Manne Taos Standard Flame

All maple guitars, no matter the designer, have nasal tone with bonky lows and 'quacky' mids.

You wrote "Prince uses all maple guitars and he is God". I got news 4 U, most of Prince's stuff is recorded with a Fender telecaster. Those are maple neck guitars with ASH bodies. Life he plays these essoteric semi-hollow Auerswald things - but who cares. He doesn't record with them. Maple sounds like crap. It is like a band-pass filter. All-mahogany guitars sound best - with good (not dark) pickups. Their harmonics are well sorted out. I think Maple gained favor in guitar building because it is very strong and very cheap. It is a horrible tone wood. It has no tone - only 'snarl'. It cuts the rest out. It does not resonate easily and vibrate with what it's given. It excites at it's particular 'snarl' frequencies and that's all you get. The only time all-maple sounds OK is if you play very carefully to avoid any 'twang' because it twangs absurdly, and if you also use flatwound strings and special EQ and tube stuff - it's basically a joke. I HATE MAPLE! :P I spent so much of my life trying different guitars only to discover all U really need is an all-mahogany instrument. Wherever mahogany goes, good tones follow. Don't destroy your mahogany tone by mixing it with maple!!! Not anywhere - not a maple top, maple neck - just let the maple grow and maybe use it for furniture or something - NOT instruments!!! It's time to stop the madness :D I should start a web site www.maplesux.com or something LOL

Made in 2003, either in Italy or somewhere else in Europe. I've been told it's a prototype, with the unusual distinction of being solid flame maple. The body is an offset double cutaway with a dramatic upper horn and a small lower horn. There is no heel. The serial number says that it is the 341st instrument built the entire year of '03. Small production = good. The entire body is two pieces of solid bookmatched flamed maple. Not a maple cap, solid flamed maple with tight tiger stripes. The neck is flamed maple, with a phenolic fretboard(I thought it was ebony at first), w/o inlays(good). the finish is a cherryburst high-gloss finish. The scratchplate has 3 custom Manne rails humbuckers with a 5 way toggle switch and a coil splitter. With the coil splitter, you can put all coils in single mode like a strat, and turn into humbucking, and the other position can get you the outside coils. 1 volume, 1 tone control. Manne tremolo and tuners. The only way a guitar can get a 10 in features from me is if I was in the room designing it with the luthier. With the tonal capabilities and the quality materials and construction, this is as close as it gets. Came with a nice gig bag, but will buy a flight case that can fit it's strange dimensions.

I was initially afraid that the all-maple construction would be very shrill through an amplifier, but it wasn't the case. I play my own original music. I plan to destroy happy pop-punk and rap-rock nu-metal. This will be one of my main weapons. While this guitar seems suited to be a shredders guitar, I don't shred(not all the time anyway). I play plenty of dissonant jazz chords in a rock setting. Think Shudder To Think or Jawbox. I played a Les Paul Custom for 8 years, but now, it doesn't suit the style with the ugly chords I use. The brilliance of the Taos let's everything cut through; nothing gets muddy, even with the most complicated chords with the highest gain settings. I'm using Mesa Boogie amps currently. The Humbucker mode is what I use mostly, and it rocks very hard, but retains an enormous amount of attack and bite. Not shrill at all; the pickups must be specially voiced for the all-maple construction. This mode doesn't sound like a cross between anything. it's brilliant and is damn-near perfect for at least the kind of style I play. The second setting is when the coils are split into single coils. It sounds like a freakin Strat to the T. Better than my friends American Standard Strat. Clucky and crisp, it's clean and clear for some Earth Wind and Fire type of stuff that I play to warm up. I've never liked Strats, but this thing out-Strats any American Strat. The middle mode is quite nice and I use it for clean, traditional jazz playing. It's rich and warm and doesn't have that farty sound a lot of other guitars have. It only breaks up when I want it to. The whole thing is very responsive to how I play, in any position. Lots of variety here. For the variet, it gets a 10. I never give 10s unless something is absolutely dead on.

The whole thing is solid flamed maple, and was bookmatched perfectly. Must've been a real pain in the ass, considering the density of maple. It is a choice piece of wood. There are no stuctural flaws whatsoever, otherwise, I wouldn't have bought it. The high-gloss finish is top-notch and similar to the "dipped-in-glass" look of my Hamer Artist Custom. There is no noise in any pickup configuration, and no scratching pots or any loose hardware. The only thing that was there was a little tiny, tiny nick in the phenolic fretboard. I don't care about it though, it doesnt reflect the quality of this guitar. it gives an already rare guitar even more character, without plastering stickers all over it.

I'll leave the rating blank until I straight up play it live a lot. I do have complete and utter faith in the guitar though. I mean, it's solid maple. It's indestructible. It's beautiful and rare, but it's a workhorse and I wouldn't think twice about taking it out to a gig. I'd take another guitar just in case as a string breaks. This is probably the first time I got a beautiful and rare guitar that I wouldn't be afraid to play live. The stage and on the road is where it belongs. To not play it would be a waste of a world class instrument.

Wow. I dealt with 4 great people over the purchase of this guitar. First, I got the guitar from Michael Ferrucci and his friend Roger down at Fine Fretted Instruments in Livermore California. These guys were a pleasure to deal with! I'll defnitley be coming back there. I should give him a 10 just for knowing what a Manne guitar is! Let alone carrying one...they gave me a free strap, Black Diamond strings, and Schaller straplocks with the guitar for free. I felt no pressure from the store. there are some really shitty guitar stores that snub you if they think you won't buy one(Music Unlimited in Dublin, CA SUCKS!), or treat you like sheep(Guitar Center), or are pushy(Music Unlimited SUCKS). I will ALWAYS give bad press to people who fuck me over, and good press to those who have been awesome. So don't screw with me. These guys introduced me to the entire store crew, and we just shot the shit like old friends. No mention of "wanna buy it" ever popped up. I jammed on it for an hour and was sold. These guys know how to run a business. Secondly, Richard Davidow, the U.S. distributor of Manne guitars responded to an email withing hours. Answered some technical questions, and so forth. He's cool just for taking Manne to the States. Lastly, Andrea "Manne" Ballarin, the mastermind himself. This guy responded to an email in a day, and was genuinely happy to see an impressed customer. Best customer service experience ever.

This is a world class instrument built in small quanities. I love the body style; a mix of sleek modern design with classic elements, never being an outright clone. The quality is as good as you could ever get, especially for that price. The sound is unique, all-maple, and very punchy and clear. This is ok, because Prince uses all maple guitars and he is God. And it suits my unique style just fine. There are currently 3 big names out there in the guitar world. Fender Gibson and PRS. Good guitars, but why buy somethng that everyone else can have? Shit, Gibson and PRS will charge you $500 for a maple top with extra figure. Who the hell makes an all flamed-maple solid body? Nobody has a Manne guitar around here, let alone an all-maple one. I don't mean to soud pretentious, but i have my own style, so I figured, why not have my own guitar? The only thing better would be to have a custom-made Manne just for me. It might be a little expensive, but I wouldn't rule it out. I consider Mike and Roger from Fretted Friends, Richard from Atlanta, and Andrea Ballarin himself friends of mine already. I don't believe there is a perfect guitar, otherwise there would be no fun in collecting them. But for VALUE, this thing is awesome. Quality, versatility, good people, and NOT EVERYONE HAS ONE. I've emulated my heroes in the past, now I'm going to carve my own niche and kill all the happy pop-punkers and nu-metalers.