OLP MM1

OLP MM1 made in China. Mine has a sparkling red body , short neck with 22 frets. Bought it second hand.
Body is Basswood (Linde).
Only one volumecontrol ,with a very small pot inside the body.
3 way switch.
2 zebra pick ups with a lot of output.
Maple? neck with glued maple fretboard.
Tremolo.

Indeed it has a sound on its own. Great sustain thanks to the wood and the pickups. Rich full tone and loud. I use a Fender de Luxe 85 amp.
No noisy at all.

Fretwork well done.

To anyone who has tuningproblems with this guitar, or any other guitar, do this.................
Just screw the nut on each tuner on the headstock a bit tighter with a 10 mm spanner, that's it. Your tuningproblems are gone...........
Most forgotten thing by adjusting your guitar!!!! Wood is shrinking a bit in years so this must be done some time.

I can lower the strings without any problem, no fretbuzz.

This guitar will last many years to come as the hardware will do.
Finish is nice and well done.

Don't know.
OLP's are no longer made from january 2009.

I play for 40+ years now.
Sometimes there are guitars around that won't cost that much and are a great deal for the money. This is one of them.
I would buy it again because they are rather cheap and well built. Prices will definately rise in the near future because it's such a great deal for the money and are no longer made.

I have 3 of these sunburst/black quilt and ginger quilt...after changing the nut for a Tusq/Re-fretting to improve on the chinese 30% champher/replacing volume pot with 500K CTS with .001 capacitor re:Telecaster and setting up properly...all of them are probably the best 'budget' guitars available...the most noticable thing is the sustain from the pickups!...with none of the usual rasp! you usually get with some others...It really should be renamed Musicman!...I cant see any difference except for maybe real quilt maple instead of foto-film...I find it incredible to believe that they have ceased production?...perhaps because they are scared of losing sales of Musicman top priced models eh?...

its very adaptable to all styles...ME70 plus 2 Fender combos in stereo...it isnt noisy in use....hasnt got the classic bite of a fender,but has a sound of its own and is versatile...dont really like the circular back end?...but it grows on you...fantastic value for money?...thats why I've snapped up 3 on Ebay 1st.one was ??85! 2nd.??120! and 3rd.??150!...have you seen the latest rubbish from Fender and its multi-national copies?...I have...I reckon my ??355 for 3 super quality guitars was spent well...

superb...neck is a little bit raw but i have a can of clear laquer and do it myself...pickups were adjusted ok from stock...no problems with the woodwork...except small adjustments used in the factory to clean up the neck slot(could have been resealed and not left raw)...hmmm...the fretting is a bit over champherred...but i refretted all of them to my own liking(I think the fretting champher angle is the only problem) but then any chinese guitar will be the same,someone should tell them about it?

yep!...hardwear is similiar to most guitars cheap or expensive...good finish it will last...strap buttons are better than my fender skinny ones!...My brother uses one of them in his 'full time'Status quo tribute band with no problems!...wot would you use for a back up?...probably another one the same,silly question...

I do my own set-ups and repairs!...these dont need much...OLP are no longer...but no worries

Ive been playing for 45 years!...my other gear is 8 various guitars incl.Gitane Gypsy jazz/5 string bass/7 string guitar/Stringbender albert lee guitar/and the usual strat and tele/88 note electric piano/several different effects me50/me70/Alesis midi-verb/Lexicon delay/Trace elliot bass combo/2 fender 65w combos/behringer 210 (2x60w stereo)digital modelling combo...and a small car!!!

I recently did a setup in one of these and was impressed enough to write a review.
This example is a OLP (Music Man) MM1 guitar.
Basswood body, maple neck with no finish - just oiled, small headstock with 4+2 tuning machines, 2 x zebra buckers, 3 way toggle, single vol control. Vintage style trem.
Clearly this guitar is based upon the ernie ball guitar used by Van halen in the 80s/90s; the body shape and features are very similar save for the Floyd Rose which is replaced by a vintage-style trem.
I believe Floyd models were available at some point; the OLP brand was retired as of 2009.
This one was finished in a candy apple red finish.
Overall the guitar appears solid. It has a good wieght (although it does not balance on your knee!).
Particularly impressed with the feel of the oiled neck - very fast.

