Rabea Massaad says that he is working with Sterling By Music Man on a more affordable version of his Ernie Ball Music Man Sabre signature guitar.
Massaad revealed the news on his YouTube channel in a to-camera video that had the vibe of fireside chat from the studio. He discussed Neural DSP’s long-awaited and potentially game-changing CorOS 3.0.0 update for the Quad Cortex amp modeller – an update that means it is now plugin compatible, with the Gojira and Plini signature guitar plugins the first to be available on the hardware.
He also shared his experience of having guitar’s lost in transit, talked in-ear monitors, and offered an update to his studio development. But the prospect of a Sabre that might well retail for a quarter of the price of his EBMM model was the big news.
The EBMM Sabre Rabea is one of the coolest high-end artist models we have seen in recent years, a bona-fide high-performance S-style, loaded with top-tier Bare Knuckle pickups. At around £3,999 street, however, it’ll remain a dream purchase for many players.
How soon will we see it? Massaad does not know, but floated NAMM 2025, 21 to 25 January, as possible, and said the wheels were already in motion.
“Just want to let you know that I have submitted some colours for a Sterling version,” says Massaad. “We are looking at getting this up and running as soon as possible. Hopefully, I will receive some prototypes or some examples of what the guitar is gonna be. But there are going to be Sterling models available of my Sabre, so I am very, very excited. With any luck we’ll be able to launch these at NAMM but I can’t promise anything yet. I actually don’t know if that’s possible.”
What he does know is that it won’t come loaded with his signature Silo humbucker pickups but EBMM/SBMM is working on a specific custom electric guitar pickup design that will work for Massaad’s new Sabre, and by the sounds of it they will be voiced similarly to the Bare Knuckle originals.
“We are actually going to spec some pickups that work really well, that complement the guitar in the same way that my Bare Knuckle Silos do,” says Massaad. “As much as I’d love to put Bare Knuckle Silos in the Sterling models, that would just throw the price right up and most of you would probably complain that, for a Sterling, it’s too expensive.”
Judging by the Sterling By Music Man signature models for St Vincent and Omar Rodríguez-López, we’d expect Massaad’s SBMM Sabre to retail between £799 and £1,099 but time will tell. And you could always buy a set of Bare Knuckle silos for £376. That still presents a much cheaper option than the Ernie Ball Music Man version.
“Having the Sterling stuff means that is going to be a more affordable option for you out there [if] you want to grab one of those guitars and use it,” says Massaad. “There are some very cool things going on with it.”
For more on the Rabea Massaad Sabre, see Ernie Ball Music Man.
