Chapman Guitars ML1 (Looks GREAT!)
Вставка
- Опубліковано 6 бер 2022
- Chapman Guitars ML1 (Looks GREAT!)
Today I'm taking a look at my first Chapman, and I have to say it looks absolutely great. For the price it's brilliant. It has a nice roasted neck and all. This one is the Hybrid Sarsen Stone Black. But can it handle closer scrutiny? Has the Chappers delivered a great guitar (or his minions)?
Let's find out.
Check out my Patreon page for music and exclusives: / elmojk
For official website (and lessons), visit elmojk.com
Check out my music on Bandcamp: elmojk.bandcamp.com
Check out my music on Spotify: spoti.fi/2VnLgMs
Facebook: / elmojk
Instagram: / elmojkarjalainen
Twitter: / elmokarjalainen
The gear I most often use (the links are affiliate links): redir.love/thocf/r8ctceq3i1
Budget gear I recommend: redir.love/thocf/r9mtambedi
(Not so) budget gear I recommend: redir.love/thocf/cib9pttb93
Check out some of my lessons: ua-cam.com/play/PLNaLwTdlpQNEQQfdhdttHV5rjmy7tmYCy.html
Or some of my music: ua-cam.com/play/PLNaLwTdlpQNHKlg8ALZfM3AINC20WMp8s.html
The whammy bar exercise actually held up much better than any Fender Strat
Bridge issue aside, that thing definitely has its own sound- which is great, clean and overdriven. Fantastic playing, subbed (finally).
Been enjoying much of your content and your humour, well done.
Thank you :)
Lets face it you gave that whammy bar a workout to the breaking point of any guitar at this price point. I thought it held pretty good.
I have an Ml1 Hybrid which looks to be the same guitar. It's a lot of guitar for the money. Mine is flawless with level frets, pickups are really good, and the neck with the rolled edges is one of the nicest necks i've played. Fender does not give you this quality and attention to detail in my opinion being that every Fender Ive owned needed a fret level and this one was perfect.
Thank you for the review Elmo!
My pleasure!
I bought an ML1 Modern from Andertons down from £400 to £350 which I felt was sensible money for something that looked pretty nice and had 24 frets, i'm pretty happy with it as an alternative to the Fender mainstays, I love the maple top and the black hardware and I havent had any tuning issues on mine, for the price of a high end Squier i'm pleased with it
Great review from an amazing guitarist. Thanks
One of the nicest necks i've ever played on a guitar, so so so so cheap too, Genuinely nicer than 99.99% of 6-800 guitar necks.
Hi Elmo, first time on your channel.
I really like your honesty, and I think it summarizes Chapman Guitars pretty accurately.
I own a Chapman ML3 Bea Baritone (first gen), and everything is good except the nut : it was poorly cut so the strings kept being stuck in it, with thinner or bigger string gauge. I don’t really like the sound of the bridge pickup, and I bought a BKP Silo to replace it.
The rest of the guitar is nearly flawless, and it’s my main guitar rn.
I’ll try to keep up with your videos !
Cheers 👍
Love my ML3 but is quite a few years old now 😮it’s great 👍
Reverse headstock is good to get bass side tighter. Butt here in Chile i still remember Chappers being a bully.
and tighten the springs to get the tremolo in stable position. maybe some lube too.
Yep ... toxic brand.
I’d rather be seen on stage with a dried dog turd on the end of a piece of string than holding a Chapman guitar.
mind to ellaborate what happened in chile?
@@incelthirdworld9858 -muy caliente y mucha trabajo sin pantalones
Thanks for the Review Elmo!✌🏻❤️😎🎶
And thank you :)
Oh my that pickup selector position is just... what the...
Thank you for an honest review I was thinking of purchasing this until I saw this
Oh Elmo you had me at the Bee Gees riff-ige !!!!😎😍😊
Elmo is the most honest reviewer we love. Why dont you review neural dsp plugins which are pretty hyped nowadays? It would be great.
Haven't really tried plugins.
I was gifted almost the entire NDSP product line for pointing out a small security flaw to one of their social media guys. My opinion is that with 3 NDSP plugins you'll pretty much be set. My personal picks are Nolly for its versatility, Tone King for the best cleans you can get from a software amp, and for the third amp its more about you as a player.
Do you want something for really heavy metal? Gojira, Petrucci, Cali, Omega.
Do you want to try Fusion or funk? Plini, Henson, or Wong.
I wouldn't personally recommend Abasi or Nameless because if you want bang for your buck, they're too limited.
