This is for US made Ernie Ball Music Man Sub (or S.U.B., on the oldest made ones) basses from the early to mid 2000s.
They were made in california. label on back of the headstock says this. Sub was the acronym for Sport Utility Bass and was the first ever lower priced line of musicman basses (and guitars after a little while).
They stopped making them in 2006 because cost of manufacture rose to the point that they lost money on each bass (according to Sterling Ball himself).
These ones (that this thread is about) in retrospect turned out to be pro quality instruments that were very similar to classic 1980s Stingrays (classics) with 2 band eq, alnico pickups, non switching parallel wired pickup, and slab body without contours. This is why these basses are sought after by many of us, yet still go fairly cheap on the used market due to low original sale prices and lack of understanding of their value.
Differences are in wood (poplar), finish (to cover the ugly but great sounding poplar to because it's cheaper to finish a maple neck in black than in hand rubbed oil), and head stock color (all US made vintage Subs have black headstocks, no matter what the color of the bass).
That is the easiest way to tell if it's a US made Sub - black on the headstock and back of the neck probably means it's one of the US serious quality ones.
The CURRENT Sub line however is their entry level offshore built line of basses. They are certainly good basses for the cheap money, but they don't use US made pickups, preamps, bridges, tuners, wood, manufacturing, etc etc. They are not anywhere near in the same league as the instruments discussed in this thread.
So the meaning of the title Sub bass changed after 2006.
until then it was a super cool little understood american made line of instruments that kicked ass and were effectively the first version of the stingray classic, albeit without the same cosmetics or subtleties of finish.
After 2006 (not sure when, late 2000s? 2010s?) the Sub line came back as an entry level import line of instruments.
They were made in california. label on back of the headstock says this. Sub was the acronym for Sport Utility Bass and was the first ever lower priced line of musicman basses (and guitars after a little while).
They stopped making them in 2006 because cost of manufacture rose to the point that they lost money on each bass (according to Sterling Ball himself).
These ones (that this thread is about) in retrospect turned out to be pro quality instruments that were very similar to classic 1980s Stingrays (classics) with 2 band eq, alnico pickups, non switching parallel wired pickup, and slab body without contours. This is why these basses are sought after by many of us, yet still go fairly cheap on the used market due to low original sale prices and lack of understanding of their value.
Differences are in wood (poplar), finish (to cover the ugly but great sounding poplar to because it's cheaper to finish a maple neck in black than in hand rubbed oil), and head stock color (all US made vintage Subs have black headstocks, no matter what the color of the bass).
That is the easiest way to tell if it's a US made Sub - black on the headstock and back of the neck probably means it's one of the US serious quality ones.
The CURRENT Sub line however is their entry level offshore built line of basses. They are certainly good basses for the cheap money, but they don't use US made pickups, preamps, bridges, tuners, wood, manufacturing, etc etc. They are not anywhere near in the same league as the instruments discussed in this thread.
So the meaning of the title Sub bass changed after 2006.
until then it was a super cool little understood american made line of instruments that kicked ass and were effectively the first version of the stingray classic, albeit without the same cosmetics or subtleties of finish.
After 2006 (not sure when, late 2000s? 2010s?) the Sub line came back as an entry level import line of instruments.
