Sterling S.U.B. AX3 Guitar

It was great to get my hands on the new S.U.B. series of Sterling guitars by Music Man. The S.U.B. series of guitars and basses are comprised of both US and “International” models aiming at high quality and serious value for money. Today I'll be reviewing three Indonesian models: the Sterling S.U.B. AX-3, Silo-3 guitars, and the Ray-4 bass.

The first guitar that took my eye was the lovely AX3 Guitar, based on Eddie Van Halen's signature Axis model and finished in a gorgeous transparent blue flame top. With a 25.5” scale, featuring a solid hardwood body, maple neck and fingerboard in a smooth satin finish for fire-breathing shred. Two body-mounted zebra humbuckers provide a wide range of tones, with a five-way selector splitting the pickups into single coils at positions 2 and 4. Other features include an easy to use truss rod adjuster, five-bolt neck attachment, superb cutaway and a killer 'dive-only' trem with a small recessed handle allowing use without a whammy bar.

Plugged in the AX3 fell nothing short of a guitar three times its price, sounding thick and full, funky and 'quacky' or richly saturated for searing solos. The winning factors on this guitar are the “hardwood” body, which sounds, responds and weighs like mahogany, two killer pickups (and their body mounting) and superb tuning stability.

Next was the Silo 3, (showing shades of influence from the John Petrucci model) with a single bridge humbucker and two single coils providing the tones. This particular guitar was finished in white with a black pickguard for a cool, classy white tuxedo look. There was a discernable difference in body weight and tone compared to the AX3, which leads me to believe the body is made of alder, ash or basswood.

In comparison to the AX3, the Silo 3 sounded completely different, much thinner and lighter in tone, making it better matched to warmer, darker sounding valve amps like certain Fender and Mesa combos. The signal was also much cleaner than the AX3 (even with the humbucker) so it was easy to achieve super-clean, chorused chimes that dominated '80s ballads, if that's your thing.

Finally, the S.U.B. Ray 4 bass, modeled after one the greatest basses in existence, the Music Man Stingray. Much like the real deal, this bass had the iconic Stingray pickguard, single humbucker (with active preamp), and three aside/one aside headstock. Again, even though this bass was born offshore, it had the look, feel and in some respects tone of the classic American Stingray. A couple of things make this bass really appealing, for one it's probably the only bass in its price range with quality active electronics, solid quality woods and a sturdy six-bolt neck joint.

Not only an excellent looking bass, but sounding fantastic the pickup presents strong, clean, high output tones, perfect for direct recording and DI'd tones, as well as lots of versatility with the onboard preamp, from smooth jazz, funky slap to thick midrange rock, and the absence of a neck or middle pickup makes popping, slapping, and picking easier as well.

Sterling has undoubtedly achieved its goals with the new S.U.B. series. Low prices, high quality, great looks and killer tones.