Most of the choice within the categories I mentioned will work, just depends on what effects you'd like in front.
Wow, that whammy bar test was thorough.
Loving the sound of that Marshall rig.
Chapman has *UNLIMITED POWER*
Dude...new strings are known to cause tuning instability. I recommend you try the whammy again after those strings have seen some action. Also string height at the nut can be the cause of that...all easily fixed. Your verdict was too premature as I see it.
This guitar looks like a classic case of a triumph of style over substance. I hope you can send it back. Thanks for the interesting content.🙂
nice elmo think we may have talked before from a guitar chat room about everything god bless mate ptsburgh PA
They can’t all be winners, beautiful top on it despite the other issues.
If you get an Ernie Ball Music Man they will all be winners
Nice one Elmo ; always appreciate the honest conversation about QC issues in regards to the tuning, nut and truss-rod with the exact guitar in your hands.
I think people fall too easily into either worshiping or detesting Chapman guitars ; they are just like any other guitar brand made over-seas these days as QC is still a lottery.
Even though both my guitar technicians hate working on Chapman guitars (after a few horror stories) , I was fortunate to not really see that many issues with the Korean ML1 I had many years ago apart from the weight which actually pulled my back out before a rehearsal! I had to sell it after that incident...
I think if that tremolo unit gets blocked, it should be a stable HSS guitar for anyone ; I wouldn't trust an unlocked and unbranded tremolo system to hold tuning in that price range anywhoo...
- Gabe
Yeah, Chappers and his guitars do seem to divide opinion.
Bit unfair to expect a £400 guitar tremelo to stay that well in tune used like that
Really? I've had 250€ guitars stay in tune.
Good review.
Amazing playing
Cheers!
Vol pot is where it is because of roll-off. When you get use to pickup selector it is fully ok. Not even a problem.
For this kind of money, I dont think you can do better than an epiphone. I paid £500 for a Epi les paul about 6 years ago, its had a tough life but never had an issue, really solid reliable guitar, for comparison, i paid £2800 for a Duesenberg star player, after 6 months the nut fell out of the fret board, all the nickel hardware has tarnished, the finish on the volume / tone knobs faded, and generally started to look tatty, certainly by this caliber of instrument anyway. Moral of the story, the epiphone is far more robust, sounds fantastic and was less than a 5th of the price.
Any guitar that doesn't have a locking nut you need to find the proper balance between the spring tension and the strings and you can't expect that to happen at the factory for the price of this guitar.
I had a similar 'meh' response when I tried one out a while back. It was perfectly decent, but just didn't do anything to make me wanna part with £400. I'd be interested to see how the current gear4music 'subzero' brand guitars compare, they look good on paper and are very affordable!
Have to check those out.
I brought a round back electo account made by gear for £120 last year. Its terrible. The battery keeps popping out and the frets keep cutting me. I know I couldn't fix that but the battery is a problem. Sounds really nice though, iv played guitars double the price that don't sound that good. So for £120 I can't complain all in all, just can't use the pickup ect.
yeah those sub zeroes arent the best, same with harley benton and gear 4 music, i swear the people who rate them dont have a more expensive guitar or havent tried one to compare it to lol. tried all 3 and sent them all back the best cheap guitar you can get is an ibanez gio imo, the necks are just as good as the higher ranges
Ooooh Chappers will be pulling his hair out!
I never buy a guitar with a whammy. Great review, nice playing . Still got rid of my Fender for a chapman though.
I agree on the headstock for sure, I have never been a reverse guy but ive never been cool either. I really like the look of the neck and the body but if an instrument wont stay in tune its unusable in my opinion. Great video Elmo Thank you
Cheers!
Glenn Fricker had a similar issue with the tremolo tuning on a Harley Benton and someone commented that the bridge could have the fulcrum point wrongly setup (be too high or too low), which causes it to go out of tune after using the bar.
I can't help you on how to setup it properly as I never did it myself.
Could you please review the vintage v6? It seems to be great for the price
Filmed and edited. The video should be out in 2 or 3 weeks I think.
Hyvä nähdä,kiitos👍
I have an Ibanez GSA60 GIO guitar which has very similar trem and the pick up configuration is a HSS the same as this one with a very similar tone on all pick ups. Like yourself not a fan of the reverse head stock but do like the look of this roasted neck gives it a very different look which I think is great, but not sure if it matches the body of this guitar from a colour tone perspective. being open not sure I would pay double the price for this guitar when the Ibanez give you so similar
It’s also very similar to the “Eart” guitar range that are half the price!
yeah, bought myself a chapman ghost fret a few years back and it was also a "meh" guitar. Looked awesome but had (and still has) a horrible neck dive despite I changed the strap button location and stuffed lead weights inside the guitar. Oh yeah, and most of the screws were loose in the guitar as well when I got it. :D
That sucks.
