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Justaguyin_nc
October 15th, 2006, 06:47 AM
Project: OLP John Petrucci Signature Model

Well, I been wanting a strat-type double Humbucker guitar for sometime. I just didn't want to let go the money for one. Keeping with my cheapness as most on this forum do, I finally broke it down to which guitar to get and start turning it into a good feeling, sounding guitar. From the reviews I have read , it seems I am getting a Neck and a Body but not much else. This is known before purchase and is what I "think" I want. The body shape is that of a strat with contours around the horns, which to me look excellent and deeper cut on the armrest area. I have always liked the looks of the music-man guitars but knew they had a price tag to go along with them. The 25 1/2 scale should feel right at home with the strat feel..OLP was my only choice price wise. I want to get some pull/push pots for this guitar
(Hopefully DVM or another wiring guru will help out here) and a set of Dimarzio pickups. The guitar has 1 3-way switch, a tone and a volume pot to share between the two pickups.. After reading alot about the pickups, it seems a Air Norton is a definate for the neck and I am leaning towards the ToneZone for the bridge. (comments and suggestions appreciated).. I will also be changing out the tuners if they are as crappy as most state.. although some have said they are locking tuners and people just don't know how to wind their strings thru them.. will see.. In any case.. MusiciansFriend had these as a close-out in black for $199.00 while still selling the Red ones for $349.00..Used ones on E-Bay been going $250.00 and up.. comes with a semi-hard case and some extras so the G.A.S. just got to me. Project starts when it arrives..

Umm DVM or another wiring guru..:) .. if you read this... Tell me those push/pulls at guitarfetish.com will do the job for me? Umm and maybe a wiring diagram is available someplace for those pickups to just two pots that you already know of?

Spudman
October 15th, 2006, 09:58 AM
Norton and ToneZone. Thumbs up.:DR

Justaguyin_nc
October 19th, 2006, 08:03 PM
First impressions

If I would have walked into a music store and this guitar was sitting on a stand, just out of the box with nothing done to it.. I would not own it right now.. mainly because it took me over an hour to get it in tune! My bad, not the guitars fault. It comes with locking tuners.. the knurl knob on top of the post type. Well, I never used one before and it was a pain to figure out. (I now know why people say this has bad tuners..they are not that bad once you figure it out but not great.) Also, while tuning I ran it through my pedals and amp and thought man this thing sounds terrible... again, my fault. All my guitars are single coils.. everything around here is set to single coil.. these are much hotter pickups.. hence the bad sound till I figured that out. ok on with the first impressions...

The Head:
Locking tuners on the 4+2 head.. much smaller then the heads found on Fender type guitars..and I really like the look! Painted black to match the body with "OLP" in white plastered across the front. On the back of the head you find the Ernie Ball License chit-chat for the head and a signature from John Petrucci plus serial number. The head has a minature look of a Fender strat head except a bit rounder with the bottom kinda protecting the 2 tuner side. No string trees here.. really a nice setup .

The Neck:
What a joy to hold and play.. The Musicman version I believe comes with a birdseye maple neck with rosewood fretboard, while this copy comes with a one piece hard maple bolt on with rosewood fretboard. Plastic dot inlays adorn the fretboard. The 24 Frets are called Jumbo, but in actuality they don't seem that jumbo to me. Although they are larger than anything I have..MIM strat neck, a few Squier necks... Someone took their time dressing the fret ends and you can feel it..or should I say not feel it! smooth as can be.. nicely done. The nut seems to be a black plastic but cut very well. The shape of the backside.. how to describe it.. slimmer then the Fender and squier necks but not enough to make it look weak.. something like a "C" shape with some pressure applied with your thumb in the middle to flatten it and widen it..kinda sorta.. those playing with the thumb in the back center will find your fingers and thumb just falling into place..I really like the feel. Looks to be raw wood and as slick as a baby's bottom.. the neck gets wider in width as it approaches the body, which is gap free and very well molded together. The truss rod is at the bottom.. an oval disk with side holes for adjustment making it easy to use and in plain view but not distracting. The neck was straight to start so have yet to adjust or need to. I am very happy with the feeling and after some juice on the dull powdered rosewood board, I am sure the wood's color will be as nice as the feel.

