This is a review of the original Chapman Guitars ML-2, which was released as a limited run of 250 units worldwide. This is not a review of the since re-released model now available from Andertons Music. If you want to know more about that then I recommend watching this video on Rob's Youtube channel.
Chapman Guitars is a guitar company based in the UK, run by Rob Chapman (of YouTube fame), who makes limited run guitars based around the principle of collaborative design. They also offer a custom shop design fulfilled by Jaden Rose, in the form of their Explorer shaped Ghost Fret.The ML-2 is the most recent guitar to come out of Rob Chapman's company. The guitar was collaboratively designed by votes cast by his YouTube followers and members of his forum. The design of the guitar was prototyped by Jaden Rose, but copied and built en masse in a factory in China.
The breakdown of the votes can still be seen on the Chapman Guitars ML-2 votes page. With over 1000 voters per decision, the community made the following design choices:
- Cost around £350 to £450 (GBP)
- Single Cut body shape (think Les Paul)
- 25" Scale length
- Golden wax finish
- 2x Volume, 1x Tone pots
- String through body bridge
- 3 a-side square headstock
- Small body style
- Glue in neck
- 24 frets
The basis for a pretty nice guitar, but there's more. Outside of that impressive specification list there are a couple of additional features to take note of.
Firstly that the fretboard is carved in ebony, which as a fretboard wood is only really found on high end, expensive guitars. It's a very hard wearing wood, and will probably never wear out. Tonally, ebony can give the guitar added brightness and feels slick under the fingers due to it's high density. You also get a bone nut and set of 18:1 Grover tuners at the top.
The body has a simple, premium look to it with a beautifully carved cutaway for the fretting hand and on the rear for the body curve. This body is a split two piece mahogany construction. With routing front and back for twin humbuckers, and the associated electronics. The rear control routing has been designed with various mods and circuits in mind, such as EMG's and the associated active pre-amp circuit with a 9v battery.
Rob has always said he is making guitars for the people and so, instead of fitting any one of the hundreds of expensive branded pickups, all we get here are a set of ultra low cost Chinese factory made humbuckers. I'm fairly sure I heard someone say that they cost about 50p each on the scale that they get made. This decision is made because there is such huge variation in power output and tonal nuance available in pickups. So, rather than get a set custom wound to the average taste of the clientèle, they went with these, which is fine with the design ethic in mind.
Build Quality
The first thing I noticed about this guitar, out of the box, was the weight. A bit heavier than my Fender Mex Strat, and about twice the weight of my Ibanez SV5470 (but that guitar ways pretty much nothing). This additional body mass really helps those, through body, strings resonate; and unplugged it's a loud guitar. The machine work on the cutaways is a very high standard and the overall quality of the finish is really impressive.
The neck is really nicely finished, nearly as silky as the satin finish on my Ibanez Prestige, but the ML-2 has more of a light wax finish, which means you can feel the grain of the wood on your fingers a little more. The fretwork, which gets the Andertons treatment before shipping, is really nice. No sharp edges to catch your fingers on and the frets are smooth and level. The set up out of the box was generally good too, a little higher than my usual, but it's ok and I've still not gotten round to changing it...
Playability
As I mentioned, the neck is nicely finished. It's described on the Chapman Guitars page as being a "thin C contour". To put that in terms of my experience, it feels a bit thinner than my Strat, but with a wider and flatter board, nearer to that of my Ibanez. The ebony used as the fretboard material is very nice. This is my first guitar with one and you can really feel how much harder it is than rosewood or maple. It seems to make every note fretted feel more responsive and direct. The light wax finish on the back of the neck is really sweet too. It's become my preference over the years as I've found gloss necks stick to my hands. This makes for comfortable traversal of the neck as I'm playing. The low profile neck join and the deep cutaway makes access to the high register frets really comfortable and simply adds to the general feeling of pleasure I get while I'm playing it.
Sounds
Those cheap default pickups which are installed as standard are not amazing, but, in all honesty though, they sound far better than they have any right to, and certainly not 1/180th the quality of the DiMarzio or Seymour Duncan pups you might get fitted later. pretty hot and capable of decent overdriven and distortion sounds, but really fall a bit flat in the clean department. The tonality at the extreme ends of the guitars overall range is lacking some of that magical warmth and air you get with some high end pickups. Overall not an unpleasant sound by far, but one which probably doesn't showcase this guitars basic tonal characteristics to the full.
Verdict
As a £350 GBP base model you really get a lot of value in the sheer quality of the raw materials, combined with a high quality factory build, sustain for days and very natural playability. Then stick a set of your favourite pickups in there and you'll have a really exceptional guitar probably worth double that of the original outlay; especially when you compare it to other brands ranges. With it being limited to a run of 250 right handers and, I think, 50 leftys it's gonna stand out from all of those Les Pauls and Strats on the road.
But alas it is sold out, as it would be... and I think it's going to be difficult to pry one of these out of the hands of any of the current owners, me included.
Related Links:
Chapman Guitars
Jaden Rose Guitars
Andertons Music
Rob Chapman's YouTube
But alas it is sold out, as it would be... and I think it's going to be difficult to pry one of these out of the hands of any of the current owners, me included.
Related Links:
Chapman Guitars
Jaden Rose Guitars
Andertons Music
Rob Chapman's YouTube
