Quantcast Ryan's Guitars: December 2006

Sunday, December 17, 2006

New Guitar!! Music Man Stingray Bass


Well, I decided to see if I could get my awesome sales guy, Devin, at Guitar Center to take back my Schecter 5 string bass and swap it for an Ernie Ball Music Man 4 string Stingray. Luckily he was able to pull it off for me even though I was beyond my 30 day return time period. All I had to do was pay the difference on the Stingray.

The Music Man is a much better bass, as you might expect. ;) The resonance and tone is far superior to the Schecter and there is minimal buzzing. This thing plays like a dream and sounds so good plugged in. It has active treble, bass and mid knobs and a single bridge humbucker. Despite only having one pickup the controls on this thing allow for a surprising amount of different tones.

Like I said in my Schecter review a while back, this will mostly be used for my own personal recordings and for guest bass players that come over to jam. It's a pretty nice bass that should cover those functions adequately, I think.

All in all, this was a super upgrade and probably the bass guitar I should have gotten in the first place. ;)

Sunday, December 10, 2006

New Guitar!! EB Music Man Morse Y2d, De-Purple Burst


Finally, after more than 8 months Guitar Center called to tell me my Y2d arrived. I decided to get rid of my EBMM Petrucci because I never could really bond with it, or get the tremolo to stay in tune the way I thought it should. Boy am I glad I made this decision, because I have never played a better feeling neck than the one on the Y2d.

I originally ordered the guitar from my guy, Devin, at Guitar Center with the Floyd Rose option but it came with the Tune-O-Matic... not sure if that was a GC screw-up or an EB screw-up. Regardless, I wasn't too disappointed when I opened the case because I wasn't sure if I was even going to like the guitar since I'd never even laid eyes on one, let alone played one. As soon as I played the first note I was madly in love with this thing. ;) So much so, that I plan to keep it and order another one in Tobacco Burst with a Floyd.

Fit and finish is excellent. The only thing I needed to do (apart from putting my favorite EB Hybrid strings on it) was rectify a couple of string noise issues on the high E. The nut was causing the infamous "sitar" sound when playing the high E open. A very slight, careful adjustment to the front of the nut slot with 2000 grit sandpaper fixed that, no problem. Then as I began to play it more I noticed the same thing happening on the high E when playing above the 12th fret. Since this is a Tune-O-Matic style bridge I instantly knew the saddle slot needed a light sanding; after that, the problem was gone! ;) It now plays perfectly after some minor action, truss rod and intonation adjustments to compensate for the Hybrid string set I like to use. Man, this neck is ridiculously good!

The pickups sound great, and the overall tone I get from this guitar is very reminiscent of the Petrucci. Not surprising, since they use very similar pickups in the bridge. This guitar is brighter, however, which I am sure is due to the Poplar body wood and the "top-loading" Tune-O-Matic bridge. The sound is very defined with hot output, but still articulate. I really like that. You can play a chord with nice, fully saturated distortion and still hear every note in that chord.

The paint job is gorgeous and, as usual from EBMM, everything is perfect. Great fretwork, awesome neck profile, flawless binding and finish... a perfect 10! I can't recommend these models enough. If you are on the fence about buying one of these, just order it... you won't be sorry. ;)

Do YOU have a Y2d, or want one? Post a comment!