MM2 Review

The MM2 is designed for players who want top-flight features in an affordable bass. It has a basswood body, a 21 fret American Maple neck with black dot inlays, 34 in. scale, chrome hardware, and a 'meaty' sounding Music Man style pickup. With OLP you get the highest quality construction, tone, and appearance, all at a very affordable price.

Features:	7.5
Sound:	8
Action:	7.5
Reliability:	8.5
Impression:	8
Overall rating:	7.9
Users rating:	6.5
Comments:	18

overall: 8

Featured review by: skateswitch, on june 29, 2007

Purchased from: A Friend

Features: This bass features 21 frets, fretboard is fairly wide, ernie ball liscenced head stock, same body as also. Passive EQ setup, runs to one big humbucker. The bass has a volume knob and two tone knobs for a wide range of sounds. Big clover tuning knobs, kind of a pain, stay in tune fine but always snagging or bumping into something, not sure a bout the bridge, just standard nothing special. // 7

Sound: I play metal, some rock to, bass went with it fairly well, played through a Peavey 15 with galien Kruger backline 600 amp it had a good tone, boomed pretty good. The bass is often noise and Rattles on top frets, in drop D I had to squeeze as hard a possible to get the first fret not to rattle. Also was veery good for slap having the centered humbucker with little room behind, rattled a lot then too. // 7

Action, Fit & Finish: The bass is set up fine, other than very low action, causes rattling on open notes and such in pretty much anything lower than standard, definetly not set up for drop c or b tuning, don't even bother attempting drop a. the finsh on the bass is pretty thinck, holds up pretty well. The bass is fairly balanced, alittle heavy for my taste, but the size and shape are definatley not weakness off this bass since it has the classic Music Man body. // 9

Reliability & Durability: This guitar will definatley hold up to Live play, this thing is pretty tough, mine has taken a few hard drops no problem. My jack was loose but it had been repaired before I got it so no real comment there, all other hardware held up well, seems like a pretty trusty bass and finish stays around so it stays looking good. Downfall is the strap buttons need to be changed if you want the strap to stay on with any movement. // 9

Impression: I've been playing a few months now and went through a few bass, I play metal and rock, the bass fits it well, especially for picking or fingering, slapping didn't work out to well on it. The sound on this bass is defiantly worth the price. I personally prefer my Ibanez with a shorter, and much then neck, but I'd have the OLP over the Squier P Bass I had, the extra money over a P-Bass like that blows it out of the water. // 8

overall: 7.8

Reviewed by: richard_edwards, on march 10, 2007

Purchased from: eBay

Features: It's a 2006 Chinese made (bit dubious about that) with 21 frets all running through a basswood body, into one massive humbucker at the bridge. Lovely neck, not too chunky, with a rather wide fretboard, it's nice. No acoustic chambers, just hard wood. Run-of-the-mill strat shape, but works beautifully. Maple neck, roosewood fretboard. Black hardware, black finish, grey perloid pickguard. It's quite suave. 2 volume, one tone, range of sounds! Passive, but if it was active it'd sound amazing. Sort it out OLP! Cheap-ass clover tuners that are ok, I suppose. Bit loose and tacky. // 8

Sound: Sounds rather nice actually. You can get a massive range of sounds out of it due to the 3 knobs on it, give them a twiddle for 10 minutes, see what you get. Lots of low-end. Very good for rock, funk etc. I do quite a bit of slap bass, and it's very well suited for that. I run it through a PA at practise and just use it as is at home. Even without an amp, there's quite a bit of sustain. As I said, it's worth messing with the settings, see what you can get out of it. // 9

Action, Fit & Finish: It came to me in tune, yes, but poorly set-up. The action was low, but the were several frets buzzing like bitches. It was horrid. Sorted that (just about anyway) and it's acceptable now. Pickup needed lowering. I think it was just a matter of 'put it together and throw it out of the factory'. The tuning keys are terrible. Loose, cheap, but hold tuning. They rattle when you shake the bass itself. I am not happy with them. The nut was poorly fitted too. The routing looks too big for it. Really small strap buttons, will change them later. Same goes for the tuners. OLP, again, sort it! // 6

Reliability & Durability: I think it'll do rather well used live. Well, I'm hoping anyway, I don't have a backup. I reckon the finish will last for a while, seems a bit thin though. Weedy strap buttons, they need changing. As do the tuners. A nice set of Grovers should do the trick. But it will need setting up here and there. // 8

Impression: Sound wise, it's my perfect bass. It's a damn sight better than what I was playing (Ibanez GAXB150). Don't touch Ibanez Gio. Please. I wish it came to me set up properley. That annoyed me. If it was stolen, I'd beat whoever nicked it, then save up for an Ibanez BTB. Cos they're right beast! I love the sound and the body shape, it's lovely! And it aint top heavy so it sits on your shoulder nicely. I hate the tacky tuners. End of. I just love the tonal variety too. Just perfect. I think I'll put a thumb rest on it. that's one thing every bass should have, a decent thumb rest. I have to put my thumb on the pickup, right near the bridge and it sounds shit! Sort it! I wish I had scoured the market a bit more, but for the time being, I'm happy with this. A reasonable bass for little money. I chose it because I have a friend Who has this, and he gigs a lot. So I went on it and got his verdict and it sounded alright. So I sold my old 'Nez and got this. I'm happy for the time being. // 8

Comments

[E V H 5150]

To Richard Edwards: That is not a Stratocaster shape. If you were to compare it to another guitar, I think the Ernie Ball Stingray Bass is the one you're looking for.

