Chapman ML1 Guitar

Before reviewing the amazing Chapman guitar I ordered for my son, Matt, I wanted to express to Andertons' how incredibly impressed we are with your outstanding service. Your company is incredible.

We're in the USA, and I can honestly say I haven't received such superb service from any company I've ever dealt with here-or anywhere, for that matter. Please give yourselves lots of golden stars, and know you have our loyalty from this point forward.

From the point of placing our order, we experienced your excellence and dedication: the quality control (every SINGLE Chapman guitar is individually set up and fully checked before it's shipped--it was ready to play, literally, right out of the box!) , frequent updates about shipment tracking, etc., and top-notch customer service was outstanding.

We ordered the Chapman guitar ML1. My son has played many brands of guitars and owns two other electric guitars besides his new Chapman (a Fender Strat and an Ibanez RG). The Chapman is the best of not just those, but also other guitars Matt has played at stores and friends' houses. His exact words were, "This is now my number one guitar, hands down!"

Matt is very particular about a guitar's performance--action, quality of woods used, electronics, etc. The Chapman ML1 is the first guitar he's ever gotten and not changed something on--EVER.

Both of us find it hard to believe the astounding quality of the Chapman, especially at such an affordable price! Our American friends who've seen the ML1 (it's not available here) always assume it must cost at LEAST $1,000 more than it actually did cost. The Chapman ML1 IS that amazing a guitar!

Again, Thank you SO much. Matt loves his Chapman ML1, and we're both thrilled with the quality of both the guitar and with Andertons' Music.

We will remain devoted customers of both Chapman Guitars...and Andertons'!! :)

Great guitar for a great prize, it arrive less than a week after my purchass and I live in Canada. It's heavy as you wish, great sound and tone, flawless construction, versatile and sexy as hell. What more can we say, it's a ML1.

Quality components a budget price!

What more needs to be said?

After playing for a year about the only thing i have learned apart from a few dodgy riffs and scruffy chords is the kind of sounds i like and dislike. The ML1 was bought with a view to add nice toys to a base guitar unfortunately for a project i am stuck because it sounds so damn good with stock pickups really good range of sounds and sustain, My old clumbsy fingers slide over the jumbo frets with ease the mahog and ebony are for life its just a lovely big black tree with strings i cannot put it down and really dont want to change anything on it. Thanks to Chappers for great video blogs on setup etc. Great guitar for any price!

great guitar. good service.

I bought this expecting a standard, lighter-weight mahogany bodied strat with some cool additions like a killswitch and wilkinson trem which one-upped this over a Fender strat. I instead got a heavy strat with insanely good tone and endless sustain. I don't know how Chapman does this, especially for the ridiculously low price, but I am glad I got this even without being able to try it out. Thank you Rob!

1 word - Fantastic.

I have been following Rob Chappers on Youtube for years now and I've seen the entire saga of Chapman guitars, and I've got to say, I never expected the quality to be this good. I bought the guitar as I am just about to head out on a US tour and I needed a decent guitar quickly that wasn't total s***. Mahogany, Maple and Ebony simple are not found on guitars as affordable as this. The build quality is excellent, the finish is very nice, especially in the light (stained not painted), the hardware is top quality, the only thing of low standard on the guitar are the pickups (which still sound phenomenal for cheap chinese pickups) and the strings which they are shipped with, both of which I was able to replace straight away as I had a Seymour Duncan SH-4 lying around I hadn't used yet.

I have "better" guitars (ie more expensive, more well known etc) but I can see this one being one of my work horses for years to come. After some adjustments (the action was FAR too high and it needed a truss adjustment) I had it feeling just the way I like it, and when I took it to band practice 2 days later it sounded AWESOME up against my band mates PRS Custom 24.

Lastly it comes with a great gig bag, a tone block (which I think I will put in), a lead, a whammy bar, Allen keys and a Monkey Lord certificate of Winticity! \m/

Pros = EXTREMELY affordable, high quality build, sounds fantastic, quality materials/hardware, nice medium feel neck, will handly anything from Jazz and Blues to Death Metal and everything in between.

Cons = A tiny bit heavy, mounting the new pickup to the right height proved a bit of a challenge (one I managed to overcome by getting some longer screws)

Bottom line: An AWESOME guitar. You simply will not be able to find its equal in anything even remotely in the same price range. Don't hesitate, you won't regret it (as long as you're willing to make the adjustments necessary to get the action to your liking). Well done Rob!

