Ernie Ball Music Man's new Saber HT features pickups inspired by his guitar string innovations

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Ernie Ball Music Man continued to make its potentially revolutionary heat-treated humbuckers a mainstay of its standard lineup with the release of the upgraded Saber HT.

Distinguishing itself from the Sabers of yesteryear thanks to its HT configuration, the new Saber HT for 2024 now arrives in four absurdly beautiful finishes – Slymer, Grape Slushie, Blackout and Honey Bear – and follows the basic spec sheet of its forebear while introducing some new features to the table.

Chief among them are, of course, HT vans. Each Saber HT variant offers an HH configuration, which reserves deck space for a heat-treated unit. The neck, meanwhile, has been designated as a “Music Man Custom Wound” alternative.

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EBMM first released HT pickups in 2022 and praised them at the time for their potentially revolutionary approach to tone. They were “inspired by more than a decade of research into electric guitar strings” and notably incorporated the knowledge that contributed to the innovation of Cobalt and M-Steel Slinky strings.

In practice, they promise to “outperform normal-spec mics” by providing additional output, improved touch sensitivity, and more powerful bass response.

They were gradually introduced into the Cutlass, StingRay and Cutlass families, and were used in the more recent signature guitars of Jason Richardson and Steve Lukather. They were also made available for older Saber models in August 2022, but the Saber HT family has now received a complete cosmetic overhaul.

Other notable electronic appointments include a push-push volume knob that functions as a preamp boost. Via a potentiometer, the boost can be adjusted up to 20 dB.

Otherwise, these are standard Sabers, with a roasted figured okoumé body, a roasted figured maple neck and a roasted figured maple or rosewood fingerboard depending on the finish chosen.

These are joined by 22 stainless steel frets, Schaller locking tuners and a Music Man Modern tremolo with crescent cover and curved steel saddles. This all seems to culminate in what is perhaps the best iteration of the Saber yet.

The Saber HT has been joined by a redesign of the standard Saber family – now called Saber RS – which also brings new finishes: Afterburn, Purple Lotus, Backdraft and the superbly named Blurple.

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