Trying to improve a proven product can always be fraught with risk, but Ernie Ball’s Music Man division did just that with the recent release of the 2018 Cutlass and StingRay RS models. The RS
Trying to improve a proven product can always be fraught with risk, but Ernie Ball’s Music Man division did just that with the recent release of the 2018 Cutlass and StingRay RS models. The RS stands for “roasted,” which has become an increasingly popular manufacturing process for very understandable reasons: Heating the neck woods to a high temperature over an extended period of time drives out the moisture, and makes the material harder and more responsive to string vibration, while also imparting a deep, dark coloration to the wood that reveals the grain in often stunning fashion.
Such is the case with both models on review here, and particularly the Cutlass, with its amazingly figured maple fretboard. Both models are available with maple ’boards when ordered in Vintage Turquoise, Firemist Silver, or Vintage Sunburst. Rosewood fretboards are standard with Ivory White, Coral Red, or Charcoal Frost finishes, and the Stealth Black option gives you an ebony fretboard.
CUTLASS RS HSS
As with the original Cutlass, the new RS HSS features an alder body that couples via a bolt-on joint to a gorgeously figured maple neck. The flawless Vintage Turquoise finish dictates a maple fretboard, and the 25.5" scale, 10” radius surface also shows off the deep tiger striping of the wood. Sporting a medium-slim carve and 22 highly polished stainless-steel frets, the Cutlass’s neck has an awesome playing feel. The guitar intonates well in all positions thanks, in part, to a compensated nut—and the factory setup provides for low action that allowed only minimal string buzz when bending above the 12th fret. The Music Man Modern Tremolo is butter smooth and returns to pitch very reliably once the strings are stretched out, and the Schaller M6 locking tuners and their 4 +2 arrangement—which provides straight string path over the nut—also