Sterling by Musicmans on GC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MingusBass]

OLP is gone, no longer, kaput.

 

[stoo]

and that adds another question what the hell is happening to olp

The OLP brand has been retired.

I don't think they were ever a separate company as such... just a brand created by the Hanser group to fulfil a role which is no longer needed...

 

[BobXboB]

I'd also like too point out the differences between the Sterling-Stingray and the Sterling-Sterling. The Stingray has a swamp ash body whereas the Sterling has basswood.

Small point but none of those basses exist, there is no "Sterling by" Sterling or Stingray. I believe the confusion is intentional and working as planned. And they'll probably be very successful with it.

 

[BobXboB]

Thanks guys, if this thread does nothing else, I just snagged a sweet deal on a brand new Medallion Gold Sterling 5.

Just under $1k? You're welcome

I guess those predictions of the Sterling's price dropping will never happen.

 

[Eminor3rd]

Here we go indeed. I'm going to write this in case anybody at Ernie Ball is reading this. If anybody knows such a person, please forward this on.

My "day job" is in branding and brand marketing. I won't go into detail about what I do, but I will simply say that while there's lots and lots of people out there who claim to understand this space, I do this for a living at a high level. I have worked in top marketing capacities at a few different top tier Fortune 500 firms known to have effective marketing. I'm not bragging, I'm just laying my credentials on the table.

Rarely have I seen a decision as poor as this. Beyond confusion, Ernie Ball is going to effectively destroy a marque premium brand (Musicman Sterling Bass).

Now perhaps their plan is to discontinue the USA Sterling Bass. I doubt that's the plan though as its a great, reasonably popular bass that fills a need. My concern is, once the Sterling name gets associated with "budget" - I don't know how on earth they're going to collect $1500 - $1700 for a Sterling USA anymore.

Very very poor branding decision. Stunningly bad. Hard to believe. Ernie Ball - if you are reading this I strongly urge you to adjust this plan by more explicitly separating out the budget line (ie: call it something else for goodness sake).

On the flipside, the idea appears to be to leverage the Sterling brand to sell the budget-line instruments. The eventual devaluation of the Sterling brand from its USA status is the price to pay to get the things in people's hands. The failure of the SUB line is a testament to their inability to create a new brand from scratch at this price point.

I'm not saying I like it either, just playing devil's advocate on the brand strategy front.

 

[vinxbass]

It's just a frick'n name, get used to it - JC.

 

[BobXboB]

On the flipside, the idea appears to be to leverage the Sterling brand to sell the budget-line instruments. The eventual devaluation of the Sterling brand from its USA status is the price to pay to get the things in people's hands. The failure of the SUB line is a testament to their inability to create a new brand from scratch at this price point.

I'm not saying I like it either, just playing devil's advocate on the brand strategy front.

Exactly! And if they are just as good as the US models (even though the US models are much better at the same time) then this is good news for us.

IMHO of course.

 

[BobXboB]

It's just a frick'n name, get used to it - JC.

Talkbass, we talk about bass stuff, get used to it

If you prefer pure marketing they have a website you might enjoy.

 

[phatduckk]

this forum should be renamed talk-marketing

 

[EagleMoon]

They've learned a few things from Madonna. Any publicity is good publicity. If they'd named the basses something else it wouldn't have gotten nearly as much attention.

 

[vinxbass]

Talkbass, we talk about bass stuff, get used to it

If you prefer pure marketing they have a website you might enjoy.

You guys go ahead a talk about bass stuff, but IMO this is totally silly.

 

[tidnab]

No need to throw my credentials on here... but I wanted to point out a few things

1: I'd bet a lot of money that a person buying a bass guitar knows the different types... a fender jazz?? nice... but wait... a fender jazz mia? or fender jazz mim?? what about a squier jazz?? wait... fender jazz deluxe... OMG I'm confused... oh wait... no I'm not... I'm not a flippin moron and can tell

2: Let's take Mercedes... good marketing?? let's pick a car.. S class.. ok... oh wait... I'm confused... S430... S550?? S63 (or maybe it's 65 now)... OH no they all say S I don't understand because I'm a moron...

ok, I'll turn my sarcasm off for a minute.... anyone that knows cars knows the difference between an S63 and an s430... besides the fact that one is nearly double the cost... anyone that knows basses will know the difference as well

You guys that are claiming that this is terrible marketing are also insinuating that people are too stupid to figure out the difference because it's confusing...

While that may be true, I'll put more faith in our bass playin bretheren and believe that they're not morons and can figure out the difference between the 2 basses...

Ok... me

 

[BobXboB]

You guys go ahead a talk about bass stuff, but IMO this is totally silly.

Not as silly as making a whole bunch of posts saying how silly it is to be making these posts and never seeing the irony.

 

[BobXboB]

No need to throw my credentials on here... but I wanted to point out a few things

1: I'd bet a lot of money that a person buying a bass guitar knows the different types... a fender jazz?? nice... but wait... a fender jazz mia? or fender jazz mim?? what about a squier jazz?? wait... fender jazz deluxe... OMG I'm confused... oh wait... no I'm not... I'm not a flippin moron and can tell

2: Let's take Mercedes... good marketing?? let's pick a car.. S class.. ok... oh wait... I'm confused... S430... S550?? S63 (or maybe it's 65 now)... OH no they all say S I don't understand because I'm a moron...

ok, I'll turn my sarcasm off for a minute.... anyone that knows cars knows the difference between an S63 and an s430... besides the fact that one is nearly double the cost... anyone that knows basses will know the difference as well

You guys that are claiming that this is terrible marketing are also insinuating that people are too stupid to figure out the difference because it's confusing...

