Hey Guys,
Got my first EBMM in September of 2022-- A new BFR Valentine. I got my second last March-- also a Valentine-- the Trans Buttermilk-- used in mint condition. I love them both and had been thinking about getting my third for a few months. Models I was considering were the Cutlass HT (as a higher end companion to my Strat), another Valentine (such as a Carmelo), the St. Vincent Goldie (looks so cool), and the Mariposa (same reason), and the Albert Lee (the first EBMM guitar in which I was ever interested). Aside from a Cutlass I really was gravitating toward something with humbuckers this time.
Well last Thursday I happened to look on Reverb and see that a local shop had just gotten in a used Albert Lee in excellent condition. It was made in 2011-- a bit older than what I was looking for-- and not really a finish in which I'd had any interest (Trans Walnut)-- but it did have the total rosewood neck on it, which definitely interested me. I supposed it would not sit in the shop very long, so even though I was scheduled to work a double shift from 8 AM the next day (Friday) until about midnight, I would see if I could sneak out on a lunch break and go try it out-- since I'd never gotten to even play or hold an Albert Lee model. I figured I'd play it so I'd know if I liked it and then maybe not necessarily buy that one...
So on Friday I worked the morning and then asked my boss if I could leave work for about an hour and he said to be back at a certain time. Not a big window of time, but I drove to the guitar shop and walked in and saw it hanging on the wall amidst a bunch of strats and other vintage instruments. It looked so nice. I asked to play it and it played so nice. Maybe even better than my Trans Buttermilk Valentine, if that's possible. Clean as a whistle. As I played, I looked at the clock, thinking about when I had to be back at work and I started getting nervous. I didn't want to stop playing it but I had to make a decision. Also one of the guys in the shop cut his hand on something and started screaming and cursing and it was distracting me and freaking me out a little.
Dammit. No time left. "Ok, I'll take it."
So I took it back to work and brought it in and put the case inside a closet behind my bar. Some of my coworkers were like " you bought a GUITAR on your break? How many guitars do you have now?" Haha. I showed it to some of my coworkers and they thought it was beautiful. One girl said "Oh my god, THAT IS SUPER CUTE!"
My other boss walked up and said "OK, lets see your new SG or whatever it is that Alvin Lee plays". He doesn't know anything about guitars and I had to correct him-- "No Randy, its not an SG-- it's also not Alvin Lee's 335. it's not an Alvin Lee guitar at all, it's an ALBERT Lee guitar!" lmao.
It was a long night to be able to get done with work and take it home and play it through my rig-- and I was dog tired, but I stayed up playing it for hours. Really impressive tones. The cleans are warm but very articulate and the 2 and 4 positions are very useful for getting the more jangly single coil sounds. The one thing that bugged me a little is the pickup selector is very easy to accidentally hit and move when doing some aggressive funk style chording. And this can especially be a problem since there is a marked difference in volume between positions 1/3/5 and positions 2/4-- it can be jarring. But I'll get back to this.
The all rosewood neck is just beautiful to look at and luxurious in the hand. it also looks really nice with the Trans Walnut finish-- which again was not a color I initially liked all that much. For an Albert Lee, I wanted something bright and crazy and maybe metallic or sparkly. I don't know why EBMM calls this finish "walnut" since walnut is brown and this color is a deep red-- and it's made of African Mahogany. But the finish is really pretty. It's like a wine red or deep black cherry to me. I like it with the black pickguard.
Sometimes on weird futuristic guitars, I think I'd want something crazy and bright but then I see it in a more vintage finish which balances the more "out there" lines of the instrument and it works for me. When I got my Kiesel Holdsworth guitar-- I wanted to get something in a neon green or hot pink and then happened to see one in a vintage tobacco burst and it pulled on my heartstrings. It just worked. Also like with the Kaizens. I liked the brighter colors and did not like that trans honeysuckle one in the Vault, but now that one is probably my favorite one.
So here are a few pics...
Now... for the bonus surprise about this guitar...
I was wondering why this one has the chrome knobs on it rather than the black "hat style" knobs like on most of the Albert Lees I've seen. I was thinking a previous owner had modded it and that annoyed me a little. But looking online, I saw a few pics here and there of ALs that also had the chrome knobs. And I was wondering why the selector had a chrome switch tip on it. I did some reading in old forum posts and saw some post where someone was talking about the ones with chrome knobs and switch tips as being a special run produced for Guitar Center which actually have a push-pull coil split on the tone knob. WHAT!?!
I cautiously gripped the tone knob to see if it would pull out-- hoping not to break it if it didn't. And I pulled it out. WOOHOO!!! So this Albert Lee HH can get all single coil tones as well as the humbuckers. I did not know that any of these even existed. So I played with the tones and found that I like the single splits very much. I do a lot of that clean funky stuff and sometimes humbuckers are too thick and woofy for that. The singles are just what I need. Also the nice thing is that it only affects positions 1-3-5 and when playing with the knob pulled up, if I accidentally hit the pickup selector-- all the pickup positions now are not as drastically different in volume. I can funk away without worrying too much about clunky transistions in output.
I can see why people rave about this model. It's very balanced and ergonomic. The pickups in these are really incredible. Plays like a bullet train. Mine was supposed to be 7.8 lbs, but I weighed it myself and it's actually only 7.2 lbs-- so it's really light.
Mine even has some flame in the mahogany on the back (also what looks like a tiny ding in there is not. It's a reflection of something outside my window)
And here's a pic of the Albert Lee next to one of my Valentines:
I am now in the Albert Lee club.
