Good stuff Phil. Can u review Richlite fretboards vs ebony? I really want a LP Custom but am struggling with richlite, for that price point. Not with richlite on its own but just for a high price custom shop guitar.
Mr. McKnight, I love roasted maple necks. I have an old 70’s re-issue J-bass whose neck had become warped with time since I had it for over 20 years. I bought it back to life with a roasted maple P-bass neck from Warmoth. I also have a strat style 7/8 guitar with a roasted maple neck and a roasted maple neck on order from Warmoth for an old American Series body. There quality and stability have added value and long life to my gigging guitars.
Nice review ..i have gibson with baked maple fretboard no problems with it .I really like this model guitar but i do wonder how one would upgrade bridge pickup on them ?
On our menu today we have a slow roasted Maple Neck A buttery sauteed Mahogany Head Stock and to finish things off two lightly toasted humbucking Pick Ups.
I think Sterling makes some of the best quality imports for the money. Every one I have ever picked up has played and sounded fantastic. A couple right out of the box.
I picked one up at a local pawn shop here in So Cal. The former owner had upgraded it with Seymour Duncans with a coil split. Its in a trans milk finish. They wanted $399, I offered them $300 and they took it! I couldn't believe it! Its in nearly mint condition, and I cleaned it up and took it to my guy for a set-up. Awesome guitar!
I own a JV60 in Trans Buttermilk. The roasted neck is amazing. I didn’t get along with the bridge pickup, so I swapped both pickups for a set of Railhammer Humcutters. They give a great humcancelling P90 vibe. It also makes the JV60 into a Tele Deluxe. Much happier with it after the swap. Also, the wedge shape on the body is way more comfortable to play than I thought it would be. I’m normally dead set on having forearm and belly contours on my guitars. This one sits nicely and feel great.
Are the pickups on this guitar of standard size (will any humbucker fit)? Was is difficult to replace them and did you keep the boost function? Thanks.
I have one just like yours. I like the bridge pick up it gives that country twang sound. Like you get in a telecaster. It is a fine guitar for country. It has that twang you need.
60 cycle hum is part of the beauty. When I go to a show or play one, and just before the show starts you hear huummmm over the P.A. you know what's about to go down.
Great review Phil. I was watching some of your older review videos (PRS CE24) earlier today and there is a huge difference in the quality of your videos now. Cool to see your efforts paying off.
I own this guitar in the buttermilk finish. It's nothing short of amazing. His hum he is getting here is a whole lot more than what I have. Probably because he is so close to the amp. With a isp decimator and getting about 2 ft away from the amp, its near silent really.
Love it. Keep doing good work phil. Thanks for the honesty on products. Consider your reviews and opinions the best on youtube. Even bought products and stayed away from some based on your reviews. Havent been dissapointed yet!!
Great video. Phil I have two guitars in desperate need of sharpening. One is a 1982-85 mako bullet Stratocaster copy, a old Korean lawsuit guitar. It's in dire need of sharpening and it would be a great project to show how you can get a cheap cheap( can't find info but I'm sure it's plywood. It also has a boost switch. It might be a coil spilt but I'm pretty sure it isn't)guitar and it amazing. Second and in need of a good sharpening is my 1997 american fender California series fat telecaster. It has a single coil in the bridge and a humbucker in the neck and a 5 way toggle selector switch to split the pick up. The mako would be such a great video and I'm willing to have it refinished too. I want a purple body and a orange pick guard or the other way around, ala Willy Wonka.
I made a parts guitar using an completely unfinished Warmoth roasted maple neck, with rosewood finderboard. It feels so good I can barely play lacquered necks. If you have a couple hundred bucks and a strat or tele, it will make your guitar feel amazing. Totally recommend them.
That’s a lot of guitar for $600. Good variety of cool tones! Thanks for sharing! Eh, so it hums....anything with standard single coil(s) does that no matter what the price point. 🎸✌🏻👍🏻
BTW, You can set the boost level (how much DB), so you can make it anywhere between barely-noticeable to very-dominant. in some models it can be set up to 12DB, and in other models (Majesty) up to 20DB.