Lmfao
I just got my one for £299 brand new from Andertons. It's a great guitar. All the issues are completely subjective. As I don't use tremolo at all, I lowered it & I've added extra springs. Personally, I prefer the position of pickups selector in Chapmans than strats etc. . The reverse headstock looks great and if you switch from Gibson 3+3 tuners headstock you shouldn't have any problems with tuning.
I also got one from Andertons, about 3 weeks ago for the same price. For me the headstock appearance is like the colour. If you don't like it get something else. Personally I like it. It's a little different from a standard strat. Same with the selector, it's obvious where it is so it's purely a preference. As for losing tune from the whammy bar, people can decide for themselves if they think he gave it a fair go or was a bit excessive. Replacement (and stretched) strings might help - perhaps he did that, I don't know. The whammy bar falling out like his does would annoy the crap out of me but mine has never fallen out. I've looked at other retailers and there seems to be quite a big price difference depending on the colour !! I get the impression that the red ones were produced in large numbers (perhaps before Covid) and the other colour are much harder to get and so quite a lot more expensive (£200 more for the black one in this video).
I haven't bought one because I don't like reverse headstocks but I have to say, I've had some of those issues on guitars that cost nearly 10X what that one cost.
I have never seen a person whammy bar thwt hard in my life im dying ahahahhaha 😂
🤣
This might be a dumb question, but would changing the tuners out to locking tuners help with the tuning issue at all? Or what about installing a locking nut that's on Floyd rose type tremeloes?
Locking tuners don't really help with tuning. Locking tuners just make string changes easier. TO improve tuning, you usually have to look at the nut. A floyd rose locking nut keeps great tune. Just string changes are a nightmare on them.
Not when the whammy bar doesn't return to pitch.
Lock music store looked at me strange when I give one of their floating trems this kinda treatment!!
Ps: nice attempt at a British accent…did well 😊
Love your honesty Elmo on the QC issues. I tried a couple Chapman's at Guitar Center and I always felt they were fine at best, but never amazing. The frets always felt rough and the tuning was always a little off. Keep up the great work!
Thanks!
Bridges are so good now. I have an old strat it stays in tune never once you use the whammy. I'm thinking of upgrading to Vega trem
I'm not a pick up changer but the location of the selector wasn't really thought out was it? It looks really nice, but I buy a guitar to sound as nice as it looks. 🎸✌️🇦🇺
Thant guitar looks beautiful.
It has a reverse headstock to match Chapman's head on his shoulders.
:D
The tuning issue sounds more like the nut not being cut right, can hear it ‘grabbing’ the strings as you move the trem
The whammy bar turned unconcious after you rotate it and fell.
:D
I had the same model in California sunset finish. I agree that it looks really beautiful. I had fun with it at first but realized I hated how thick the neck was (personal preference). I found the stock pickups muddy. Craftmanship with the unit I got was great though!
Tuning issues and other problems are sadly becoming the norm, Chapman and a lot of other brands are
just concerned with sales targets, quality is left down to the customer, hence it is now essential that you
can return realy bad samples, and repair/upgrade and setup the better ones.
Thomann have a scary number of B grades available, i known that they sell a lot of guitars each day
and you expect a few returns, but almost every model you look at has the option of a B grade, no thanks
the difference in price is not worth the hassle.
Chapman had quality issues from day one, i thought they had changed factories to solve this, but going
by this sample, they still have a lot of issues to resolve.🤨
Mr Pape, you forgot to mention Putin's effect on this guitar.
@@TheTubeDude My appologies, i was trying to avoid the current crisis, perhaps we could drop a load of Chapman guitars on Putin, they are not fit for much else.
@@Barbarapape I like your style.
@@Barbarapape That was brutal. I'll buy a few Chapmans and join you on the Putin drop.
To be fair quite a few of their B-stocks are just from people who returned them because they didn't like them, not because of quality issues.
I own the MLV chapman, no longer in production but an incredible guitar. It's really about price, the fender player series trem wouldn't fair to well either I'm guessing.
I think chapman guitars have their own place in the market, I think they need to rebrand the name tho, I think as a brand the whole UA-cam association isn't fitting anymore.
