If our
memory serves correctly, a small ad in
Guitar Player, a simple black and white
shot, was all we had to go on but its
strange how things stick. Maybe it was
the mixture of Les Paul and Telecaster
common enough today but pretty rare
a couple of decades ago that caught
our eye. It just looked neat.
The birth of St Blues goes back to the
late sixties when Charles Lawing and
Tom Keckler were working at Mike
Ladds Guitar City in Memphis, on what
is now Elvis Presley Boulevard. On a
Led Zeppelin tour Jimmy Page had the
duo overhaul some guitars and they
even built a one-off as a gift to Elvis
Presley from his father, which he can be
seen playing in Aloha From Hawaii.
They designed the original
Bluesmaster, which was sold by Strings
And Things in Memphis, before
Keckler left to help start Schecter
Guitars in Los Angeles. This eventually
led to the creation of the St Blues guitar
line in 1985 that was distributed
throughout the USA and lasted until
1989. The brand attracted a number
of big-name users among them Eric
Clapton, Billy Gibbons, Rick Derringer
and Psychedelic Furs John Ashton
and was resurrected by Legendary
Gear, with Keckler and Lawing as
advisors, in 2006.
Earlier this year St Blues appointed
Synergy Distribution as its UK outlet
and initially the now Korean-made
guitar range will be available (though
not the basses). It is hoped that, later,
well see the upmarket custom-made
instruments available too.
Mississippi Bluesmaster
In terms of reference we have little to
go on but the Mississippi Bluesmaster is
still as pretty as we remember. Its also
quite petite as the lower base of the Les
Paul-esque single-cutaway outline is
attened off creating a more angular,
Fender-inspired element to the design.
Hardly a classic, of course, but it is
immediately memorable. The two-piece
centre joined mahogany body is
standard Tele thickness at just over
45mm. Its edged with a single-ply
cream binding to the top and back and
theres no comfort contouring at all.
The front face is black-painted, the
ST BLUES MISSISSIPPI BLUESMASTER & BLUESMASTER IV
�439 & �499
ELECTRICS


GUITARIST INTERACTIVE
94


MAY 2007
St Blues Mississippi Bluesmaster
& Bluesmaster IV
�439 & �499
Cult Memphis brand makes a welcome return with the Bluesmaster. Still got soul?
by Dave Burrluck
ST BLUES MISSISSIPPI
BLUESMASTER
PRICE: �439
ORIGIN: Korea
TYPE: Single-cutaway,
bolt-on electric
BODY: Mahogany with
coloured front, double
edge single-ply cream
binding
NECK: One-piece
mahogany, bolt-on
SCALE LENGTH:
628mm (24.75-inch)
NUT/WIDTH: Bone/
42.8mm
FINGERBOARD:
Rosewood, pearl dots,
305mm (12-inch) radius
FRETS: 22, medium
HARDWARE: Thru-
strung Strat-style xed
bridge, Kluson-style
safti-post vintage tuners
STRING SPACING,
BRIDGE: 55mm
ELECTRICS: Two SB
P-90 single-coils, three-
way toggle pickup
selector switch, volume
and tone
WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.2/7
OPTIONS: The
Mississippi Bluesmaster
is also available with dual
zebra-coil humbuckers
(same price) and ame or
quilt veneer top (adds
approximately �25)
RANGE OPTIONS: The
Bluesmaster II (from
�439) features dual
T-style pickups; the
Bluescaster IV uses a
more T-like outline and
also costs �439. The
USA custom-made range
will cost from
approximately �2,500
LEFT-HANDERS: No
FINISHES: Black top
(as reviewed), gold top
Synergy Distribution
0121 270 6485
www.saintblues.com
Purposeful looking
isnt it? The
Mississippi is a
no-fuss guitar
GIT289.stblues 94
22/3/07 17:48:47
MAY 2007

95

PHOTOGRAPHY JOBY SESSIONS
GIT289.stblues 95
22/3/07 17:48:57 back, sides and neck are all left natural.
Unusually, mahogany is selected for
the 628mm (24.75-inch) bolt-on neck
xed to the body in standard style with
rectangular neck plate. The one-piece
neck has a good C-shaped pro le
thats chunky but well carved and not
overly big. The rosewood board is
cleanly executed with medium gauge
frets (approx 2.4 x 1.2mm) and
although a little more TLC to the fret
ends and ngerboard edge would really
improve the feel, for the price it is all
more than acceptable.
Theres a general attention to detail,
however, thats impressive. The safti-
post vintage-style tuners are a perfect
choice while the xed Strat-style
bridge has tracks for the outer saddles
to stop any movement. The pressed
steel saddles have slight Vd string
break points to stabilise the string
spacing and, importantly, the saddle
height screws dont protrude above the
saddles. Its nickel-plated too giving a
nice uni ed vintage vibe. Another
minor point is the strap buttons are of
a large diameter, not the standard
Korean fare, which should help to keep
your strap rmly xed to the guitar.
The Mississippi Bluesmaster is
available with both open-coil
humbuckers or soapbar P-90-style
single-coils as here. The rear-mounted
controls are laid out Tele-style with a
three-way toggle replacing the Teles
three-way lever; both the volume and
tone have knurled Tele-style knobs and
the squared, thin-metal output jack is
side-mounted. The wiring cavity is
neatly shielded with paint and foil and
96