The Body:

I found my body! (Umm for now) Weighing slightly less than a strat, on par with the Squier 51, Black basswood Strat like shape ( a bit smaller in size, slightly).. the horns are beveled on the front side and halfway down the body into the curves, the arm rest has a much deeper contour then a strat allowing your arm to just fall in place, while your hand rest on a heavy asian non-locking floating trem (looks like the hipshot flat trem ) that works pretty well and has a nice tipless chrome screw in arm to boot.. The back is dug deep so the guitar will sit right inside you. There are two heavy gauge and tight fitting plastic access plates on the back for the string through trem and the controls, One tone, one volume black knurl barrel knobs along with a three way switch finish out the top with no pick guard present..Im not into flash..this has a very clean look! Sitting down this is the most comfortable body I have been allowed to play to date. The Black finish is gloss with no orange peel to be found. The neck joining the body is 4 bolt, but not fender 4 bolt.. it kinda curves around on one end which would make putting a fender type neck on not very probable. But I don't want any other type on it anyways..:) I am very pleased to say the least. Combined the body and neck are a few inches shorter than a MIM 60's Strat due to the head stock and slightly smaller body.

The Electronics: Well, at $200 you can't have everything.. I knew going in I wanted to redo the inards of this guitar and it looks like everything including the very thin wiring will be going.. The 2-wire humbuckers are hotter than single coils as I mentioned already.. they are the type with rivets holding them together. To be honest, once I adjusted the amp and pedals, I had fairly good sound comming from them and they will be just fine till the new ones arrive.. (Dimarzio Air Norton and Tone Zone).. The pots are the small cheap versions which will be replaced with push pulls and there is no caps inside so maybe some treble bleed etc is in order... The 3-way Switch was going to remain I had hoped, seeing it looks much like the dimarzio 3-way , but to play it safe I will replace it also. I at first thought the Humbuckers had their own HUM.. finding that the input jack was at fault..although I fixed that right off I will be adding a Switchcraft there.. Wire on this guitar is as thin as it gets.. although it all works.. maybe some good insulated wire is in order just to make me feel better.

Other thoughts:
The guitar comes strung with Ernie Ball 9's and they just seem wrong.. some 10's will be replacing them also.
The tuners , now that I know how they work seem to be doing just that..working..I might go ahead and get some Shaller m6's to replace them but time will tell there. The trem was about set for intonation.. slightly off but nothing to worry about, the screws for hieght and intonation seem solid.. actually pretty well pleased in the heft of the unit. Hopefully the springs last..three are on the guitar. Strings are bit higher then I wish, again time will tell once I adjust it all but no Buzzing anyplace on the neck.. I think for $200 I have a winner here and will be very pleased after adding another $150.00 or so.

Extras:

A few picks, a strap and the cool gigbag case.. same material as your normal gigbag but they made the sides hard shell and include a foam lined insert to protect the guitar. Pretty neat and worth probably $30-$40 of the $200.


Look forward to seeing how well this will hold up after the additions.. I am at this moment more than content with this guitar and would rate it a bit better quality then my Squiers.. mainly due to the fret work on the neck. I wouldn't hesitate in telling anyone willing to gut one out and put in new electronics to get it.. it feels that good. For an Idea..I am about 5 foot 7 inches and 180 lbs.. medium build... with a bit of a beer gut.. just abit..I can still hold it in..:) this guitar fits and feels 5 stars to me!
:R

SuperSwede
October 20th, 2006, 12:12 AM
Looks like a really nice geetar Justa!

