MusicMan Sterling

[dub_junkie]

I bought this bass in January of this year from Dawsons Music in Chester.It was a new old stock job from 2004 which hadn't shifted.So no compensated nut,but as it was £750 new with the MM case I wasn't for passing it up



Its finished in candy apple red(not sure whether its alder or poplar under it)and originally came with a black plate,though I bought the white EBMM pearloid one you see here a couple of months ago and it definetely suits it better
The neck was very dry when I got it but after a few applications of beeswax that problem disappeared and the action was too high for my liking when I first opened the case - easy job to fix,and something I've pretty much had to do with any guitar or bass I've ever owned.
The finish is flawless on my bass and I really love the colour of it. under stage lighting it goes almost magenta.
The maple neck has a fair bit of figure lines in the wood but no flame or birdseye.The neck is starting to darken a little and its looking better all the time.
Everything is solid on the bass.the bridge,tuners and controls are still tarnish free and everything works perfectly.
One slightly strange anomaly is that it feels a tad heavier than any Stngray 4 I've owned,even though its downsized but it's light enough not to ever notice it during a gig.



The neck is my favourite bit on a Sterling bass (I used to own a honeyburst with rosewood board).I love the shaping on these things.The're 38mm(1 1/2") at the nut and fairly deep behind the first fret (well compared to a Stingray anyway)
from what I remember of Rays and SUB basses,the Sterling's neck stays a bit deeper front to back all the way up.
Sorry but I think only mad people and lifelong P-bass guys wouldnt like this neck....
The fretting is first class,no lifting,sharp ends,filler under the tangs,anything else undesirable.a lot of attenton to detail has gone into the fretting of this bass by the looks and feel of it.The rolled over fingerboard edges make it the best I've ever wrapped my left mitt around.I think the plastic nut is the only let down but I guess I can live with that.

Soundwise,its a more mid-rangey Stingray to my ears.I never,ever bother with the series or single coil settings so I wont bother commenting on them - they sound fine - but the parallel setting is the classic stingray tone and thats the same sound I use with the Sterling. The EQ has its own voice compared to the Ray,maybe not quite so much bottom end but more growl and punch than its big sister.Treble can get a little noisy all the way up but I never move it more than a little up from the centre notch anyway so no issues there.Its a MusicMan sound but its got its own voice.It sounds better than a 3 band Ray imo which is why I chose it.I play it through a Warwick ProFet III and Warwick 4x10 at home but mostly with my 2 piece though a Line 6 Bass Pod XT Live board,into a Mackie Onyx mixer and Nexo PS15s and Nexo bass bins. It sounds great in every venue.



I have pretty much always had a MusicMan bass these last 20 years and this one I'm hoping is a keeper. I sold my Bongo 4HS not long ago but kept the Sterling because its a better gigging bass imo.the smaller size and simplicity of the EQ and the great neck make it a breeze to play.
Lately I've been playing my ASAT basses out live but the Sterling gets a look in every now and then but I'm thinking about going back to it more and more because its so easy to play.The G&Ls are more versatile in the range of tones on tap but I've reached a point in my playing where I just want to leave the knobs and switches alone and just play the same sound all night.
The Sterling's perfect for doing that.I think its the best bass MusicMan make and I'll be playing them for many years to come hopefully



I'd give this bass a 9/10 for everything because 10/10 would mean an end to GAS and I cant have that

DJ

Edited October 11, 2007 by dub_junkie

[charic]

Pbass player here i LOVE the neck on these things and im a REALLY picky guy when it comes to necks. The sterling is definately one of my top favourite necks (the corvette might have it beat). I cant get on with a stingray or sub though. Still need to try a bongo!

[TheRev]

£750??

You got a real bargain there, mate.

Funny you should mention an end to GAS - I bought my Sterling in 2000 and it's totally ruined me for other basses, they just have no effect on me.

I'd quite like a fetless one though

[martthebass]

+1 on the £750!!
I bought a NOS 2004 - cost me £920 so you did mega well.
I agree with pretty much all you've put up there - I could've written it! (also a 'Ray user for nearly 20 years before swapping to a Sterling). Strange about the weight, I thought it would be lighter than my old 'Ray - it isn't. Mine also doesn't get as much use as it should - probably because it's pristine and at the mo I'm playing dives and jam nights so the p-bass and Thumb tend to get used more, but I agree with you, there isn't a better neck in the business.

