Music Man Sterling

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The MusicMan Sterling is a model of bass designed by the MusicMan company. It was named after Sterling Ball, son of Ernie Ball, the founder of the parent company.

The guitar weighs 9 pounds. Its body is made from selected hardwoods. The finish is high-gloss polyester. Bridge is MusicMan® chrome plated, hardened steel bridge plate with stainless steel saddles. The standard pickguard is either black or white. The bass is long scale,34,with maple neck and rosewood fingerboard (or pau ferro for the fretless variant). It comes with Schaller tuners. The truss rod is adjustable and the neck is bolted on with 5 bolts. The electronics are magentically shielded and there's a 3 way switch and a 3-band active EQ. It differs from the famous Stingray in that it is lighter, smaller, has a different preamp, "phantom coil" pickup technology, and features a thinner neck. It won 'Most Innovative Bass of 1993" in Musician Magazine. Dave LaRue (of the Steve Morse Band, The Dixie Dregs and Bruce Hornsby) is a known user.

The Sterling was created as a 4 string version of the highly popular Stingray 5, which like the Stingray 5, has ceramic magnet pickups and a different preamp than the Stingray's alinco magnet pickups.