Luke Duke
PRSlustologist
So, hopefully almost four weeks after receiving the guitar my honeymoon is close to being over….that said it doesn’t FEEL like it is.
The guitar in question is a NOS Ernie Ball Music Man 25th Anniversary which later became the reflex. It has a chambered basswood body with a mahogany tone block, and quilted top, and a birdseye maple neck with a gunstock oil and wax finish….in other words, raw maple.
The guitar came with an interesting switching system of a 5 way blade and 2 way toggle. The 5 way makes for neck/screw coils/all four coils/slug coils/bridge positions. The 2 way toggle changes from series to parallel. The heart of the electronics is the EBMM/Dmz custom wound buckers that are the brainchild of EVH and Steve Blucher.
The guitar came in on a Thursday with a good set up after traveling from Salt Lake City to Arkansas. Strings were dead, so I restrung it and rocked out for two hours or so….then the next day I took it to a gig where it was used for two sets. Then 15 days later it went to another gig right after I floated the trem, AND had to adjust the truss rod about 5 hours before the show. I don’t know if it’s because there is no finish on the neck, or because the truss rod setup is just that good, but the tweaks were in full effect within minutes.
I used the guitar for 2 and a half sets. So far I am finding the parallel switch to be VERY useful. I can go from spanky classic rock tones to more grinding modern high output sounds with the flick of a switch. For example: I put the guitar on the bridge pickup in parallel to play some AC/DC and then throw it into series for Alice in Chains.
The really interesting thing about this guitar is where it sits in the mix and the overall tone. Between the pickups and the woods it gets a really thick sound when you want and a thinner janglier sound when you need it. The chambering, I think, is the part of the equation that makes the guitar sound so big, and the wood combinations make for how well the guitar sits in the mix.
I’m feeling very comfortable with this guitar, and although I wish for a little more neck girth I can do without it due to the shape. For the current 70s/80s bar band I’m in I really can’t foresee me leaving this guitar at home. That’s a really weird statement coming from a hardcore Gibson guy….specifically LPs and 335s.
If you’re reading this trying to figure out where exactly this guitar fits into the guitar universe I’ll try to explain it to you. Much like a PRS, Jackson, etc this guitar seeks to combine the best characteristics of Gibsons and Fenders. As with everything there are tweaks. The body of the 25th/Reflex is more of a stylized Tele than a stylized strat which gives you a couple of “oddball points”. The guitar has more Fender in its heritage though with the scale, neck joint, and bridge being very similar to Fenders. I think the presence of extra wood on the top bout contributes to the great sounding low end much like a LP or Tele compared to an SG or Strat.
As an aside, a lot of folks feel like the guitar bodies are too small. I disagree, they just seem compact. I’m a good sized guy at 6’1” and 225lb and the guitar doesn’t look much smaller on me than my LP, strat, tele, or PRS……it just looks smaller than my hollow bodies! I’m going to try to get a big piece of butcher paper and trace a couple of different guitar bodies on top of one another for comparison purposes.
So in closing, I’m definitely giving Sterling Ball my own personal thumbs up on this guitar. It has great craftsmanship and attention to detail coupled with useful electronics and (most important) a killer sound.
The guitar in question is a NOS Ernie Ball Music Man 25th Anniversary which later became the reflex. It has a chambered basswood body with a mahogany tone block, and quilted top, and a birdseye maple neck with a gunstock oil and wax finish….in other words, raw maple.The guitar came with an interesting switching system of a 5 way blade and 2 way toggle. The 5 way makes for neck/screw coils/all four coils/slug coils/bridge positions. The 2 way toggle changes from series to parallel. The heart of the electronics is the EBMM/Dmz custom wound buckers that are the brainchild of EVH and Steve Blucher.
The guitar came in on a Thursday with a good set up after traveling from Salt Lake City to Arkansas. Strings were dead, so I restrung it and rocked out for two hours or so….then the next day I took it to a gig where it was used for two sets. Then 15 days later it went to another gig right after I floated the trem, AND had to adjust the truss rod about 5 hours before the show. I don’t know if it’s because there is no finish on the neck, or because the truss rod setup is just that good, but the tweaks were in full effect within minutes.
I used the guitar for 2 and a half sets. So far I am finding the parallel switch to be VERY useful. I can go from spanky classic rock tones to more grinding modern high output sounds with the flick of a switch. For example: I put the guitar on the bridge pickup in parallel to play some AC/DC and then throw it into series for Alice in Chains.
The really interesting thing about this guitar is where it sits in the mix and the overall tone. Between the pickups and the woods it gets a really thick sound when you want and a thinner janglier sound when you need it. The chambering, I think, is the part of the equation that makes the guitar sound so big, and the wood combinations make for how well the guitar sits in the mix.
I’m feeling very comfortable with this guitar, and although I wish for a little more neck girth I can do without it due to the shape. For the current 70s/80s bar band I’m in I really can’t foresee me leaving this guitar at home. That’s a really weird statement coming from a hardcore Gibson guy….specifically LPs and 335s.
If you’re reading this trying to figure out where exactly this guitar fits into the guitar universe I’ll try to explain it to you. Much like a PRS, Jackson, etc this guitar seeks to combine the best characteristics of Gibsons and Fenders. As with everything there are tweaks. The body of the 25th/Reflex is more of a stylized Tele than a stylized strat which gives you a couple of “oddball points”. The guitar has more Fender in its heritage though with the scale, neck joint, and bridge being very similar to Fenders. I think the presence of extra wood on the top bout contributes to the great sounding low end much like a LP or Tele compared to an SG or Strat.
As an aside, a lot of folks feel like the guitar bodies are too small. I disagree, they just seem compact. I’m a good sized guy at 6’1” and 225lb and the guitar doesn’t look much smaller on me than my LP, strat, tele, or PRS……it just looks smaller than my hollow bodies! I’m going to try to get a big piece of butcher paper and trace a couple of different guitar bodies on top of one another for comparison purposes.
So in closing, I’m definitely giving Sterling Ball my own personal thumbs up on this guitar. It has great craftsmanship and attention to detail coupled with useful electronics and (most important) a killer sound.
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