Which artist inspired you to choose EBMM and when did you first play one?

[dunkonu23]

The first time I heard about EBMM guitars was when I was reading an article about EVH playing one and how it was made. It seemed very interesting to me at the time, however I was quitting gigging so I kind of let it rest and just played what I had.

I've been a Dream Theater fan since around 91 or 92 (around the same time I quit playing out) but lost touch after my son was born. Then I caught up to them at the time SFAM was released, bought the video and decided then I wanted a Petrucci model. Life got in the way every time I got close to getting one.

Around Christmas of 2006, I played a Mystic Dream fully loaded JP6 at a local store, but there were problems with the guitar on hand, so I didn't buy it. Then, around Thanksgiving 2007, I returned to the same store, played another MD JP6 and was blown away. Life got in the way. Well, I did some creative things and got life out of the way because after lurking here for a year and reading just how great the BFR JP's are, I had to have one. So, now I have a JP6 BFR and I can't stop playing it. Easily the best guitar I've ever played. The attention to detail is nothing short of phenomenal! I just wish I had gotten one much sooner. It has truly been a quest to get my BFR.

Sorry for the length...

Scott

 

[Colin]

I bought my EVH in the early 90's played it for years until it needed to be retired. I then tried the Morse and then the Y2D. I've now discovered the Albert Lee. I love them all!

 

[joe web]

It's the opposite for me.
I remember when EVH became an EBMM artist, and that was my only knowledge of the brand.
I'd never seen an EBMM until a few years ago. That changed everything.

nearly the same here.
i first heard of EBMM as EVH came out with the album F.*.*.K. it must have been around 1991.
Dream Theater, my favorite band today, had only one CD out and i didn´t even know them at this time. so the EVH was the guitar.

about two years later (1993) i had the first chance to try a EVH EBMM in a store - and from that moment on i knew: this is the guitar i must have!

 

[candid_x]

I've never been very aware of mainstream, and there was no artist which influenced me to try a MM. I was very aware that MM were the choice of some knowledgeable bass players, and besides strings, that was my only brand association with EB.

I was at a store, special ordering a G&L Legacy hardtail, when I saw this "little" cool looking guitar called a Silhouette Special hanging on the wall. I tinkered with it while the store owner called in my order. It had a great feel, as I recall, but since I had just committed my guitar money elsewhere that was it for another few years.

I wound up getting a Silo Special some 7 years later, primarily out of total frustration with crappy Strats and gawdawful setups and designs: remove neck to adjust truss, what???? The more I studied the SS design, the more it appealed to my sense of essential reliability and versatility. The 2 knob vs 3 knob strat design won me instantly, as I'm one of those who always had to remove the volume knob on Strats and G&L's. Everything about the guitar just felt custom made for me. And, no more searching for my ideal neck!

But back to topic, it was bass players who made me sit up and take note that EB made more than strings.

 

[applemacintosh]

I read a Guitarist (UK Magazine) review in the early 90's of the EBMM Luke. There was a full page pic of the Luke and an AL being reviewed and much as I like the AL I was a bit put off by the pink only finish that was available... I also loved the look of the Luke. Along with the great review I started saving as I'd made up my mind. I bought a Luke in pearl red exactly the same as the article pictured.

I still own that Luke and the magazine article I read all those years ago.

It's interesting how my taste has changed - I saw pics of EVH with his signature but something appealed to me more about the Luke shape. Now I love the Axis and want another one. Or two. Or...

 

[Phazer]

You got a JP for your birthday? I barely get anything, and close to nothing from my parents. But congratulations anyway.

Yes, but they probably were drunk
Both my parents are musicians, so we share the same love for instruments, they would have never spent that much money on anything else

 

[Dr. Tweedbucket]

EVH of course.

My first was a guitar that amazingly was played a short time by EVH. My story about it is somewhere on this forum.

The weird thing about that EVH guitar that I didn't like was: I thought it would be worth a boatload of money considering the history ( and I had the proof ) of the guitar, so I was afraid to play it and put any wear and tear on it.