I'm reviewing this based upon the post set-up sound.
The sound of this guitar is definately original. Not strat, LP, Tele sounding... I have heard other MM guitars and the OLP MM1 captures that sound very nicely. It has the fullness and compression of a Les Paul, but a little less bassy and more chimey. Very balanced sound.
The humbuckers deliver - I have measured them but they are high output. As stock pickups I can't imagine they are the best in the world but they do a good job.
As I mentioned, clean they are chimey and muscial. They dont turn to mush when pushed through the gain channel of my Laney.
The balance between the pickups is fine.
The single vol control wont suit everyone. Doesnt allow for great tonal variety, but the tones that are produced a solid.

Ok - here's where the main of my critisisms are.
The owner of this guitar asked me to look it over as he was experiencing tuing issues. He bought it second hand, and to his knowledge it still had the factory setup.

By the way I am not a pro tech - but I have learned how to setup my guitars through years of semi-pro playing - I think its good to know how to get the best from your instrument and know how to adjust it to suit your playing.:

The nut on this guitar was terribly cut. The string slots were too deep within the nut, but slots were still too HIGH in relation to the frets!! This combination of excessive nut material and high nut action was causing pinching and intonation problems.

In addition the strings were not ringing from the front of the nut - the guitar would not tune properly.

So the nut was severely screwing up the potential of this instrument. Before adjustment this guitar could not be tuned well enough to be gigged with. After adjustment the guitar sang like an angel. Its very unfair to let guitars out of a factory in this condition. Guitars like this cause countless hours of frustration to players - particuarly beginners who will be buying guitars in this price range.

Prior to the setup this guitar was a nightmare.
However, to its credit, with a setup this guitar is solid and dependable and I would gig without a backup.
I've no idea how old the guitar is - I would estimate between 3 and 4 years. All electonics/mechanics still working fine.
Review marking is based upon post-setup realiability.

n/a. OLP has been retired.

A good solid guitar that I would recommend to beginners and semi-pros without question. Has good looks and great sound even with stock hardware.
Setup recommended though to make this guitarreally shine.
In terms of value for money. At ??149 this guitar is a bargain. Compared to others in its price bracket (e.g. Squier Tele at ??150), the MM1 smokes the competition.
The owner of this guitar managed to acquire it for ??80!! He's pretty chuffed nows its been setup.

This is a follow up review. I've had this guitar for quite a few months now and absolutely LOVE IT! I have kept this guitar "stock" for the most part but did replace the pickup out for a Dimarzio "tone zone" and replaced the volume knob with a steel one. Basic setup; one volume, two pickups, toggle. perfect for my needs.

Sounds amazing with the new Tone Zone pickup. The old one was pretty good but had a slight "twangyness" to it like a Tele or a single coil strat that was annoying after a few days of owning it. I'm running this guitar into a pedal board with a Boss SD-1, MXR Flanger, MXR Phase 90, Digitech Digidelay set for a slight slapback repeat. Amps are a Peavey 5150II and EVH 5150III heads into two cabinets. Also use a Hughes & Kettner Matrix on occasion. Big sounding guitar that remains quiet through my rig. Love it!

After a few months of lowering/raising the action I've got it set to a nice height. Medium seems to work best with this guitar for me as opposed to ultra-low like I'm used to. The frets make it really easy to play so it's not necessary to have the action low IMO. I love how the stock bridge sounds. Lots of bottom end that you don't get with a floyd rose. I will never change this bridge unless it breaks or stops functioning correctly.

I recently road tested this guitar and took it to Parker, AZ for 6 outdoor shows in 90 degree heat near the river.. This was a perfect opportunity for me to see how well it worked under "not so good" conditions. The last time I played Parker my Washburn Idol kept going out of tune.. so I figured why not give the OLP MM1 a shot. At first I had a few tuning issues after the first song but after I re-tuned the MM1 outside (which I should've done to begin with) it stayed perfectly in tune throughout the entire weekend's six shows. I didn't bring a backup guitar so that it would force myself into giving a true test and this baby passed with flying colors... It's hard to get a nice full souond outdoors to begin with but I had no problem dialing in a great sound.. Although, having great amps helped. I never usually do a gig without a backup guitar but it would'nt bother me if I forgot to bring a spare. The MM1 kills! and I'm glad I own one.

Haven't needed them yet, probably won't.