I won both the Sterling & the Music Man Valentine guitars last summer in an American Music Supply contest. Over the winter months I had to adjust the truss rods on both guitars the same as my other (8) guitars. The feel of the neck seems to me the big advantage of the baked maple. I also like the color of the baked necks.
The Sterling & Music Man web sites give you all that info to compare.Everything is upgraded on the Music Man and I mean every part! All the wood, frets, pickups, electronics, all the hardware and even the battery box. That said the Sterling is a fine guitar. I love it. It is a special guitar. It was in tune when I took it out of the box and felt and played like I had owned it for years. All my other guitars are U.S. made and one is a Custom Shop but my Sterling is the best playing of the bunch. That said the Music Man is the best sounding guitar I own. I know I'm not much help and I can't help that. I still haven't been able to decide which I like the best myself.
It was very helpful, in fact. It seems that, even that the Music Man is quite an upgrade, both are very fine guitars at their respective price points. Thanks!
I really enjoyed the comparison between the pickup sounds on this guitar. It certainly looks like a quality instrument on this vid. From a video listener standpoint, the first thing I would replace is the bridge pickup. For my needs, a double-stack humbucking single would quickly find its way into the bridge position to help quench the 60 cycle hum to make this a much more balanced sounding guitar.
Oh, wow. I would love a guitar with a roasted maple neck. I can't win the lottery, though, because I just never play it, lol. I hope they start offering that on lower priced guitars.
My experience is that I talked about roasted maple with a confirmed luthier and he thinks that's great, better stability and acoustically enhanced. He even uses roasted maple to create bridges for archtop guitars instead or other woods, according to him that's the latest best finds around in the instrument making. Personally I love the aspect of this wood and definitely would like to have a roasted neck in the future.
Man! I love it! I play through a Princeton '65 reissue and a Victory v40 with matching 2×12. I love strats. And I have a g&l t type and an PRS s2 singlecut. I love the roasted maple and i wish there were more in that price range. I may have to get one of those. I really liked that!
Great vid!! I own a sterling myself, and love that boost sound on the cleans! Im huge into modern metal sounds, but love the "the smiths" I can kinda get that clean sound from them with the boost, but its all in what you use it for; I just found it useful when playing "that sound"(not totally clean) Awesome video, love all your stuff.
Phillip, Think back to the1972 Fender Telecaster Customs. Humbucker in neck and single coil in the bridge. The "Keith Richards" Telecaster. To be honest, I would start by checking the pot values. 1meg volume pot for that neck humbucker will open it right up, and basically make it a completely different animal.
I purchased one of these and felt the pickups were cheap and neck was just ok. I sold within a month. I wanted the valentine and st Vincent, the quality of the valentine really turned me off on the sterling brand.
I really like that Axe, if I had it I would see if I could rewire it so that the toggle goes Neck/humbucker then in the middle Neck/humbucker & Bridge and then instead of the bridge on it's own I would add one coil from the neck pickup to kill the buzz.
Good video Phil. I have a Gibson Les Paul Special with a roasted Maple fretboard and I really like it. It's just a bit brighter than rosewood IMO but it's really not that noticeable. I ended up getting a great deal on the guitar because of most people wanting rosewood.
Thanks for this video. I have been really interested in this one. The hard part is finding a retailer that has it for sale here in Phoenix and the surrounding area.
I bought one of these used. I am confused on the actual radius of the neck though. Some sites say it's a 10 inches, you said it was 12 inches, and the sterling website says it's 9.5 inches. I have never seen a guitar with so much discrepancies in information. I even saw one reviewer say they are stainless steel frets, which I doubt it has. If you can lend any info I would be appreciative.
Hmmm Friedman "PT20 head" you say...... I can see its the runt 20 but perhaps that was a slip about a possible Pete thorn Suhr 20 watt head on the way? I know Pete has been talking about "something" in the works. Maybe Phil let one slip there!
