Well I'm Skint,I have ordered a guitar.. Sterling JP 150..

KevS

I am not a John Petrucci Fan,it seemed a practical buy ,plus a radical departure. from Les Pauls,,Strats and Teles...
A double edged sword here,,not familiar feeling,but it may pull something different out of me..
This guitar is made in Indonesia I think,it has an African Mahogany Body with a Maple Veneer on it,,
Roasted Maple Neck 24 frets..Just a Maple Nek to me..If it is more stable,well good..
I have read and watched reviews,it seems to be a decent quality item..
Super Strats or even Strats in the past have always had problems for me..
The Strat Volume Control Tends to get in my Way.,I reduce down to the 2 lower controls as master tone and volume..
The tone and volume controls are out of the way on this design..

I wanted a guitar with Humbuckers and a Trem.
i considered and decided against many..
I was going to convert a Strat,I may still do a HSS Strat.,this goes all the way though..
This is purpose built though for more widdly moments etc,it looks quite versatile too tough....
I hate Locking Trems..Hate is an understatement..I despise them..
I can generally keep a Strat Trem in tune,so I am hoping this  non locking one stays in tune..
I don't dip more than a tone..I use a trem for separate vibrato,different to finger vibrato..
I seem to be able to keep it in tune OK..
There are no string trees and the strings are all pretty much in a straight line..
it also has locking tuners..So this should be that bit better..
I always found the fine tuners on floyds would rattle free during bus travel,it was either that or a change in humidity..
The strings even with blocks fully tightened would come flying out when I was doing string bends..
Floyds,Kahlers too drove me mental,,just too much fuss for me....
I do big string bends with my fingers,so went for a flatter fingerboard.16 inch Radius,,I hope it doesn't feel too alien to me..
For me Strats feel a bit lighter when standing up because of the top horn,,this has a top horn.
It also has a built in 12 db battery boost,handy..

I just hope it isn't too small,like Gordon Smith or Westbury Standard Small,I am a big guy..
I don't have my own transport to get to a shop and I have quite a few at risk health problems,so want to avoid potential Covid..
I hope the toggle switch doesn't get in my road,I don't think it will when standing up..
Sitting down it might though..

We will find out if I like the pickups or not..Always a factor with guitars that one..
No coil splits,they would have been a plus,but you can't get everything..
The guitar can always be modded at a later date..
I think the frets are medium Jumbo not 6100 Jumbo,you can't get everything..

It seemed a practical buy,,it wasn't bought out of Guitar Lust..
Hopefully the quality of the metal hardware will be decent..
I Have ordered one in Teal Green..
https://intl.sterlingbymusicman.com/collections/john-petrucci-collection/products/jp150

bazxkr

I think you will be happy with the quality. I've handled 3/4 sterlings (altho not a JP other than the real thing) and they have been excellent quality and great players. Just like their much more expensive brethen. Still regret not picking up a sterling albert lee couple of years back. Look forward to your thoughts once you have had  a chance to play with it. I always expect any guitar out of the Ernie Ball stable to be very well built at any price range

duotone

Looks like a great guitar, fantastic colour too.

VFM I think the Sterling range looks really good, can definitely see me owning one in the future.

Greatape

Sterling Valentine can be great. 

JP has a very thin neck.

KevS

Well it has arrived,at the moment it is a mixed bag,I need to put some new strings on it and set it up..It is super spanky and sounds more spanky and bouncy than a maple necked Tele..Not what I expected,..All the notes are very explosive and percussive...I don't think I like the Pickups..They lack sweetness and warmth.I think I am an Alnico Addict..The treble sounds sterile It is also ridiculously bright..Maybe a JB and a Jazz would be suitable..The body is Mahogany,the neck Maple..Roast Chicken Flavour Maple..

mbe

Sounds like the pickups are voiced for Mesa Boogie. What amp have you got?

KevS

mbe said:

Sounds like the pickups are voiced for Mesa Boogie. What amp have you got?

At the moment a Roland Micro Cube in the House,but I usually use a Marshall Half Stack or a Red Knob Twin or a old Teal Stripe Peavy Bandit..The Bandit is in a friends attic just now..The Micro Cube is great though..It has several modes..Including Boogie..I also  have a Headrush Floorboard Modeller..

mbe

KevS said:

mbe said:

Sounds like the pickups are voiced for Mesa Boogie. What amp have you got?

At the moment a Roland Micro Cube in the House,but I usually use a Marshall Half Stack or a Red Knob Twin or a old Teal Stripe Peavy Bandit..The Bandit is in a friends attic just now..The Micro Cube is great though..It has several modes..Including Boogie..I also  have a Headrush Floorboard Modeller..

I used to have a Cube 30 and that Roland COSM Boogie model is a good one. The other models were a good deal brighter as I do remember. You'll get more sweetness out of a JB/Jazz set, or maybe take down the tone control for cleans. 

KevS

mbe said:

KevS said:

mbe said:

Sounds like the pickups are voiced for Mesa Boogie. What amp have you got?

At the moment a Roland Micro Cube in the House,but I usually use a Marshall Half Stack or a Red Knob Twin or a old Teal Stripe Peavy Bandit..The Bandit is in a friends attic just now..The Micro Cube is great though..It has several modes..Including Boogie..I also  have a Headrush Floorboard Modeller..

