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Music Man Stingray 5 vs SBMM Ray35

#21
I posted in the wrong thread earlier but meant to say here that this is why I searched out used USA musicman EBMM Sub basses. The USA SLO made ones from early to mid 2000s were incredible instruments. effectively a classic stingray with industrial finish and slightly different neck shape. oh and no string mutes (which is why we have right pinky fingers and palms anyhow).

I have $1050 TOTAL invested in my TWO 5 string USA sub basses, one fretted and one fretless. For nearly 4 times that I could own the same thing in new classic stingrays. the classics would look sexier, but the sound and overall playability along with fretwork and build quality would be identical.

Hard to find but worth searching out.

Personally I put a wanted ad on my local craigslist to find each of them. took a couple months before I went from no musicmans to two perfect condition musicmans, and they literally are my favorite playing basses, still even preferable for just grabbing and playing to my carvin (which is an insanely great bass).
 
#23
I'd also add that I bought a Roasted Stingray 4 brand new last year. The particular model I got was about 10.5 lbs.
Yeah it does get heavy after a few hours, but I deal with it because I love the neck the tone and the dynamics I get from this bass. That was really the big deal for me moving to Musicman basses after playing every sub $1000 bass out there. The way that you can play with the slightest pressure or the fiercest string torture and it comes right out of your amp (if your amp can keep up!).
It actually kind of startled me the first time I was jamming with a band and I felt MORE BASS when I played harder.
Lesser basses sound like the pickups are bottoming out trying to keep up (won't name any names here).

I'd also point out since you seem new to the brand, there are USA made Music Man basses. We generally use EBMM (Ernie Ball Music man) to describe those.
There are import Music Man basses usually called SBMM (Sterling by Music Man) that are made in China, Indonesia or somesuch.
This get's confusing because there are EBMM models called Sterling and Sub (the latter discontinued) and there are SBMM model lines called SUB and the whole import line is "Sterling".
This confusing nomenclature has been the source of a lot of forum misunderstandings. People posting about their import "Musicman Sterling" in the USA Musicman Sterling "Club" gets a lot of snippy responses.
 
#25
Calaverasgrande said:
I'd also point out since you seem new to the brand, there are USA made Music Man basses. We generally use EBMM (Ernie Ball Music man) to describe those.
There are import Music Man basses usually called SBMM (Sterling by Music Man) that are made in China, Indonesia or somesuch.
This get's confusing because there are EBMM models called Sterling and Sub (the latter discontinued) and there are SBMM model lines called SUB and the whole import line is "Sterling".
This confusing nomenclature has been the source of a lot of forum misunderstandings. People posting about their import "Musicman Sterling" in the USA Musicman Sterling "Club" gets a lot of snippy responses.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I figured this out last year when browsing the L&M website & trying to discern between the 2 brands. :P
 
#28
awilkie84 said:
I'm just across the water from it. Why do you ask?
Click to expand...

I work in Vancouver, live an hour east of van, so if you're around sometime let me know if you want to try my USA sub 5 basses. Super build quality, much like the newer classic series, used they go for a few hundred typically.

They're hard to come by so unlikely you'll get to mess around on one if you don't know someone.
 

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