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REVIEWS

Armed to the teeth:
the Sabre is equipped
with Music Man’s own
Modern vibrato bridge

KEY FEATURES
PRICE £3,399 (inc hard case)
DESCRIPTION 6-string electric solidbody,
made in the USA
BUILD Okoume body with carved flame-maple top,
C-shape bolt-on neck with 10” radius figured
roasted maple fretboard, dot inlays, 22 high-profile
medium-wide nickel frets
HARDWARE Schaller M6-IND locking tuners,
Music Man Modern vibrato bridge with
vintage-style bent-steel saddles
ELECTRONICS 2x Music Man custom wound
humbucking pickups, 5-way blade pickup-selector
switch, master volume and tone control
SCALE LENGTH 25.5”/648mm
NECK WIDTH 41.3mm at nut, 54mm at 12th fret
NECK DEPTH 20.6mm at 1st fret, 22.2mm at 12th fret
STRING SPACING 54.3mm at bridge, 35.6mm at nut
WEIGHT 3.5kg/7.7lb
FINISHES High-gloss polyester Cobra Burst
(as reviewed), Honey Suckle (roasted maple ’board),
Bougie Burst (rosewood ’board),
Deep Blue Burst (ebony ’board)
LEFT-HANDERS No
CONTACT stringsandthings.co.uk, music-man.com Weapons of choice: the
Music Man humbuckers
are well suited to rock

Plugged in, the in-house humbuckers The in-between positions on the five-way aren’t always a silver bullet for high-gain
aren’t as powerful as the Sabre’s rock- selector offers parallel-wired combinations of playing. Far from a blunt instrument, the
machine aesthetic might suggest and, with the humbuckers’ inner coils (position four) Sabre is a nuanced design that cuts through
a Plexi patch dialled in on our Axe-Fx III, or outer coils (position two). This unlocks with articulation and finesse.
the pickups prove to be voiced perfectly for tremendous tonal variety without a drop in
rock and modern blues. Moving into heavier volume, and the fit-for-funk spank in position A versatile, classy and easy-to-wield
territory with a virtual Diezel VH4, we’re four is enough to make any S-type sweat. 9/10 rhythm and lead machine that justifies
enormously impressed by the way the Sabre The Sabre lives up to its pro billing. Heavy its premium price tag
handles high levels of gain, and the clarity rock players may have to push their preamp
and separation of both overdriven and clean gain harder than usual to unleash aggressive LIKE THIS? TRY THESE…
sounds is exceptional. We’ve rarely heard metal tones, but more and more guitarists PRS Custom 22 £3,459, Suhr Pete Thorn Signature GD £3,299,
better note definition for chordal work. are getting hip to the notion that hot pickups Charvel Govan HSH Flame Signature £3,199

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