One of the hottest electric guitars to break cover at NAMM 2025 is officially on the market, as Sterling By Music Man unveils the Kaizen – its more affordable take on Tosin Abasi’s future-forward Ernie Ball Music Man signature guitar.
Back in January we said players would be hard pushed to find a more “more modern-looking electric guitar for under $1,000” and today, in September, we stand by that.
This has all the same contours as the first one; it retains that beamed-down-from-Andromeda vibe. Abasi uses his for progressive metal instrumentals but we could see this being used in anger by anyone operating in the metal guitar space – Morbid Angel’s Trey Azagthoth would surely dig something like this.
“I want the guitar to play fast, I want it to wear close to the body, and I want it to communicate a degree of aggression and forward-thinking – and I think the Kaizen really embodies that,” said Abasi. “There’s a foundational shape to the Kaizen that’s really bold and impactful, but it doesn’t depart too far from what a guitar should look like. I like when the form is informed by the function.”
Okay, we don’t have the Heat Treated humbuckers of the original Kaizen. Sterling By Music Man has swapped those high-end EBMM pickups out for high-output ceramic humbuckers.
The body is fashioned from lightweight nyatoh rather than the alder of its forebear and the instrument – both the six and seven-string guitar – is a straight 25.5” scale rather than the multi-scale build of the original.
The fingerboards are rosewood, not ebony, and have a 15.75” radius as opposed to the Infinity Radius you’ll get on the EBMM Kaizen. But given the price difference – an EBMM Kaizen is an eye-watering $3,799 – the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree here.
That shape, the ‘Modern’ floating tremolo, the colour-matched headstock with those gearless Steinberger tuners, the roasted maple neck with the sculpted five-bolt joint, 24 frets, white dot markers… It’s a Kaizen all right. The pickups are controlled by volume and tone knobs, with a three-way selector switch mounted close by.
“We needed to retain some things from the Music Man model because they’re quintessential to how the guitar plays and feels, and we changed some things that we thought would actually be beneficial,” says Abasi. “This was an opportunity to give people an option, and I think we really hit a sweet spot.”
Abasi and SBMM have certainly hit a sweet spot with a price. The six-string Kaizen is £999/$849, the seven-string is £1,099/$899. And they are available now.
See Sterling By Music Man for more details.
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