Manson and Muse’s Matt Bellamy unveil new mid-priced META Series MBM-2 signature electrics

Manson Guitar Works has unveiled a quartet of new META Series MBM-2 signature guitars for Muse’s Matt Bellamy. This META Series update has many highlights – enhanced body contours, cool pickup options – but perhaps chief among them is that it includes a left-handed model.

Manufactured by Cort, these high-performance electric guitars offer a postmodern representation of the T-Style at an accessible price point. The new models comprise the left-handed MBM-2 in Dry Satin Black, the P-90 and humbucker-equipped MBM-2 in Starlight Silver and Dry Satin Black, and the MBM-2 Sustainiac in Dry Satin Black and Meta-Blue gloss – as modelled by Mr Matt Bellamy below.

The new META Series models have improved ergonomics, solid basswood bodies, and bolt-on Canadian maple necks. Those necks have a soft V profile and are topped with Indian laurel fingerboards, with the comfort of the soft V matched by the speedy dimensions of the 12 to 16” compound radius ‘board. 

Scale lengths are 25.5”. These being Bellamy designs, we don’t need any fret markers on the fingerboard – that stuff is for mortals. But there are side-dot markers to aid navigation.

These also arrive with no-fuss hardware, with tune-o-matic style bridges joined by staggered locking tuners that should provide a stable platform for those long evenings spent composing and performing your neo-prog rock opera.

Thereafter, we have options when it comes to specs. The southpaws can avail themselves of an MBM-2 with a pair of Manson humbuckers, with a control circuit comprising volume and tone pots, a three-way pickup selector and a kill-switch for adding staccato rhythmic shenanigans.

Right-handed players have some more options. The MBM-2 is also offered with a P-90 at the neck and a humbucker at the bridge, with the same control setup as above, or with a Sustainiac Stealth Pro system at the neck position.

This is the very same system as used by Matt Bellamy himself and as the name implies allows you to hold and sustain your notes indefinitely.

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The system is powered by 9V battery and is switched on and off with a switch. It operates as an “active full-range” humbucker when the Sustainiac feature is not in use. Once more, there is the kill-switch.

The left-handed and P-90/humbucker MBM-2 models are priced £569. The Dry Satin Black MBM-2 Sustainiac is priced £899. And the new Meta-Blue gloss finish Sustainiac model is £949. 

See Manson Guitar Works for more details.