Music Man StingRay

Music Man StingRay Redhot Edition, 2 -band EQ, year 1997

• 2-band EQ: 1 x volume, 1 x treble, 1 x bass
• 3- Band EQ: an additional 1 × Facial
• HS and HH: 1 × 5-way pick-up selection
• Additional 1 × volume with piezo pickup

The Music Man StingRay is a manufactured since 1976 E -Bass model of the American musical-instrument company Music Man. The design of the model is based largely on the co-founder of the company, the music instrument maker and inventor Leo Fender.

Prehistory

In 1965, Leo Fender sold the co-founded by him in the late 1940s, the company Fender Musical Instruments to the consolidated CBS Corporation and had signed a contract clause that forbade him for a period of ten years, to be active as a commercial musical instrument manufacturer. Two of his employees Forrest White and Tom Walker, also left the Fender company and founded his own company named Musitek that was after several name changes, in 1974 called Music Man. The first products under the brand were sold Music Man guitar amp. Silent partner was Leo Fender, who was not allowed to publicly appear due to the term. After the clause expired in 1975, Leo Fender became the Music -Man director.

History and design of the model

In 1976, Music Man brought the Bass model StingRay ( German: Stingray ) out, which was designed by Leo Fender, Tom Walker and Sterling Ball. After the 1971 featured Alembic Series I was the StingRay, the second electric bass with active tone control - that is, the bass has built a preamplifier which is powered by a 9 - volt battery.

A novelty of the StingRay was the asymmetrically arranged in 3:1 ratio tuning machines on the headstock, single post by Forrest White to design the model. The practical purpose of the design details was originally the elimination of a sound problem: the Fender typical arrangement of the tuners in a row on one side of the headstock means that the treble strings of the instrument in shallower angle and are therefore performed with a lower contact pressure over the saddle than the bass strings. The results are weaker sounding tones (English: soft spots or dead spots ) in some layers of the fingerboard. For this reason, earlier designed by Fender guitar models for the treble strings have one or two String Retainer ( engl.: string tree ) on the headstock. When StingRay the fifth and sixth fret of the high G string were affected. The laying of the voting mechanics only the G string on the other side of the headstock solved the problem in a new way

Another feature of the StingRay with a high recognition value is the egg-shaped pickguard ( pickguard ) made of plastic, which is screwed onto the front of the body. Mounted flush to the pickguard are the electromagnetic pickup of the instrument. The humbucker pickups by StingRay with its eight exposed, large pole heads was a design classic and is known in the art to the present day as " MM- type". Also characteristic of the design of the model is the shape of the metal, chromed backing plate with knobs (potentiometer) for the volume and tone as well as a socket for the jack of the guitar cable. The outline of these is also screwed onto the front of the body away from the plate is similar to a boomerang.

The StingRay has, however, also more than "traditional" respected and since the introduction of the electric guitar model Fender Telecaster in 1950 as applicable to typical Leo Fender design features. These include the body made ​​of alder or ash wood, from the existing Maple neck with a maple fingerboard and rosewood, and the neck-body connection with several screws.

Modifications

Over the years, some modifications were made when StingRay: Was the original model with a single, twin-coil pickups (English: Humbucker ) equipped, there is since 1978 also a version with an additional humbucker ( original model name: Sabre ), and for some time a version with an additional single-coil single-coil pickups. The initial two-band equalizer (English: Equalizer) can be optionally extended by a third frequency band today ..

The components of the preamplifier in 1978 changed slightly, resulting in a clearer and " funkier " sound caused. In addition, the preamplifier was poured into black plastic to make it more difficult plagiarism. In the same year the thin frets were replaced with jumbo frets in the fretboard.

After there had been problems with the stability of the neck in the early models, 1980, a " Cutlass " called model was offered with a graphite neck. Instead of the triple - screw of the neck there was since there was a quadruple - screw, now six screws. It was also the "String - thru-body " construction, in which the guitar strings are passed through the body, abandoned.

The bridges of earlier models had adjustable dampers for the strings. These had to be ratcheted up individually for each string. The screws for this lay directly under the strings and were therefore not easy to achieve. Thus, it was not possible to quickly switch between muted and undamped sound switch back and forth, which is why this option in practice found little application. Also in order to prevent injuries to the fingers through the metal parts, was waived this equipment from 1992. She was initially retrofitted to the combination of bridge and tailpiece (English: Bridge ) was finally reduced in 1996.

In 1984 the company was acquired by Music Man Ernie Ball Incorporation. In the course of the body shape of the StingRay was designed ergonomic, and the instrument necks were initially dull, later no longer painted. In 1987, a five-string version of the model has been introduced.

In 2010, the " Classic Collection " series was introduced, which is an almost wholly new edition of the early StingRay. Only the Truss rod adjustment at the body-side end of the neck, a 6-bolt neck joint and the string retainer on the headstock (English: Stringtree ) on the A and D strings ( instead of the previous D, and G) are concessions to the modernity. The model is also available as a five-string under the name StingRay 5.

Known StingRay players

Known bassists who play the StingRay or played include John Deacon (Queen), Louis Johnson ( The Brothers Johnson), Bernard Edwards (Chic ), Kim Clarke ( Defunkt ), Tony Levin ( King Crimson, Peter Gabriel and others) Tim Commerford ( Rage Against the Machine) and Flea ( Red Hot Chili Peppers ).