Why are people saying this guitar is designed for women?
When I see headlines claiming something is “the first” or “the best” these days, I have to do a little research to make sure. A majority of the time, it’s a complete fabrication or a deliberately worded piece of trickery to get some extra clicks for some useless turd of an article pretending to be worthy of your attention.
So of course, when I see Esquire and The Guardian reporting on my beloved subject, electric guitars, and making claims about an instrument being called “the first guitar for women” and other such diarrhea, I have to do some fact checking.
The articles’ slugs are a better summation of their content than the titles:
“Annie Clark Designed a Guitar for Women“
“First Guitar Designed for Women – St Vincent“
In fact, the St. Vincent was not the first designed for women. Nor the second.
It turns out that it’s not designed for women in the first place. It’s just a guitar that happened to be designed by a woman. And even that’s a stretch since most of her role consisted of approving Music-Man’s prototypes.
But I digress, the issue came from an Instagram post written by the guitar’s designer, Annie Clark (who goes by the stage-name St. Vincent – the guitar model’s namesake). She made the mistake of tacking on a little stamp of femininity at the end – which you can see on the right-hand side of this article.
Of course, news outlets took the “room for a breast” comment and completely misconstrued it for the headline’s hyperbolic factor and to capitalize on the feminist undertones. In doing so, they screwed up the marketing plan for a very cool guitar.
Annie Clark has expressed her frustration about being the source of the guitar’s misrepresentation. You can see her making an effort to clear up the situation in a video interview for Vice.
In regards to the Music Man St. Vincent guitar itself
Now that’s all cleared up, let’s get back to what actually matters here – guitars!
The new lineup of Music Man’s St. Vincent model features four new finish options: Polaris White, Stealth Black, Heritage Red and a classic Tobacco Burst.
The body wood is an African Mahogany, while the neck & fingerboard are made of Rosewood. The Stealth Black model also happens to be the black sheep – its neck & fingerboard are made from Maple and Ebony. That’s probably more to do with offsetting the color scheme, but I’m partial to an ebony fretboard if it’s an option – so it’s a great base if you ask me!
You also don’t see very many manufactured guitars that use this body wood and a complete Rosewood neck, so the St. Vincent is definitely a unique entry to the catalogue.
If you’re looking for a great low-fi / experimental rock sound, this guitar’s pickup scheme seems to have that in mind (as evidenced by the video above).
2017 Music Man St. Vincent: Full Specifications
Price: $1899 (from Amazon)
| Model | St. Vincent | |
| Size | 12-9/16″ wide, 1-5/8″ thick, 39-9/16″ long (31.9 cm wide, 4.1 cm thick, 100.5 cm long) | |
| Weight | 7lb 5oz (3.31kg) – varies slightly | |
| Body Wood | African Mahogany | |
| Body Finish | High gloss polyester | |
| Body Colors | St. Vincent Blue, Stealth Black, Tobacco Burst, Polaris White, Heritage Red | |
| Bridge | Custom St. Vincent Music Man® Modern tremolo with vintage bent steel saddles | |
| Pickguard | White (Vincent Blue & Polaris White); Matte Black (Stealth); Parchment (Heritage Red & Tobacco Burst); | |
| Scale Length | 25-1/2″ (64.8 cm) | |
| Neck Radius | 10″ (25.4 cm) | |
| Headstock Size | Only 5-7/8″ (14.9 cm) long | |
| Frets | 22 – High profile, medium width | |
| Neck Width | 1-5/8″ (41.3 mm) at nut, 2-1/4″ (56.9 mm) at last fret | |
| Neck Wood | Select Rosewood neck (Maple for Stealth Black) | |
| Fingerboard | Select Rosewood (Ebony for Stealth Black) | |
| Fret Markers | Custom St. Vincent Inlays | |
| Neck Finish | Gunstock oil and hand-rubbed special wax blend (Ultra-light satin polyurethane finish for Stealth Black) | |
| Neck Colors | Standard – Natural with finished headstock | |
| Tuning Machines | Schaller M6-IND locking with pearl buttons (Black buttons for Stealth Black) | |
| Truss Rod | Adjustable – no component or string removal | |
| Neck Attachment | 5 bolts – perfect alignment with no shifting; Sculpted neck joint allows smooth access to higher frets | |
| Electronic Shielding | Graphite acrylic resin coated body cavity and aluminum control cover | |
| Controls | 250kohm volume and tone – .047µF tone capacitor | |
| Switching | 5-way lever pickup selector with custom configuration | |
| Pickups | HHH – 3 DiMarzio custom mini-humbucking with chrome covers (Black covers for Stealth Black) | |
| Left Handed | No | |
| Strings | 10p-13p-17p-26-36-46 (RPS 10 Slinkys #2240) | |
Be sure to check out the Majesty Monarchy, another great model from Music Man. They seem to be putting out some quality instruments – I’d be considering one for myself if I had the spare money! For now, I’ll just have to stick to my shovel.
For anyone looking for something cheaper, check out the Best Guitars under $500 or Best Starter Guitars under $300 articles!