Music Man Jason Richardson | Cutlass - Natural Buckeye Burl

It's always a treat receiving a new Jason Richardson Music Man into Peach, as they just look fantastic. Total class and total performance. This Natural Buckeye Burl finish model combines beautiful tonewoods, modern electronics and exceptional ergonomics to create a guitar built for extreme performance without compromise, whilst still looking extremely beautiful.

The body itself is a lightweight alder, topped with a hand-selected natural buckeye burl that looks absolutely incredible in person. Because this finish is standard matte rather than high-gloss poly, it has a much more organic, boutique feel, the kind of finish that really lets the figuring of the burl speak for itself. The double-cutaway Cutlass shape is perfectly balanced and sculpted for effortless access to all 24 stainless steel medium-jumbo frets, not surprising given the complexity of some of JR's material!

A roasted, figured maple neck is hand-shaped to Jason's preferred shallow carve, offering fast, modern playability with exceptional stability. The ebony fingerboard on this one is particularly dark, which looks ace. Thanks to the gunstock oil and hand-rubbed wax finish, the neck feels smooth and broken-in straight out of the case. The neck joint feels great too, thanks to the 5-bolt design, giving brilliant resonance transfer and maximum comfort.

The pickups on this model differ from the HT version. Instead of the HT humbuckers, this Natural Buckeye Burl Cutlass features custom-wound Ernie Ball Music Man bridge and neck humbuckers, voiced for heavy rhythm tones with a tight, controlled low end, while still offering a clear, bright top end that cuts beautifully for endless soloing. They're powerful, articulate and extremely musical; perfect for modern progressive playing. Coil-splitting via the push/push tone knob gives you even more tonal range, with full and authentic single-coil tones on demand.

The onboard Music Man active preamp adds even more versatility. A push/push volume knob activates a factory-set 12 dB boost, adjustable up to 20 dB via an internal trim pot, which is perfect as a solo boost or when you want to push your amp or amp-sim for extra saturation.

The hardware is of the highest quality, as is to be expected on an instrument of this calibre. The Music Man floating trem works beautifully, staying in tune great without the hassle of a locking system, especially as the guitar also uses Schaller MDIND locking tuners.

It's well worth pointing out the advantages of buying this guitar through us. Not only does our studio photography reveal the beautiful burl top of this exact guitar, but you can also see how dark the fingerboard is and how beautiful the flame is on the back of the neck. Our full-time techs will meticulously set this instrument up so that it plays perfectly straight out of the box. An instrument like this is built for technical precision, so why fall down at the last hurdle? In the time since this guitar was made in America, it's changed humidities and climates and undoubtedly the neck will have moved. Our techs will make sure that the neck, intonation and trem system are all done to perfection. This alleviates any risk when buying a top-tier instrument such as this. Also, don't forget that if you use a custom tuning or string gauge you are welcome to get in touch with us after purchasing the instrument and we will accommodate your choice absolutely free of charge.

Lastly, also consider our Plek service, offered as an upgrade on this particular guitar. Whilst Music Man guitars are of the highest quality, they do not use a Plek machine, so we can remove any human tolerance in the frets and make sure that the guitar plays absolutely flawlessly from fret 1 right to fret 24. Considering these frets are stainless steel and the guitar is designed to last you for a lifetime, this small investment may well be worth it. Please get in touch with our sales team if you have any further questions about anything.