Sterling by Music Man JP100D John Petrucci Signature model w/ Dimarzio pickups Electric Guitar 

Comments about Sterling by Music Man JP100D John Petrucci Signature model w/ Dimarzio pickups Electric Guitar:

Admittedly, this is my first guitar with a decent set of pickups. So, it should come to no surprise that when I first played it along with some background music, I immediately noticed now much I stood out from it. Nothing muddy or ear-piercing about the tone. I'm not one to use the neck pickups, but I do now!

It took me some time to set it up to my liking, but the wheel trust rod adjuster is so convenient! The sterling website has all the factory setup specs, so I started there.' The setup out of the box is conservative and while the sustain is great, the action was too high for a player that likes to solo in progressive styles. With the action down to 1.6m on the 15th fret, only a slight amount of buzz occurs (not audible through an amp) and no dead notes and no sacrifice of sustain, which is always my concern when it comes to quality.

My band mates immediately noticed a difference in tone. What can I say, it feels great! I lean towards Ibanez guitars because of the contour of the body. The JP100D fits like a glove. Also, the neck flattens out like an Ibanez as you go up the neck, which makes 12-fret playing very comfy.

The soft case that comes with the JP100D is lined with fur and is thick. It came with all of the tools required to set it up, as well as a gnarly sticker!

Comments about Sterling by Music Man JP100D John Petrucci Signature model w/ Dimarzio pickups Electric Guitar:

This is an amazing guitar. I love everything about it. It plays very well like no other guitar I've owned and is even more beautiful in person.

Keep track of the very small action adjuster tool. It's very helpful. I broke a string rather quickly by bending the high E while they were still fresh -- most likely a fault on my part -- it also had an issue with fret buzzing; the action got lowered when I broke the string and was so low that it was buzzing like crazy and it was very annoying. The tool fixed it right away and it got back to it's extremely low and incredible action. I barely have to press at all to fret a note! Which helps with speed.

It's simply...Incredible.

Comments about Sterling by Music Man JP100D John Petrucci Signature model w/ Dimarzio pickups Electric Guitar:

LOve this guitar! The bridge is a little bad but if you can live the whammy bar alone it will be fine.. You can play any style with it but I feel this guitar is much better for rock because these dimarzio pickups are very hot. Pair this babe up with a high gain amp like a Mesa Boogie dual,or a triple rectifier or a Mark V and you're gold!! :-) Can't wait for my Mark V to get here..

Comments about Sterling by Music Man JP100D John Petrucci Signature model w/ Dimarzio pickups Electric Guitar:

It is a beautiful and well made guitar, through and through. It can be set up pretty much as needed. Finish was great, flawless even. This is clearly the first time I've ever used pickups of this quality. The difference to me was shocking/good. Can't believe I settled for generic ones my whole life. I will be ordering the JP set and putting them in my regular guitar.

I felt I got an instrument that was worth the price tag.

I'm only returning it because the pickup selector is in just the wrong position for me. My knuckles keep running into it and after 30 years of playing, I don't want to adjust my habits to accommodate it.

Comments about Sterling by Music Man JP100D John Petrucci Signature model w/ Dimarzio pickups Electric Guitar:

Best playing guitar I own. I have a Les Paul, a Fender and this Sterling. For a 'value brand' this guitar delivers in spades.
The only thing this beauty is missing is coil tapping - The Dimarzio pickups sound awesome, and you can get that sweet blurry-fluttering noise that JP gets from the bridge pickup.
Excellent build and finish!
I had this guitar signed by John Petrucci at a meet & greet. He said "I'm playing one exactly like this tonight!" - he confused this beauty with his BFR until he saw the Sterling bridge. That about says it all. You can't go wrong for this price!

Comments about Sterling by Music Man JP100D John Petrucci Signature model w/ Dimarzio pickups Electric Guitar:

Overall, I'd say that this guitar is worth way more than they're selling it for, from the feel to the sound quality to straight looks, it compares with some of the most expensive guitars. Musicman did a really outstanding job on this guitar and it's highly recommended.
Everything that makes a guitar great is in this guitar, from the feel of the neck(I'm really picky) to the tuners and pickups, it doesn't leave you wishing for more.
For this price, this guitar is exceptionally amazing, I'm very impressed with the quality of this guitar for such an affordable price compared to the real BFR.
Again it's amazing especially for this price i'd recommend it to anyone who wants an good quality guitar.

Comments about Sterling by Music Man JP100D John Petrucci Signature model w/ Dimarzio pickups Electric Guitar:

This is really an 8+... like 8. I can't give it a 9 because of the setup woes. I really wanted to have the dimarzio pickups and they are "nice" but really nothing great. What I mean is that there is not a distinction with these pickups that says "wow". The bridge does seem to accentuate the attack a bit more than I would prefer, on the same token, when Petrucci says piano like tone on the low strings in the neck position, he means it. I like that precision on the low notes for clean work. Very cool. As a reference, I would say my favorite pickup is the duncan screamin demon. It's very clean and toneful, or at least sounds good to me. These are pro pickups in the JP100D, I will not change them and I am happy with them, but not "wowed".

I tweaked the setup a little and I am very happy with the playability. Very comfortable guitar to play standing or sitting, the neck shape is very comfortable, but I am not picky about neck shape. i play a baseball bat or an Ibanez Wizard; there are merits to both

All in all a very very good guitar for the cost and I do recommend it...
At the price this is a very good feature set. I love having the locking tunersl having the dimarzios is good and the normal features of any guitar are well executed. a thoughtful design and implementation. I love the gig bag and the sticker was a nice touch
The build of this instrument leaves nothing to be desired. it's very well crafted for a guitar in this price range. Fit and finish, attention to detail is all there. I do have one complaint and that is the setup....It does not really speak to the quality of the guitar, but I felt the setup could have been executed much better. Strings too high off fretboard, floating bridge not parallel to body when brought to std tuning... its not a show stopper, but I did expect a better setup. The setup is the reason I dropped it down to an 8, otherwise this could have been rated a 9 or higher.
Very positive....it's a very good value and I am pleased with this purchase

Comments about Sterling by Music Man JP100D John Petrucci Signature model w/ Dimarzio pickups Electric Guitar:

I could understand rating the other JP sterling guitars lower than 10, but this specific model deserves all 10's. If you compared it to the real thing, I would say this would get a 9. But we all know the real thing is 4 times as expensive.
This guitar comes stock with JP's Crunchlab and Liquifire pickups. That alone makes it worth buying over any other JP sterling. I've been wanting a Sterling Music Man guitar, and this one is the best of the whole bunch, believe me. It also comes with locking tuners (a must have along with the Crunchlab and Liquifire) and a way better than average non locking tremelo. Very few guitars less than a grand feature a true quilted vineer top like this one has. The only JP guitar that has a more vibrant quilted finish is his own BFR, as it's extremely vibrant. This is just stunning, regardless.
It's set far ahead of any other guitar, coming stock with his signature pickups and locking tuners. All the small features, like jumbo frets, perfectly angled and placed 3 way switch, shield inlays, and adjustable tension tremelo, make it outstanding. The neck even has a compound radius type, getting thinner as you go up the neck. I didn't even need to switch out the nut for a graphite nut for better tuning.
This guitar is in the same price range as an Ibanez Premium. If you really like that type of thing, then at this price you should get what you like. If you were to set both guitars up well with equal pickups, they would be equal. It's all about feel, and Sterling did an oustanding job. Personally, I have an Ibanez Prestige and I prefer this guitar more. I just love the John Petrucci style.