This guitar looks astonishing, but how it's compared to HB Fusion III? Considering that Chapman has fixed bridge version. It is faster and comfortable than Fusion or Fusion is it better overall?
I've had both of these (well actually a Fusion II). Not much in it for me but perhaps the Chapman pickups are a bit more rounded and better
@@thenovicenoisemaker Nice to share! Pickups is something you can upgrade, so it's not a big. What intrigues me the most is whats the feeling of the two, construction, playability and overall specs comparison considering the price
@@davidmartinez927 HB has better tuners (locking), both have graphite nut and roasted necks, the neck on the HB felt smoother to me. Rolled edges on the Chapman but that said the HB was nice too. Jumbo frets on both felt the same. Fit and finish maybe the Chapman was a bit better but not much in it really. Trem system and whammy bar also very similar feeling. I was lucking getting my Chapman for £299 new (Andertons in the sale) so for that price it's good, I don't think it's worth the full price especially compared to an HB Fusion. Personally overall I'd say the Fusion is the better choic apart from the pick-ups but that's personal, you might like them. I thought they were too bright and in the HB
@@davidmartinez927 I'm no Elmo that's for sure but you can see both guitars on my channel, in the Playlists are reviews and some playing videos of the HB
@@thenovicenoisemaker Thanks mate! Suscribed to your channel, thans for the info! ;D
Also I wonder if as they fall in price and become more of a bargain does equate to them being a really good base on which to carry out your own choice of upgrades and mods to personalise it to your own needs and requirements?
Some people like to tinker and customise rather than just write a larrrrrger cheque and buy off the peg.
Some of us have no choice 😂
Elmo, can you do a vid with this tremolo test on your strats as well? I wonder how well they would stay in tune.
They handle it pretty well. Don't think it would make for a great video though.
@@MrPolevaulter Just a
video about non-locking trems and tips in general?
lol
I think the idea was to add custom pickups when you order it otherwise it's on the more affordable side.
I like your style of presentation, Elmo. You're a bit of a nut, and you look like you're having fun playing--a lot like Phil X. We need more guitar ambassadors like you to show people how much fun it is to play guitar. Bravo!
Thank you very much 😊
Another great video review Elmo! Such a beautiful looking guitar but if it wont stay in tune it's like a car without brakes. Pretty much useless. 🎸🤘😅🤘🎸
Cheers!
I'm not a fan of reverse headstocks either.
I have never been a fan of chapman guitars since i had one from a student wanting a setup etc found it to be cheap and cheerful with everything in the wrong position!
Well, I have no issues with HH version. Maybe neck pickup is little bit to "bottom-endy".
I choose Harley Benton over Cheapman every day of the week
Was that a Fast Show reference at the start there?
Bad bridge is a bad bridge, but let's face it: almost everyone locks the bridge on that type of guitar anyway. People who really want a "super strat' type of guitar usually get a Floyd Rose (as they should tbh).
Sounds good, maybe a bit fuzzy, Crappy! and looks good! I like the roasted maple but I'm not a fan of the reverse head stock..... imo it's priced close to ibanez, fender, and other BIG brands so not quite cutting it as resale value will not be there.
do you think the HB Fusion III is a better choice?
Well this wouldn't stay in tune, so yeah.
🟢I don't like the backwards head, either. But he could make it even worse. He could put the head upside down, too. Just past the nut, the strings would go thru the head, and into the tuning pegs, which would be on the bottom side of the guitar. That would be even more irritating, right?!! 🥲🔴
From a design point of view that reverse headstock appears to serve the purpose of keeping the string pull as arrow straight as possible
I was gonna say that.
@@ctcards2636 hi mate , hello from Manchester England 🏴
Nice to meet you 👍
I think Rob previously said that he made a reverse headstock because its a more natural motion to just slide your hand off to tune. You dont have to lift your hand off.
Reverse headstocks are made so the heavier strings have more length to the tuning peg, this is to slightly reduce floppiness when a guitar is downtuned (as it often is for metal).
@@MR-um9ck and it looks cool as phuq too lol 😂
Really not a fan of the pickups (at least in this video), but it looks very photogenic :)
Humor..I plugged the amp in and it blew up, this is not a very good budget friendly amp. But my budget friendly guitar survived, it's okay.. so I'll give that a 10 on survival..
The string tree was crooked, may have contributed to the whammy problem
That's why Gibson, Fender ,.PRS and the likes sell so many guitars. You can play them.
