Sterling Cutlass - what did I do?

I have the Music Man version, made in California, current #1, fantastic guitar. But I don't know how the Sterling measures up. Will await your report.

 

It's going to be fun.

 

I had whatever was before
“ Sterling” ( OLP?)nice guitar.. zero resale value

 

Not sure about the Cutlass' but on the Andertons show when they were reviewing the Music Man and Sterling versions of the Valentine guitar the implication was that the Sterling was nice enough it almost didn't make sense to buy the Music Man.

 

I've tried a few Sterlings before, including a cutlass and a silo3.

Nothing wrong with them at all, well made and nicely finished for the price, but they just didn't feel right in my hands, if you know what I mean.

 

I bought a new Ibanez AS153 that was about $300 cheaper due to a minor blemish. But I got to see the blemish in photos--
a very, very minor finish blem on the side of this ES-335 style guitar-- where I can see it while playing but no one else can see it.
No big deal at all-- I've made much worse blemishes on guitars myself, sometimes in the first few days of owning them!

So in your case I'm hoping that you are pleasantly surprised at what turns out to be very minor, almost unnoticeable imperfections.

I imagine that if a shop has a new guitar that has some scratches or blemishes on it they have two choices-- sell it as a "second", or
sell it as "used". Depending on the make and model they might make more money selling it as a used guitar instead of selling
it as a "second". Either way these are great deals for the consumer, IMO. You get a perfectly good guitar at a much lower
price and you don't feel as bad when you put your own first scratch or dent on it.

Given that the Chinese are able to make things like iPhones and laptops I don't think it is reasonable in this day and age to assume
that QA/QC on a Chinese built guitar is going to be poor. Of course at a lower price point, no matter where a guitar is manufactured or
assembled, they are not going to give it quite as much TLC when it comes to things like setup because they can't spend as much time on it and
still manage to make a profit. I think that setup is often the key difference that makes a lower price point guitar seem inferior to a higher price point guitar...
i.e., there's nothing much different that a good setup can't fix. Sometimes they use inferior components, too, but not always. And some supposedly inferior
components, like smaller diameter potentiometers, work just fine, anyway.

 

Damn - I didn't know that EBMM had re-worked the Sterling Cutlass to take it downscale.

It's not just the Cutlass; it looks like the Axis, StingRay and Albert Lee (they are only doing the HH version) have been downscaled to the "SUB Series" as well. The Valentines, Luke, St. Vincents and all their JP models do not have the "SUB Series" on the headstock so I'm assuming they have not been downscaled. I am surprised that they downscaled the Albert Lee was downscaled while the other Signature models were not.

 

That is pretty poor on their part - both Sterling/EBMM and MF. They used to have SUB series Silhouettes/Silhouette Specials so I suppose they've decided to move the Cutlass and StingRay down to that level (the Axis has been at that level for a few years). As I mentioned I was surprised to see the Albert Lee was also downgraded while all the other Signature models seem to be at the previous level.

 

They basically have three levels-

Real Music Man
Sterling
Sub series

So they have evidently moved the Cutlass from the middle line to the
bottom.

 

The Sterling Luke LK100 underwent a small downgrade. It was originally designated the LK100D with the "D" representing the fact that it was loaded with Lukather's Signature DiMarzio "Transition" pickups. Sometime last year they began loading it with their own pickups and labeled it the LK100HH and then hyphened one of three suffixes that are finish designators such as "LK100HH-HZB" for Hazelburst. I understand the pickups are the only difference. However, they did lower the price by enough that it isn't a big hike to add on the DiMarzios. I get the feeling they were attempting to make the guitar fit into a more active price range.

Bob

 

If you’re going to go with a different guitar company I’d recommend Yamaha and Ibanez. Everything they make is highly competitive at every price point.

 

I believe you dodged a bullet when you missed out on the G&L. I bought three Tributes, thought they were great when I got them, then I played them quite a bit, and thought they needed for this or that, the more I tinkered (actually my tech) with them the worse they proved to be. Everything on them is proprietary in some way or another, customer service is ZIP. So IMHO you got lucky. I don't bash vendors as a rule, but I'm not happy with G&L and I'm certain they don't care, suits the heck out of me. One less brand on my walls.