When this Valentine Guitar arrived, I had a look at it, puffed out a peaceful “Hmmph,” and lugged on working. Although I would certainly seen pictures, I was still underwhelmed by the tool’s appearance: pale, all-natural timber, a tortoise shell pickguard, and the sort of doughy, conservative shape that could make also a target market of meth-fueled Juggalos loss asleep.

Then I chose it up, as well as dropped in love.

Why? Since exactly what the Valentine does not have in looks (as well as to be reasonable, lots of people enjoy its stylish, conventional style), it balances sometimes over with experience, construct quality, audio and also total awesomeness. A close friend and I had a little session on it, the recording of which was done on my iPhone, of course.

The Valentine comes from Ernie Round Music Guy, the California business a lot more famous for its guitar strings. It’s a signature model, made in collaboration with James Valentine of Maroon 5.

Unlike lots of guitar makers, which produced signature tools that are little more than rebadged (and also repriced) variations of existing models, Songs Male gives its musicians cost-free regime of its manufacturing facility– and the assistance of its engineers. All Songs Male guitars are handmade in California.

Valentine designed this tool so he can use it via his whole collection without switching over guitars. Loosely, it’s a cross in between the Fender Telecaster (the first production electrical guitar) as well as the Gibson ES-335 (the big, hollow guitars played by B.B. King).

Music Male Valentine guitar specs

Here are the Music Male Valentine specs:

The body is made from light-weight overload ash, cut to stimulate the ES-335’s form. The body is really cut on an angle, thinner on top than all-time low, to reduce weight and make it more comfy to play. The Neck is maple, baked to make it much more resonant (and to look amazing), as well as the 22 stresses are stainless-steel. Stainless steel stresses last method longer than the common nickel, but likewise have the tendency to damage tools on setup. It behaves to locate them on a production guitar. The neck’s range size is 25.5 inches, like a Fender guitar, as well as the timber is completed not with varnish or lacquer, yet by scrubing it with gunstock oil and also wax.

The electronics need a battery to power the Music Male’s “quiet circuit,” which eliminates hum and also disturbance, and a 20-decibel boost (involved by pressing the quantity knob). There are two pick-ups: The one at the bridge is a custom-designed cross in between a twangy Telecaster single coil and also a filthy, growly P-90. The neck pickup is a humbucker, however can be tapped to make a single coil by pressing the tone knob.

Let’s beginning with the pickups. They’re remarkable. In some way, they are fat and full-sounding, but with no muddiness. You could hear each string ring out, as well as chords sound swiftly jangly.

The bridge P-90/ Tele pickup rests somewhere between both noises that affect it. It could get near both, however isn’t really rather either. I think if you desired it to duplicate both pick-ups then that would certainly misbehave, yet in truth it really beams as its own thing. It’s twangy however never ever harsh, when you utilize it in combo with the neck pickup (which itself could be set two ways), it permits a silly range of tones.

Combine this with the onboard boost (which includes no “color” to the audio– it just makes it louder and much more most likely to overdrive your amp) as well as you can dial in tones to match any song, or any kind of category of songs, from jazz to classic rock to speculative dirt.

The neck pick-up is a humbucker, which for our non-guitar geek viewers, is successfully two pick-ups wired out of stage to terminate any kind of hum that they choose up from radio stations, fluorescent lamps, badly wired home appliances and more. As well as while it has the thick, heavy noise you anticipate from a humbucker, it isn’t crazy. If you prevent humbuckers because they are sloppy and lack meaning, you’ll be stunned. This one is clear and warm. Press the tone knob as well as the pickup is divided to make a single-coil, which is additionally warm-sounding, but a little sweeter.

Overall, the electronics are really balanced. While you can get some very various sounds from the guitar, the variety is more of a continuum compared to a collection of actions. Another note: The volume balance between the pick-ups is quite even. There’s actually no distinction (unless you start the booster). The string-to-string quantity is also really balanced.

How I fell for the Valentine guitar

Above all, after that, the Songs male Valentine is a delight to use. There’s something about it that keeps you playing. My first day I might’ t placed it down, and also over the past month I’ve used it as my major guitar, playing it for hours daily. Here’s just what I’ve located out.

Easily the very best component is the neck. Music Man necks have a credibility for exceling, but this is much past anything else I’ve played. The basic gunstock oil and also wax finish is slim enough that it feels like you’re touching bare wood, which is a nice feeling certainly, and also makes going up and also down the neck very smooth. The stresses are all nicely leveled and also polished, and also there’s one more trump card below, found on all brand-new Music Male guitars: the compensated nut.

The nut is the slotted piece of plastic up top that holds the strings in location when they come from the tuning fixes and also over the top end of the neck. On a guitar, each string lookings for to be a somewhat different size to permit for the distinctions in thickness, and to maintain them in song (even more or less) all the method up the neck. This is normally done with adjustments at the bridge, however the compensated nut is cut to adjust the strings on top, also. This makes the biggest difference in playing chords, specifically expensive jazzy ones. They appear great around the guitar. It’s shocking exactly what a distinction this makes.

The various other point I enjoy is exactly how simple it is to play the Valentine. A friend of mine (Peter Woods, who you see playing in the video clip) called it “forgiving.” It’s smooth sufficient not to penalize tiny mistakes, however the main point is that every string rings clear, whether played open or stressed high up the neck. On some guitars, the fat strings seem a little boring. Not here. They ring out, and you feel the neck vibrate under them. It really feels active, and is a big factor you’ll maintain getting the guitar to play.

We took the Valentine for a spin at Funkhaus Studios, Berlin’s incredible Communist-era radio station and also recording complicated. You could see the outcomes in this video clip. The guitarist is my close friend Peter Woods, and the studio belongs to seem engineer Paul Kochenbuch of Halcyon Studio.

First we played via a Fender Twin, and after that a Marshall JCM800. Both were videotaped with a Sennheiser e 609 mic running into a Mackie Blackjack mixer, then directly right into the iPhone used to record the video.

The sound has actually been normalized, however absolutely nothing else. You can listen for on your own, yet the something we discovered is that, regardless of what amp you plug it into, the guitar still appears like itself. Also right into the Marshall on filthy, it doesn’t get overloaded. Another note on amps. At residence, I have actually been connecting the Valentine right into a Fender Tweed Champ duplicate, as well as that may simply be the sweetest noise I’ve received from it. Also the humbucker, which would normally subdue the little Champ, sounds clear and also full.

Are there any kind of drawbacks? Not actually. The looks may be one, however that’s absolutely subjective (in addition to the turtle shell pickguard, which is fairly bad). That the Valentine requires a battery is another, although in practice it doesn’t actually matter. I went out the provided battery in a couple of days, but I presume somebody else could have used the guitar prior to me, because the replacement is still going solid a month later on. Simply maintain a spare in your guitar situation as well as you’ll never ever have a problem.

The Valentine comes in at $2,099, which doesn’t seem low-cost unless you’ve played it. The guitar has a custom-fitted case, 11-gauge strings, and also some cool stickers. If you’re a novice, this may be also much– you’re a lot far better off with an economical guitar as well as a kick-ass amp. However if you’re in the market for a super-versatile guitar that will never hold you back, which seems to motivate you to play it (as well as makes everybody who tries it envious), after that you should take into consideration the Valentine. Seriously. I like it so much that I’m taking into consideration acquiring one. I’ve even started to like the method it looks …