Wouldn't trade a mid-level LTD for a Chapman
I think it’s a great guitar and everything but I am really big on looks and the head looks really odd. Not only the shape of it but the tuners being on the bottom just look funky to me. That’s probably the only reason I’d never get one.
I love my ML3, and my son has an ML1 and the 3. They're all great guitars. No issues with any of them.
👍🏻👍🏻
Ya, since Matt Hornby left thing just don't seem quit right. I'm sticking with Solar for now.....
I guess some of your problems MAY (not saying they do) come from the weird tuning techinc of yours ;) ie. you say you don't like reverse headstock, that may be related as you tune from closest peg while you should be starting with the lowest (thickest) string which in this case is the farthermost one. Guess it's a habit of constantly using regular headstocks. When starting from the lightest string you're creating slack once you reach heavy ones. If the slack is not enough to overcome the friction on the nut playing with whammy bar definitely does so and the slack is too great to bring strings back to the correct tension. Best!
I had a Burns guitar that wouldn't return to pitch. It was a nightmare playing live...I'd have to wobble the trem bar about to get it back to sounding like it was in pitch with the rest of the band.
Yeah, that's really not a nice thing in a guitar.
I've always found Chapman guitars so aesthetically pleasing - great colours and cool designs but the QC issues that have been popping up all over the place have really put me off. Shame really.
Buy a Fretking . They are great
Mr Karjalainen, For decades you have been complaining that your Marshall 'Plexi' can't get a clean sound. Send it to me and I'll fix it for you.
Especially the prices of some Chapman guitars. I’d definitely avoid buying any. Look at other brands.
you should try stagg ses 30 budget strat
Wilkinson make their WLS 130/S saddles that are lockable though they look virtually normal. If the nut is graphite or equivalent and you use locking tuners it can do a Floyd thing about 95% of the time. If you use the whammy for average use you may even fine you can play many tunes before even the mildest of tweaks. The E and G are usually the only strings that will be out and not by very much. In short at about $100.00 USD it is cheap as it pays for itself in savings for headache pills very quickly, LOL.
Dave Simpson plays a Chapman (amongst others) and makes it sound awesome. When I tried one it sounded pretty awful. I guess I just tried a duff one ? 🙂
Might be.
He did also have a luthier do some extensive mods to it as well. Moved the selector switch to a more strat like position, and deepened the pickup routes to sink the pickups down lower if I remember correctly.
Dave Simpson gets the sound he wants by adjusting his EQ. Reviewers keep a basis setting for all guitars for comparison purposes.
He had to get a number of things done to it. I haven't seen him play it in a very long time. Plus he hates its headstock.
Lots of average/bad reviews of Chapman guitars on UA-cam and other sites on the internet. They claimed to have sorted their poor QC out, but seems here once again they haven't!
The gotos stay in tune pretty much.
16:20 corroborate your statement with empirical facts “chances are if you buy one you won’t have that issue”
are those jumbo or medium jumbo frets?
Can't remember.
I gave you a like just for the Graham Chapman bit.
The rest was OK too. ;)
:D
I wouldn't buy a Chapman because I don't like the sound of their pickups - way too brittle and shrill for me.
Nonetheless, the bridge issue is interesting. I've found that very few vibratos reliably return exactly to pitch after vigorous use until you get to the really high-end systems. My first suspect with a new guitar would be the strings themselves. If after checking the nut and lubing all contact points there was still a problem, I'd consider one of those devices that install in the cavity and - in theory - guarantee that the bridge always returns to the same position.
To be frank, I've always been surprised that mechanical vibratos work as well as they do. Stretching six wires of different tensions and then relaxing them, with only springs to control the return to the neutral position, doesn't seem like a sound engineering solution in the first place.
Reviewers expect way too much from "traditional" vibrato systrems and spend too little time setting them up or chasing issues. I have cheap Strat' copies (Harley Benton) that work perfectly fine within reasonable use (no crazy dive bombs or Steve Vai stuff). Double locking systems were developped because others could not do these things no matter the quality level.
In other words, if you're going to buy one of these buy a fixed bridge only.
To be fair my charvel with a Floyd Rose does the same exact thing and costs twice as much
Ouch. That sucks.
The Harley Benton fusion III would be a better buy.
Yep.
I would never buy this guitar just because of the pickup switch location and the reverse headstock.
E.. I've been thinking about your budget friendly guitar reviews, I think your reviews would be better, if you played those through a budget friendly amp? I go now bye-bye..
I've though about that on occasion. I just like my Plexi so much :D