• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Sterling by Musicman SB4 SDOTD $269

tubatodd

tubatodd

Oct 31, 2004
2,456
4,424
Birmingham, AL
#1
I didn't even know they brought these back. I know they had a new passive version and the limited Joe Dart edition. But it appears they brought back the stock version in candy apple red (sale) and a blue (full price).

Stupid Deal of the Day | Musician's Friend

Musician's Friend adds a fresh Stupid Deal of the Day every day. These deals are in limited quantities so act now to get the best deals across every instrument category.
www.musiciansfriend.com www.musiciansfriend.com

Sterling by Music Man SB4 4-String Electric Bass Guitar -

Get the guaranteed best price on 4 String Electric Bass like the Sterling by Music Man SB4 4-String Electric Bass Guitar - at Musician's Friend. Get a low price and free shipping on thousands of...
www.musiciansfriend.com www.musiciansfriend.com
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sid the Kid
#7
Post Christmas pictures as promised. I installed the Albridge quick-release bridge this morning.

Impromptu hallway picture. Wife picked out the strap and I couldn't be happier.
IMG_20241226_113249.jpg


The bass is NOT this dark. It's more like the picture above.
IMG_20241226_112728023.jpg
 
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: Doctor Morbius, Heiwa, pcake and 4 others
#9
tubatodd said:
Post Christmas pictures as promised. I installed the Albridge quick-release bridge this morning.

Impromptu hallway picture. Wife picked out the strap and I couldn't be happier.
View attachment 7108513

The bass is NOT this dark. It's more like the picture above.
View attachment 7108514
Click to expand...
How do you like the Allbridge quick release? How is the quality and sound?
 
#13
Finally brought the bass to big band rehearsal. I've used stingrays and an EBMM Sterling in that jazz context before with great success. Heck, I even used a previous generation SB4 in the same group.

Yikes! First few tunes sounded terrible. Twisting knobs on the bass brough either woof or brightness. I had to center all of my knobs on my Genzler preamp and then start messing with the mids. I had previously been boosting 150Hz. That USUALLY gives me some nice boost in the low mids, but in this context was a horrible setting. What ended up working was keeping bass and treble centered and doing FULL CUT on 1Khz. I didn't have much time between tunes to make adjustments but in the 10 seconds I had to sweep through mids and get something pleasing to the ear, that worked.

I don't think the stock strings were doing me any favors. I've decided this weekend to do some experiments with strings and pickup options. Here's what the bass looks like disassembled.

The pickup route makes it possible to use a clear pickguard without having an unsightly oversized route.

IMG_20250208_085959828.jpg


Much to my surprise the pickup has 4 separate wires, unlike what I have found in the stringray models. Even more surprising, this appears to be a parallel wiring instead of the usual series wiring.

Edit: Nope series.

IMG_20250208_094809405.jpg


All of the cavities are getting copper shielding. I am trying to decide if I want to use my Donlis white alnico pickup (which I had meh results with previously) or a ceramic pickup that I did like the tone up before.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Doctor Morbius
#14
It looks like this is wired even more differently that the SUB stingray. Looking through old pictures, the stingray had the pickup wired to the PCB. The pictures above show it soldered to the pickup. I really don't know much about this stuff. But I find this difference confusing. Maybe that is just my ignorance

Stingray wiring for reference.
showing.
A31C587F-DECD-4F99-BCB2-973962BD744F.jpeg
 
#18
easyj said:
Would you recommend it after owning it for a couple of months? Is its tone versatile? Can it remotely pull off a vintage sound?
Click to expand...
Yes I would recommend it. It's a slightly different flavor from the SUB series Stringray. Is it versatile? I mean it's a 1 pickup bass with an active preamp. It's pretty versatile.

I like it enough to that I bought the blue one today. It's at worst a very well constructed bass for the money and it's very easy to mod.
 
#20
tubatodd said:
These have been the Stupid Deal several times now since launch. Who else bought one? They were $249 yesterday.
Click to expand...
I bought the red one for $249. I think I would have bought the blue one, if it was the same price, because I like the "jatoba" fretboard, whatever jatoba is. I do hope I like it. I'm also really hoping it doesn't have fret sprout, like most of the Sterlings I picked up at guitar center.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back