NGD - Chapman ML-1 (Andertons in the UK)

[rjwilson37]

I received my guitar today, the ML1 Natural Finish and it is a stellar guitar. It is heavier than I thought it would be, which is not a bad thing, but according to Rob it is like half the weight of the original ML1, which would make the original ML1 a very heavy guitar I'm thinking. The guitar is very solid and just needed some slight adjusting to make it right.


First off, My low E string was buzzing a little, so I had to raise it a little and give the neck just a little bit more relief. I like a medium action, not to high but not to low, I guess it is hard to explain, but I like to be able to bend strings easily without running into other strings. I may be able to adjust the strings a little lower, but heck... it is playing pretty nicely for me right now.


I will put some clips out here a little bit later, I have to get back to work. I played it a little bit acoustically before, during and after adjusting it, but have not plugged it into any of my amps yet.

 

[RaSTuS26]

That's a nice plank of wood, glad it's a player, hope the sonics do it for you too, congrats and HNGD.

 

[__HM__]

I love the guitars Rob comes up with.

HNGD!

 

[Trea]

That looks really nice. Congrats on the new guitar!

 

[Buddy62]

Sweet NGD! - I have my order in now for one in the next batch according to A's. Not sure what to expect, but I went for it..Looking forward to your clips/thoughts once you get some time with it. Thanks

 

[Kezman]

Congrats!
That thing looks tight!!

 

[upl8tr]

HNGD! Very nice!

 

[calvin1]

Hngd.

 

[rjwilson37]

Thanks everyone!

I had to put the 3rd spring for the tremolo back in it, palm muting was causing it to go flat and a little wacky depending on how much my palm was riding on the bridge.

I will defintely get some clips out here after I adjust some presets, since these pups and guitar sound a bit different than my other guitars.

 

[jay1williams]

Damn gorgeous fiddle!!! Congrats!!!!

 

[Zack]

Does anyone know what sort of mahogany is used? nato? or real mahogany?

 

[Farquad]

HNGD! I like the clean look of the Chapmans. Congrats

Does anyone know what sort of mahogany is used? nato? or real mahogany?

This is just a guess, but the banding make me think its Sapele.

 

[Kungphugrip]

Hngd!

 

[Woderwick]

Like it . Hngd

 

[geddy]

Nice guitar. After seeing this thread I took a glance at the Andertons website. The ML2 and ML3 look good too. I was particularly taken by the cherry ML3. Next time I'm down there will have to look if they have any to try.

 

[HOT-BRIT]

congrats

 

[Kalamazuu]

Nice man! How was shipping from the UK?
And where in MI are you?
I like the simplicity of it, I wouldn't mind having something like that around myself.

 

[rjwilson37]

Nice man! How was shipping from the UK?
And where in MI are you?
I like the simplicity of it, I wouldn't mind having something like that around myself.

It cost like $513 which includes shipping, and then I paid UPS a $47.54 duty and handling fee when they delivered it to my house. I live in Greenville, MI which is near Grand Rapids, and I got it in 3 days which is a quicker delivery than I get from GC or MF. Here is the link for USA orders, the next batch of ML-1's ship May 1st it looks like.

Chapman USA Order Form | Andertons

 

[rjwilson37]

Ok, I like Van Halen and wanted a guitar that could play Van Halen, wammy the shit out of it if I wanted to and go to Drop D tuning easily when ever I want to. Two things I did not want in a Super Strat, were that I did not want an Alder or Basswood body, and I did not want a Floyd Rose. I wanted a mahogany body and a tremolo that would stay in tune after using the wammy or even just bending the G string and not having to hit the trem to put it back in tune. Thank goodness I found the ML-1 Re-Issue back in November, because I almost went with the Meanstreet Guitars brand.

I have been messing around with my ML-1 all weekend, and I am liking it a lot. Here is a small mix of a few Van Halen tunes thru my Blackstar HT-5RH Emulated Output.

http://www.rj-zero.com/misc/guitars/soundclips/chapml1vanhalen_20130331.mp3

 

[RaSTuS26]

The first time I tried to follow the link it unceremoniously dumped me out of my KDE session, closing all my apps and work in the process, I wasn't too happy to say the least. But after logging back in I decided to download from the link rather than trying to open it, and only just got around to listening back to the file. Gotta say the ML-1 seemed to perform very well, was kinda weird listening to this in isolation without a backing track, plenty of raunchy chord work and the finer points such as pinch harmonics, tapping and hammering etc came through very well, nicely played too, colour me impressed.