Music Man Sterling

The Music Man Sterling is a model of bass guitar designed by the Music Man company. Production for the model began in July 1993 through a series of pre-launch prototype models date back as far as March 1993. ^[1] It was named after Sterling Ball, son of Ernie Ball, the founder of the parent company, and intended to be a four-string model that incorporated innovations from the highly popular StingRay 5.

The Sterling differs from the famous Music Man StingRay 4-string bass by featuring a smaller, lighter body and a slimmer neck profile with 22 frets (in lieu of the Stingray's 21). The pickup utilizes ceramic magnets instead of Alnico and the preamp has a three-band active EQ with separate tone controls for treble, middle and bass as well as a selector switch for parallel, single-coil, and series coil configurations. The pickup, while technically a Humbucker, is actually a triple-coil that engages a "phantom coil" in series when in single-coil mode.^[2] This design led to the Sterling being named the "Most Innovative Bass of 1993" by Musician Magazine.

This bass generally weighs around nine pounds, sporting a solid body made from selected hardwoods (generally Ash) and finished in high-gloss polyester. The bridge is the traditional Music Man chrome plated, hardened steel bridge plate with stainless steel and an optional piezo feature for acoustic upright-like tones. The standard pickguard colour is either black or white. The Sterling utilizes a 34"-scale length with a maple neck featuring rosewood or maple fingerboard (pau ferro for the fretless variant). Like the other Music Man basses, the Sterling comes with Schaller tuners. The truss rod is adjustable and the neck is bolt-on type with an asymmetrical five-bolt neck plate.^[3]

In 2005, the Sterling debuted new pickup configurations and five-way switching. The HS model continued to use the Phantom Coil pickup. Switching options were: S + PC, S + center coil tap S (series), all coils (including PC - parallel), bridge coil tap S + PC (parallel) & H (series).^[4] The HH model uses 2 standard ceramic magnet Humbucker. Switching options are bridge H (series), Both center coil tap S (parallel), Both H (parallel), Bridge + Neck coil tap S (parallel) & Bridge H (series).^[5]

Music Man introduced a five-string version using the same body and pickguard styling as the original four-string since January 22, 2008. On July 24, 2010, Music Man introduced a "Classic Collection" 4 string Sterling featuring a single ceramic pickup wired in parallel, two-band boost/cut EQ, string-through slab body, 7.5" inch fretboard radius, a choice of flamed or birds-eye maple neck with maple or rosewood fingerboard, chrome battery cover, and string mutes.

Notable users are Colin Greenwood of Radiohead, Dave LaRue (of the Steve Morse Band, The Dixie Dregs, and Bruce Hornsby), Johnny Christ of Avenged Sevenfold, Dougie Poynter of McFly, which has light-up led inlays, of 7 Blue Skies and Roger Manganelli of Less Than Jake, Ado Flowers of Ebony Brown, H'Edin Duranovic of Fall of Reach, Diego D'Agata of splatterpink, Brandon Bloomfield of 221Fly, and Jennifer Young of the Travis Larson Band.

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