Does Anyone Still Play Music Man Basses

[factory presets]

Cept I was talking about the second sentence in my post. Your ultimate stanza is those assumptions I was talking about

 

[Timmah]

Yeesh, what is it about MusicMan threads that causes people to bring out the $10 words??

Lots of people own and gig MM basses. They were never as popular as fenders and probably never will be, but they’ve had a bit of a moment over the past 4-5 years. In large part that’s because they’ve embraced signature models, with Tim Commerford and Joe Dart being the most notable. Their collaborations with Joe have been super interesting from a marketing standpoint as well, with the boutique style limited runs of instruments and BTO offshore models.

I have a SUB Ray4 I use as a beater and mod platform, and an 03 USA stingray 5 I gig from time to time, but most of my playing out is in genres that call for a 4-string fender sound, so they don’t see a lot of stage time.

Here’s a crappy pic of the 03 waiting for action on Saturday night, doing a full set of Matchbox Twenty songs. Their bassist was a stingray guy for the first few records but eventually swapped to Sadowsky basses.

 

[Geri O]

Here’s the answer one should adopt and adhere to….

If you like and play Stingrays, it shouldn’t matter a Ruby Red Rat’s A$$ whether anyone else in the country, nay, the planet, nay, the entire friggin’ universe likes and plays them. So why the question?

The end.

I’m suspect of the nature of the OP’s inquiry. You can feign curiosity all you like, but I smell an agenda.

Again….whatever….

 

[Al1885]

Hell yeah

Are they still supporting the software side if the bass?

Always wanted a bass with 2 names reflex/game changer

 

[spufman]

I play my fretless Sterling all the time, and my fretted one sometimes. They are extremely well made, beautiful playing instruments. Doubt either one will ever leave my collection. I just tend to prefer my Laklands and my sweet '83 G&L when rocking with frets. Punchier tone for my technique.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Nope.

Not a single person plays them anymore.

There was an amnesty, and everyone had to surrender their Music Man basses.

If you failed to surrender yours, I can provide you with the address to send them to...

 

[MDBass]

Be honest with you, bra, people probably don't know how to read your overly formal style of talking. They're unsure if you are being condescending. I wouldn't say they're ganging up on you. But some do seem to be taking cues from each other as to how to understand the subtext of your posts.

I don't know who you are, where you're from or what languages you speak. I did see you respond to one non-English post. So I suspect, given the inappropriately formal style you use, that English may not be your mother tongue. But your flawless grammar is not making that obvious.

Plainly, you came here because of an interest in basses. And it's a good place to talk about that. I'd suggest you try not to be offended by people misreading your intentions, even though they're not extending you the same courtesy. If you are using an AI translator, maybe turn down the formality, if that's an option. An informal tone in English is not as offensive as it would be in some other cultures.

If you stick around, I expect you'll become used to people's mannerisms. And they'll become used to yours.

OP’s intentions are pretty clear at this point.

He claimed he was just trolling when people pointed out he was being rather ridiculous, and a handful of posts later was openly hostile to someone who agreed he must be trolling.

Not his first time starting a thread just to be combative with people either.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…it’s probably not an eagle

 

[5StringBlues]

Opie is no longer, does this mean we're not going to play Stonehenge?

 

[factory presets]

OP’s intentions are pretty clear at this point.

He claimed he was just trolling when people pointed out he was being rather ridiculous, and a handful of posts later was openly hostile to someone who agreed he must be trolling.

Not his first time starting a thread just to be combative with people either.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…it’s probably not an eagle

Always wonder when people are quick to ascribe nefarious intent to trolls, why the little pot-stirrers so often seen to suffer the most emotional damage of anyone involved. Way beyond the call of passive aggression. Too much egoism for victimhood. I really can't see what they think they gain. I just feel sorry for them.

And yet so many repeat offenders.

 

[pfschim]

hmmm, another very "interesting" thread. Started out with a post by Switcheroo then that user became Deleted Member. ... or is the Deleted Member icon now the way TB displays banned folks ?

FWIW, I've never played a Music Man instrument so I have nothing to add to the OP's question

 

[Daniel Piper]

Are they still supporting the software side if the bass?

Always wanted a bass with 2 names reflex/game changer

Nope, but this is just a 25th/reflex. I wouldn’t touch an instrument that has a computer in it.