Been playing for 30 some odd years. I also own a Peavey Wolfgang, Washburn Idol, Peal acoustic. I'm looking to buy another MM1 in the future. Great guitar! Check out my music at;

http://myspace.com/nicolari

Don't know when it was made, sorry! Basswood body with Maple veneer top, unfinished maple neck, single volume control, two humbucker/three position selector. Vintage trem that I will never use, so I blocked it! I actually have two, one red and one trans-orange.

I use these through a Peavey Valveking 112 with probably too much processing gear. The stock pickups were far better than I anticipated. I bought a set of DiMarzio Breed for one of them, but I may put them on E-Bay. Neck is quite powerful with decent sustain and harmonics. Neck is kinda like a PAF Pro, but not quite as good sounding.

Guitars were both bought off Ebay and were setup and taken care of by two guys who knew their stuff. Great low action with no buzz at all. I like how the pickups are mounted directly to the body. The neck on this guitar rivals that of a much more expensive guitar.

I don't gig, so these guitars are just great for me. I think you could use them regularly with some regular upkeep and care.

Never needed, and they don't make these anymore.

I've been playing for about 10 years, the last three very seriously. These are not the EBMM Axis guitars by any means, but they are outstanding for the money. Mine seem well built and sound pretty darn good stock. If lost or stolen I would be angry, because they don't make'em anymore as stated above. They will not replace my more expensive Ibanez's and Fender, but are none the less allot of fun to play. Definetly worth grabbing if you get the chance.

Transparent gold film top, single cut away, vintage strat bridge, standard tuners, 22 medium jumbo frets, neck relief tools and cable included, 2007, 3 way selector switch, and one volume knob, 2 humbuckers OEM, basswood body

Solid rock sound, has a fat tone to it, good for most genre's of music. Use a Vox XL modeling amp, and Fender Bullet 150 for practice. Very quiet guitar, Rich sound, could be a little brighter. This guitar is very agile and can pull off any sound a hardtail can. The bridge tremolo feature will throw the guitar out of tune. This can be fixed by installing a floyd rose system or a wilkinson bridge. The guitar's neck to body fit is outstanding, great alignment, and the fret work is good. Drawbacks are the pickups elevations cannot be adjusted as they are directly mounted to the body. You would have to shim under the pickups to raise, or route the body cavity deeper to adjust pickup elevation. This affects your adjustments for string action above the fret board. Minimum string action cannot be obtained as the strings will engage the pickups. Still adjusted action to a happy medium, could be lower though if this were fixed.

The guitar set up was ok, it was set high. The pickup selector switch seems bent and of poor quality. It works but I will change this out with a better switch.

With the exception of the selector switch and bridge, the guitar is a sound investment. The tuners will last and the bridge will be ok as long as I don't use the tremolo arm. I have had this guitar a month now and it stays in tune very well. The finish is well done, nice looking guitar. Strap buttons are standard and solid. I have practiced with this guitar twice, so it seems like it will do. I wouldn't use this guitar without a backup. But then again I wouldn't gig without a backup regardless of the make of guitar.

Haven't used company support yet.

I have been playing for 25 years, and own a Strat and a Les Paul. Each have thier own unique sound. I did alot of research on this particular model and knew what I was getting. This is a solid guitar you can upgraded and feel comfortable with. Great neck and pickups. The rest can be fitted with higher quality components. I would buy this guitar if lost or stolen again. I have compared this guitar to Epi LP-100's and Fender Squieres. It has a better quality in regards to neck and body fit. Stays in tune alot better. For a low budget you cannot do much better. I wish this guitar was made with a tunamatic bridge. I wanted a brown sound to play with and this guitar does that. It has a sound in between a Strat and Les paul. I bought this guitar over the web, so I feel real lucky I didn't get a lemon.

This is a follow up to my previous review.. I have since added a Dimarzio "Tone Zone" pickup in the bridge position to my OLP MM1 guitar. It now sounds just as good, if not better than my Peavey Wolfgang guitar. I a/b'd both guitars after the installation of the Tone Zone PU.. The Peavey is tighter and less distorted, the OLP is richer, fuller and fatter with the exact same amount of mids as the Wolfie pickup.. I am very happy with the OLP. A great guitar for the money and only a few extras made this as good as a $1,800 guitar.

