Verona • MB • Desert Dawn • Prototype

A one-off prototype of the Manson Verona MB Signature model - hand built at the Ashburton workshop, finished to full production standard, and carrying a neck specification that never reached the production run.

The Verona MB is built to the exact and detailed specification of Matthew Bellamy's stage guitar used during the Will Of The People Tour and now a firm part of the Muse frontman's touring rig.

Originally named the Verona, following the Muse titled track of the same name, the Devonshire based factory had to push the boundaries further to go beyond a simple recreation of a vintage classic with high-spec parts. Knowing the guitar would be tour-tested for months on end and need to sit alongside the artist's extensive Manson Guitars tour rack, a distinct tone and ergonomics all came to the forefront at the design process.

Sporting a modern four bolt contoured heel, body contour tweaks that hint at the Manson MA ranges and an easily accessible 22 frets means the instrument has playability at its core, even with styling cues suggesting the 60s past. The sky blue scratchplate talks of yesteryear: the two point Gotoh 510 engineered tremolo of the here and now.

"Tonally, the neck pickup was everything," says Matt Bellamy. "It had to capture that vintage clarity—the clean, expressive tone that lives in Ry Cooder's slide work. I was chasing the emotional voice you hear in the road movies 'Paris, Texas' and 'Crossroads', that haunting, human sound that feels like it's echoing across an empty desert highway."

"The neck pickup on the Verona model is the soul of the guitar. It needed to deliver purity and presence, without ever feeling overdriven or artificial. It had to feel honest and epic, like one of my favourite films of all time 'Thelma and Louise' when the horizon opens up and the sky just swallows the road. But also a tone that can live alongside my other more modern sounding guitars"

Having built pickups in house at Manson Guitar Works for over a decade, the team was able to design and test dozens of possible pickup specifications to deliver the sound Matt was looking for. Standard and aftermarket equipped vintage guitars were on hand during the entire time to make sure the exact amount of clarity, warmth and vintage tone could be dialled in.

At the other end - literally - using experience with building multi-rail pickups, the bridge position sported a dual rail design wired in parallel to produce a hum-cancelling effect but with an output and tone to match up with the neck and middle pickups. The result? A combination with a spookily accurate 60s vibe neck pickup with an added extra splash of hot Texas sauce when the bridge pickup joins the action.

Further vintage features come from the hand selected alder in the body, a master volume and two tone controls, and an Oak Grigsby 5-way selector layout.

Where this prototype departs from the production model is the neck. Roast flame maple carries an ebony fingerboard with no front inlays - side dots only - cut to a 12-16" compound radius, in place of the rosewood board and white face dots of the production Desert Dawn.

A single prototype instrument in Desert Dawn gloss finish - the same Verona MB, with a neck you won't find on the production model.