If you wanna read some interesting material, go look at threads concerning the game changer models from over the past couple of years. Bit of a bloodbath.

 

[Wood and Wire]

If you failed to surrender yours, I can provide you with the address to send them to...

When the amnesty ended, me and the rest of the StingRay players went guerrilla.

Unfortunately, our ramshackle woodland compound doesn't have a postal system for anything above the payload of a carrier pigeon.

Please send food.

Unrelated, but we've run out of carrier pigeons.

 

[Lance Bunyon]

Nope, but this is just a 25th/reflex. I wouldn’t touch an instrument that has a computer in it.

If you wanna read some interesting material, go look at threads concerning the game changer models from over the past couple of years. Bit of a bloodbath.

I had a Reflex for a moment. Cool bass, wasn't a relationship. I studied on the buttons I did, maybe found some combos I liked. Neck was a baseball bat. Hands were sore after the two or three gigs I played with it. Traded for a high end ABG.

 

[SteveCS]

to assert that from what’s being promoted on the web in the bass world these days. The MM bass falls low on the totem pole or is less profoundly talked about or played in demo videos or videos on YouTube.

Why anyone with any artistic integrity would, on any level, give a flying **** about what 'the web' or YouTube has to say on the question is beyond me.

Nobody would ever say to a painter that #10 round brushes or Yellow Ochre are no longer 'fashionable', at least not without some narrow context of a particular use or purpose. What grinds even more is that folks suck this stuff up like it's fact or some kind of scripture. Are we not better than this?? Do we have so little confidence in our own decisions that we feel compelled to choose the tools that satisfy the group-think BS over those that meet our needs?

 

[Chuck M]

Yeah, I play Music Man basses but probably not the ones you were thinking of. I could never bond with the Stingray 5 although I tried several. I had one that sounded fantastic but that bass weighed about 12 pounds and that was too much for me. I sent it back. Lately the used black Bongo 6 has been getting a lot of use and I bought the new Blood Orange one to keep it company. IMO the electronics in these basses are the best I have used and I own other basses by Modulus, G.Gould and Roscoe. The Bongo electronics are so easy to use and I can always easily dial in my tone. However, I will say that the high cost of Music Man basses has to be a factor if less are being bought. It is a fine line that manufacturers have to walk....if profits decline they raise prices to compensate and then sales diminish and profits decline.........! California has become one of the most costly states for manufacturers to do business in. Too bad because it is a beautiful state and has everything from beaches to mountains to offer. The new Bongo 6 is expertly crafted and plays and sounds fantastic. Music Man basses are expensive and yet they are worth it.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

When the amnesty ended, me and the rest of the StingRay players went guerrilla.

Unfortunately, our ramshackle woodland compound doesn't have a postal system for anything above the payload of a carrier pigeon.

Please send food.

Unrelated, but we've run out of carrier pigeons.

I'll see if I can arrange some sort of multiple swan pickup. Best tell me which of the basses are the lightest.

 

[66 Fender Jazz]

With a Fender Jazz and Carvins in house, I play my EBMM StingRay on gigs for tonal variety, neck feel and in some cases, for a degree of visual 'flash' in this instrument's case.

 

[Ritter667]

I think over time, you will see fewer of them as their prices continue to soar. For most of its history, MM's were more or less affordable, and now it's getting to where the offshore Sterlings are going up to where the MIA price range once was, and the MIA's just keep rising.

Don't ever forget that instruments are a) fashion, and b) traditional never goes out of style. For as new and hip and different thinking as musicians want to think they are, when it comes to instruments they are painfully creatures of habit: They will always gravitate to the instruments their dads and grandads played in a lot of cases, even their amps in some cases.

You can listen to that crap or if these choices don't suit you, whatever suits you is YOUR business and nobody else's. And these days, there are LOTS of choices. Forget group affirmation.

My great great granddad played an Ibanez Mikro Bass tuned to A standard, tenor bass, tuning, all through WW1, down in the trenches north of Zim-Zalla-Bim-Babwe, and therefor I too play such one!

And I will make sure all my heirs will do that same, or they will get removed from my will, and inherit absolute zero of all my many many billions of imaginary Bitcoins!

 

[WG Plum]

Well, there are Music Man basses, and there are Ernie Ball Music Man basses.

 

[Heiwa]

Let this thread die already