This is quilt film top colored in a beautiful trans red MM1 which comes with a vintage trem. The body is basically a musicman Axis exact copy. The body is light thanks to its basswood material.

It comes with die cast sealed chrome tuners (changed to sperzel locking tuners, more details ahead...).

The Neck is maple with maple fingerboard and it's a 25.5 scale neck.
The frets look like a medium jumbo to me. The neck radius is flat comparing to musicman's neck profile... I've tried these...
The fretboard has 22 frets which was part of the reason for the purchase. I don't like 24 fret guitars...

The guitar came with tools like a rod which can be used to adjust the neck and it came with a instrument cable and a trem arm.

I have no idea when it was made, I can probably inquire the company and find out... don't mind really, it's made in China like most products that you buy these days...

The controls are really basic: just your typical volume knob and a 3 way toggle switch. 2 direct mount humbuckers which to my opinion are extremely surprising pickups, I actually put them back on the guitar after many pickup replacments I've tried, later on that...

These are passive pickups with extremely high resistance around the 18K, I've measured it. Also it uses ceramic magents.

To be honest, as I write this review I have doubts about keeping this guitar and I'll try to explain later why...

This guitar has a really full sound thanks to its really good pickups, and it's very well balanced, it gives a really sweet round and clean distorted tones, which is a part of why on the other hand I have second thoughts about it, I miss this dirt in the sound you have on Les Pauls and strats... but it's much more comfortable guitar to play than those I've just mentioned to my opinion.

To my surprise the pickups are extremely quiet! It's so great!
I did make modifications like rewiring the components using high degree materials and it changed the sound actually, made it quieter and much more detailed.

This guitar can pretty much nail obviously the Van Halen era, not much the 80's metal genre though, and it can definitely play as fun as a Les Paul without the weight hassle...

So you don't get bells and whistles here, but you get an extremely good guitar which is worth every dime I paid for it.

I wish it had a middle single coil pickup for versatility and a tone knob for more jazzy tones... this is a straight rock guitar.

It will definitely nail those Petrucci tones, which is also a part of the reason why I think to part ways with it, I'm tired of that tone...

The guitar now sounds bright, round, punchy, detailed, too clean to my opinion and not enough character for bluesier tones and styles.

I made so many pickup changes: Dimarzios, even active EMG's and got back to the original pickups, that's how good they are to my opinion.
No other pickup actually changed the character of the guitar to my disappointment and I begin to feel a need for another guitar.

The tremolo which I'll talk about later really changed the sound of the guitar, the stock trem was really bad actually, impossible to maintain tunning and it made the guitar sound cheap.

The amp that I use is a Peavey delta blues 210... I didn't feel need to mention the gear and all because I don't find it relevant, I will tell you that I use a pedal board that goes to a clean channel on the amp, my sound is basically a lot of 80's metal and saturated distortion sounds for lead, think Satch and alike...

The setup was non existing, I naturally set it up to my liking so I don't give score here.

The pickups cannot be adjusted actually as they're direct mount, the only way would be to put some washers and screw it back in to gain more height but that's about it.

The bridge, well, it's a story.. the stock one is really bad. Not properly installed and low quality materials... it made the guitar sound dark, and cheap. I installed a wilkinson VS100G instead and it made things much more different. a stock MM1 would get a 5, modified gets an 8

Other than that, all was well from the start, the components, The assembly and great fret job!

The stock tuners were replaced for sperzel locking tuners, as I really wanted to make things easier and better for me, it works...

It will withstand live playing, it already did :) I replaced the strap buttons to strap locks, I never play without them.

The finish is good enough and it will definitely last, it does have scratches on it but it still looks awesome!

Can I depend on it? yes, do I want to depend on it? good question...

I never use just one guitar live, I always use backup so this question is irrelevant.

As I said there were modifications made to make it better.

1. the stock trem which was terrible got replaced with a wilkinson vs100g, the gotoh version... It's fantastic!

2. Sperzel locking tuners... great tuners!

As for the company they always replied my mails so I credit them for that...

I've been playing for the past 5 years, but I'm a musician for my entire lifetime, I have many skills that I use, I'm a sound engineer, a musical arranger and producer, I have another electric guitar, acoustic and a piano, and a home studio...

I have a pedalboard with too many pedals, and a Peavey Delta Blues 210 combo tube amplifier...

