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Experience share.....Music Man Silhouette....


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As a matter of fact, I would like to know if someone had the chance to play a Music Man silhouette and share its experience.

Thanks, I trust your experience, nice sunday.

speaking the 22 frets, non floyded model.

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The Silhouette Special's are great guitars. I have played many of them since we have a dealer in town. I have purchased 2 used from GC and sadly both of them were duds. Not so much in the quality but more "abused" than "used". I also had a Very Early one just like Keith Richards used with the Stones. They were different beast but I would say they have improved over the years. Necks Profile, Radius, Frets all feel comfortable when you play it, more like and old friend than a shred machine.

Just a note that the routes are shallow and they can only except true single coils (No Stacked Coils) and short legged humbuckers. I am just not a fan of Modern Dimarzio's, and if you want to swap for a Seymour Duncan humbucker in the bridge you may have to fuzz out the pickguard around the edges a bit. Route for the Special to my knowledge is still HSS under the guard.

They have there own sound, its not a start or a tele sound. Best work I can think of is they are "Airy" Sounding.

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Thanks so much for the info....Not so fan of modern pickups either but would be interested in the 'small form factor " dimension of the guitar and its (apparent yet) playability...

No chance to test yet.

Thank you for your opinions.

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These are great!

I've had 3, all 24 fret models, 2x 6 bolt and one 5 bolt neck. Small and very comfy, the necks are great, clubby and fast.

I have one at the moment which was a massive ebay bargain... Something like 340 quid...

SilhouetteFloyd4.jpg

At the very least find one to try.

These and Hamers are the only guitars I'd personally buy sight unseen just from photos.

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Thanks, true, floyd and 24 are a bit too extreme....but your comments are appreciated. i will trust the Q/A.

in fact, this could be a good complement for the non bucker world...

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These are great!

I've had 3, all 24 fret models, 2x 6 bolt and one 5 bolt neck. Small and very comfy, the necks are great, clubby and fast.

I have one at the moment which was a massive ebay bargain... Something like 340 quid...

SilhouetteFloyd4.jpg

At the very least find one to try.

These and Hamers are the only guitars I'd personally buy sight unseen just from photos.

These are hard to find, at least the 24 fret Floyed ones are.. I had one and sold it.. Regretted it and tried to find another one.. It took a while but finally did..

EBMMSilhouette2_zps677dd291.jpg

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Every MM I've ever played was on par with top-shelf, low-production brands like Anderson, Suhr, Hamer, etc. Excellent attention to detail.

As far as a Silhouette goes, I like this one:

gretch2.jpg

And the guitar looks nice, as well.

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One of the first Silhouettes came into the local music store around 1985 or 1986. It was something that had to be picked up and tried over and over. Something was different about the feel of that guitar, but everyone could tell it was top quality. Everything moved up from there.

The Silhouette started off with 24 frets when it was introduced, and there were interchangeable pickguards with three configurations.

In the 90's the Silhouette Special was introduced. That one has the 22 frets and the neck pickup is moved up a little.

Silhouettes look a little smaller, but the bodies are not really small. They are rounder, but the body width is about the same as a Special. Silhouette necks have gone through changes, and the necks of the last 15 years or so have had the wax finish that makes them feel like they have been played for a long time. The shorter headstock might make you think the neck is shorter, but it is not.

At the Music Man factory tour the claim was made that the quality is as good as any boutique guitar, including Tom Anderson. Having seen Tom Anderson guitars and many Music Man guitars, there is some truth there. The construction quality is top notch. Music Man does use multi-piece bodies, but if you look at how the pieces are joined there is a zig zag to the line. Their wood joints are a bit of overkill compared to other companies. Sterling Ball also wants to keep the quality high, so production will never increase to meet demand if there is a quality sacrifice.

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Thanks Steve (and others) for sharing your view...I will consider maybe this for the future "single coil" configuration...

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These are great!

I've had 3, all 24 fret models, 2x 6 bolt and one 5 bolt neck. Small and very comfy, the necks are great, clubby and fast.

I have one at the moment which was a massive ebay bargain... Something like 340 quid...

SilhouetteFloyd4.jpg

At the very least find one to try.

These and Hamers are the only guitars I'd personally buy sight unseen just from photos.

I ll check whenever I find such a good deal...

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As a matter of fact, I would like to know if someone had the chance to play a Music Man silhouette and share its experience.

Thanks, I trust your experience, nice sunday.

speaking the 22 frets, non floyded model.

I have a couple of Silo Specials, the first was bought new in '96 and is HSS. The second I got used about a year ago, a 2012 guitar, and is an SSS hardtail model, the pickups were already replaced with DiMarzio Injectors and an Area '67 in the middle. The neck on the newer one is slightly fuller. Both guitars are very comfortable to play, light with amazing necks.

The Silos come stock with the MusicMan Silent Circuit which needs a battery. In truth it isn't really silent as the DiMarzio equipped one is way quieter than the HSS guitar.

'96

9575084743_440483d314_o.jpg

9577879002_d0e0eb989a_o.jpg

9575085207_e10be162de_o.jpg

'12

9575112585_8caef2a81c_o.jpg

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  • 4 months later...

Tried...Nice guitars but definitely not the correct neck to me....NGD to be be a FS and back to Hamer Vintage Carve for a change....

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