Ernie Ball Music Man officially releases the St Vincent Goldie

Ernie Ball Music Man Goldie
(Image credit: Ernie Ball Music Man)

Having made its first public appearance on Saturday Night Live on 3 April 2021, the Goldie edition of St Vincent's signature electric guitar is finally available to purchase direct from Ernie Ball Music Man or via authorised dealers worldwide.

The St Vincent Goldie has the same lightweight okoume build and angular profile of the others in the STV series, with the distinctive look completed by a reverse headstock. 

But it has been retooled a little. Arriving in very classy Silk Charmeuse, Cashmere, and Velveteen finishes, with a matching painted headstock, the St Vincent Goldie has a three-ply parchment pickguard positioned under the pickups, and is equipped with a trio of chrome-covered gold foil mini-humbuckers, a five-way pickup selector and volume and tone controls.

Fingerboards are all inlaid with custom signature inlays. The Velveteen model is offered with a rosewood 'board, with ebony available for the Silk Charmeuse and Cashmere models. The necks are bolt-on and carved from figured roasted maple.

But it's the pickups that are the big sell here. The gold-foils are specially designed for this guitar. St Vincent herself says it offers  “the perfect marriage of my quirky old pawn shop guitars and the OG STV model.“

Elsewhere, you've got all the trimmings of a top-line EBMM instrument. A set of Schaller M6-IND locking tuners with pearl buttons graces the headstock, while that perfectly engineered vibrato unit is chrome-plated with with solid brass saddles. Oh, and the neck is finished in gunstock oil and hand-rubbed wax.

Out now, the St Vincent Goldie is priced $2,999. See Ernie Ball Music Man for more details.

Jonathan Horsley

Jonathan Horsley has been writing about guitars and guitar culture since 2005, playing them since 1990, and regularly contributes to MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitar World. He uses Jazz III nylon picks, 10s during the week, 9s at the weekend, and shamefully still struggles with rhythm figure one of Van Halen’s Panama.