Any Musicman Cutlas's around?

[musicmancutlas]

I'm A cutlas player and was wondering if I'm the last standing player. I know a few guys who have them but do not play them on any kinda regular basis.Anyone here have one to sell?I love em, thinking of starting a collection of them.I know thet're kinda rare anymore but I'm of the opinion that these basses are the MOST well rounded versitile basses ever made.That statement should start a few arguements...I've owned a lot of different basses mostly on the current hype of the time but always end up back with my cutlas.The Lakland 55-94 was the closest but I didn't keep it either.Hit me up, let me know what you think.MC

[gdcx]

The black one...one of the coolest looking basses ever (IMHO).

Had the opportunity to play one once and it played and sounded great.

But...the thing was over 11lbs !! :nono

That was the only thing that kept me from buying it.

Greg

[musicmancutlas]

I own the Black on black and yes, It is heavy but I also thinks it has a LOT to do with its Clarity and sustain.I like feeling the resination in my gut while I'm playing.Seems to be condusive to my playing ability and locking into the groove.I haven't gotten that connection with other guitars.The Lakland 55 series is close but feels out of balance and thatwas the only thing that was distracting to me.

[Mr. Mandolin]

:worthless

[musicmancutlas]

Gotcha. I'll see what I can do about getting pics posted.LOL:jo

[The Golden Boy]

Are those like the Sabres?

(yes, I'm that lazy that I'm not doing a search, just a reply on the forum...)

[tkozal]

Cutlass have graphite necks.

[Robal]

I have a Cutlass II, the model with two pickups. These are indeed rare instruments, produced during the waning days of Music Man before Ernie Ball took over the company. I bought my bass from a guy who worked at Music Man when they were being made and he got to keep this one when he left. Mine is translucent red with a clear pickguard in excellant condition.

The unusual thing about the Cutlass is that it has a graphite neck, made for Music Man by Modulus I was told. I undertand that Modulus made the necks but they were finished at Music Man. The Cutlass II has two active pickups, rather than the one large pickup you see on the standard Music Man, with a strat style pickup switch. I modified mine to split the coils in even more combinations with super strat switch. The two pickups in series combination is really fat.

The graphite neck is on the thinner side and very easy to play, compared to a typical p-bass neck. There are no dead spots, as you can encounter on a wood neck. It's more like my Steinberger L in that way, but more comfortable to play.

One potential problem with these basses is the graphite neck however, since they can bow with heavy strings and there is no truss rod adjustment to compensate for that. I had to have mine worked on by tech Sammy Sanchez to deal with the issue and it wasn't cheap. Therefore my advice for those looking to buy one of these basses: check out the neck to make sure it does not have a problem with bowing, because some do and some don't. I still have to use lighter guage bass strings with mine to avoid too much tension on the neck.

I searched for my Cutlass II in the mid-1990's after a strong recommendation from a friend who had one (a fretless version) that he used on a lot of recordings, including the first Sheryl Crow album. The bass records very well.

Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Anyone else have one or more of these cool basses?

[walterw]

what did sammy sanchez do to fix it? i'm very interested because i've encountered a few non-truss rod graphite necks with upbowing, and i would love to know his method for dealing with it!

[Robal]

what did sammy sanchez do to fix it? i'm very interested because i've encountered a few non-truss rod graphite necks with upbowing, and i would love to know his method for dealing with it!

This was years ago and I don't remember exactly how he did it, but the gist was he reshaped it so the neck bowed up in the middle when there was no string tension; then it flattened out when there were strings on it. He compared it to the flatbed of a truck trailer that is bowed up when unloaded and then flattens out under the load. I think he may have actually sanded some of the fretboard down at each end to get that effect, but I am not sure about that part. I think this is his contact info: 909-392-4502; (626) 905-0745.

I also heard that one of guys formerly with Modulus, now doing business as Graphite Guitar Systems in Rochester, Washington, (360) 273-7744, was involved in making these necks. He may have some ideas about how to deal with this curvature probelm.