The other thing was, the neck was so freaking skinny at the nut, I could hardly play it anyway. ..... during the time I had the EVH guitar, I bought a purple Axis and the neck was a bit wider at the nut ..... ( I measured them with calipers ). Anyway, I like the guitars because they are compact, but big with tone

 

[leecs]

I 1st got to know JP when im in my friends home. He was listening to LTE2. the 1st song immeadiately hooked me. His lead passages were awesome. So that moment, i checked him out, his guitars, gear, etc. So 1 day, i happen to walk into a local guitar shop & saw a 2nd JP on the shelf. i played it like 5 mins. I was hooked!!!! So in 5 months later, i acquire 1

 

[CudBucket]

Oddly enough, I wasn't really inspired by an artist. I was just impressed by the instrument. I had just gotten into DT about 4 1/2 years ago and was aware that JP had an EBMM sig. I happened to take a weekly trip to GC one day late in December 2003 and saw two used PRB JP6s. Both were identical. Natty headstock, dots, no Piezo.

There was something so beautiful in the simplicity of it's appearance. I picked one up, sat down and played for 15 seconds when I said out loud to noone in particular... "I'm buying this f#$%ing guitar". Those were my exact words.

Went home, talked to the wife and ended up calling GC back and had them ship a new PRB from another store. When I went to pick it up, it was beat to s$#t. I wasn't going to take it even at the big discount they offered. Then the manager says "Why don't you just have us order one?". When he told me the price would be the same for a custom order as it is for stock, I jumped.

Four months later, I picked up this...

I brought my son, who was about 4 at the time, to pick it up. I told the GC dude, DON'T EVEN OPEN THE SHIPPING BOX!!! Just as they bring it out, my son has to pee. So with the box on the counter I bring him to the GC men's room. Where he proceeds to miss the bowl and pee onto his own pants!! I stuffed him full of toilet paper and hoped he'd last 10 minutes. So there we are... I'm drooling over my new JP and my son is starting to freeze in his wet pants stuffed with wet toilet paper. Needless to say, I had to make a quick inspection and get Jr. home.

I'll never forget that day.

Dave

 

[mattj]

For me it was Paul McCartney's guitar players from the late 80's. I had just started playing guitar and I remember seeing a concert on VH1 and thought they had some pretty cool looking guitars. It was at about this time that I started looking for my first 'real' guitar. At the time I was playing a Memphis electric that my parents got for $100 with a little fender 15 watt amp. I already thought the silo's were very cool and then EVH came out with his sig model and I was blown away. I hardly knew who Eddie was but I really wanted one because it looked so cool and it had to be good but as soon I found out the price I ended up going for an Ibanez RG as my first real guitar, it was about a third of the EVH price at the time, I was about 14 and had to do a lot of begging to get my parents to let me get the Ibanez. Well, 16 years later, after having a small army of Ibanez Jems acquired throughout the years, I started thinking about trying something new.
While living in LA I knew a couple of EBMM endorsers, Richard Haitz and DJ Ashba, and they had tons of these guitars and they loved them. Also, one of the best guitarists that I have ever heard that few know but everybody should, Damir Simic-Shime, played an Axis and an EVH and called them the best production guitars available. I figured I would try them out again and whatta ya know, I sold the last Jem and picked up an Axis. Someday I'll have to pickup a JP, not a huge DT fan but the JP model would have to be just about the best rock guitar I have ever had the pleasure to play.
Oh yeah, I still have both the Memphis and the original RG but more for sentimental reasons than anything else. I have a bunch of other other guitars but lately when I go to play I reach for the Axis.

 

[John C]

It wasn't really an endorser for me either. I remember seeing photos of the first Silhouettes in Guitar Player and Guitar World back in 1986 or so - just little photos in their respective NAMM show threads and thought that the shape would work well for me. However, no one local to me was a dealer at the time.

I got the opportunity to try out an early one in 1988 or 1989, a transparent red Silo with a rosewood board and the original roller trem. I saw it and a light-colored sunburst one (maple neck and hard-tail bridge) hanging on the wall and had to try one out. However, I was already GAS-ing for a PRS at the time and went in that direction, and those were the only two EBMM guitars to show up locally until the EVH came out.