[dub_junkie]

to clarify the £750..it was an ebay auction that dawsons run and no one else bid on.the listing finished at 9.45 on a sunday morning when most bass players (myself included)are still in their bed.that morning I wasnt and saw it 15 minutes before it ended.borrowing the money afterwards was the difficult part lol
I can only imagine I got it trade + VAT ^_^
DJ

[dub_junkie]

snce got another Sterling and swapped the necks out

cant decide which one I like more they're both fantastic!

[stingrayfan]

I got excited for a moment because I thought you were selling it. I was starting to think "hmm..would I use it?"

Great looking bass. Love the colour.

[Brother Jones]

I owned a couple of Rays about ten years ago and although they nailed one thing really well, I found them really limiting. Could never seem to get good harmonics out of them and they always seemed to end up sounding a bit treble-bass-nothing-in-between.

Always liked Sterlings though - never played a bad one. Although I'm very much a Jazzer, might have to give a Sterling a try. Wish they made a 5 string Sterling....

[dub_junkie]

[quote name='stingrayfan' post='85042' date='Nov 7 2007, 06:15 PM']I got excited for a moment because I thought you were selling it. I was starting to think "hmm..would I use it?"

Great looking bass. Love the colour.[/quote]

which one do you like the colour of? the one shot of the sparkle white aint too clever.it looks heaps better in the flesh so I
will need to get some better pics of it sometime this week

[quote name='Brother Jones' post='91191' date='Nov 19 2007, 11:51 PM']Wish they made a 5 string Sterling....[/quote]

The Sterling 5 is to debut at namm summer '08 I believe. once the Bongo 6 is done and dusted they'll be releasing some pics

[markytbass]

I love that Candy Apple Red, and at that price. I thought I could only afford 2nd hand gear of that caliber, and you've proved me wrong.

[Russ]

[quote name='Brother Jones' post='91191' date='Nov 19 2007, 11:51 PM']I owned a couple of Rays about ten years ago and although they nailed one thing really well, I found them really limiting. Could never seem to get good harmonics out of them and they always seemed to end up sounding a bit treble-bass-nothing-in-between.

Always liked Sterlings though - never played a bad one. Although I'm very much a Jazzer, might have to give a Sterling a try. Wish they made a 5 string Sterling....[/quote]

The Stingray 5-string is more or less a 5-string Sterling, what with the coil-switching, the dummy humcancelling coil in the pickup, and the same 3-band EQ. Although I do hear that a proper Sterling 5 is on its way. Hopefully it doesn't have that huge, ugly expanse of scratchplate that the Stingray 5 has.

[beerdragon]

Have you a link for that Dawson ebay site. i have googled it but have had no luck. thanks.

[theosd]

[quote name='Russ' post='94373' date='Nov 26 2007, 03:09 AM']The Stingray 5-string is more or less a 5-string Sterling, what with the coil-switching, the dummy humcancelling coil in the pickup, and the same 3-band EQ. Although I do hear that a proper Sterling 5 is on its way. Hopefully it doesn't have that huge, ugly expanse of scratchplate that the Stingray 5 has.[/quote]

I had the same view about those scratchplates, til I saw this on ebay:

Now she's mine =D

[dub_junkie]

beerdragon, sry I dont have a link.they run auctions fairly reguarly I think,I'd just keep an eye out for them if you can

[dub_junkie]

plugged in,the Sterling and SR5 should sound more like each other than they do. the EQ (and particuarly the mid freq) must be voiced different....I've owned a SR5 and borrowed another for an extentended period of time and both were soft sounding in comparion to the 3 Sterlings I've owned.mids on the sterling bite a lot harder imo but Sterling doesn't have quite the big lovely bottom end of the five either

[Tait]

dub_junkie, i know this isn't what the reviews sections about, but that is one cool looking bass you got there!

