ok... IMHO
I think that BP made a very good decison to work with OLP. Many companies out there such as Jay Turser and various other makers were ripping off the design and Ernie Ball Music Man was not getting the money for it. BY licensing out the design they get money on the deal which could be used for research and development. I also think that you get a young Kid looking at the OLP guitars and buys one... he will then only DREAM of buying the real thing. EBMM then gets more money.
Tony Levin probably looked at the Market and realized that young musicians need quality instuments that they can afford to learn on. There is nothing worse than trying to learn how to plan on a crummy instrument. I've seen it too many times... Young players loosing interest because they bought a guitar that wont stay in tune or the pick-ups are junk. WIth OLP you get a quality instrument for a small price. Obviously you don't get the ELITE Ernie Ball Music Man instrument; however, you get the designs of the real thing and a guitar that is playable.
I have seen the E. Rom@n guitars that sell for $500-600 dollars and to be honest the guy is insaine. If you go into his shop you cannot touch anything and the guy is a NUTTER! I can't see how or why anyone would drop an additional $400 into an OLP. HE is actually taking the OLP MM1 (NON-Floyd model- The least expensive version) and he is routing to fit an "ORIGINAL" floyd and updating it with Seymour Duncan Pickups, removing the frets and replacing them... The guitar does not require all that work in order to be played and just required some minor adjustments. Anyone working with Maple Necks know how much the weather will have an effect on them. But other than that it flayed fine out of the box...
OLP has a very simple market plan... That is to make a quality instrument that will not break the bank and allow players of all levels to enjoy. They worked with EBMM and licensed the design and did a fantastic job at producing a guitar that is affordable and plays well. In my honest opinion OLP did exactly what they aimed to do...
I think that BP made a very good decison to work with OLP. Many companies out there such as Jay Turser and various other makers were ripping off the design and Ernie Ball Music Man was not getting the money for it. BY licensing out the design they get money on the deal which could be used for research and development. I also think that you get a young Kid looking at the OLP guitars and buys one... he will then only DREAM of buying the real thing. EBMM then gets more money.
Tony Levin probably looked at the Market and realized that young musicians need quality instuments that they can afford to learn on. There is nothing worse than trying to learn how to plan on a crummy instrument. I've seen it too many times... Young players loosing interest because they bought a guitar that wont stay in tune or the pick-ups are junk. WIth OLP you get a quality instrument for a small price. Obviously you don't get the ELITE Ernie Ball Music Man instrument; however, you get the designs of the real thing and a guitar that is playable.
I have seen the E. Rom@n guitars that sell for $500-600 dollars and to be honest the guy is insaine. If you go into his shop you cannot touch anything and the guy is a NUTTER! I can't see how or why anyone would drop an additional $400 into an OLP. HE is actually taking the OLP MM1 (NON-Floyd model- The least expensive version) and he is routing to fit an "ORIGINAL" floyd and updating it with Seymour Duncan Pickups, removing the frets and replacing them... The guitar does not require all that work in order to be played and just required some minor adjustments. Anyone working with Maple Necks know how much the weather will have an effect on them. But other than that it flayed fine out of the box...
OLP has a very simple market plan... That is to make a quality instrument that will not break the bank and allow players of all levels to enjoy. They worked with EBMM and licensed the design and did a fantastic job at producing a guitar that is affordable and plays well. In my honest opinion OLP did exactly what they aimed to do...