P.s. Andertons were brilliant, extremely quick and professional, getting the guitar all the way out to me in Australia inside a week! Very impressive. Thanks guys!

all i can say is OMG this guitar lives up to every expectation i had.

I had seen all the videos by Lee and the monkey lord and if im fully honest i was thinking about weather or not it would, but when it come throw the door i was blown away just by the look of the thing at first.

then after playing it i was very imprest, rob is right when he said that they had speared no expense on all the furnishings.

if i had any thing i would change is the size of the head stock tuning pegs, just a little small for my fingers, but apart from that its a winner.

after a few months and when i have some more money i would defo change the other 2 pick ups and keep the humbucker.

and to say its £199.99 hahahahha go get one now :o)

My son is the real guitar player in the family, my job is to buy the gear! His weapon of choice as primarily a bass player is the Musicman Bongo HH Stealth and for acoustic work we have a Garrison G20. We have always lusted after a quality 6 string electric, having had to make do with a Tanglewood (Nevada) Strat and an old Chinese built Kramer. Not anymore though! The ML1 at £199 seemed like the bargain of the century and Chappers sales pitch had me reaching for the Visa in no time. The guitar took 7 days to arrive here in Norway and I had it delivered to the International School where I work. I made sure I had an audience for the unveiling, well, my Rush fanatic NYC librarian pal. The first thing that hits you is the weight of the beast. Renders the Les Paul into the 'lightweight' category. I was also hugely impressed by the finish and construction. Once I got home and plugged it in (Fender Super Champ XD) I was left wondering why I hadn't invested in something this good years ago. The reason? There was never anything this good for this price years ago. I am fortunate that I live very close to Guitar Workshop on the outskirts of Oslo so I was very keen to show Trond what £199 can buy. (This is the same guy who has 2 Les Pauls on www.finn.no at £30k each - He knows guitars). He was more than impressed. He did however whip out his toolkit. Small adjustment to the neck and slight lowering of the single coils and he was happy. My son was more than happy as the adjustment made a great product fantastic. We really can't be happier. You've done a great job with the ML1, and I know that your ML2 customers will be chomping at the bit. You've made a lot of people very happy. Oh and another thing, it looks great next to the Bongo. Hail Black! All hail The Black Hand!!

Bang for buck, this is the best guitar I have ever owned !

Needed very little setting up, action was quite high, but then whatever floats your boat eh ?

Solid lump of rock win, that i gigged the night after delivery, many comments from lots of people, all good, Sound is superb for the money as is all of the other features. Specially liked the shadow kill pot, and now i have equipped it with D'addarrio 11's (mans strings lol) it rocks.

I am constantly astonished that Rob Chapman and his gang of simians have been able to do this for the price point. Buy with confidence, you will not be disappointed.

Also, Andertons delivery was very quick, so am impressed with that as well. I have been in bands since 1976, and this guitar is the sound in my head !!! Get one before they all go.

Really great guitar for the price. I don't really like the pickups in distortion, but that's a matter of taste, for a 200£ guitar, let's just say they're incredible.

Quite frankly there's not much to say about it. She's a beauty, a bargain. Really heavy though.

You can hear me playing it here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/FauneMusic

I ordered my Ml1 on a Friday night and it arrived extremely quickly on tuesday. The packaging was excellent and the courier was very careful with the box. The guitar was packaged well and turned up spotless.

The ML1 plays very nicely and (i think) was set up by Andertons well. Before purchasing i was a little sceptical about the pickups but when i plugged it it i found out that they are AMAZING! the bridge gives a nice hot, punchy tone and the neck gives a great warm tone. I haven't put it down since.

Thanks Andertons and Thanks Chappers for a truly ***** guitar.

The Best Value Guitar I Have ever owned in the price range. Great Tone and exceptional build. Most likely buy another ML1 Shortly if any are left for investment so I can mod the one I own. Can't say anything more Higher for Andertons customer service. I will definitely be purchasing again from you guys in the future.