I think that OLP to Ernie Ball is like what Squier is to Fender, or Epiphone is to Gibson.

[futurejmmy102]

I was actually looking into these, apparently they got better.

[kaptink]

I think that OLP to Ernie Ball is like what Squier is to Fender, or Epiphone is to Gibson

Pretty much, i think OLP are a seperate company but make licsened copies (not really copies though)

I didn't like the one I played, sounded weak and played poorly. it could have been a Dodgy one though.

[goldbuddist]

the only OLP id get is Petrucci's sig OLP being that it must be good enough for the man to play and that the fact that its only 300bucks

[Green_Jelly]

Petrucci's sig is a Music Man. The OLP version has almost nothing to do with it.

[Pingis_Or_Death]

I've never liked sparkles on a bass. Looks rather...gay lol

[skateswitch]

olp is to ernie ball what squier is to fender, but better quality, ive had a squier p bass and this olp the olp is definatley better but id rate my ibanez gsr200 as alot better bass than the olp especially for the price range. also olp = officaly liscenced product, and on the back of the headstock its says ernieball headtock liscenced or something

[BassManX]

Ok,I have this bass and i just got it last night, id like to say its an awsome bass, but allas its not, or atleast it isent in its current state. Maybe if i get a local shop to tweak it then it would be the ideal bass for me,the problems i have encountered are as follows: tunning keys seem poorly constructed (shakey),3rd fret A string buzzes, anything higher then the 13th fret on the d string buzzes like all hell has broken lose, and the middle tone/volume knob is very lose compared to the others, i know it seems like im bitching but with a few tweaks im sure it'll be on the same ground as my yamaha bb614 bass

[BassManX]

would any one happin to know if replacing the crappy tunners with fender style p bass tunners is possible woth out drilling any new holes in the head stock, i mean they seem to have the same measurements

[Nosebleedman]

bought this bass yesterday in black, sounds awesome, or at least better than my old peice'o'shit starter bass.

[thebigdee2000]

I've had my natural OLP MM2 for 3 months now. I paid $100 for it used and it's a steal! After setting it up it's definitely the best bass you can get for under $500, in my opinion. You're not going to get the deep lows you would with a p-bass, but that's not what this bass is for. It does seem to capture that classic Music Man sound, although not quite like an authentic Music Man, but it's more than $1000 less.
I was going to buy a Fender Jazz FSR but couldn't justify it being better than this OLP. I use it for gigging and have gotten compliments on it's sound and would recommend it to any who wants a good bass for a good price and isn't hung up on name brands.

[kydoodlebob]

ITs currently being discontinued at all the majr store around the U.S., apparently It comes and goes, while its in its state of refinishing and redoing by OLP, that what I heard. Hate to say it but you wont be seeing this bass anytime soon.

[roundwoundsound]

E V H 5150 wrote:

To Richard Edwards: That is not a Stratocaster shape. If you were to compare it to another guitar, I think the Ernie Ball Stingray Bass is the one you're looking for.

I think that OLP to Ernie Ball is like what Squier is to Fender, or Epiphone is to Gibson.

it is,your right. its their second line of mm basses

[GunLeatherGuy]

What a bunch of dweebs! Or even wanna be dweebs! It sucks cuz it buzzes??? Try setting the neck, action and guitar up before you play it? If you dont know how take it to someone who knows? Sorry if that sounds harsh...but even a 1500$ Music Man Stingray this thing copies is gonna buzz if not setup!
For the money OLP is a freakin steal!!!! Ive got real Music Man guitars and OLP isnt even close in quality but for the money, they are still a damn good guitar.
My daughter has this one and it flat plays like the original.

[Gr33n]

Does anyone know why they dont make OLP any more?

[konichiwa46]

they dont make em because of low sales i have one in my workshop a the guitar shop i work at i ripped out the second tone control a tnd wired a single tone to ithe bass now rips tmore the place alot more treble

[GunLeatherGuy]

We have Ibanez, Kramer, ESP, OLP and other basses and the little MM2 can hold its own against any of them...even the neck through, active pickup pro models weve had.

OLP went out of business because they were making mainly MM stuff. MM recently decided to offer their sterling line of cheaper guitars, and taking away OLP's option of copying them anymore...so they went Kaput! Apparently MM said....hey, why dont we offer the same level of stuff OLP was offering and double the price.....ya, ya, thats the ticket!

[GunLeatherGuy]

Official Licensed Products=OLP. When MM took away there License to Officially Copy MM products, they went by the wayside.