St. Vincent (aka Annie Clarke) isn’t known for her metal chops – however, if you can believe it, she is a bit of a metalhead and has been filmed playing some metal jams. So when it came time for me to review the newest iteration of her signature Ernie Ball Music Man guitar – the St. Vincent HH – I had to know – will it metal?
Of course, the comments section will be sure to let me know that any guitar can do metal – with that insightful bit of knowledge out of the way, I decided to dig into whether or not it’s bred for metal, or if it’ll just get the job done. Also, and far more importantly – is it any good?Â
There are already plenty of reviews on this guitar that don’t touch on its metal capabilities – this makes sense because it’s of course not aimed at that audience. But I found that it’s a very versatile axe, and within its unique body there are a plethora of tones for any style.
As every EBMM I’ve ever played, the St. Vincent HH is a spectacularly well-made guitar. There’s a feel to their guitars that is unmatched by many brands at even much higher price points, a between the solid overall construction and design of how the surfaces feel against your body, there are few guitars on the market as comfortable. This guitar was no exception, and although there were things about it that aren’t up my alley personally, or specs that on paper I wouldn’t have picked, it still stole my heart.
The neck is a very rounded and fat one, with the signature EBMM gunstock oil satin finish, and 22 frets on a 10″ radius ebony fretboard. This was the main part of the guitar that wasn’t my style, as a very round neck short on frets, without much in the way of upper fret access. But that’s hardly the point – the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and the guitar still feels killer.
The sound is a whole other story – as you can hear from the demo, the custom Music Man pickups took to high gain extremely well, just as well as the clean tones, and for this reason I declare it perfectly suited for metal. A shredhead like myself will feel a bit constricted by the build, but not the sound.
Conclusion: confidently buy the EBMM St. Vincent HH for all your rock and metal sonic needs, and know that it sounds as awesome as it looks. Be the most stylish player at the gig, even if you forgot your bowtie.
