Author Topic: For 1976 Musicman Stingray Fretless fans (Read 253 times)

musashi · « **on:** November 28, 2010, 04:36:12 PM »

Just posted a new vid. This one features a 1976 Musicman Stingray Fretless:

SQUARE DANCER (In A Round House) by Cut To The Chase
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsGr4R0I3ns

mike1762 · « **Reply #1 on:** November 28, 2010, 04:57:37 PM »

SWWWWwwwwwwweeeeeeeeeetttttttt. I LOVE MMs (I have 4 of them in the stable).

benson_murrensun · « **Reply #2 on:** November 29, 2010, 10:22:55 AM »

I have a (fretted) Sterling (not one of the newer lower-priced ones). What's the difference between a Sterling and Sting Ray?

dfung60 · « **Reply #3 on:** November 29, 2010, 02:04:26 PM »

The Stingray in the original post was designed and built by Leo Fender, after he left Fender and started MusicMan. Leo left MusicMan some years later and started G&L after that.

MusicMan wandered in the wilderness for a while and ended up getting bought by Ernie Ball. They moved production to San Luis Obispo. The Ernie Ball instruments have been in the spirit of the original Leo instruments with a lot of evolution.

Part of the evolution was the development of the Sterling model, which is named after Ernie Ball's son Sterling, who runs the company now. The cool thing about being a God like Leo (or Ron W. for that matter) is that you can do anything you like and be revered. If you take over The Creator's company and screw with the slightest detail, you'll be chased through the streets with burning torches. So, EBMM was smart enough to launch an evolved instrument under a different name, rather than screw with the StingRay.

The Sterling has a smaller body and neck which is more contoured. It also has a coil-configuration switch for the pickup. They were pretty nice when they were launched, and haven't changed much.

The modern EBMM StingRays are pretty different than the original ones. They have a 6-bolt neck instead of 3 bolt and a much easier truss rod adjustment. The EBMMs have an oil finished neck instead of polyurethane (like on the bodies). The strings don't pass through the body anymore. And most StingRays have 3-band EQ instead of 2-band.

I bought a new StingRay in 1977 and it was my buddy for more than 15 years. I have to admit, it was not the best StingRay or the best bass I had. During the craziness of vintage instrument prices in the 90's I decided to sell it and got way too much money for it. I later bought an EBMM which is a much better bass with a stiffer neck and better construction, but not nearly as interesting as the original StingRay.

Are there cheaper MusicMans these days? They played around with an import line (SUB) for while, but I think that's gone now. Seems like every MusicMan I've seen for years now was $1500-2200.

David Fung

benson_murrensun · « **Reply #4 on:** November 29, 2010, 02:37:03 PM »

Thank you for the education, David!
Here is a link that shows a cheaper version Sterling for sale: http://bass-guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Sterling-by-Music-Man-SB14-Bass?sku=580994
The Sterling I have, which is not from this cheaper line, does not have any switches for pickup coil configuration. The neck is VERY narrow at the nut, which is why I don't use it very much. The instrument is highly resonant acoustically; before you even plug it in you know you have a live wire on your hands.

musashi · « **Reply #5 on:** November 30, 2010, 02:01:01 AM »

(Message edited by musashi on November 30, 2010)

musashi · « **Reply #6 on:** November 30, 2010, 02:06:43 AM »

SQUARE DANCER (In A Round House) new and improved version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObshjOqhnks

(For the old Stingray aficianados there's a slapped breakdown at 4:10...)

mike1762 · « **Reply #7 on:** November 30, 2010, 04:52:35 AM »

Sterling Ball was actually involved with the original design of the Sting Ray, so the EB buyout of MM wasn't the hostile takeover that one might imagine. That being said, I HATE trying to deal with EB... I have a Cutlass-I that I would love to have restored (the preamp got mangled and was subsequently lost), but they won't even talk to me about it.

