Team Player

Chapman is the latest brand to take advantage of York-based UK Guitar Builders’ manufacturing facility to produce its new flagship model. We plug in the first batch

- Dave Burrluck 

Chapman Guitars, headed by internet guitar whizz Rob Chapman (aka the 'Monkey Lord' or simply 'Chappers'), has built a solid and pretty unique place in the worldwide guitar market. Its modern-aimed, value-for-money instruments are built in Indonesia and Korea, and in many cases have been collaborative designs, spec'd by the brand's considerable online fanbase. The company celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2019, and at the tail end of 2022 has chalked up another milestone: its first UK-made guitars. In truth, the idea for these UK builds goes back a few years when a 'British Standard' range was announced at the 2018 Winter NAMM show. Unfortunately, this series never made it to market.

The ML1 was the first Chapman design, and rather than being any kind of radical reinvention of the electric guitar it uses a 'SuperStrat' platform and sweats the details. The difference here is that, aside from being made in the UK, there's no corner-cutting in terms of build or parts to meet a lower price point as with the existing Asian-made Chapman ranges.

Coined the Workshop Series, this new vision of the ML1 is basically one design with two neck options: a roasted bird's eye maple neck with a 356mm (14-inch) fingerboard radius and an 'oval C/soft D' neck profile option, or a roasted flamed maple neck with a 305mm (12-inch) fingerboard radius and an 'C shape' neck profile. The top wood can be spec'd with either flame or quilted maple, and while the neck, body back and sides are in a standard satin nitro finish, the tops can be satin or gloss and come in a pretty wide colour choice.