The EVH models got me to try out EBMMs again, but what kept me coming back to the brand were the Silo Special and Axis Sport models. I should have pulled the trigger on a Silo Special back in the mid-1990s, but every one I found had the HSS pickups and I wanted SSS. For some reason, I had an aversion to ordering a guitar back then; I had gotten over that sooner I likely would have saved a lot of money on guitars over the past 10-12 years!

Okay, I know it's increadibly bad internet etiquette to quote yourself, but I did want to add a few things. Seeing several people talk about John Deacon's Sting Ray bass made me think about the pre EB Music Mans (the one Deacon is playing in the Montreal video is of course pre-EB since the video is from 1982).

The music shop I frequented when I first started playing was a Music Man dealer, so I got to try out the Leo-era guitars (Sting Ray and Sabre) back when I was starting out. In fact, I had a Music Man RD-50 112 amp for a number of years. The Leo-era guitars were well made, quirky guitars - and I'm using "quirky" in the "what the heck?" sense. The EBMM guitars are completely different animals; BP, Dudley and the team have create some real winners. Some are still quirky, but in this case they are "quirky" in the "hey, that's cool!" sense.

Also, while I said in my original post that EVH got me to try out EBMMs again, it's not so much being an EVH fan as his model coming out put them back on my radar screen. As I mentioned the local dealer had dropped the guitars and was only stocking basses, but the buzz over the EVH model got them to stock all the guitar models again.

 

[beej]

Morse. Loved his playing and the cosmetics of the guitar (mmm ... Morse blueburst). Bought one used, sight unseen.

 

[GuitarHack]

EVH, but my go-to MM is now the Silo Special HSS.

 

[Butch Snyder]

Albert Lee and Steve Morse....

I had been an Albert Lee junkie since 1982; when I first heard him. I hated Telecasters before that. AL made me love them. Then some years later, when I saw him he had his EBMM sig. I thought, "What is that thing?!?

In 1985, I saw a Peavey amp ad and it had Steve Morse advertising a new amp and he had his new sig guitar strapped on. I wondered where his Tele was. Then I saw the EBMM ad that said, "Finally, someone got it right" or something like that.

It would take me several years to realize I needed to buy one of these awesome guitars. But, truth be told, it was those two players....

 

[NorM]

Steve Morse at a Clinic
Best advertising ever

When I got my first SiLO I just had to trick it out

 

[Nicolarsen]

Luke, for sure!
I had been listening to Toto for a long time, and my sidekick, at the moment back in 1998, was playing a Luke.

When I tried it, I was hooked instantly...Sooo, had to have one...

 

[Smellybum]

Nigel Tuffnel in the break like the wind promo tour, I saw Mr Horsepower and wanted to know more about a company that would make something that cool.

Also a huge luke fan but didn't make the link to EBMM till after Nigel !

 

[phatduckk]

I've always played both guitar and bass. usually I spend more of my time on bass tho. so - I got hooked on MM basses years ago and eventually purchased 2 within a year. when time came for me to want a new guitar this forum was highly instrumental (no pun intended).

i was super active on here and was reading the guitar side as much as the bass side. so by reading rave reviews here I was convinced i should get a JP6. Id never heard of JP or DT... i just wanted a great guitar and from my bass experience knew that an I had to get an MM

so in a nutshell the basses and this forum got me into MM guitars. now i have like 5 or 6 of em

 

[banjoplayer]

First cognition of EBMM was when EVH became an EBMM endorsee. I read reviews and advertisings. That was at the time when I started playing guitar. Then, when Steve Morse joined Purple I started t observe this guitar(s) more interested and learned which models were available and who was an EBMM artist. First time I´ve played one was a few days before I bought my Morse one year ago (January 11th, 2007)

 

[MrMusashi]

that would be tony levin.. on peter gabriels so album. its bigger than ayers rock!!!

i have fiddled with stingrays before, testing other musicians axes after a gig.. but i never tried one seriously before i bought it. that dang sr5 20th axe just begged to be bought unseen
and now i have the eb fever.. cant get enough.. hehe

MrM