I’ve reviewed two Chapman guitars, to this point: a Chapman Ghost Fret Pro (which I found to be lacking) and a ML 2 Modern (which I liked a lot for the price.) So far it’s been miss and hit. How would the Chapman ML1 Modern Pro be? You’ll find out if you keep reading.
I am a big fan of Rob Chapman, from his early YouTube videos to now. He’s a great player, but he’s a great personality and he’s blazing a trail. He’s showing everyone else how it’s done. So when I wrote a bad review of the Ghost Fret, I sorta felt a little bad. But then I remembered that my reviews are my honest opinions – no one pays me to write them. So it’s important to me that I’m brutally honest. With that in mind, this is the best guitar of the three I’ve reviewed. By far.
The Good
The neck profile on the ML1 Pro Modern is perfect for me – it’s skinny, but not too skinny. Reminds me of a PRS profile. Very comfy neck to play. Satin finish, of course. The stainless steel frets are smooth as hell, and the fretwork was perfection – The fretwork on this guitar would give a $2,000 guitar a run for its money. The level of quality was really, really high.
The pickups are hot, hot, HOT. This guitar excelled at metal, but sounded good on clean and crunch sounds. They sound great. They’re Chapman pickups, but honestly, I don’t see anyone replacing them. They’re killer. The tuners are outstanding. The hardware is great. The neck-through design and body carve are wonderful. This guitar feels like it could be two grand. Maybe I got lucky and got a model that was made on the perfect day, like the Ghost Fret I played was made at the end of the day on a Friday. But this guitar was stellar, top to bottom. Good looks, great playability and sound. Impressive! AND it comes with a hard case.
The Bad
Well, this is the Budget Guitarist website, so let’s just put this out there – I wouldn’t buy this guitar, because it’s $1,100. You can get an instrument almost as good as this for around $750 if you play your cards right (meaning buy used.) You might find one of these used for $800 in a year or two. It’d be a steal at that price. This isn’t really “bad,” but I have to put something down for bad.
OK, here’s something else – I don’t find the 25.5 inch “Strat” scale to be very appealing on a guitar designed for fast play. On a Les Paul or PRS-style neck, the frets being ever so slightly closer together make the guitar easier to play. So for me, I’d prefer a 25 inch neck, like my PRS Satin 24. But if I’m being honest, this guitar at $100 more than a new Satin 24 is a better instrument.
The Ugly
Naw, nothing ugly to say. Some people might say nasty things because they don’t like Rob, for whatever reason. I find that hard to understand, especially when you’ve got guys like Mick on “That Pedal Show” joking about being retarded when it comes to aspects of his playing, or slamming his own viewers for their opinions. (Dan is a great guy, though.) Maybe, just maybe this guitar is about $100 more than it should be. A lot of people need to get paid when one of these guitars are sold.
So there you go. I didn’t want to put this guitar down. Just be careful – not every Chapman comes out of the box absolutely perfect, as I discovered with the Ghost Fret. Buying from Guitar Center is cool, though, because you can try it out first, which you definitely should. If you have the money and this guitar meets your needs, I think it’s a great buy.
