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
Comments
VFM I think the Sterling range looks really good, can definitely see me owning one in the future.
JP has a very thin neck.
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..
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..