Thank you sbmm!

[Eric O'Reilly]

Just wanna say thank you for making such a good import product for those of us without the money to buy ebmm, i will someday buy an axis oe evh, but really want to say that im blown away by your quality and fit and finish. And awesome customer service like its big brother ebmm, Brian personally addressed my neck issue and replaced it with a brand new one! How cool was that! Thanks Brian. And just sayin the ax40 i have is one from the first year or so, its from july 2009 and the top is awesome! It looks just like a real top, well it is real but a thin veneer of quilted maple, and the neck on these are real good, same profile as the axis, and if you sand it and oil it, its like an ebmm, it may not have the beautiful figuring, but it feels very similar, and if you have a -D model it has the real Dimarzios, i bought my axis pups second hand on the forum and installed the with a chrome toggle switch, and now.... I have a guitar that is as close to the real deal as possible! Its a real high level player, its pro or at least semi pro quality, it sounds almost identical to the real axi that ive AB tested with it, the only thing i wish were different was the weight, its a bit heavier than the real axis, probably cheaper wood, sometimes the same type of wood ( basswood in this case) can weigh significantly different depending on what country its from and what part of the tree its from, and how old it is and such. But nontheless a great quality instrument , especially for a third of the price! I love mine, and the only improvements they could make to the ax40 would be.
1) a real maple top, same as the ebmm, i think people would pay an extra $50 for that.

2) an unfinished neck like the ebmm, oil and wax, it doesent have to be birdseye,

3) shaller tuners

4) more colors, all the tribute colors, they should be made to order if you dont feel the need to make big batches of each color.
And that would be it! But def the unfinished neck and maple top for sure, that would make this a stellar instrument!

 

[Tollywood]

Excellent post, Eric.

 

[SBMM]

Thanks so much for the kind words Eric!

We do strive to bring the customer on a budget a high quality instrument that they can be proud to play and enjoy.

Thanks again

 

[Spudmurphy]

I've played one of their Silos (live) and it was damn good.

Nice one too Eric!

 

[jbailes]

I've got a couple SBMM petrucci's that I'm very happy with. A jp100 and the white jp70D. Really good instruments.

 

[GuitarHack]

I have an AX40, it is a fantastic guitar. My kids are learning on it.

 

[Eric O'Reilly]

Ive never tried the jps, ive played the real jps and strangely enough did not get along with them lol! But they are beautiful.

 

[edhalen]

Nice to see some SBMM Love! Bravo Eric! I have an AX40D in black quilt and it ROCKS! Between that and my Reflex I can play any kind of music (even though I'm not very good compared to some on these boards lol).

 

[Eric O'Reilly]

Nice to see some SBMM Love! Bravo Eric! I have an AX40D in black quilt and it ROCKS! Between that and my Reflex I can play any kind of music (even though I'm not very good compared to some on these boards lol).

If you sand the back of the neck on the ax40s and rub it with oil its very very ebmm like,

 

[edhalen]

Did you leave the fret board sealed or did you sand it as well?

 

[nunofrg]

i had over 15 guitars since i play guitar ( 2008) and i always kept pushing to find the perfect one, the one that i couldnt find flaws and would be perfect for my needs and at the same time inspires me to play and prouds me of having. finally i found it 15 days ago, with my own music man steve morse guitar.


just wanted to say thanks to ernie ball to make such a perfection from the gods, i love it to death

 

[Eric O'Reilly]

Did you leave the fret board sealed or did you sand it as well?

I did not sand the fret board this time, i did on my last one and this one came from the factory with the fret board feelin raw and unfinished, so i oiled it to and it did take the oil, the back of the neck had a thicker poly on it, but it was easy to get off. If you own one of these i strongly recommend this, i used a few products, the main one was mineral oil, and some Howards feed n wax, its a paste just rub it in hard and use friction to get it in and buff it smooth, it really brings the grain out, mine actually has some figuring that was not seen before.

 

[Bob123]

To address some things

1) Both cost AND branding come into play. If you make the AX40 TOO close to the Axis.. that would damage the value and appeal of the axis over all. I personally dislike the AX40D myself... ONLY because part of the "cool" factor of the axis was getting the custom dimarzios that you just cant purchase anywhere. Then they slap it on the cheaper import version.. which I find icky. Putting an actual top on would be a similar detriment I feel.

2) easy enough to fix on your own, and time is money here. Those hand finished necks take a fair amount of time, and on a mass production scale, thats just frankly going to jack the price up considerably.

3) Again, easy enough to fix on your own...

4) To my understanding, the AX40's come in every color the tributes come in, minus the natural finish, even pink and green!


I honestly HATE the AX40's! They are just too damn good

 

[Eric O'Reilly]

No pink no green, they came in gold ,red ,blue ,black, darkcherryburst ,purple, and a wierd purple ish pink that was a GC special. Thats it, no natural no sunburst no pink and certainly no green.

 

[SBMM]

no pink and certainly no green.

Yes they did...

We made a special run for our Japanese Distributor, and they are available in Japan only, and in very limited quantities.

 

[Eric O'Reilly]

Yes they did...

We made a special run for our Japanese Distributor, and they are available in Japan only, and in very limited quantities.

I stand corrected! I would love to see some of those around here!

 

[SBMM]

They are pretty cool. At this time we won't be making them for any other markets.

 

[Tollywood]

They are pretty cool. At this time we won't be making them for any other markets.

You know what we say around here, Bri...pics (of the Japanese only run, please) or they don't exist!

ebmm has also done some runs that were only sent to Japan...I'm thinking of the spalted maple axis and, of course, the 50 pink axii that went to Japan ( mine being one from that run in 2009).

 

[Eric O'Reilly]

I could not find a pic to save my life!

 

[Another Noob]

Like these?



If you want to see the big one...

http://thumbnail.image.rakuten.co.jp/@0_mall/ikebe/cabinet/gtr40/ax40d_5hon.jpg