Sterling by Music Man St. Vincent Goldie | Assessment

MSRP: (UK) £990  / (US) $829

The Sterling by Music Man St. Vincent Goldie is a hanging mix of modern design and distinctive efficiency. This guitar options an okoume physique, offering a light-weight really feel and a balanced tone. The roasted maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard ensures easy playability and sturdiness, providing 22 medium jumbo frets and a 25.5-inch scale size. Geared up with three Music Man-designed gold foil mini-humbuckers, the Goldie delivers a flexible vary of tones from heat and easy to shiny and articulate. With its distinctive angular physique form and attention-grabbing gold end, the St. Vincent Goldie stands out as a contemporary masterpiece for discerning guitarists. Nick Jennison critiques.



Until you’ve got been residing beneath a (dad) rock, you may little doubt be accustomed to Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent. A trailblazing guitar participant and songwriter, Clark has a eager eye for hanging visuals, evident within the elegant and angular strains of her signature Music Man guitar. It is a very stunning design that would not look misplaced in a contemporary artwork exhibition and a novel and idiosyncratic instrument. It is also costly and tough to get your fingers on.

Fortunately, now we have a brand new Sterling model of the St. Vincent Goldie—the newer iteration of the St. Vincent, full with three “gold foil” mini humbuckers and a extra standard management format. It has the identical stunning appears to be like, the identical “Cashmere” and “Velveteen” finishes, and the identical visible appointments just like the pyramid knobs and customized inlays, however at nearly a 3rd of the value of its Californian-made sibling.

In contrast to the unique St. Vincent, the Goldie options a way more commonplace “strat-style” 5-way pickup switching format. However should you’re anticipating S-style tones, you would be mistaken, and regardless of their “Gold Foil” visuals, the pickups on the Goldie are very a lot conventional mini humbuckers. If you happen to’re unfamiliar with these vastly underrated pickups, they’re someplace between a brighter, leaner PAF and a Tele pickup on steroids—and naturally, they’re hum-free. There’s extra low-end extension than you’d anticipate from a single coil, a smoother and extra even midrange than a P90, and extra high-end extension than a full-size humbucker. The result’s a brilliant versatile tone with a really distinctive character that works with an enormous number of sign chains. They sound balanced and detailed with clear tones, raunchy and assertive with distortion, and so they’re greater than articulate sufficient to retain their character with heavy processing.

As you’d anticipate from a Music Man design, the Goldie’s playability is great. Annie Clark is a really expert participant, so it is no shock that this guitar completely rips if you’d like it to. The neck is slim and quick, with a easy satin end and frets which might be slim however tall sufficient for straightforward bends and vibrato. Gamers with smaller fingers will discover it an ideal match, however should you’re a big human like I’m, do not be delay—I took to this neck instantly and located it very tough to place down.

One of many extra vital variations between the Music Man and Sterling variations of the Goldie is the tremolo, with a two-point “classic tremolo” rather than the customized St. Vincent tremolo. It is nonetheless a really stable unit, with glorious return to pitch due to the straight string pull of the two+4 reverse headstock and locking tuners, and whereas it won’t be fairly as easy or delicate because the customized unit, it greater than holds its personal for chord shimmers, bar vibrato, and the occasional dive bomb.

The Sterling St. Vincent Goldie presents the identical killer appears to be like and tones because the USA-made mannequin of the identical identify however at a way more accessible worth level. It is made to a really excessive commonplace, performs nice, and undoubtedly appears to be like the half too.

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