00:26I've been looking for a humbucker guitar
00:28for a lot of years. I've played a bunch of them. I've had a bunch of stuff. I finally had
00:33to
00:33accept the reality that single coils weren't going to give me everything that the world has
00:38to offer because, well, they're just different. It's a different tool, right? So love my Strat.
00:45I'm a Strat guy through and through, but I just needed a guitar with humbuckers and played through
00:49a bunch of stuff, realized that I just wanted less guitars overall in my collection. Go figure.
00:57I mean, that's not... I mean, that's like the opposite of what I... It's so fun to have a lot
01:02of guitars, but I was like, I just want a couple of guitars. If I go out on tour, I
01:06just want like
01:06two guitars. I want a guitar that can do everything else that the Strat doesn't do. So I want something
01:12to give me the George Benson, Larry Carlton thing. I want something to give me the screaming lead
01:20and driving punk thing in a bridge pickup. And in the middle, I want something that's just got
01:27kind of the earth, wind and fire, Prince, funky thing that's different than the Strat.
01:33And I figured it was maybe impossible to get out of one guitar, but I tried a bunch of different
01:38pickups and a bunch of other guitars and I found it almost impossible. I got pretty close in some of
01:43them. And then one day I was just scrolling the internet and I saw Joe Dart had texted me. He's
01:51like,
01:51yo, the Joe Dart Jr. bass is coming out. Check it out. And then he sent me a picture. I'm
01:57like,
01:57oh my gosh, this thing looks amazing. It's basically just like a miniature Stingray and
02:02it had one pickup and whatever. And the bass went on sale the next day or something. And
02:08I emailed Brian Ball and I was like, hey, can you just slap six strings on there and a humbucker
02:14and just send me one? He's like, no, I can't. Like, that's not how it works. Like, well, yeah,
02:22you can. Or just like send me a bass. I'll put six strings. He's like, no, no, no, you're not
02:25doing
02:26that. I'm not letting you do that. So it's like, okay, well, have you guys ever made a Stingray
02:33guitar? Because that shape is really cool. It's a very iconic bass shape. And he's like, no,
02:38but we've thought about it. I don't know why. What are you looking for? What are you doing?
02:44I was like, well, I'm just, I want, I'm looking for another guitar. He's like, you're a Strat
02:47guy. I'm like, yeah, but like, I want, I want a guitar with humbuckers and that thing's cool.
02:51Cause it's got the teardrop and it's just a weird, different thing than not weird, but it's,
02:56it's just different. Like most, I can't think of any other guitars that have this sort of
03:00teardrop pickup. It's like, I haven't seen an electric guitar with that. Like you guys should
03:06like make one. You should do it. It'd be so awesome. It's like, all right, well, look,
03:10we've thought about it. We want somebody who's passionate about this sort of project. So
03:15what do you think the guitar world needs out of a guitar like this? I was like, well, I would
03:21do
03:22this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this. Okay. Go, go make them guys. Like I've given you
03:28my opinion. Just go do it. So, and then, then give me one or like, you know, give me one
03:33at a
03:33discount. They're like, all right, cool. Uh, then they made a render and they're like,
03:37what do you think of this? I'm like, it's awesome. Uh, do you have any opinions on it?
03:41I'm like, yeah, I do have opinions. They're like, okay, hold on. I feel like we're kind
03:45of collaborating on this. How involved do you want to be in this? I was like, however
03:49involved do you want me to be? Because what you're doing right now is making the guitar
03:55that I want to be a companion to my strap. And they're like, all right, let's do this as a
03:59collaborative guitar. Like, how can we make this work? And I, you know, called Fender and I was
04:05like, Hey, you know, I'm looking for a humbucker guitar and blah, blah, blah. And
04:08they were saying, you know, we have so many other projects in the pipeline, which they
04:11should. Um, so it was like, you know, exploring this space with a music man is, I mean, it's
04:18a completely different guitar. You know, it's a totally different tool. So it's like, all
04:21right, went back to music man. Yeah, let's figure it out. I'll help you with the design
04:24process. We can do it as a collaborative guitar. And, um, you know, there was a lot of things
04:29that they were very set on and there was a lot of stuff that I really wanted. I wanted a
04:33bigger headstock. I think music man, their necks and they're all their stuff is so in
04:39tune. And so a big part of that is something with the way that the headstocks work, they're
04:44smaller and there's no string trees or something. But I was like, that's fine. Do all that.
04:48But I just want a bigger headstock. I just, for me personally, I just wanted a bigger headstock
04:53and, um, they did some math and figured out how to like re-space this and whatever, because
04:58also it makes it still look a little more like the stingray base shape, you know, with the
05:02bigger headstock and, um, put out a bunch of renders together, found that, oh, in the
05:09guitar shape with six strings, it kind of looks weird with this. So we tweaked a couple little
05:13things just for ratios and whatnot. And then came the process and I wanted the similar scale
05:21length. I wanted the same scale length as a Strat and this, you know, sort of thing.
