NAMM 2024: Among the most significant releases at this year’s NAMM program originated from the Ernie Booth Music Man cubicle, where the long-awaited Rabea Massaad Sabre signature guitar was Debuted after months of anticipation
The guitar is meant to take the traditional Strat-style Sabre design template to brand-new ergonomic and tonal heights and lastly shown up after the Andertons alumni and Stormzy partner exposed a signature remained in the works back in December
Though it’s been one of the most talked-about cooperations of the previous couple of months, it turns out the initial Sabre model came to Massaad as something of a surprise.
“At April NAMM last, I got provided, by my surprise, with a model,” Massaad describes to Guitar World in a brand-new interview. “And it was generally a stock Sabre with a custom-made surface, customized neck sculpt, and it had the spoon cut sculpted in all by hand.
“It was the very first effort at what it might possibly end up being,” he continues. “And they ‘d got a set of my Bare Knuckles and put them in. It was really representative of what it was going to be, however obviously being a stock body, it didn’t have the contouring that wound up being on the last variation.”
As Massaad goes on to describe, it remained in reality the ergonomics of the real guitar that took the most time to best– and, particularly, the neck heel that showed to be the essential consultation that took one of the most improvement.
“I’ve got truly huge chubby hands, and I like 22 fret guitars, and when it’s about getting up to the leading [of the fretboard]this is why I constantly discovered this really beneficial,” Massaad states.
“On the stock Sabres, I ‘d discovered that for me it was rather a great deal of wood there. It wound up being rather troublesome for me to attempt and play licks up here. We did a very first modification, and after that a 2nd modification, and after that it was at that point where I stated to [Ernie Ball engineer] Drew, ‘Do you reckon we could make it any thinner?’
“And he resembled, being that traditional engineer, believing in his head, ‘Structural stability, structural stability … I do not learn about that.'”
His needs to make the neck heel as thin as possible offered Drew headaches over compromising stated structural stability, Massaad was eventually provided a guitar that fit his needs completely.
“He stated it was small, what he really eliminated, however I observed it instantly,” describes the guitar player.
“Yesterday when I was carrying out … there was a lick that, on the previous model, I kept screwing up. I did it very first time the other day, so that small little change made a huge distinction.”
That’s not the only standout consultation to be discovered on the Sabre’s spec sheet. A set of Massaad’s signature Bare Knuckle Silo pickups, wired to an extensive five-way switch and push/pull coil-splits, likewise function.
“The goal,” sums up Massaad. “Was to be as tonally flexible as possible”.
To learn more about each brand-new Sabre design– which will be offered this Spring– head over to Ernie Ball Music Man
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