A Guitar And Gear Support Forum

I had been wanting a Music Man Axis for a while now because I liked them ever since seeing this guy play them:



At the time I thought the design was a Les Paul for the coming millennium.

So, being a cheap bastage, I bought an OLP MM1, which I liked a lot, but had a vintage trem. I promised myself that if I could get one with a Floyd, or get a Music Man EVH Axis for the right price I would do it. In fact, I danced around an Axis last year that was going for a very fair price, but still a high enough price that I would have to love it. And I didn't. It was literally the first Music Man that I played that I didn't immediately love.

Then this week a Sterling came up for a very fair price. I negotiated a fairer price, and here we are!
My first impressions are that this thing is immediately a LOT better than my OLP. Fit and finish are excellent. The wood looks better. The clearcoat looks better. The chrome looks better.

The pickups are better too, though they aren't as nice as the Dimarzios on the real deal.

As well, the neck is thinner than the OLP's. It is obviously symmetrical and very comfy If there is one design flaw on the thing it's that it has medium jumbo frets -- it deserves better.

I haven't tested out the bridge yet -- I understand that for an offshore cheap bridge it's pretty good, but I still might pop for a GFS Heavy Duty Floyd or a Gotoh.

Anyway, very excited for this one. I'll sell the OLP once things are a little less strange (read: my wife and I have our second vaccine shots).

Until then, I will play some For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge-era chestnuts. Now where did I put my drill.....

Update to this one. Because I am crazy, I just popped for a GFS Heavy Duty trem for this guitar. Even with the eye-watering shipping to Canada, it comes in much cheaper than a Gotoh.

I may need to buy a block and a Gotoh nut (Floyd R2 nuts are made to a 10-inch radius, while Gotohs are closer to the radius of the AX40's fretboard, but I would have to buy a nut for the Gotoh as well. And I am hoping that the block works itself out in the form of one of the far-too-many blocks I have here at the Hand-cienda.

Rollin Hand wrote: ↑Mon May 24, 2021 8:13 am So, being a cheap bastage, I bought an OLP MM1, which I liked a lot, but had a vintage trem. I promised myself that if I could get one with a Floyd, or get a Music Man EVH Axis for the right price I would do it. In fact, I danced around an Axis last year that was going for a very fair price, but still a high enough price that I would have to love it. And I didn't. It was literally the first Music Man that I played that I didn't immediately love.

Then this week a Sterling came up for a very fair price. I negotiated a fairer price, and here we are!

My first impressions are that this thing is immediately a LOT better than my OLP. Fit and finish are excellent. The wood looks better. The clearcoat looks better. The chrome looks better.

The pickups are better too, though they aren't as nice as the Dimarzios on the real deal.

As well, the neck is thinner than the OLP's. It is obviously symmetrical and very comfy If there is one design flaw on the thing it's that it has medium jumbo frets -- it deserves better.

I haven't tested out the bridge yet -- I understand that for an offshore cheap bridge it's pretty good, but I still might pop for a GFS Heavy Duty Floyd or a Gotoh.

Anyway, very excited for this one. I'll sell the OLP once things are a little less strange (read: my wife and I have our second vaccine shots).

Until then, I will play some For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge-era chestnuts. Now where did I put my drill.....

Sweet! I owned a Sterling by Music Man (such an unfortunate name) Stingray bass for a short while that was surprisingly good, and it was the cheapest bass in the range, too (Ray4). It was definitely better than an OLP. The spendier models are on par with their USA-made basses. I've never really been drawn to either Musicman or Sterling guitars, but I imagine they're just as good as the basses. I just wish Sterling Ball had chosen another name for their import line, as that's also the model name of one of their basses (for which I've had some GAS going for some time). It gets tiresome always having to specify that you're talking about the USA bass, not their lower-tier brand. It would be like if Fender called their discount line "Precision" instead of "Squier". Then everyone who owns or buys an actual Precision bass would have to make that clarification every time they talk about it.

Well, it's Sterling's name and his company, so I guess he can do what he wants. Besides, what else could you call it?