MAY 2007
BLUESMASTER IV
TEST RESULTS
Build quality
Playability
Sound
Value for money
I
WE LIKED Versatile tone selection;
affordable boutique vibe
I
WE DISLIKED Pickup heights needed
adjustment; poor quality ve-way switch
Youre immediately at home in a sweaty blues club [with the
Bluesmaster IV] but you have a little more power on tap and
some good, percussive rhythm/Texas blues tones
ST BLUES MISSISSIPPI BLUESMASTER & BLUESMASTER IV
�439 & �499
ELECTRICS


GUITARIST INTERACTIVE
ST BLUES
BLUESMASTER IV
As Mississippi
Bluesmaster except
PRICE: �499
BODY: Two-piece ash
with gured maple
veneer top bound with
single-ply cream binding
NECK: One-piece maple,
bolt-on
SCALE LENGTH:
648mm (25.5-inch)
NUT/WIDTH: Bone/
42.8mm
FINGERBOARD:
Rosewood, abalone dots,
305mm (12-inch) radius
FRETS: 21, medium
ELECTRICS: One HB-II
humbucker and two SC-II
single-coils, ve-way
lever pickup selector
switch, volume and tone
WEIGHT (kg/lb):
3.98/8.75
OPTIONS: Maple
ngerboard
FINISHES: Darkburst
quilt, cherry,
honeysunburst ame (as
reviewed), trans black
quilt, black
The Bluesmaster IV is
more Gibson inspired,
despite the Tele-style
control plate
MISSISSIPPI
TEST RESULTS
Build quality
Playability
Sound
Value for money
I
WE LIKED Original style; tidy
construction; earthy sounds
I
WE DISLIKED Pickup heights needed
tweaking; incorrect tone capacitor
GIT289.stblues 96
22/3/07 17:49:01 its all tidily done a seemingly minor
detail but one that gives the impression
of thought-through quality.
SOUNDS: Just as the construction is
a hybrid of different styles, so is the
sound. Its very comfortable and
lightweight strapped on a good guitar
to gig. As weve often said a good P-90
and strong Tele pickup can sound
pretty similar, and here we get a good
example of that Tele/P-90 stew. The
bridge pickup needs some tone control
taming; as supplied it also needed a
little more push compared to the
louder and fuller neck pickup. As usual
with P-90s theres not a great deal of
adjustment to be had, but by pulling
down the neck pickup as far as we
could and raising the bridge unit things
sound more balanced. So theres Tele-
like twang and chunk aplenty but
strong hints especially from the neck
pickup of the wiry, edgy-yet-smooth
P-90 tone that impresses us every time.
Wind down the volume and the twin
pickup mix offers textured Fender-
funk and its hum-cancelling wind
up the wick again and wail. Only the
tone control, fully off, lets the
performance down with an unusable
waf ey tone instead of a nice woman
tone bark: sounds like the wrong value
capacitor to us. Overall though this
guitar suits blues, country and
twangsome rock, and does it all
with some very welcome character.
Bluesmaster IV
If the shorter scale and mahogany/P-90
con guration of the Mississippi
Bluesmaster is clearly more Gibson-
inspired, the Bluesmaster IV with its
longer 648mm (25.5-inch) scale is
more boutique Fender-style with a
two-piece ash body, maple neck, Tele-
style control plate and scratchplate-
mounted pickups. The IV employs the
same body outline as the Mississippi
but its bound on the top edge only, and
we have both forearm and ribcage
contours. The scraping on the binding
is slightly less precise here, although
the quilted maple veneered face adds
a nice bit of posh and its noticeably
weightier than the Mississippi. The
more boutique vibe extends to abalone
dot inlays, but generally the neck is
close in feel.
The cream-coloured single-ply
scratchplate works well with the Tele-
style control plate here a Strat-style
ve-way lever pickup selector (with
Tele knob) is used but the chamfering
of the scratchplates edge is a little
wayward, as is the t around the neck
area which very slightly throws out the
pickup positioning. Its a minor detail
but there is room for improvement.
SOUNDS: Slightly more generic
sounding, the IV has a more powerful
mid-range r