Chapman ML2 Pro Modern review

Impressive modern spec at tidy prices

  • £1,049
  • €1,229

MusicRadar Verdict

The pickup mounting could do with a little more thought (or simply conventional pickup rings), but it doesn’t ruin the fun.

Pros

  • +

    Build and playability.

  • +

    Modern hot ’n’ light single-cut sounds.

Cons

  • -

    The pickup mounting needs some attention.

MusicRadar's got your back Our team of expert musicians and producers spends hours testing products to help you choose the best music-making gear for you. Find out more about how we test.

There’s a strong and welcome whiff of people power when it comes to Chapman guitars. 

Brand founder, Rob (aka the Monkey Lord), isn’t a dusty tonewood tappin’ guitar maker; he’s a guitar-toting internet celebrity-cum-entrepreneur who’s gone from creating a smattering of electrics in 2009 to a full-blown range of some 29 new models. 

“The culmination of 18 months worth of feedback, comments, chats and meetings with the guitar-playing public,” says Chapman Guitars’ MD, Matt Hornby. 

The guitars are now available in over 20 countries worldwide. The range is split into three tiers - Standard, Pro and Signature. We selected ML2 Pro Modern. Based on a maple through-neck with mahogany wings and nicely violin-like dished centre-jointed maple top, it’s thinner than a Les Paul with a similar depth to the ML1 (around 36mm at the rim with a max depth of 45mm). It comes with a more substantial weight, but not off the scale at 8.4lbs. 

There’s a slight PRS-like scoop in the treble cavity and a sharp-pointed horn - both enhancing its modernism - and a custom shop vibe is suggested with the matt jet black ebony ’board and 24 stainless-steel frets. 

With the almost faded blue colouration of the maple top and muted black hardware, it all ties in smartly. Less so perhaps the rather foreshortened headstock with a brown striped ebony facing - it doesn’t tie in colour-wise and its square top looks uncharacteristically unimaginative. 

Powering here is from a pair of black-coiled Stentorian humbuckers, using Alnico 5 magnets and mounted directly to the body without mounting rings. The cavities are very cleanly cut, but in combination with the raked back neck pitch, the bridge pickup does sit rather high - its baseplate is virtually in line with the face of the body. 

Feel & Sounds 

With such sharp, clean presentation, there’s a danger that - like many modern instruments - this could feel rather sterile. It really doesn’t.

All the controls fall easily under your hand - they look a little cramped, but in use are intuitive and fast, while the Tele-style knurled knobs are very grippable, not least for pulling up the tone switch to voice the pickups’ split coils. 

It’s these tuned-in features that makes this model seem more like an artist-designed guitar, which in reality it is.

The ML2 drops right into the modern-rock single-cut slot. Yes, it’s thinner than a more classic LP-style - both in size and sound - but with the hot bridge pickup selected, it’s quite a ride for driving a cranked Vox or Marshall, with a couple of boost pedals for good measure. 

These pickup heights are a little low, but we’re not sure it matters. Likewise, the splits (which voice both inner single coils of the ’buckers) hardly add woody ‘Strat’ - they’re altogether more pristine - and dialling in a few Helix LT presets with some dense modulation and reverb, the ML2 really sings in a contemporary fashion. A modern single-cut that is an effortless player but with a big kick. 

Helped by direct-to-retailer pricing, this guitar offers a spec that’s hard to beat at the price - and you get a good case, too.  The ML2 takes the single-cut platform but - in a more ergonomic size - adds a through-neck, different but very viable control positions, and creates a lighter but nicely hot single-cut voice. 

Dave Burrluck

Dave Burrluck is one of the world’s most experienced guitar journalists, who started writing back in the '80s for International Musician and Recording World, co-founded The Guitar Magazine and has been the Gear Reviews Editor of Guitarist magazine for the past two decades. Along the way, Dave has been the sole author of The PRS Guitar Book and The Player's Guide to Guitar Maintenance as well as contributing to numerous other books on the electric guitar. Dave is an active gigging and recording musician and still finds time to make, repair and mod guitars, not least for Guitarist’s The Mod Squad.