05:25I wanted to feel comfortable and familiar to me. Um, but the pickups when I was like, yeah,
05:31I want to be able to do George Benson and Larry Carlton, the bridge or sorry, in the neck pickup.
05:36I want to be able to do Satriani and Tom DeLonge in the bridge pickup. And I want to be
05:42able to do
05:42Prince and Al McKay in the middle, make it happen. They're like, really? That's what you want. You
05:49want all those guys in one guitar? I'm like, yeah, that is exactly what I want. And, uh, the,
05:55the fun thing about the engineers and designers at Music Man is that they're just like up for any
06:01challenge and they've proven themselves. Take a look at any of the signature guitars they've put
06:06out with any of their other artists. They're, they're down to explore and really try to get
06:11into what the artist's vision is and let the artist lead and, and really express themselves
06:16to a thing. So they, they didn't tell me you're nuts. That's not going to happen. I was telling myself
06:22it's nuts. It's not going to happen because I've been trying to do it for the last three years,
06:25finding a guitar with a bunch of different pickups and whatnot. So the first one they sent
06:29over, well, actually, no, they sent over a few different guitars. Like here's the Lukather.
06:33What do you like and not like about it? Here's the St. Vincent. Here's a Valentine, blah, blah,
06:37blah. Played through certain things in different pickups. Let's just see if we make something that's
06:42remotely close. Said, okay, I like this part about this pickup, this part about this,
06:47these sort of things. And fortunately, I didn't have to get into like
06:51pickup winding, what kind of, Alnico, whatever. I didn't want to get into any of the magnets,
06:57the winding. I just wanted to talk about, here's what I'm looking for. Here's the sonic palette I
07:03need. Here's the things in the EQ and the way that I want it to feel and respond both clean
07:10and with
07:11drive on. And within the third set of pickups they sent over, somehow they just nailed it. I mean,
07:18it was like, I'll show you like the, the kind of Benson thing that I wanted that
07:40it was that sort of thing. And then the same guitar you're telling me can do this sort of,
07:53yeah. And give me the,
07:55yeah.
08:20You know, all that in the bridge. And then in the, in the middle pickup,
08:25to be able to kind of do that funky. But then also with the, the neck pickup to be able
08:41to have
08:42some, a lot of times what I found with other guitars, when I got sort of the 335 or GB20,
08:50GB10 sort of thing. It had the right low end. It had a nice roll off in the top. But
08:57when I
08:58wanted to play something funky and driving, something that had some punch, it just didn't
09:04have both. And that was, I think the biggest challenge with this, this, this pickup took
09:08the longest, the neck pickup, but it's still got it.
09:37You know, it's all in the same pickup that's given me,
09:42the, the, the sort of Benson West Montgomery thing that I was looking for. So
09:47I didn't think it was possible. They nailed it. And I'm so stoked about this guitar because
09:53what it's done is it's really made it. So when I go on tour, I can bring my strap and
09:57I can bring
09:58this for everything else, you know, and it's, it's, it's kind of interesting because, you know,
10:04as somebody who everybody knows me as a Strat player, you know, like that is my voice. That's
10:08the most effortlessly who I am. But, um, any guitar player, any professional guitar player who
10:16says like, Oh yeah, I just play one guitar. They're lying. We all know that, you know, and also, you
10:21know, how many guitars is the right amount of guitars to have? However many you have plus one
10:26is the classic adage. So, um, yeah, I don't know. It's like this, the perfect companion to the Strat,
10:34you know, it's, um, in every way it's, it's very different. So, um, I've been loving having a guitar
10:40like this, being able to work with music man who hand makes all these in the factory and just
10:45watching them and the attention to detail that they have is absolutely insane. They make incredible
10:50instruments.
10:51Do you have the asymmetric neck that they brought, uh,
10:55more things sometimes? Or if you've gone for more?
10:58In the back?
10:59Yeah, yeah.
11:01No, this, the neck is based more on like the Valentine. It doesn't feel asymmetrical. Maybe
11:07nothing that I'm noticing. I don't think so. Um, I mean, they, I just tried a bunch of different
11:13necks and it's just like, this one feels great. Uh, this was like one of the Valentine ones,
11:18maybe a tiny bit thinner this way. Um, but yeah, uh,
11:25it plays incredibly in tune and because of the contoured shapes and stuff, it's, they're so
11:30easy to get around. Uh, I don't think it's asymmetrical neck though.
11:35Okay. All right.
11:36It doesn't feel like it to me. I'll let you play it and you, you can tell me if it
11:40feels
11:40asymmetrical.
11:41It's symmetrical.
11:42Immediately.
11:56Up.
11:58Up.
11:58Up.
11:59Up.
11:59Up.
12:00Up.
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