulation of the pickups bothered me. It was like, compared to my other guitars, the notes had no attack and little in the way of harmonics-- they were just the middle part of the envelope-- the sustain but with none of the satisfying attack. Just a very plain fundamental tone.
But again, I figured it would be wrong to judge the pickups until a better setup was done on it. So my brother took it in to our tech-- and usually he has a long wait time for setup work-- a week at least-- and my brother was worried about the return window if he decided to send it back. Fortunately our tech surprised him and did a quick setup on the spot while he waited. Took about 40 minutes. He fixed the height of the nut slots and did a few other things and got it playing a LOT better. The strings had a much slinkier feel. I still was not quite digging the pickups.
I was thinking of really encouraging my brother to send it back.
But then I went over to his place again and brought my BFR Valentine and compared them again. The Mariposa played so much better than that awful initial setup. I trimmed my fingernails and I no longer had any tactile issues with the pickguard. The neck on it was so nice being freshly oiled and waxed at the factory. The neck profile FELT slightly wider than my other EBMM models, even though the nut and width of the neck at the 21st fret are all the same.
The limited upper fret thing bothered me a lot less too the more I played it. It was really only an issue of the 21st and 22nd frets-- and I realized you just can't use your pinky in a "classical" left hand position on these frets-- you have to play in more of the "blues" hand position with your ring finger stretching to fret the top notes. It's just an adjustment you have to make mentally. Sure, there is no such compromise on my Valentines and Albert Lee, but it's less of an issue than I thought the more I played it. Eventually it didn't bother me at all.
The trem was now staying in tune very well after the setup.
Getting back to the pickups. Something weird happened. These pickups do not appear to be height adjustable. But when the action of the guitar was lowered, it seemed to bring the pickup height right into a narrow sweet spot in which they sounded much more satisfying than before. Being that my Valentine has a single coil in the bridge it would have been like apples and oranges to compare the bridge pickups ( I left my Albert Lee HH at home). So I spent some time going back and forth between the neck pickups of the Mariposa and Valentine. I was actually blown away at how "focused" and present the neck pickup of the Mariposa was. I love the pickups in the Valentine and yet for some things, the Mariposa clearly delivered more compelling tones-- especially on cleans, surprisingly.
After playing the Mariposa for several hours after my brother had gone to work, I was just totally in love with the damned thing. It's one of the most "different" guitars out of anything my brother and I own, tonally. Even our other brother commented on this. He's not a musician, but he had a lot to say about the unique sound of the Mariposa and how modern it is. I was finding that the high gain sounds were very good too. I want one of these now for myself.
I've been able to spend some time with a new EBMM guitar in the past few weeks. It's actually not MY guitar, but rather it's my brother's first EBMM guitar. A Mariposa Deluxe in Galaxy Pearl. The Mariposa is not as talked about as other MM guitars so I thought I'd share my experiences and some pics.
For a while now I'd been encouraging my brother to go EBMM with the next guitar he bought. I really wanted him to get something like a Valentine or an Albert Lee-- models I already own and love and can vouch for-- but I think he just kept wanting to get something different. He was looking at Lukes and also StingRays but I was beginning to see that the Mariposa was getting his attention too. And it was a model that intrigued me also.
A few weeks ago we were hanging out, noodling on guitar and surfing guitars online-- and sipping some strong Manhattans. The rye finally got the best of him and he pulled up a Galaxy Pearl Mariposa Deluxe listing and gave me the look like "you dare me to order this right now?" How could I discourage him, haha.
So a few days later he received it. We were both really excited about it. He had to tell me though that he was having mixed feelings about it. Right away, it was absolutely gorgeous and flawlessly finished. Visually stunning. But it did not play as nicely as he expected. There was a lot of tension in the strings and it was unforgiving. Also the tone of the pickups was not something he was liking. I had to work late but I hopped in the car and drove up to his place late in the night to check it out and see what I thought.