To be honest I wasn't even supposed to buy this guitar, it wasn't part of the plan but it just happened... so I cherished the moments with it... I really think it's time to let it go...

I didn't compare it with other guitars, I don't use this method unless we're talking about a life time decision which it definitely wasn't and financially it was dumb purchase, I'm not in a great financial condition at all... but I have this disease of buying guitars all the time...

I don't think there's anything to change about it, this guitar is exactly what it should be, a well worth the money and incredible quality for the price, and it can definitely be used with more professional applications, totally...

The thing I liked about it most is the neck profile, it's comfortable, my taste as far as sound goes changed obviously, I'd never imagine of letting it go if that wasn't the cause.

If it was stolen, I wouldn't buy it again because I don't believe this is the guitar of my dreams, I don't think I have one actually...

I just got my transparent blk MM1 today. Standard trem, hard mounted custom pickups, one volume knob, 3-way toggle switch, 22 frets. Package came with allen wrench for saddle adjustments, trem bar, instrument cable, truss rod wrench. I didn't give it a ten because the features are simplified... A ten for my needs but someone else might like a tone control.

I own a Peavey Wolfgang guitar after setting the OLP MM1 up to my needs I A/B'd it through my new EVH (Fender-made) 5150 III amp head and cab. First I played my trusty Wolfgang through the 5150 III head for several minutes, then I plugged the OLP into the head. To my amazement it sounded nearly identical. What a surprise! The OLP had a tad bit more high end and was a bit brighter. The low end was there as well and the "tight" chunck was the same as my Wolfy. Very quiet guitar and well worth every penny I paid for it. I'm thinking of getting a few more in different colors. What a great sounding guitar! Better than any other guitar I've heard in it's price range. Infact it's close to my $1,800 Wolfgang.

Out of the box the action was a bit high.. Nothing a few minutes of tweaking didn't fix. After my adjusting it plays beautifully.. I set the action very low and had to lower the pickups a hair so the strings wouldn't connect with them. The photo finish looks great. I wouldn't have known it was a photo had I not read about it. My only complaint is that the trans black looks a tad greenish.. Still looks nice but I expected a darker black. No biggie, I like it and I already have many black guitars. Ha!
I had to loosen the plastic toggle cover so that the switch would function properly and not jog into the middle position on it's own. No biggie. I have several expensive guitars; Ed Roman Rockingbird, B.C. Rich Mockingbirds, Ironbirds, Washburn Idol, Peavey Wolfgang and the OLP holds it's own. Plays as well as my others and sounds great. Much better than my stock B.C. Riches sounded before I modded them. The MM1 is a killer stock guitar and with a few tweaks is amazing. I changed out the white volume knob and installed a steel black knob only because I like the way they feel.

The neck is solid, great construction. My guess would be you could beat the living crap out of it and it would still play nice and stay in tune. I changed the strap buttons to strap locks because I plan on playing it live onstage. I usually bring a backup guitar but if this thing passes my "string break" test I wouldn't have a problem bringing to a gig without another guitar as backup.
String Test; every new guitar I get I change the strings to Ernie Ball 9-42 gauge and don't change them until one pops. This gives me an idea how long it takes.

Haven't dealt with them and probably won't need to.

I've been playing 35 years and have played in many touring acts beginning in 1988. I love how the MM1 plays and sounds. At a price like this you can afford to collect different colors and styles. I compared this guitar with my higher priced guitars. Stellar construction and sound. I'm gonna get a few more! Hats off to OLP! Johnny Roxx
http://myspace.com/nicolari

It has a pretty paint job and that is about ALL! I bought this because of the reviews. I was wondering did all of these reviews come from retails store because the guitar isn't anything like the reviews.

The pickup are as thin as a piece of paper- they got heart. I suspect the rosewood neck didn't help anything either.

I play thru a crate amp with lots of effects and nothing sounds that good with this guitar. The guitar is very bright.

let me say for the money a Squier 51 IS A MUCH BETTER GUITAR. I told myself I'd never every buy a squier again but this one is part of their master series and it has some heart and soul along with some guts too.

Guitar seems to be made well apart from inferior materials (basswood body)

the finish is pretty and the neck is OK as far as being comfortable.

no comment

been playing bass and guitar for 4 yrs. If stolen I'd only be sad about the money I spent on it as far as missing the guitar not at all.