Warning: be very very careful how you put the battery in! Accidentally put it in the wrong way and the boost electronics caught on fire. Really stupid that they didn’t put a diode there to protect against that.
Moigle1 I just went to guitar center today. Randomly picked this guitar up. Neck felt very comfortable. Substantial without being too thick. I was impressed.
Hey Phil! Old GCer here! I know this video is 4 yrs old but i’m curious: did they change the radius? The website says 10”. I just ordered one through MM and should get it at the end of May 2023. Hope all is well w/ you!
I don’t understand why roasted maple i.e. dried out is beneficial. Common thought has always been that too dry makes wood more prone to cracking also won’t the wood absorb ambient moisture? Wouldn’t it stand to reason that if you take a guitar from a humid area say the south to a dry climate ala Arizona it will move wouldn’t the same hold true for a really dry guitar going to a humid area?
What do people not like about the hum? I have a version of the old Yamaha 'flying samurai" guitar that's basically a strat: 3 single coils in the usual pattern, that hums for days and I don't mind it. Is there a rational reason for getting rid of it or is it just that Lester Paul didn't like it, so no self-respecting musician who's never listened to him can question it? ;)
I got a few Guitars from 70 to 3000€. Hey i never ever have i Guitar that didnt play well after Setup. Honestly guys the feel of the Guitar, playability, pickups should be your first way to look!! And most important the AMP!!
From Leo: Nice looking guitar, and good video. The whole roasted neck thing seems like it would be a good feature. I think I would rather have a splitable humbucker so I was not stuck with the hum. The lighting dimmers where I play are murder on single coils.
Phil, you didn't note that since the guitar has a boost and is ran by a 12 volt battery, it has to have the battery ! I have the Sterling JP150 model and when you take the battery out...No signal!...kind of a bummer.
This is Ernie Balls version of a Gibson ES. The Suhr spec maybe comparable but it sounds and feels way better than the Valentine. EBMM makes fantastic guitars and the Petrucci and Luke models are the only ones that come close to the Suhr stuff.
love to see a review of the EB music man cutlass SSS... stainless steel frets, noiseless circuit and the 2018 models have the roasted neck, compensated nut. I'm drooling over that guitar but cant seem to find it in any stores near me.
Wdyt about this guitar in term of quality? Is it on par with MIM Fender? On verge between this vs MIM Fender or Squier Tele with humbucker single coil configuration.
Does the single coil in the neck really sound like a Tele ? Because the bridge is so different ? It's interesting to me. Glad you are loving it :) Thank you for your answer.
Deorman Robey not exactly simply kiln dried . A complex set of specific temperature and time cycles. I dunno you look it up . It’s a building material technique.
Kiln drying has to be done at a lower temperature for a longer period of time to prevent the oxygen from reacting with the wood (think low-level burning). The higher temperature additionally allows the sugars in the wood to caramelize, cross-linking the molecules into polymers, and this hardens the timber. Ibanez does theirs in a nitrogen atmosphere at positive pressure, probably to make it easier to flush all the oxygen out of the oven.
DividedByTime ,I had a sterling cutlass just s few months ago with an asymmetrical neck, they call it, if i made a plain o common d chord and squeezed jus a lil bit extra ,u could hear it go sharp. My hands arnt all that strong , i use 9s because im a wus so. Mayb it was the 1 n 10,000 dud, idk. They do look and sound good. But Thot ud want to kno.
I thought so too. In an Andertons' video they said theirs was made in Korea while their St. Vincent model was made in Indonesia. Maybe they are using multiple factories to produce them?
Hi Phil, great review. May I ask your advice? I have stupidly expensive guitars and I can maintain most aspects setup ways but because I played them and not cleaned them in 10 years, I have a 2001 59RI Gibson no 19 with nos parts. Anyway to my issue, Gibson rosewood boards are quite porous and I have finger dirt. I'm a bit scared to take a razor blade to it? what do you do with really dirty finger boards. It's really stuck and stubborn to move and i'm scared of marking my boards. Cheers