MM had an odd manufacturing process: the instruments were made by CLF research (headed by Leo Fender) and then shipped to Music Man (headed by Tommy Walker). MM was rejecting a high percentage of the instrument. This lead to a rift between the 2 principals and Leo's decision to go into business with George Fullerton (G&L). CLF made instruments for BOTH MM and G&L until around 1981. Between 1981 and the 1984 EB buyout of MM, Grover Jackson was building the instruments for MM. I'm not sure who builds the G&L stuff these days.

(Message edited by mike1762 on November 30, 2010)

jazzyvee · « **Reply #8 on:** November 30, 2010, 04:57:00 AM »

I had one of the expensive sterling basses that I bought about 2001 I think, and it was a good bass too narrow at the nut i thought too. The body is the same size as a strat so was pretty light. Interestingly It had a hum cancelling coil inside which I found that out was when it went back for repair due to sounding really thin on one of the pickup settings and was told the hum canceller was connected wrongly inside.

I sold it sometime in 2007 i think after I got my Elan, but with hindsight it would have been good beater bass and to get that fender tone for some of the Marcus Miller tracks I occasionally do on gigs.

Jazzyvee

jazzyvee · « **Reply #9 on:** November 30, 2010, 07:14:02 AM »

I had one of the expensive sterling basses that I bought about 2001 I think, and it was a good bass too narrow at the nut i thought too. The body is the same size as a strat so was pretty light. Interestingly It had a hum cancelling coil inside which I found that out was when it went back for repair due to sounding really thin on one of the pickup settings and was told the hum canceller was connected wrongly inside.

I sold it sometime in 2007 i think after I got my Elan, but with hindsight it would have been good beater bass and to get that fender tone for some of the Marcus Miller tracks I occasionally do on gigs.

Jazzyvee

bassilisk · « **Reply #10 on:** November 30, 2010, 07:59:05 AM »

benson_murrensun - I bought my Sterling in '94 just a year after they became available and it had a 3 position switch that gave you both coils in either series or parallel, and the middle position was the bridge coil alone, along with a 3-band eq. I still have it and it is one of my favorite basses. The feel of the neck suits me perfectly and (I found out much later) was identical in profile to a '62 Jazz I had for a while.

The short story is I ended up gutting the original electronics. I replaced the pickup with a Lane Poor (that I got direct from him when he was still in business) and put in an Aguilar OBP-3 @ 18v. there's nothing I don't like about this one.

benson_murrensun · « **Reply #11 on:** December 01, 2010, 09:08:43 AM »

In the interest of correcting my misinformation, my Sterling DOES indeed have a switch for pickup coil operation. It's been so long since I used this bass that I forgot, but I looked at it last night and there it was! According to a spec sheet I downloaded from somewhere, the nut width is 1-1/2 inches; and the weight is approximately 9 pounds, although mine seems considerably lighter. Guess I could weigh it....

dfung60 · « **Reply #12 on:** December 01, 2010, 03:32:14 PM »

mike -

That's interesting that Sterling Ball was involved with the StingRay. I've seen him at NAMM shows before and I would guess that he's younger than I am (I'm 50 now), so he would have been pretty young when the StingRay originally came out. Maybe he's older than he looks!

I think the MusicMan instruments have turned out to be more memorable than the amps, but I do remember the guys in the stores telling me at the time that the focus of the company was more on amps than basses.

David Fung

mike1762 · « **Reply #13 on:** December 01, 2010, 04:26:13 PM »

I'm not sure how old he is (Ernie was born in 1930), but he probably was fairly young during those early MM days.

The amps were actually made by MM (rather than being sub-contracted out). There was a lot of bad blood between Fender and Walker, so I imagine that they WANTED the focus to be on the amps... but as you say. However, those amps were really nice. My recollection is that they used a solid state pre-amp with a tube driven power-amp. I remember that they were incredibly LOUD, but had a nice tone.

bigredbass · « **Reply #14 on:** December 01, 2010, 09:56:35 PM »

David:

Don't the Sterlings have a 'dummy coil' set-up?

For most people, the StingRay Five has become the 'defacto' five string, much like a Jazz or PBass in four-strings. Supposedly the Sterlings were meant to have more of a Jazz feel with the slimmer body and Jazz-width neck.

J o e y