Ernie Ball Music Man Announces the Valentine, Collaboration with Maroon 5's James Valentine

Ernie Ball Music Man announces today that the Valentine, a brand new guitar designed in collaboration with celebrated guitarist James Valentine (Maroon 5), will be available for pre-order on July 1, 2016.

“Ernie Ball is such a legendary brand, and I am thrilled to be working with them on creating what I imagine is the perfect guitar,” said Valentine. “In the creation I had two main goals: design a guitar I could play throughout an entire set and make something completely new that still looked classic. They took what I had in mind and helped bring it to life. This entire experience working with the Ernie Ball family has been truly great.”

Crafted in Ernie Ball Music Man’s San Luis Obispo, California factory with support from the award-winning engineering team at Ernie Ball Music Man, the Valentine was created using the company’s unique design process, which provides artists unrestricted access to the factory and engineering teams to realize truly original designs from the ground up. The goal of all signature models at Ernie Ball Music Man is to produce instruments that perfectly fit the artist’s form, playing style and personal tastes.

The Valentine, a mix of classic design aesthetics and innovative modern-day engineering, delivers unparalleled playability and performance, features a slab ash-body, two Ernie Ball Music Man designed pickups (1-humbucker/1-single coil) with active preamp, silent circuit and 3-way custom wired lever switch, coil tap with +20db boost, hardtail bridge with vintage bent steel saddles, 25.5-inch scale, oil- and wax-rubbed roasted maple neck with 10-inch radius fingerboard, 22 stainless steel frets, and an oversized 4-over-2 headstock with compensated nut, designed for superior tuning stability. The guitar also boasts an innovative tapered design that narrows the body of the guitar towards the top of the player, lightening the guitar without sacrificing tone and also improving playability by hugging the player more closely.

“We take great pride in creating true signature instruments,” says Sterling Ball, CEO of Ernie Ball. “We partner with artists from the beginning to come up with a design that is 100% unique to their vision. Our entire process from first sketch to final production is substantially different from the commonly practiced approach of an artist simply tweaking an existing brand’s guitar model.”

The Ernie Ball Valentine will be available July 1, 2016, and is available for pre-sale on June 1 at a U.S. MSRP of $2,009.

You can watch Valentine discuss the guitar below. For more information, visit music-man.com.