Justaguyin_nc
October 23rd, 2006, 03:01 PM
Thanks Swede... I been off playing it the whole weekend.. I have now decided these pickups sound sweeeet..although I am still going to replace them, someone wanting a good sounding humbucker guitar this cheap might just be happy leaving them in. This Month's Guitar One has arrived.. The MusicMan John Petrucci model is in there and wins the Guitar One award.. adding the birdseye neck and a piezo pickup with switch and knob the price jumps to almost $1900.00 base model.. I can't go wrong with this exact look alike although less the piezo at $200!! OLP-Petrucci Model... A sweeeeet Justa's_Guitar_Award winner...just add tuners and pickups.. your there!

Spudman
October 23rd, 2006, 04:08 PM
What is the scale length of this? Does the strings feel tighter or more slack than a Strat? How is the fretboard radius? Flat or rounder like a Fender?

Nice review by the way. They also make a Steve Lukather model with active electronics and different color choices.

Justaguyin_nc
October 23rd, 2006, 05:13 PM
What is the scale length of this? Does the strings feel tighter or more slack than a Strat? How is the fretboard radius? Flat or rounder like a Fender?

Nice review by the way. They also make a Steve Lukather model with active electronics and different color choices.

The Scale is the same as a strat 25 1/2 and the darn thing feels like a strat body in your hands but a little nicer for me personally.. it just has deeper cuts, bevels and feels right. The strings on it are still 9's while I await tearing into it..:) But they are not tight at all.. more of a loose/slacked setup.. not to slack.. just right.. Doing bends are just as slick as oil in my driveway! And bending at the 24th is still an easy chore.. The radius they do not mention in the adverts and I am bad at figuring that.. so I am lost here.. but pretty flat fretboard with excellent fret ends on mine.. The fretboard is about on the line of my Squier tele, the maple back though is slightly thinner and wider and much quicker for me again ..if that helps.. but the feel behind the fretboard is just awesome in my hands.. the neck again just feels right for me (me personally) and you slide all over the place with much more ease then the squiers.. again..to me.. I would have thought they just threw two cheap humbuckers on here.. have now noticed they may be cheap'er.. but they standard sized the neck and have a f-space on the bridge.. so some money and thought went there also. Only thing I found wrong so far is that I only have one OLP.. hmmm Steve Lukather model..:) no no no.. I am content for now!

Looks like they still have some for the $200 in black as of 10-23-06
Find one locally..feel it..if it feels good..buy one at MF while they still have them...

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/OLP-John-Petrucci-Signature-Model-Electric-Guitar-Pack?sku=516053

SuperSwede
October 24th, 2006, 12:07 AM
This could perhaps be your next victim? Looks real nice :)

http://www.olpguitars.com/olp_guitar/musicman/mm1fguitar.htm

Justaguyin_nc
October 24th, 2006, 07:43 AM
This could perhaps be your next victim? Looks real nice :)

http://www.olpguitars.com/olp_guitar/musicman/mm1fguitar.htm

Ahhh.. the Musicman Axis knockoff...:) I was actually looking at this one when I ran across the Petrucci... Probably the same neck.. hmm.. heh .. EVH would be proud.. I best just finish this one first and think on it.. maybe by then they will have the Keith richards/Mark Farner Silhouette out at OLP.. ;)

Spudman
October 24th, 2006, 02:38 PM
While we are on the OLP subject...
I played their Musicman bass copy the other day and must say that it was a great playing bass. It was the best sub $600 bass that I tried. Guitar Center/Musicians Friend has them for less than 2 bills.

Justaguyin_nc
October 28th, 2006, 03:47 PM
I re-opened the back of this guitar and poked around some more... there was a cap in there that I missed.. and also.. they had routed a hole from the control cavity to the trem but did not add a ground wire there? for the heck of it I did.. and it did make the guitar about silent as is.. also.. These pickups.. heck to me are pretty nice now compared to my first impressions.. I could live with this.. but still probably getting the new pickups.. I dunno why but am.. this thing feels sooooo sweet to hold..sigh..