Musicman is one of the few brands that can be really be named classic in the history of the electric bass.
When Leo Fender was mistakenly diagnosed from a terminal desease, he sold his company to CBS. When he found out he was O.K. he went back to desgining and building instruments and amps and he started the Music Man Company in the early 70's. The Stingray was his first design and even though it was based on his own Precision Bass in many aspects, this new bass boasted a humbucker pickup located at the sweet spot plus active electronics. This created a completely different sound that soon became one of the most sought after. When Ernie Ball took over Musicman in the early 80's they continued the tradition and have been adding improvements and refinements here and there throughout the years while also adding new models.
This the the Stingray 5 bass, and in this case it is the first we get from the new Neck Thru series. This improved method has a number of advantages: unrestricted access to the upper frets, improved sustain and more stability. The combination of a neck thru neck with the punch and attack of the bridge humbucker sounds absolutely perfect to our ears. In this case there's a Single Coil pickup at the front too and 5 way switch, meaning you get 5 top sounds from this beautiful and comfortable bass.
with a 3 Band board and a beautiful ash body and a maple board. The 3 way lever offers 3 killer sounds: Parallel (classic Musicman tone), Series (beefier tone, great for rock) and the new Filtered Series mode (we love this one too). The low B is just great and this particular bass is surprisingly low weight for a Stingray
Names like Louis Johnson, Flea or Tony Levin come to mind as soon as you start to play this instrument. The neck feels like a dream and the perfect fret job allows you to set a low action with no fretbuzz.
The classic Musicman truss rod adjustment system is still one of the best ideas in the industry as you can adjust the neck with just about any tool that fits into the spokewheel. Cool! There are also modern appointments such as the new compensated nut that improves tuning at the first frets.
To sum up: a solid bass that will withstand the test of time and will give you many years of joy no matter whether you play Rock, Pop, Jazz, Funk or Punk.