I used to have a Cube 30 and that Roland COSM Boogie model is a good one. The other models were a good deal brighter as I do remember. You'll get more sweetness out of a JB/Jazz set, or maybe take down the tone control for cleans. 

I have a couple of Les Pauls with JB and Jazz Sets in them,I screw the JB down quite low to stop any spikiness,,I am trying the pick ups quite far away from the strings too,but I just find them,cutting ,Sterile,possibly lacking lower mid..Also you get more pick stroke than note at times..

skunkwerx

Interesting! I have an albeit different guitar, but it has a duncan custom 5 in the bridge and I find it so bassy and a little boomy, like the polar opposite of what you’ve got. I wonder if its the guitar itself. 

KevS

skunkwerx said:

Interesting! I have an albeit different guitar, but it has a duncan custom 5 in the bridge and I find it so bassy and a little boomy, like the polar opposite of what you’ve got. I wonder if its the guitar itself. 

I have found pick ups vary a lot model to model,they also change as they age..I like some lower mids,,these pickups are too scooped...I don't think it is like a different piece of wood is reliably tonally different from another by species,but you do get some guitars that are just very bright..I think wood isn't consistent in it's tonal behaviour. from piece to piece,maybe more than species to species..People obviously argue it can't matter that much on an electric and I'm not. trying to say it does,but something is happening for sure ..My Ash Thinline Tele and my Alder one sound radically different..Hardware and Pickups are the same.. .Guitars with the same hardware etc,,Same model,same pickups can sound quite different from each other to the point if you measure pickup height,one can sound weedy and another ballsy with the same height settings..Something is going on,what I'm not sure.I imagine this guitar has 500k pots,their actual value can vary a bit too..I haven't opened her up to see the value of the capacitor yet,if I can find the value..There are no pick up rings,the pickup is mounted right into the wood,,with really soft metal screws,which is bloody annoying as the springs seem really heavy duty..I may have to find better screws,I have had guitars with Humbuckers or indeed p90s with 250k pots,I think that has a big bearing on brightness..I had an Agathis Bodied 2 x p90 Squier Tele and it was really dark sounding..I find a graphic equaliser can be a very handy pedal,.They all sound different..A little bit of monosodium glutamate can  make just about any guitar sound a bit better I have found..The full 7 EQ bands seem to be in the right places..

I also think the way we hear,therefore Tone is a very personal thing..Some guitar demos on You Tube I find horrible and this is from highly respected players.I'm keeping my mouth shut as I don't want to cause someone to defend these players..These are players that can play circles around me,I am not attacking them,,I just wish their tone was more palatable to me.....Plectrum Material I have found can make quite a difference.Tortex being darker than Ultex,Nylon can sound scratchy in some cases.Pure old style celluloid different again...Some pedals or effect combinations other people love,I can't stand..Also someone else can sound great with those combinations,,yet I can't even play with them,it sounds so thin or bright or dark etc..Just when I think I have found predictable behaviour,,I find I haven't soon after,Arghhh!!..lol...You can even get guitars that sound a bit mushy and spongy on the low strings,but they sound too percussive and like you are being pinged on the nose with an elastic band on the high strings..lol...This one is a bit like that at the moment..

I am going to take the Ernie Balls off her and put D'Addarrios on there,I don't use Ernie's normally...
The trem is tilting backwards a bit,fthe floating trem is in a cavity instead of above the body like a Strat....
It says it originally came with 10s,but they may have put 9s on it at the shop..
It did arrive in tune,but the high E immediately broke..lol
I thought I had sliced my thumb,it hurt as it whipped it..Ouch..
Anyway I have work to do,but the pickups so far..Yuk..

Also African Mahogany could mean anything,the first thing being it is  probably not Mahogany..lol 
Some chancers would call Norway Spruce, Arctic Mahogany if they could get off with it..

KevS

Well that was interesting,the Trem Springs went to the first,second and third hooks on the claw,but to the first,third and fifth holes in the tem block a sort of right angled triangle set up..I sorted that out and put some D'Addarios on there..I managed to kink one Doh,so when I have done a final after I play things in,I will then do another string change..The trem was sloping backwards badly,now it is nice and level..

Small Alpha pots in the cavity..The boost is push/push..If i change the pickups I would really want to split both coils from the tone knob..Push Pull I guess is all that will be available..They are also solid shaft pots..

OK now I can put it through an amp again,things sound a lot better..The mega ice pick percussive grunts with each note has calmed right down,so has the excessive treble..I think this guitar is still maybe on the bright side of neutral,time will tell from playing time and comparisons..All I know is so far things are sounding a lot better...I wish the trem bar had a bit more upwards angle,it feels very different from a Strat,.I may get physically use to it..I actually use the plastic bit on the end of a Strat trem bar..I wish I had coil splits just for versatility..Everything is operating a lot better though..Best to change the strings one at a time next time I think..The Trem does float a lot like a Floyd,I prefer this Trem though....

The locking tuners simplify things a lot..

TeleMaster

Greatape said:

Sterling Valentine can be great. 

JP has a very thin neck.

I've got a JP6 and it's not that slim. It's a bit slimmer than the Albert Lee I have, but nowhere near as flat and thin as a Wizard Neck.