Sterling By Music Man Kaizen 6 review: one of the most ergonomic and comfortable guitars I’ve ever played
$849/£999, sterlingbymusicman.com
Every now and again you stumble across an instrument which renews your belief that there’s still plenty of room for innovation in guitar building. At the heavier end of the spectrum, Animals As Leaders guitarist Tosin Abasi has been something of a standard-bearer for this, both with his own Abasi Concepts guitar brand, but also with his collaboration with Ernie Ball Music Man.
READ MORE: Strandberg Boden Standard N2 review: “a remarkably versatile and usable guitar”
The electric guitar that came out of that partnership was the Kaizen – a sleek, precision-engineered weapon of shred destruction that was launched back in 2022 to rave reviews. It felt like a guitar for the future, but one that came with a hefty price tag.
Now, however, we have a sub-$1,000 Sterling version that brings Abasi’s eye for forward-thinking guitar design to a much broader audience. The question is whether the design decisions made to make a guitar like this at this price point can retain enough of the brilliance and ingenuity of the original.
Image: Adam Gasson
Sterling By Music Man Kaizen 6 – what is it?
The original Kaizen was every bit a Tosin guitar – a seven-string multi-scale behemoth in the best kind of way. A six-string version came along a few years later, and so it’s fitting that we get both seven- and six-string iterations for this initial Sterling Kaizen run.
What you don’t get, however, is the fanned frets of the original, with EBMM opting for a conventional 25.5” scale with a 24-fret neck. Also different from the original are the pickups – the heat-treated humbucker and mini-humbucker of the original are replaced with a pair of OEM ceramic units. The alder body of the original is also traded for the less expensive but common nyatoh.
What the guitar does keep, and this is a very good thing, is the gearless Steinberger tuners that give the headstock its rather lovely uncluttered look. You also get a choice of two rather lovely finishes – Stealth Black or Firemist Purple Satin. This is not a guitar that’s going to win fans among the vintage obsessives, but that’s very much the point.
Image: Adam Gasson
Sterling By Music Man Kaizen 6 – build quality and playability
I won’t beat around the bush; the Sterling By Music Man Kaizen 6 is one of the most ergonomic and comfortable guitars I’ve ever played – at least in terms of the way it rests in my lap.
Ergonomic guitars are all the rage at the moment in heavier circles – and they aren’t just designed with stage comfort in mind. The Kaizen can go toe to toe with the best of them. It’s vanishingly light (barely weighing 6lbs) and the uber-think body and seamless contours meld into you as you’re playing, whether seated or standing – you almost forget you’re holding a guitar sometimes.
If you’re the sort of woodshedding guitar player who likes to sit and practise for hours on end, or indulge in mammoth recording sessions in front of your computer, the way this guitar sits so comfortably and lightly in your lap is a game-changer.
At first, the Kaizen 6’s 15.75” fretboard radius feels a little sprawling – but that’s simply due to what I’m used to on my other guitars. After a few minutes with the Kaizen 6 I’m locked in, and if anything the wider radius feels like it offers more room to explore as a player.
There are some that will definitely miss the multi-scale fretboard of the Ernie Ball Music Man version, but the setup on this more conventionally-scaled neck is so solid and smooth and effortless I didn’t find myself pining for it. That said, I’d definitely be keen to try one should Sterling want to expand the range in the future.
The comfortable neck is coupled with what is an almost 2D form factor (and that’s a compliment) and a beautifully low string action right out the box, the Kaizen starts to feel almost like an extension of myself – which is exactly where I want to be in terms of priming myself for creativity. As Guitar.com’s resident shredder, I can confirm that sweep picking, in particular, with the Kaizen 6 is an absolute joy.
Obviously, the looks mean this is a guitar that will chiefly find itself in the sights of metal players. But in all honesty, it’s just a fantastically well-rounded instrument, and has the comfort and clean tones to handle a plethora of less aggressive styles of music, too. You might get a few odd glances if you whip it out at the local jazz club, mind, but at least people will remember your set…
The gearless Steinberger tuning machines are a bit of a headspin at first, but they do as promised in providing rock-solid tuning stability – especially with unforgiving use of the floating tremolo system at the other end – and with a 40:1 ratio, ultra-fine tuning adjustments feel effortless. These tuners undoubtedly serve the guitar’s sleek and streamlined aesthetic, too.
Image: Adam Gasson
Sterling By Music Man Kaizen 6 – sounds
The Kaizen 6’s blacked-out aesthetic, dual ceramic humbuckers and floating trem – paired with my personal penchant for metal – mean I head straight for the high-gain tones, naturally.
Personally, I like to test guitars both through a real amp and some kind of in-the-box amp plugin. My choices in this case are the Blackstar ID:CORE V4 – a cheap but formidable practice amp – and Positive Grid’s AI-powered tone platform, BIAS X.
Something about the alien-like offset body and matte black finish makes me head straight to the tuners and drop to something in the modern metal range. And while I can’t go quite as low as the Kaizen 7 would allow me, drop B suffices here. The drop tuning isn’t just for my own enjoyment, though; it’s to test how tightly the bridge pickup handles complex riffs in the lower registers. The Kaizen 6 aces this litmus test, with the perfect blend of aggressive bite and clarity that’ll effortlessly stand out in even the messiest of mixes.
Remember how I said sweeping was a joy? That’s in large part due to the warm tone of the neck pickup on a high-gain setting. Like the bridge pickup, the neck humbucker offers superb coherence of notes even when heavily driven – throw a fret wrap on there and the Kaizen 6’s fretboard becomes a genuine playground for your fingers.
The Music Man Kaizen featured a mini humbucker in the neck and a super-hot custom wound bridge bucker, but the Sterling’s tonal palette isn’t especially vast, with singular volume and tone controls, a three-way toggle switch and no push-pull functionality for coil-splitting. I didn’t find that I particularly missed all that, but it definitely makes the Sterling version less sonically versatile than its big brother.
Clean tones sound superb on the Kaizen 6, too, but it’s worth noting that the pickups run pretty hot, and are very responsive to the aggressiveness of your playing. In other words, even on a clean amp setting, playing hard enough provokes some degree of breakup in your signal.
Image: Adam Gasson
Sterling By Music Man Kaizen 6 – should I buy one?
All things considered, there are plenty of metal-ready double-humbucker, floating trem-loaded guitars on the market, but where the Kaizen 6 really excels, I believe, is in its ergonomics.
Supremely lightweight and thin – yet durable and ready to take a hammering, in terms of your playing, at least – the Kaizen 6 is among the most comfortable and seamless guitars I’ve ever played. And coupled with a more than adequate tonal palette, I’d say you’d be wise to part with £999 to get yourself one of these.
Image: Adam Gasson
Sterling By Music Man Kaizen 6 – alternatives
If budget isn’t a concern, you could spring for the full shebang and go for the Ernie Ball Music Man Kaizen ($3,799/£3,749). This’ll get you that modern metal fanned fret setup, Music Man-designed custom humbuckers – including a Heat Treated one in the bridge position billed by EBMM as “one of the hottest pickups on the market” – as well as a wider range of finish options. The fluorescent green Kryptonite, in particular, is my favourite. There are plenty of other ergonomically-inclined guitars out there at the moment, king of which is the remarkable Strandberg Boden II Standard ($1,799/£1,699) – though I think the Kaizen has the edge on looks.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
