MANSON META MBM-2

and that last point is something we’ll
be seeing throughout the MBM-2’s
spec sheet. It’s cut out of basswood,
and nished in either Dry Satin Black
or Starlight Silver for the P-90-
equipped version, or Dry Satin Black/
Meta Blue for the tech-heavy model.
The necks on each guitar follow the
same format with Canadian maple,
carved to a ‘soft V’ prole and tted
with an Indian laurel ngerboard.
Guitars don’t come much more
contemporary than this, and sticking
to that theme there’s a 25.5” scale
length (enough to dip your toe into
drop-tuned waters), with 22 frets,
and the ngerboard features
a compound 12”-16” radius. That
means that it’s narrower at the
headstock end to make chords more
comfortable, while up at the top you
should be able to bend without
choking-out your notes.
The hardware is uniform, too,
with a Cort T-o-M-style bridge and
stoptail, plus Manson-branded
locking tuners not only keeping things
stable, but making string changes
quick too. Electronically, both guitars
feature a kill button as standard, and
the controls are simple master tone/
master volume knobs. So, is the
dierence purely electronic?
In a word – yes. But what
dierence? We’ll get to that shortly,
but rst, we should add that the
playing experience on both of our
review guitars is not only comfortable,
but a lot of fun. The V-shape of the
neck is indeed ‘soft’, and while there’s
a very slight hump towards its centre,
this certainly isn’t the pronounced
ridge you’ll nd on more vintage
examples. It’s a great alternative in
a sea of ‘C’s, made even better by the
fact that it’s a satin nish, which to us
adds a premium feel to what is (in the
case of the P-90 model) a relatively
aordable guitar.
The ngerboards on both are very
neat, with nothing to slow us down
and the highly-polished frets make
fretting and bending silky smooth.
Talking of which, if you’ve ever
dismissed a compound radius as
marketing u, these guitars could
well change your mind. A combination
of that neck prole and the radius
means that we’re able to reach for the
sky and hold it there with no sign of
our note faltering. Under gain it’s
a case of ‘go and have a bite’ – there’s
a lot of sustain on oer.
But the big news here is of course
the electronics. We’ll start with that
neck P-90. Sometimes the humble
soapbar gets overlooked as your
grandad’s favourite magnet, when
it really should be viewed as the
guitarist’s secret weapon. This isn’t
an o-the-peg recreation of a dusty
blues pickup, though. Manson’s
Adrian Ashton tells us that in order to
get the balance correct between the
P-90 and the existing Manson-
designed humbucker, they went back
to the drawing board. It shows,
because it’s got power and punch in
abundance. Forget what you might
think about wooly, vintage warmth,
and imagine a neck single coil that’s
been on the Red Bull. It’s angry, red
up, and ready to throw tonal punches
that you might not see coming. It’s
the sort of deep neck tone we
associate with players such as Tom
Morello – one of Matt’s inuences
– and it also comes through in his own
playing, particularly when he’s in
drop-D. There’s bass without ab,
a mid-scoop without losing the growl,
and a high end that helps it slice
through. It’s complemented rather
than entirely contrasted by that bridge
humbucker, which takes us back to
a thicker, almost wider-sounding
midrange when we want a smoother
humbucker sound.
In our review of the MBM-1, we
mentioned how we’d like to have seen
coil-splitting as a factory option, but
in hindsight, we’ll take this pickup
conguration – which could easily see
you through everything from a set of
blues to heavy rock – with pleasure.
On to the sci- version, then.
There’s the standard controls, but the
neck pickup is a Sustainiac Stealth
Pro. If you’re not sure what that is,
you’re in for a treat. When switched
o, the Sustainiac acts like a regular
neck humbucker. But, engage the ‘on’
switch, and it will create a magnetic
eld to excite the strings. This means
you can get an innite sustain from
one note, then violin it, slide it, bend
it, douse it in eects – whatever takes
your fancy. But there’s more! Because
the second toggle switch oers three
modes: Fundamental (your original
note frequency), Harmonic (which can
be used for producing feedback-like
sounds), and Mix (a blend of the two).
There are internal trim pots inside the
guitar for adjusting the humbucker
volume, as well as Sustainer gain
and Harmonic mode gain, too.
Adding to the fun is the Z. Vex Fuzz
Factory circuit. We should point out
that Manson hasn’t gone with an
inferior or cut-down version of the
additional electronics. These are the
exact same eects and circuitry that
Bellamy uses in his custom stage
guitars. The Fuzz Factory is a modern
classic, known for its excessive,
ripping-Velcro fuzz sound and utilised
by Bellamy most famously on the Plug
In Baby ri (among many others).
Top-mounted to the guitar are the
FF’s Stab and Comp controls, and the
eect is engaged via another mini-
toggle, which works in the opposite
direction to that of the Sustainiac’s
on/o switch. Meanwhile there are
additional controls inside the guitar’s
cavity, which are again ‘set and
forget’. Engaged, it’s nothing short
of insanity, in the best possible way!
Winding up the gate gets you that
tight, ripping, Jack White-style fuzz,
all stuttering and synth-like. Play with
the comp control, and you’ll hear
a huge self-oscillation that sits
somewhere between noise and
feedback, and can be bent in pitch as
you move through the knob’s travel.
Bellamy fans will have seen and heard
this particular eect many times in
live performances.
TOTAL GUITAR SEPTEMBER 2022
92
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The Meta MBM-2
comes in Meta Blue
and Dry Satin Black
(as pictured), as well
as Starlight Silver
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