Cheers

Shane

A really great guitar, completely blows away ANYTHING in this price range in terms of raw materials and playability. I would have preferred the price to be a little higher if it meant ironing out some of those niggling issues such as the frets being poorly dressed and the wiring being a little unstable etc. It has taken me around three weeks to get this guitar into a comfortable playing state but if you stick with it, and take it to the right tech, you can turn this guitar into pretty much anything you want.

4.5 / 5

i am very happy with this purchase.everythin was great out the box..great guitar for the money dont regret anythin.brilliant guitar

Amazing guitar at an amazing price. Brilliant customer service and speedy free delivery... What more can I say?

excellent service, fantastic product looks great, plays great, city link delivery is a pain though expect to wait 2 to 3 days after expected delivery day for your stuff, still worth it wen you get it :)

After following the development of this guitar on Rob Chapmans YouTube page, I finally gave in and bought one before they sold out.

I havn't put it down since it arrived, and my deluxe strat and jem have not had a look in, great tones even with the stock pick ups, although I am toying with swapping them in the future. But could happily leave them in.

The only minor niggle was the set up when it arrived. I know it only comes with a factory setup. But I did spend a fair while getting it to where I was happy. High action but still suffering fret buzz etc.

So I would recommend a proper setup. To get the best out of this guitar if your not familiar with it.

Once it's to your liking however you won't regret it. The neck shape is like a mixture of the necks off of all my favourite guitars. And as said the tones are great. Clean and dirty.

For the money I think it's amazing. And regardless of the cost it holds it own against my other instruments. That cost 5 times as much !

Buy one now. I can see theses being collectable in the future ....

Deano...

Great Service!! Very fast deliever !!

Now to the guitar:

The ML1 is really amazing.I dont think you get anywhere a better value for this money.

It plays great.Its a really solid pice of gear!!The guitar itself is really heavy! Great tone..

Mayby the only "little" negative thing (if u can call it negative ?!) is that the fret job on my modell isn`t the best.

But hey..i paid 255pounds (incl shipping to germany) and i think for this i can deal with it verry good!

greetings

mike

Naprawdę doskonała gitara. Mogłaby śmiało kosztować sporo więcej bo jest tego warta. Po pierwsze i najważniejsze bardzo ładnie brzmi, wygodnie się na niej gra, i doskonale stroi. Pięknie wygląda, jest bardzo dobrze wykończona. Progi perfekcyjnie nabite, krawędzie wyszlifowane, Potencjometry nie trzeszczą, elektronika działą sprawnie i bez zastrzeżeń. Nawet pokrowiec jest przyzwoitej jakości. Jedynie dołączony firmowo klocek do blokowania mostka trzeba było doszlifować własnoręcznie. Jestem bardzo zadowolona z zakupu.

I was part of the original user design of this guitar but had so far held back, as I`m not generally one for buying guitars that I can`t play first.

However, after the price drop, and reading other glowing reviews I thought that the ML1 would be a decent band workhorse.

After having the guitar checked, setup and dressed by Andertons before delivery I`m very pleased with the overall build quality and the playability is up there with guitars more than 3 times the price. One thing that took me by surprise was the actual quality of tone from the stock humbuckers. I was expecting much less, but now I`m not even considering changing them.

The only mod I am planning is re-wiring with a 5 way switch to isolate a few more single coil tones, which will then make the ML1 the most versatile guitar I own.

Great job!

Amazing guitar for an even more amazing price. You will love this guitar. GET IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!

For just just £199 this guitar feels like a steal!

I would recommend to anyone. Built of high spec quality materials and it shows.

My ML1 came after about 3-5 weeks, due to the snow, but Andertons kept me informed throughout, which was brilliant. It played well straight out of the box but did need some adjustments due to it being cold in van.

Very happy with my ML1, after changing the strings, the playablilty increased even more, it was just a shame that it wasn't set up too great from the box but it didn't bother me too much. (This was before the Chapman Guitars tech).

Otherwise, excellent, very happy with my purchase,

Great guitar, especially for the price tag!

Like many others I had been thinking about buying the guitar for a while and when the price dropped how could I say no!

The guitar has some great pro features and is a solid lump, heavier than my les paul, and the stock cheap pick ups are great.

The guitar was in need of a set up when arrived, which could of been down to the freezing temperature, however I understand Andertons offer a set up when you order. Once the guitar was sorted it sounds great and is a great, solid, rock workhorse!