Obviously plenty of options for high-end boutique jazz and precision basses but none for music man basses. Why?
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
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.
Why aren't there Stingray/Sterling clones?
- Thread starter taylor16
- Start date
@/\/\3phist0 I actually don't see many cheapo knockoffs at all. I mean there were the OLP a while back, and you can find one or two on those Chinese Merchant/Nigerian Prince websites, but there's not SX or Jay Turser clone of a 'ray that I know of currently.
From a cost standpoint Music Man basses are fairly high end to begin with compared to the average Fender. There are certainly some high end basses out there that utilize a MM style pick-up but EB does a pretty good job supplying higher end versions of their platform(family reserve, etc).
Some consider MM basses to be much like a boutique Fender, in fact I thought that they adopted the 3+1 headstock to avoid copyright issues with Fender.
Some consider MM basses to be much like a boutique Fender, in fact I thought that they adopted the 3+1 headstock to avoid copyright issues with Fender.
Invalid Link Removed
Invalid Link Removed
Hm, interesting that those are only available in the Great White North. Maybe whatever patent/trade dress etc laws MM's legal team uses to protect their designs only apply in the US?
Personally I'm a stingray 5 player and theres really not many that copy the stingray cosmetically but there's a bunch that try to sonically. And you can generally pick them out by the mm style pickup. For example I owned an original warwick FNA back around 2000. Ash body, mm style pickup, 3 band eq. It sounded kinda
Like stingray a little bit, except I think the difference in necks(maple vs wenge gives the stingray a more prestine hi end especially when slapping and the fna little bit different midrange charecter. My main complaint about it is it was so light it flopped all over the place. Some other basses that use mm style pickups; Spector had a rebop available with an emg mm style pickup. Modulus used to make some flea basses with the Duncan musicman style pickup.
But personally I think the closest as far as body shape is the ESP surveyor. The surveyor is basically esp making a hybrid of a stingray and a p bass. It literally has a emg mm style pickup and a p style pickup in a soap bar casing. And on the surveyor the mm style pickup can be switched to single coil similar to my sr5 but I don't think it can switch between series and parallel. But yeah surveyors are cool. I haven't owned one myself but I've seen a couple touring bands come through town with guys playing them. "God Forbids" bass player I particularly remember playing one. From hearing them I'd say they definetly sound more like a stingray than a sub but not as similar to a stingray as a sterling by musicman ray35 at the top of the sterling by musicman line. They are very beefy sounding basses though. And in my opinion by Far the best sounding ESP basses I've heard anyone play.
Like stingray a little bit, except I think the difference in necks(maple vs wenge gives the stingray a more prestine hi end especially when slapping and the fna little bit different midrange charecter. My main complaint about it is it was so light it flopped all over the place. Some other basses that use mm style pickups; Spector had a rebop available with an emg mm style pickup. Modulus used to make some flea basses with the Duncan musicman style pickup.
But personally I think the closest as far as body shape is the ESP surveyor. The surveyor is basically esp making a hybrid of a stingray and a p bass. It literally has a emg mm style pickup and a p style pickup in a soap bar casing. And on the surveyor the mm style pickup can be switched to single coil similar to my sr5 but I don't think it can switch between series and parallel. But yeah surveyors are cool. I haven't owned one myself but I've seen a couple touring bands come through town with guys playing them. "God Forbids" bass player I particularly remember playing one. From hearing them I'd say they definetly sound more like a stingray than a sub but not as similar to a stingray as a sterling by musicman ray35 at the top of the sterling by musicman line. They are very beefy sounding basses though. And in my opinion by Far the best sounding ESP basses I've heard anyone play.
Last edited:
Maybe because it is extremely easy (and even necessary) to improve upon the Fender versions of the J and P, whereas the Stingray and Sterling were basically created perfect.
EDIT: There are those who try though, as noted above. Haven't seen this one posted yet - Nordy VM5
Last edited:
Maybe because it is extremely easy (and even necessary) to improve upon the Fender versions of the J and P, whereas the Stingray and Sterling were basically created perfect.
I have to agree. Even though my new sr5 hasn't changed much as far as design compared to the one I had a decade ago. It's a great bass with better sounding electronics than the majority of more modern basses. Fenders on the other hand are the basses everyone mods anyways. So I think companies saw how many people buy fenders and swap the electronics and stuff and were like hey we can do that and charge a lot more.
Yeah. I had my '91 SR5 for over two decades, and it was just as current and a$$kicking the day I (foolishly) let it go as it was the day I bought it.
I love it that the headstock decal says 5 when it's a four banger.
Last edited:
Slammer by Hamer made Musicman knock offs at one point in time. I think Jay Turser made some too but the pickup had jazz bass like pole pieces. Samick made some too. But none of them had active pickups.
you'll eventually buy another I bet. I know I did
Last edited:
