Ibanez MMM1 Mike Mushok Baritone

The CRUNCHIEST Baritone I have ever played and I've owned many.

TONE on this is incredible, easily the best sounding baritone as compared to all these others that I have owned:
- Schec Scorp gloss black
- Schec Scorp flat black (these 2 have Scorps have different pups)
- Schec A-5X 5-string (this does have good pups btw)
- ESP Viper VB-300 (EMG HZ's flat out suck, but the afterburner kicks ass and can be left in there when you upgrade pups, I put in Iommis and now my Viper kicks; but still the Mushok's tone is better).

Note: I've OWNED all those, (still own 2 Vipers), not just played them in a store, and IMO the Mushok has better sound than any of them even after the pup upgrade to Iommis in one Viper (other Viper I put EMG81s, yes it sounds good but it's tonally #3 of these 3 baritones I now own).

(shaking my head, wtf) I cannot believe that tone/sound is the one thing the other reviewer whined about; I guess he just uses a really crappy amp(?)

Features:

I won't bore you with what you can read online; what I found when getting the guitar that wasn't clear from online specs is this:

- toggle is a 3-way, I prefer this over 5-ways which are difficult to "land" on the right position mid-song.

- this bridge seems like a cool design; haven't messed with it; this guitar actually came from Mus.Frnd completely intonated, truss-adjusted, etc. all in good playing setup/shape, all I did was tune up just a bit.

- no case but the price is SO low for the quality of the guitar (more on that later), the important thing to know is despite being a long neck, the neck is set into the body further than a Strat --this means the overall length of the guitar is the same as a Strat and this Mushok fits in any standard rectangular Strat case (I've tried it).

- neck binding(!), I personally always want this feature and hate to do without it.

- with the almost non-finish finish (I guess it's just an oil stain?) you can clearly see all pieces of wood in the guitar, and there are only 5: 2 flanks, and a 3-piece neck-thru.



If you are doing Staind covers (we do about 4) then this guitar is obviously perfect for that; if you don't get this guitar but are playing Staind then I suggest you use it's tuning,
low to high: A-D-A-D-G-B.
guages: .074, .056, .040, .030, .017, .014


The odd tuning causes you to automatically start writing new riffs, whether this guitar or not you should really try some odd tunings to cause you to write new stuff.



I hate this harmony-central field for features numeric rating because a "10" = "tons of features" and that's not what it's about IMO,
to me the question is does this item have the RIGHT features for what it's intended purpose is;
for that reason I give it a 10, this excels on exactly what it's aimed at doing, and its simplicity (just like a Telecaster) is part of what makes it exactly right for it's purpose.

The crunchiest baritone I've ever played, the sound is excellent everywhere from mild OD to heavy fuzz and all points inbetween. Palm mute your ass off with this guitar!

Neck & bridge pups are far apart, I am convinced this creates much better tone for middle-toggle positions; look at a Strat vs. a Tele and you'll see why a Tele has such a special tone. Look at a Les Paul vs. many 24-fret 2-humbeed guitars and you'll see why the LP sounds better, the 24fret guitars get no good sound in the middle because they pushed the neck pup too close to the bridge in order to accommodate 24frets, and thus ruin the middle and neck tones.

The pups in this Mushok are something SPECIAL(!!). They nail Staind to a tee; they also nail several other low-tuned bands like Deftones, SOAD's crunch which is some of the best crunch out there, and other bands.

Excellent! and surprisingly well setup for a mail-order purchase. Everything on the guitar is tight and well-put-together.

seems built like a rock.

dunno, all my Ibanez gear has never failed, I've never contacted support in using their stuff since 1980.

At a time when many other "rock stars" are setting their sig guitars at prices over 3 grand (Iommi, the newer JoePerry, even the Ibanez Scofield, etc. etc.) I think very highly of Mike Mushok because I read he insisted the price of this guitar be in-line with what a younger person can afford.

A sincere THANK YOU to Mike Mushok for this.

This guitar in terms of quality & tone is worth a lot more than it costs. If you only buy 1 baritone I highly recommend this one; if you buy 2 I'd recommend the ESP VB-300 2ndly but you will need to upgrade pups -- I put Iommis in mine and kept the afterburner and that rocks. But the Mushok's tone is better still, and the 28" scale totally kicks for such low tunings. (we keep the VB tuned up, C-to-C, for Soad and Godsmack).

Brand new off the line, this just hit stores this week I think. 22 frets, mahogany body with neck-through, 28 inch scale for low tunings, volume, tone, 2 humbuckers w/ 3 way selector, string-through body, matte finish.
I gave a 9 because I like the simplicity of the features.

In my band I play a sort of modern rock I guess, Dave Matthews meets U2 with big guitars. At church I play contemporary Gospel and rock. I play it through a Line 6 Flextone III, 60watt 1x12. I also play a Parker Fly Classic. Let's just say you pay for tone! I can plug my Parker into almost anything and dial in a good tone in seconds. I am having to work harder at getting the tone I like with the Ibanez. But nonetheless it is possible to get great tone out of it, you just have to sit in front of your amp for a while. Also, the pickup selector doesn't seem to give a wide variety of tones. Hence the 7.

The action is a little high, but that's an easy fix. Everything else seems to be pretty tight and smooth. The matte finish and the overall look of the guitar is why I bought it, it's really cool!

This thing is a tank. Compared to my Parker it is a brick around my neck! Although I've only had it a short while, I can't imagine anything going wrong. Very solid heavy wood, and tightly constructed.

Haven't dealt with Ibanez.

So far I love this guitar, although the baritone tuning takes some getting used to. I'm not into the whole nu-metal thing, so I'm trying to avoid using this to pound out power chords for the teenagers. I'm using it to do more melodic single note stuff and a few huge chords here and there. This guitar is worth it just to set up in my room and look at.