Music Man StingRay

Designed by Leo Fender, Tom Walker, and Sterling Ball, the StingRay^[1] bass appeared in 1976 and, though somewhat similar to a Fender Precision Bass, had a number of distinctive features.

It employs a single Humbucking pickup placed near the bridge for a tighter sound,^[2] and an active pre-amp powered by a 9-volt battery. Early iterations of this preamp came with a 2-band EQ (bass and treble), later augmented by an optional third band (midrange), and Piezo pickups located in the bridge saddles. The StingRay's active preamp was sealed in epoxy to avoid Reverse engineering of the technology which came to be synonymous with the StingRay bass.

Since Music Man was purchased by Ernie Ball Inc. in 1984, many significant introductions have been made into the StingRay range, with double Humbucking pickups being introduced in the early 2000s, which has become a popular choice today. A five-string variant of the StingRay has become common, in some spaces even outselling the tradition four-string offering.

The StingRay also has the distinctive "3+1" headstock (on which three tuning machines are situated on the top and one on the bottom). Another way the StingRay hardware varies from the traditional Fender electric bass that is the staple of the industry, is the StingRay's six-bolt neck plate as opposed to the four-bolt arrangement used by Fender, supplying more body to neck contact inside the pocket, along with the extra rigidity providing further body sustain. The StingRay is offered in both string through body and top load stringing depending on specification.

The typical StingRay line has traditionally featured an ash body construction along with a maple neck with either a maple or rosewood fingerboard, finished with an oil coat, as opposed to hard lacquer finishes as used by Fender. In recent years,^[when?] the roasted maple neck option has become popular, due to the wood's beautiful aesthetics and its higher resistance to varying humidity. Alongside this, a fretless Pau Ferro fingerboard has become increasingly popular.

 

 

• Benjamin Orr of The Cars
• Bernard Edwards of Chic
• Louis Johnson of Michael Jackson and the Brothers Johnson
• Paul Denman of Sade
• Pino Palladino of D'Angelo, the John Mayer Trio, the Who, and others
• Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers^[3]
• Max Green of Escape The Fate
• Shavo Odadjian of System Of A Down
• Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam
• Rex Brown of Pantera
• Justin Chancellor of Tool
• Johnny Christ of Avenged Sevenfold
• Tim Commerford of Rage Against the Machine
• John Deacon of Queen
• Dave 'Phoenix' Farrell of Linkin Park
• Mark Hoppus of Blink 182
• Jason Newsted formerly of Metallica
• Jaime Preciado of Pierce the Veil
• Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails
• Robert Trujillo of Metallica
• Cliff Williams of AC/DC
• Tony Levin, of King Crimson, Peter Gabriel, John Lennon, and others^[4]
• Dougie Thomson of Supertramp

• Official MusicMan website