NBD and new to MM

I’m new to MM so I wanted to introduce myself. It’s a long story, I would fall asleep reading it myself, so you can also just scroll down to the pics and save yourself two precious minutes of your life.

My name is Chris and I’m editor of a Dutch bass magazine, print and digital. I interviewed quite some Music Man players over the years, also for a guitar mag, like Gail Ann Dorsey, St. Vincent, Louis Johnson, etc. I also wrote a big StingRay special, but strange enough I only reviewed a SUB by Sterling by MM and a Sterling by MM. Mind you: we have other reviewers, so USA MM basses came by in the mag. But I never really played Music Mans, just on trade shows, like the NAMM.

When I started bass 25 years ago, I had no idea about basses, so I listened to my ‘expert’ friends, but of course I loved the looks of some of ‘m. My local shop had a powder blue Squier Musicmaster with matching headstock and I loved it. But it was short scale and my expert friends told me short scales are for children, women and guitar players. The horror. My second choice was the Danelectro Longhorn reissue. Too ugly, according to my friends, and there would be no place in the band to be if I bought that. The third bass I loved had a symmetrical oval pickguard, a smiling quarter moon control plate and a different 3+1 headstock. It was not only too expensive, but my expert friends told me active basses were for funk. Period.

So I bought a black Squier P.

Later, when I quit that band, I bought a copperburst Dano Longhorn reissue and much later I found the powder blue short scale Squier, which was my first love. I play short scales a lot nowadays: Höfner, Fender, Gibson, and Danelectro. Many basses came and went and I have quite a nice collection with Gibson, Fender, Rickenbacker, Höfner, Warwick, … I even bought a double MM Warwick Streamer but never a StingRay. Why? I don’t know.

After writing that StingRay Special some years ago I got interested more and I start looking, reading, gathering info. I’m a big Queen fan and after watching some footage of Deacon again, I decided I needed one. First I bought a cheap Sub by Sterling by MM. The EQ is limited but it’s a great little bass, which stands up to some of my more expensive basses. I got used to the pickup position and I liked it. So last week a real US StingRay followed me home. A Honey Burst, with rosewood – suits my fingerstyle pop/rock playing better – and a 3band: I like to push some mids. This bass is a 2011 model, but it was still new in the shop, with even the protective plastic on the pickguard. 9 years of drying wood. I installed a new Duracell battery, I still have to put on new strings, but it rocks!

It’s in for less than a week, but I like it! Great neck, great looks, great sound! Glad I’m in the family after 25 years of GAS.