Got my first EBMM in September of 2022-- A new BFR Valentine. I got my second last March-- also a Valentine-- the Trans Buttermilk-- used in mint condition. I love them both and had been thinking about getting my third for a few months. Models I was considering were the Cutlass HT (as a higher end companion to my Strat), another Valentine (such as a Carmelo), the St. Vincent Goldie (looks so cool), and the Mariposa (same reason), and the Albert Lee (the first EBMM guitar in which I was ever interested). Aside from a Cutlass I really was gravitating toward something with humbuckers this time.
Well last Thursday I happened to look on Reverb and see that a local shop had just gotten in a used Albert Lee in excellent condition. It was made in 2011-- a bit older than what I was looking for-- and not really a finish in which I'd had any interest (Trans Walnut)-- but it did have the total rosewood neck on it, which definitely interested me. I supposed it would not sit in the shop very long, so even though I was scheduled to work a double shift from 8 AM the next day (Friday) until about midnight, I would see if I could sneak out on a lunch break and go try it out-- since I'd never gotten to even play or hold an Albert Lee model. I figured I'd play it so I'd know if I liked it and then maybe not necessarily buy that one...
So on Friday I worked the morning and then asked my boss if I could leave work for about an hour and he said to be back at a certain time. Not a big window of time, but I drove to the guitar shop and walked in and saw it hanging on the wall amidst a bunch of strats and other vintage instruments. It looked so nice. I asked to play it and it played so nice. Maybe even better than my Trans Buttermilk Valentine, if that's possible. Clean as a whistle. As I played, I looked at the clock, thinking about when I had to be back at work and I started getting nervous. I didn't want to stop playing it but I had to make a decision. Also one of the guys in the shop cut his hand on something and started screaming and cursing and it was distracting me and freaking me out a little.
Dammit. No time left. "Ok, I'll take it."
So I took it back to work and brought it in and put the case inside a closet behind my bar. Some of my coworkers were like " you bought a GUITAR on your break? How many guitars do you have now?" Haha. I showed it to some of my coworkers and they thought it was beautiful. One girl said "Oh my god, THAT IS SUPER CUTE!"
My other boss walked up and said "OK, lets see your new SG or whatever it is that Alvin Lee plays". He doesn't know anything about guitars and I had to correct him-- "No Randy, its not an SG-- it's also not Alvin Lee's 335. it's not an Alvin Lee guitar at all, it's an ALBERT Lee guitar!" lmao.
It was a long night to be able to get done with work and take it home and play it through my rig-- and I was dog tired, but I stayed up playing it for hours. Really impressive tones. The cleans are warm but very articulate and the 2 and 4 positions are very useful for getting the more jangly single coil sounds. The one thing that bugged me a little is the pickup selector is very easy to accidentally hit and move when doing some aggressive funk style chording. And this can especially be a problem since there is a marked difference in volume between positions 1/3/5 and positions 2/4-- it can be jarring. But I'll get back to this.
The all rosewood neck is just beautiful to look at and luxurious in the hand. it also looks really nice with the Trans Walnut finish-- which again was not a color I initially liked all that much. For an Albert Lee, I wanted something bright and crazy and maybe metallic or sparkly. I don't know why EBMM calls this finish "walnut" since walnut is brown and this color is a deep red-- and it's made of African Mahogany. But the finish is really pretty. It's like a wine red or deep black cherry to me. I like it with the black pickguard.
Sometimes on weird futuristic guitars, I think I'd want something crazy and bright but then I see it in a more vintage finish which balances the more "out there" lines of the instrument and it works for me. When I got my Kiesel Holdsworth guitar-- I wanted to get something in a neon green or hot pink and then happened to see one in a vintage tobacco burst and it pulled on my heartstrings. It just worked. Also like with the Kaizens. I liked the brighter colors and did not like that trans honeysuckle one in the Vault, but now that one is probably my favorite one.
So here are a few pics...
Now... for the bonus surprise about this guitar...
I was wondering why this one has the chrome knobs on it rather than the black "hat style" knobs like on most of the Albert Lees I've seen. I was thinking a previous owner had modded it and that annoyed me a little. But looking online, I saw a few pics here and there of ALs that also had the chrome knobs. And I was wondering why the selector had a chrome switch tip on it. I did some reading in old forum posts and saw some post where someone was talking about the ones with chrome knobs and switch tips as being a special run produced for Guitar Center which actually have a push-pull coil split on the tone knob. WHAT!?!
I cautiously gripped the tone knob to see if it would pull out-- hoping not to break it if it didn't. And I pulled it out. WOOHOO!!! So this Albert Lee HH can get all single coil tones as well as the humbuckers. I did not know that any of these even existed. So I played with the tones and found that I like the single splits very much. I do a lot of that clean funky stuff and sometimes humbuckers are too thick and woofy for that. The singles are just what I need. Also the nice thing is that it only affects positions 1-3-5 and when playing with the knob pulled up, if I accidentally hit the pickup selector-- all the pickup positions now are not as drastically different in volume. I can funk away without worrying too much about clunky transistions in output.
I can see why people rave about this model. It's very balanced and ergonomic. The pickups in these are really incredible. Plays like a bullet train. Mine was supposed to be 7.8 lbs, but I weighed it myself and it's actually only 7.2 lbs-- so it's really light.
Mine even has some flame in the mahogany on the back (also what looks like a tiny ding in there is not. It's a reflection of something outside my window)
And here's a pic of the Albert Lee next to one of my Valentines:
I am now in the Albert Lee club.
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