Rabea Massaad drops Chapman Guitars

la szum said:
My Buddies and discussed that the other night. Like any good purveyor of information it is the
presentation that tends to matter more than the content.

And we also realized that we can't agree on what "good" presentation is. :idk
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What a coincidence that this popped at my LinkedIn today
1672707531780.png
 
I only got to play a Chapman guitar once. It was at the infamous Riff City music store which led to the incredibly stupid KDH video. It played pretty well and seemed fine for what it was.

For me they are a little too blocky shaped and the headstock/lack of inlays is kind of bland. So I may be a little more of a traditionalist.

I could be completely wrong but I think Chapman guitars kind of stalled out along with Rob’s YT presence. Seems like they kept trying to go more premium where they didn’t have enough cred to do so.

Would have made more sense to do killer beginner guitars for the money. Like single pickup no frills instruments with good fretwork for $300 if possible. That seems closer to where they started, as a barebones guitar that was good bang for the buck.
 
I owned one of the original ML-1's, from the "Monkeylord" days.

It was a bit 'meh' tbh, and I never played it. I still have the gig bag!
 
I have no clue what the general cost of a Chapman guitar is, but when I saw a Rabea model for $1600 on Reverb yesterday I laughed my ass off. It’s entirely possible that they’ve been selling guitars over the $1000 mark and I just haven’t paid attention, but that company always reminded me of Mitchell’s with a different name on them. I wouldn’t even pay $1600 for a Solar and I love that company.
 
DrewJD82 said:
I have no clue what the general cost of a Chapman guitar is, but when I saw a Rabea model for $1600 on Reverb yesterday I laughed my ass off.
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That's insane. A quick search in Thomann/Andertons confirmed my recollection of all Bea models sitting in the $700-$800 bracket.
 
Lysander said:
That's insane. A quick search in Thomann/Andertons confirmed my recollection of all Bea models sitting in the $700-$800 bracket.
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He has (or had) a $2,000 pro model. (That’s what he uses on his videos) I think the standard was $800. His baritone was in the $1,600 range too.
 
There's multiple levels of Chapman guitars like most other brands.

ML3 Bea Standard is $825
ML3 Bea Pro is $2100

From what I can tell, some of the differences:
  • Standard has regular roasted maple neck with miter joint headstock and Pro has roasted birdseye maple
  • Standard has a veneer flame top and Pro has a solid burl top
  • Pro has upgraded Bareknuckle/Seymour Duncan pickups
  • Pro has upgraded Schaller hardware with a tremolo instead of hardtail
  • Pro has a carbon fiber truss rod
  • Pro has stainless steel frets

I might have said before, but the ML3 Bea is intriguing to me for a drop tuned metal guitar. 25.5" scale, ebony fretboard, hardtail bridge, humbucker / single coil construction is all pretty neat.
 
He had a few different projects going on.

I really dig the song he did with Plini:



Totemist and Toska were pretty good as well for dark, heavy, atmospheric, instrumental music.



But not like a traditional 80's/90's rock band that I'm aware of.
 
Yeah Toska were awesome. Almost played a show with them here in London but the promoter fell through. Boo.
 
Jarick said:
He had a few different projects going on.

I really dig the song he did with Plini:



Totemist and Toska were pretty good as well for dark, heavy, atmospheric, instrumental music.



But not like a traditional 80's/90's rock band that I'm aware of.
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Dorje we’re pretty much a nonstarter for me because of Chapman’s vocals.

Toska were cool, but most instrumental bands have a certain ceiling of how much they can cross into the public consciousness. I mean hell I love instrumental music but even I can only listen to it so much.

Clearly Rabea has had a wildly successful career thus far, and has played gigs most musicians could only dream of. That said, despite the fact that I hold him in very high regard as a player, I’d consider his career a bit of a letdown if his primary claim to fame was ultimately being a GearTuber. (And I’d argue he is more well known for YT than any project he has been associated with to this point. I don’t know anyone that’s not a musician that would know who Dorje or Toska was)

He had mentioned something in passing about starting a project with Nolly a year or so ago, and I was pretty hopeful that would pop off. Throw a good vocalist in with Nolly and Bea on guitars and it could be :satan Who knows if that ever went anywhere though.
 
Whizzinby said:
Dorje we’re pretty much a nonstarter for me because of Chapman’s vocals.

Toska were cool, but most instrumental bands have a certain ceiling of how much they can cross into the public consciousness. I mean hell I love instrumental music but even I can only listen to it so much.

Clearly Rabea has had a wildly successful career thus far, and has played gigs most musicians could only dream of. That said, despite the fact that I hold him in very high regard as a player, I’d consider his career a bit of a letdown if his primary claim to fame was ultimately being a GearTuber. (And I’d argue he is more well known for YT than any project he has been associated with to this point. I don’t know anyone that’s not a musician that would know who Dorje or Toska was)

He had mentioned something in passing about starting a project with Nolly a year or so ago, and I was pretty hopeful that would pop off. Throw a good vocalist in with Nolly and Bea on guitars and it could be :satan Who knows if that ever went anywhere though.
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All that's true. But he's still making good legit music, which is more than most of us :grin

It seems like with this kind of music there's not a lot of singers for these bands, so they end up with a lot of instrumental groups. Not sure where all the singers are...probably has something to do with the unpopularity of rock music in general?

It reminds me of an article I read a few years ago (which is actually a decade ago now because time is accelerating), about the lack of charismatic lead singers. It was about STP after they booted out Scott and before they hired Chester (both sadly deceased). But the point stuck with me, that there aren't a lot of great singers who can front rock bands anymore.

Honestly though, are any of the heavy instrumental prog metal bands a lead singer away from being successful? I don't know. When I go on Spotify or Apple Music to listen to the best new rock music, it's almost all hip hop with distorted guitars.

On the flip side though, I've been listening to Spiritbox, which is a heavy modern djenty metal band which an incredible lead singer. And they seem to be taking off for popularity, at least based on the ticket prices for their local show which sold out very quickly. Resellers currently at $75 plus $30 in tax/fees.
 
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