I was blown away by the beauty of it. The Galaxy Pearl finish is one of the best blue finishes I've ever seen. The Mariposa model does not have figured maple on the back of its roasted necks like a lot of other models do. It's a plain roasted maple-- and yet my brother's Mariposa came with a nice amount of beautiful flame in it anyway. A nice bonus since he didn't get to see a pic of the actual guitar he was going to receive when he ordered it. The ebony fretboard was top notch. I like the plastic SKB style plastic EBMM cases a lot, but I really love the G&G cases that the Mariposa comes in. Just a little classier and has more mojo.
When I went to play it, I agreed that there was too much tension in the strings and it was not a joy to play like my other EBMM guitars-- but I told him I was pretty sure that the setup was to blame. I had the same experience when I got my first new EBMM guitar-- the BFR Valentine-- my tech had told me the nut was way too high on it-- and once he fixed it, it played like a dream. I told my brother the same situation was probably going on with the Mariposa, resulting in action that was too high.
The poor upper fret access-- we were expecting. But it felt a bit more cramped that I was prepared for. Also one thing I absolutely HATED about it. That etched pickguard. My fingernails on my picking hand were maybe due for a trimming-- but they weren't out of control long either. But the way my fingernails on my picking hand would catch across the etched surface of the pickguard... it was like nails on a chalkboard. Oof.
The trem would not stay in tune at all. One move on the bar and it was over.
Tonally, I was perplexed at how much I HATED the pickups. The lack of a tone control was always going to be a risky feature, but the pickups just had this sound like a wah pedal constantly half-cocked, with some weird midrange filtering to my ears. It was like the tone was an EQ graph boosted in all the wrong places and just not good. Especially with high gain sounds. I did not like it. Also the articulation of the pickups bothered me. It was like, compared to my other guitars, the notes had no attack and little in the way of harmonics-- they were just the middle part of the envelope-- the sustain but with none of the satisfying attack. Just a very plain fundamental tone.
But again, I figured it would be wrong to judge the pickups until a better setup was done on it. So my brother took it in to our tech-- and usually he has a long wait time for setup work-- a week at least-- and my brother was worried about the return window if he decided to send it back. Fortunately our tech surprised him and did a quick setup on the spot while he waited. Took about 40 minutes. He fixed the height of the nut slots and did a few other things and got it playing a LOT better. The strings had a much slinkier feel. I still was not quite digging the pickups.
I was thinking of really encouraging my brother to send it back.
But then I went over to his place again and brought my BFR Valentine and compared them again. The Mariposa played so much better than that awful initial setup. I trimmed my fingernails and I no longer had any tactile issues with the pickguard. The neck on it was so nice being freshly oiled and waxed at the factory. The neck profile FELT slightly wider than my other EBMM models, even though the nut and width of the neck at the 21st fret are all the same.
The limited upper fret thing bothered me a lot less too the more I played it. It was really only an issue of the 21st and 22nd frets-- and I realized you just can't use your pinky in a "classical" left hand position on these frets-- you have to play in more of the "blues" hand position with your ring finger stretching to fret the top notes. It's just an adjustment you have to make mentally. Sure, there is no such compromise on my Valentines and Albert Lee, but it's less of an issue than I thought the more I played it. Eventually it didn't bother me at all.
The trem was now staying in tune very well after the setup.
Getting back to the pickups. Something weird happened. These pickups do not appear to be height adjustable. But when the action of the guitar was lowered, it seemed to bring the pickup height right into a narrow sweet spot in which they sounded much more satisfying than before. Being that my Valentine has a single coil in the bridge it would have been like apples and oranges to compare the bridge pickups ( I left my Albert Lee HH at home). So I spent some time going back and forth between the neck pickups of the Mariposa and Valentine. I was actually blown away at how "focused" and present the neck pickup of the Mariposa was. I love the pickups in the Valentine and yet for some things, the Mariposa clearly delivered more compelling tones-- especially on cleans, surprisingly.
After playing the Mariposa for several hours after my brother had gone to work, I was just totally in love with the damned thing. It's one of the most "different" guitars out of anything my brother and I own, tonally. Even our other brother commented on this. He's not a musician, but he had a lot to say about the unique sound of the Mariposa and how modern it is. I was finding that the high gain sounds were very good too. I want one of these now for myself.
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