[dub_junkie]

swapped over the necks again - they just seem that little better playing and looking with the "wrong" neck on each. I did this before but reverted them back to how they came thinking I was for moving on the candy apple red/maple one. if they both stay as keepers this is how I'll have them from now on

[jammie17]

My Favorite EBMM Bass.


Of all the EBMM basses that I have owned, this was my favorite. I will again, one day get another.

[SisterAbdullahX]

[quote name='dub_junkie' post='85012' date='Nov 7 2007, 05:08 PM']snce got another Sterling and swapped the necks out

cant decide which one I like more they're both fantastic!

[/quote]
White is such a cool colour for a bass.....

[SisterAbdullahX]

[quote name='dub_junkie' post='138409' date='Feb 11 2008, 07:09 PM']swapped over the necks again - they just seem that little better playing and looking with the "wrong" neck on each. I did this before but reverted them back to how they came thinking I was for moving on the candy apple red/maple one. if they both stay as keepers this is how I'll have them from now on













[/quote]

That white sparkle, my friend, is fabulous. Is that a standard MM colour?

[dub_junkie]

the sparkles were discontinued about 5 years ago.only one since was the re-issue of the blue dawn finish on the 2007LE
I'd wanted a white sparkle Stingray or Sterling for about... well 5 years since I went to order one and found out they'd stopped making them.the only one on dealer stock lists at the time I could find was a 2 band Stingray fretless with matching headstock which even ruled out buying it and doing a neck swap with another. This one showed up on ebay last October so I borrowed the money and now I've got the maple neck on her its happy days

[Lfalex v1.1]

[quote name='dub_junkie' post='94886' date='Nov 27 2007, 12:46 AM']plugged in,the Sterling and SR5 should sound more like each other than they do. the EQ (and particuarly the mid freq) must be voiced different....I've owned a SR5 and borrowed another for an extentended period of time and both were soft sounding in comparion to the 3 Sterlings I've owned.mids on the sterling bite a lot harder imo but Sterling doesn't have quite the big lovely bottom end of the five either[/quote]

Whilst I'm not sure if the pick-up is in the same position (on the single H models), do consider that the Ray has AlNiCo pick-ups, The Sterling has Ceramic, and the Bongo has NeoDymium. That may also contribute to what you're hearing...

[dub_junkie]

the SR5 was alnico and then changed to ceramic for a number of years. Its recently changed back to alnico when the sterling 5 came out.

the two Stingray 5's I've owned (since bought another last year)both had ceramic magnets according to the dates the basses were made and despite having the same EQ and switching as the Sterling,to my ears anyway,sound a fair bit different.

would love to try a Sterling 5 for comparisons sake

[karenon]

I got my Sterling during a trip to Toronto last year. £580 brand new. Definitively lighter on the shoulder than the Stingray I sold off to pay for this one. Seems like the preamp is tuned a bit up on this one, as it definitively is louder and with more deep end than my old Stingray and other Sterlings/Rays I tested (it also burns batteries quite a bit faster). I totally agree with the chap doing the rewiew. Great neck and very comfortable all around. Good looking too. I bought it to get some relief from my old Streamer, as that one gets a little bit too demanding sometimes (I have to practice to keep up my technique, or else it reveals what a lazy sod I am). The MM is a bit more forgiving, as it delivers that good old MM growl, and a little bit more ordinary sound with the selector in the back position. Great bass. Love it.

[Rowbee]

[quote name='karenon' post='467732' date='Apr 20 2009, 06:38 PM']I got my Sterling during a trip to Toronto last year. £580 brand new. Definitively lighter on the shoulder than the Stingray I sold off to pay for this one. Seems like the preamp is tuned a bit up on this one, as it definitively is louder and with more deep end than my old Stingray and other Sterlings/Rays I tested (it also burns batteries quite a bit faster). I totally agree with the chap doing the rewiew. Great neck and very comfortable all around. Good looking too. I bought it to get some relief from my old Streamer, as that one gets a little bit too demanding sometimes (I have to practice to keep up my technique, or else it reveals what a lazy sod I am). The MM is a bit more forgiving, as it delivers that good old MM growl, and a little bit more ordinary sound with the selector in the back position. Great bass. Love it.[/quote]

That's a great looking guitar! Legion had the HH version of that one when I went to see him and it was awesome.