REVIEWED
Sterling Silo30 STERLINGSilo30
Musicman Guitars’ affordable Sterling line is joined by a versatile new model offering humbucking and single coil tones...
Words: Tim Slater
The Sterling Silo30 represents the latest addition to the budget priced Chinese -manufactured Sterling series designed by premier US brand Musicman. Effectively an affordable version of the Musicman Silhouette Special, the Silo30 is a very pretty little guitar with an instant appeal, its compact streamlined shape and versatile humbucker/ single/single pickup layout offering a seductive combination of comfort and tonal flexibility.
Get your sleek on Since Musicman launched the Sterling brand in 2009 one of its most impressive features has been the inclusion of high quality components and finishing that often feels uncannily similar to their highly spec’d US counterparts. The
STERLING Silo30
SRP £529.00
All prices include VAT CONT
ACT
Strings and Things E:
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Sterling Silo30 duly maintains this level of attention to detail courtesy of Schaller M6 locking tuners arranged in Musicman’s distinctive ‘four-over- two’ headstock layout; plus a steel vibrato bridge with bent steel saddles and push-in vibrato arm that closely resembles the heavy duty unit fitted to the US Musicman Silhouette. The bolt-on maple neck fixes to the solid basswood body via an ultra strong five bolt neck joint that is another feature directly derived from the US Musicman instruments and all-in the Silo30 comes across as very well appointed and tidy little guitar. The Silo30 is available in a choice of black or white poly finishes, with a 22 rosewood fingerboard on the white model while the black version sports a maple fingerboard. Both fingerboard options share a Musicman style flat 10-inch radius and medium jumbo sized frets. The satin finish on the rear of the neck has a certain blandness that betrays this guitar’s Far eastern origins but on the whole that pales beside the overall sensation of sleekness and comfort that comes with the neck’s smooth easy playing feel, players that like to really dig in and bend the strings up way beyond the 15th fret will find their progress is unhampered by the wide tallish frets and forgiving fingerboard radius. The body’s generously scooped lower cutaway and reduced neck heel also
play a role in aiding playing comfort by offering practically unhindered access to the stratospheric limits of the fingerboard.
Sounds A standard five-way pickup selector switch is wired so that the bridge humbucker is automatically coil tapped when the bridge pickup is combined with the middle single coil, delivering the classic scooped ‘quack’. By itself the bridge humbucker sounds surprisingly good for a low cost guitar, it’s medium output is demonstrated by a nicely balanced voice; a tight bass, firm but not overpowering midrange and a sweet sounding top end. Combined with overdrive and a touch of delay, the Silo30 is capable of very convincing contemporary rock tones (check out the video on the Playmusic website) and the single coil pickups provide a very workable contrast even though by themselves they aren’t particularly outstanding. The S30’s single coil tones are adequate enough, though; the middle/neck combo delivers a decent enough version of the classic ‘in-between’ tone but the neck pickup alone leans a bit too much towards the glassier side of things, at least in our opinion. Bearing in mind that we are looking at a very competitively priced guitar the general impression is still positive,
the meaty bridge humbucker and the two brighter-sounding single coils is a proven blend that lends itself to an enormous variety of musical styles and generally speaking the Silo30 ticks most of the right boxes, lacking only a bit of refinement in some of the single coil tones. There are other guitars out there that maybe offer fractionally more
sophistication and depth in terms of sound but to be honest weighed against the rest of the Silo30’s impressive specs who is really going to argue at this price? PM
SHOULD I BUY ONE?
In a nutshell, the Sterling Silo30 presents an affordable way for guitar players to get their hands on an entry level version of the iconic Musicman Silhouette Special for a mere fraction of the price of the US-made model. Straight from the box it is a very capable little guitar that can easily adapt to an astonishing variety of musical situations. To be honest, the Silo30 feels less of a stepping stone to a more expensive guitar; in fact this is a heck of a lot of guitar for a very modest outlay.
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