Axis of Tone! This version of the AX guitar uses a Sterling Double Locking Tremelo bridge and locking nut.

The bridge is mounted on top of the body for a stable platform to rest your picking hand without tuning warbles.

The easy to use tremolo has fine tuners, and an adjustable arm for loose or tight arm tension. The locking nut matches the fingerboard radius and offers excellent tuning stability.

2 humbuckers are mounted directly to the body without mounting rings for better depth of tone. The 3 way switch offers, bridge, bridge and neck combined and neck pickup positions.

The centre position is very versatile and offers a single coil vibe with more output and low noise.

The Sterling AX40 has a very small, compact headstock, with an all over gloss finish, the new 'Sterling by Music Man' logo and AX40 in black to the front. The front also has a long, chrome string tree, putting all 6 strings under increased tension.

The rear, which is fairly plain, houses the 6 machine heads, 4 on the bass side, 2 on the treble, which are Chrome die-cast, with white pearloid buttons.

The base of the headstock here shows 2 recessed bolt heads that keep the metal locking top nut in place.

The Maple neck has a super smooth satin finish, with a very nice grain on show. It's a fairly slim neck with a rounded C profile. Nut width is a narrow 41mm.

The fingerboard on the AX40 is also Maple, again with a satin finish showing of a swirly wood grain, with tiny black dots marking the usual fingerboard positions. Fretwork is, as expected, excellent, and the board is good to play, plenty smooth enough for bends and fast runs.

Action as supplied from the Indonesian factory is good, between 2-3mm across the board at the 12th fret.

The neck is bolted to the body, there is an engraved Chrome plate at the joint on the back, with 5 bolts holing things together. The offset, cutaway body shape joins at the 16th fret on the bass side, 20th on the treble side, and access to the top fret is easy.

The back of the body is plain black, with 2 large plastic access covers to get into the innards. The upper bout has a bit of chamfering to make for a more comfortable playing position.

The front of the AX40 has a beautiful quilted Maple veneer top, here finished in Trans Blue. The front is also bound in creamy yellow, custard(?) coloured plastic binding.

The body, and whole guitar really, feels small and compact, although it is still fairly heavy.

The AX40 has a pair of open coil Zebra humbuckers, no pickup surrounds, they're designed and made by Music Man, and they are very good quality, with plenty of bite on the drive channel, plenty of clarity too on the clean channel. The bridge pickup, as you'd expect is brighter than the more mellow neck humbucker.

Both pickups have plenty of character to make the AX40 a pretty versatile instrument. Good for blues and jazz, pop, rock and of course, metal, which with the superb double locking tremolo system, this guitar excels at.

This bridge is Chrome, with a screw in Chrome trem bar, and 6 matt black fine tuners. It's not a floating system, so you can only bend up, but the bridge is so light, the merest touch of the bar and you're in danger of dive bombing!

Controls are as simple as you can get, a 3 wat pickup selector and single volume control.

Overall, the Sterling by Music Man AX40 is an excellent all round guitar, great for a variety of music styles, a set of powerful humbuckers, well made, nice playing and plenty of vibe.

• Body Basswood, Quilted Maple Veneer Top
• Neck Maple, bolton, 25.5" scale
• Fingerboard Rosewood, dot inlays, 22 medium jumbo frets
• Hardware Chrome
• Bridge Sterling Double Locking Tremolo bridge
• Tuners Music Man locking tuners
• Pickups 2 * Sterling A5 Zebra Humbuckers
• Controls 1*volume, 1*tone, 3way selector

In Stock
All products on our website are in stock unless shown as 'Call 08452222603 To Order', this means we can deliver your order to you very quickly, subject to payment authorisation. The next dispatch date is shown against each product, and below is an indication of when you can expect your purchase.

All Guitars are Checked Before Dispatch
All Guitars go through our 12 point checking procedure to make sure that it passes our standards before shipping. This helps ensure your guitar will reach you in perfect condition. All guitars are checked against our 12 point check list and once passed, have a Guitarbitz quality control sticker attached. In addition to this we want to ensure that no harm can come to your guitar on the journey between us and you and so we have a rigorous packing procedure involving multiple protective layers. If you notice that this packaging is damaged when delivered by our courier, it is important to check the goods and if damaged, refuse the delivery and call us immediately. For your peace of mind, we have outlined the 12 point check below to show how we are passionate about your instrument.

1) Finish checked for imperfections or damage	2) Strings tuned up and tested for tone and playability	3) Neck checked for bending or humps
4)  Truss rod adjusted for correct positioning	5) Frets examined for playability	6) Bridge checked for position and hold on strings
7) Strap buttons tested for secure fitting	8) Neck joint examined	9) Machine heads turned and tested for secure grip on strings
10) Nut tested for secure fitting and correct string height	11) Switches, volume and tone controls tested for faulty connections	12) Pickups checked for responsiveness

For more details on our checking and packing procedure, please see our 12 Point Check and Packing Procedures page.

When You Will Receive your Order

Guitar accessories - strings, straps, stands, tuners and other small items
• Orders weighing less than 2kg are posted via First Class Royal Mail on the dispatch date shown.
• Orders weighing less than 2kg with a value over £30 will be sent First Class Royal Mail Recorded Delivery on the dispatch date shown.
• We cannot guarantee a delivery date for these orders, but First Class post usually takes 1-2 days.

Guitars, Amplifiers and larger items
• Orders weighing over 2kg are sent via our next working day courier service.

Interlink Express Courier Delivery
The Home Delivery Service You Have Been Waiting For. Interlink Express will provide you with a one hour delivery window so you don’t have to wait in all day for your parcel.

When Interlink Express deliver:
• You are given a one hour delivery window
• You are notified of this by email on the morning of delivery
• If not convenient you can use the email to change the delivery date

International Deliveries
We can deliver to the following European countries,
• Zone 1 - Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Spain - £15 (including TAX) per order.
• Zone 2 - Finland, Portugal and Sweden - £25 (including TAX) per order.
• Zone 3 - Switzerland and Norway - £50 (excluding TAX) per order.
Please note that we can only deliver international orders to the billing address of the credit card used. These orders typically take 3-5 working days to be delivered, you can still track your orders via the Internet in the same way.