While that may be true, I'll put more faith in our bass playin bretheren and believe that they're not morons and can figure out the difference between the 2 basses...

Ok... me

Nice collection of fallacies, can you count them all? Let's take the "anyone that knows cars knows the difference between an S63 and an s430". I've known cars all my life, my dad had a 219 He bought in Stuttgart in 1958 and I can discuss the vagaries of the Ponton style. I have rebuilt engines and worked on many cars, my band rehearses in a garage that works on Mercedes yet I don't recognize those model names and would guess they are Volvo's. I guess I just don't know Mercedes at all.

There are MM owners in this thread who don't know SbMM doesn't make a Sterling or Stingray model. The fanboys can't keep it straight, the average GC buyer is going to be deceived and that's the whole point.

And I still think it will be very successful for them

 

[pringlw]

Well it may be silly to some but its easy to avoid the topic if you don't want to participate.

I don't question the business decision - lower priced Musicmans with the right quality are a good idea. Its just the branding thing. Sterling.

I'm probably sensitive to this because I happen to have a *real* (ie USA) Sterling and I hate the idea of the resale (ebay or otherwise) value being diminished because of this.

May that not happen? Perhaps. But I can't help but think that this is going to knock some value off of *real* Sterlings. Not everyone is a talkbass regular. But.. we'll see.

 

[Johnny Alien]

I understand the dumb name comments but I don't get why it will effect used values of current Sterlings? First the used market isn't great for Sterlings anyway. Second what this will probably do is increase the amount of people with SbMM basses to play it off on ebay as having a more expensive model. Like just put Music Man Sterling and conveniently forget to give a good headstock shot. This already happens all the time with Fender basses and scamming sales people. That will of course not effect the actual Sterling prices. So what is the fear on the used market?

That people won't know what they are buying and assume that it is the cheap model? I mean the headstock is completely different so good photos would cure that.

That they won't like the name anymore and stop buying that model? Maybe but if you want a jazz width MM that is the bass to get so they would need to choose not to buy a MM at all.

That they will choose not to buy a US bass ad go for a Sterling by MM? That is possible but that might happen no matter what they name it.

I guess I don't understand what the used issue is.

 

[yellofury]

I agree with all the above comments
the name can be confusing but the headstock decal is so different from the US models (like a certain generation of Warwick Rockbasses) that you can easily distinguish pricey from not as pricey. I would go as far as cheap since its no where near the price point of OLPS but competitive with Tributes and Spector Legends...

At the same time NOT differentiating the brand from its more expensive bretheren can be a negative factor because like it or
not there are some people that care about the name on the headstock. For example some people would be uncomfortable with Squier on the headstock and pay for a luthier to put on a Fender decal. Same may happen here although probably only on the natural finish models. Hopefully this won't lead to problems on eBay or Craigslist. I have to admit I bought a Spector Legend over the Rockbass because it looked more like the Euro
and Rebops at the end of the day over a Warwick that had a big ROCKBASS by Warwick (meaning hey im the CHEAP version) on the headstock. To me both basses sounded great but if I was to put down my hard earned cash I didnt want to be reminded that I couldn't afford a Corvette Standard every time I picked up the bass. I still kind of feel that way today. I won't ever change the name on my SX because there are no intentions of it masquerading as a Fender. Its a good/great cheap bass from the get go but these other instruments clearly say you are getting the bottom line entry level model of a pricy brand: the old Tribute, the old Rockbass,etc,... In car terms it would the old BMW 318/compact coupe and the M-B Sportcoupe and A/B classes.

To me the visual branding details would clearly show this is not a
US made EBMM line of instruments. This could either help or hinder its sales. I think the SUB line was successful in that it was an affordable US made instrument but it did not look cheap.
If anything it was the more rugged and brawny and rough around the edges cousin compared to its more polished high society big brothers. This is not necessarily the case with SbMM. It looks to be a clearly different budget line compared to the rest of the EBMM family without any cohesion except for the body styles and headstock. Even Squier can be said to a point to be in the same vein yet Squier sales are going on strong especially since the quality has improved somewhat.
Personally I think Fender would sell even more Squiers if they went back to the big FENDER and little Squier on the headstock.
I also think EBMM would sell alot more of these instruments if they looked more like the rest of the brand. EBMM on the headstock and something else to differentate it (like SUB or something)

 

[fourstringbliss]

I sure do like the looks of the fiver! I'm eagerly anticipating a report on how they play and sound.

 

[tidnab]

Nice collection of fallacies, can you count them all? Let's take the "anyone that knows cars knows the difference between an S63 and an s430". I've known cars all my life, my dad had a 219 He bought in Stuttgart in 1958 and I can discuss the vagaries of the Ponton style. I have rebuilt engines and worked on many cars, my band rehearses in a garage that works on Mercedes yet I don't recognize those model names and would guess they are Volvo's. I guess I just don't know Mercedes at all.

There are MM owners in this thread who don't know SbMM doesn't make a Sterling or Stingray model. The fanboys can't keep it straight, the average GC buyer is going to be deceived and that's the whole point.

And I still think it will be very successful for them

Actually I can't count the fallacies... and I'm sorry that you feel that your average bass player is a dolt that can't tell the difference.... or won't bother to do any research before he/she buys... the Merc's I'm referring too are built in THIS decade...

 

[fourstringbliss]

Wow...

There's a whole lot of heat here.

I know some of you guys treasure the MIA'ness of your MIA Musicman basses, but are these new "Sterling by Musicman" basses any good? I know it's not a "real" Stingray or Sterling, but are they worthy of having the Musicman name on them?