Gear of the Year RESULTS: Best Guitars of 2013 Revealed

What did SonicState readers and staff choose as the best guitar of the year?   09-Dec-13

1. Chapman ML3-RC

We are proud to announce that the Chapman Guitars ML-3 RC is the winner of the guitar category, in the SonicState Gear of the Year Awards, 2013.

If you're not familiar with Chapman Guitars, then you might want to think about joining this industrial-sized revolution. Led by Rob Chapman, who has had a long and varied career in the guitar industry, the company gives customers the chance to vote on each aspect of the design of a new guitar.

It's design by democracy, and as a result, everyone who buys a Chapman guitar feels like they've had some involvement in the process of making the instrument.

But the ML3-RC is Chappers' signature model, and he has produced a £599 guitar to be possibly one of the best value-for-money guitars we've ever laid eyes on.

Seymour Duncan coil-tapped humbuckers, set though-body neck, and mahogany body, it's a beautiful gothic hybrid between a Les Paul and Telecaster, but designed for the modern guitarist.

It offers beautiful sparkling clean tones, or dark metal cleans in drop tunings, and also gives a rich saturated distortion tone which will have shredders throwing dollar bills in Rob Chapman's general direction.

When we told Chappers, owner of Chapman Guitars, he told us:

"I am extremely proud of the ML-3, especially so since it was built/designed to my exact specification - even down to the mm on every measurement, for example nut width, radius etc.

"Chapman Guitars has only really been going for two years and to be nominated and winning some awards at this early stage is a testament to the handwork and passion that the team at CG and the awesome public who help to design the guitars have put in.

"The ML-3 is a beast of a guitar that stands for everything I look for in a workhorse road machine, I will always have one on my rack."

Congratulations, Rob, and everyone at Chapman Guitars. Worthy winners of the 'best guitar' crown in this year's SonicState Gear of the Year Awards.

Related story: Click here to see our best amps of 2013