Ernie Ball Music Man unleashes Heat Treated humbuckers and +20dB boost on Jason Richardson’s new signature Cutlass

Ernie Ball Music Man and Jason Richardson have unveiled the latest state-of-the-art signature Cutlass for the All That Remains guitarist, with the new for 2024 models offered in Kokiri Forest and limited edition Venetian Red finishes that highlight all the details in their highly figured buckeye burl maple tops.

You can get these as a regular six-string electric guitar or, if extended range is your jam, a 7-string guitar , but if that Venetian Red is speaking to you our advice would be to act fast; Ernie Ball Music Man is only making 25 of them in each configuration.

These signature Cutlasses have everything Richardson could need in an instrument, and as contemporary metal guitars come they do not get more feature-stacked than this.

We’ve got a pair of EBMM’s much vaunted Heat Treated humbucking electric guitar pickups , custom wound for Richardson for more output and dynamic range.

Of course, if you want more output, you’ve got it via a push-push volume knob that, out of the box, can apply 12dB of boost. Adjust the trimmer inside the control cavity and you can dial up a whopping 20dB to smash the front end of your guitar amp and get it singing.

If you want single -coil tones, you’ve got them, too, with a coil-tap on the neck humbucker promising “rich, authentic” single-coil tones. In other words, not that sort of thin, weedy sound that you get with some tapped humbuckers.

The double cutaway design of the Cutlass is familiar but it has been modified to Richardson’s liking, with an extended lower cutaway exposing more of that ebony fretboard. The frets, incidentally, are stainless steel, fat, and there are 24 of them.

As ever, the Ernie Ball Music Man attention to detail is where your money is going. Few other makers apply such luxurious touches as applying gunstock oil and hand-rubbed wax to a neck’s finish, and lining the electronics with shielding – look under the hood and you’ll find graphite acrylic resin coating the body cavity and aluminium control covers to make for a low-noise instrument. It’s all very nice.

As to the fundamentals, we’ve got the aforementioned buckeye burl maple top sitting on a solid alder body, while the neck is roasted figure maple, joining the body with a super-secure five-bolt joint on a guitar with a 25.5” scale. Hardware is tip-top. You’ve got Schaller M6-IND locking tuners on the headstock and one of EBMM’s Custom Music Man floating tremolos.

The Jason Richardson Cutlass is priced from $3,599 street. See Ernie Ball Music Man for more details.