Need help Id'ing body wood on 93 EBMM sterling

[gt96g]

Hey all I need a little help from you guys, I was going on the assumption for a long time that my 93 sterling had an ash body like the newer sterlings but after comparing it to a few newer sterlings I knew for sure were ash the tone did not add up, my bass has a lot more robustness and lowend presence plus the grain did not match than the newer ones. I am having real trouble figuring this one out and was hoping someone could help out. When I called Musicman they told me the 93 sterlings were either alder, ash, or poplar. I took some pics with a super High res camera to show the grain in as much detail as possible.

Thanks

[j.kernodle]

with a transparent finish it would not be poplar. so it's either alder or very tightly grained ash. poplar was only used on solid finish basses.

[dmac1961]

Looks like ash to me.

[EagleMoon]

Alder usually has the mineral lines like that, but the grain does look wide.

[gt96g]

Talked to my local luthier sent him the same pics and he said alder, showed me some pics of some wider grained than typical alder and it matched pretty much exactly.

[Hopkins]

I would guess alder, it looks to tight to be ash. Its kind of hard to tell by the pictures with the trans red finish. What does it look like under the cavity or battery cover?

[curbowkid]

That is alder

[basmansam]

Originally Posted by dmac1961

Looks like ash to me.

+1

[Caca de Kick]

Trans red from MM back then typically used alder, and it is tight grained, looks like alder.

Ash would have wider grains.

[gt96g]

Thanks all

[narud]

my trans red 96 is ash fwiw

[GG Allin]

Originally Posted by j.kernodle

with a transparent finish it would not be poplar. so it's either alder or very tightly grained ash. poplar was only used on solid finish basses.

They used poplar on those semi-expensive basses?

[Munjibunga]

It's ash.

[20db pad]

Email Ernie Ball CS with the serial number of the bass. They'll know for sure.

[drTSTingray]

Originally Posted by 20db pad

Email Ernie Ball CS with the serial number of the bass. They'll know for sure.

Or there's a sticky thread on the Musicman bass forum - if you post your seial number someone from EBMM will reply with DOB, original spec/colour and where it was shipped, if you ask.

As others have said, trans red was normally alder for a long period of EBMM production. However poplar was used sometimes with blueburst, and often with solid colours, especially in the late 80s and early 90s. From the early 2000s virtually everything (except Subs and some trans red) appears to have been ash.

A 1993 Sterling is a very early one (with the bridge with mutes). Nice bass.

[gt96g]

Originally Posted by 20db pad

Email Ernie Ball CS with the serial number of the bass. They'll know for sure.

i did and unfortunately they couldn't tell definitively

[spufman]

I have a '95 trans red fretless in alder. I asked EBMM about it and was told they used alder on the fretless ones and generally ash on fretted back then. Yours looks like an unusually grained alder body to me. To me, that would be a good thing, alder sounds fantastic to my ears. I love the early Sterlings - post full pictures of that bad boy! Oh, my trans red seems darker, can barely see the grain.

[j.kernodle]

you could always drill out a core sample and send it to the forestry service for genetic testing.

[gt96g]

Originally Posted by spufman

I have a '95 trans red fretless in alder. I asked EBMM about it and was told they used alder on the fretless ones and generally ash on fretted back then. Yours looks like an unusually grained alder body to me. To me, that would be a good thing, alder sounds fantastic to my ears. I love the early Sterlings - post full pictures of that bad boy! Oh, my trans red seems darker, can barely see the grain.

Yeah when I called them they said it could be ash, poplar, or alder. The quality on the pics is probably about as good as I can get as those were pics from my brothers professional grade cannon camera. I'll try and get some full pics up later if I can, its not really much to look at but boy is it a tonal monster.

[cfsporn]

How heavy is it?