Sterling is built under the supervision of Ernie Ball Music Man engineering team which is responsible for the impeccable quality of an instrument dedicated to all levels of musicians.
Sterling is a model of bass guitar designed by the Music Man company and named after Sterling Ball, son of Ernie Ball, the founder of the enterprise.
Sterling bass takes after Music Man basses, StingRay in particular. It comes with the same Schaller tuners. To sculpt the body Music Man uses its traditional chrome plated, hardened steel bridge plate, the models are made from Ash and have a long, 34"-scale length with a maple bolt-on type neck featuring rosewood or maple fingerboard. There’s a three-band active EQ with separate tone controls for treble, middle, and bass.
Most Innovative Bass of 1993 – Sterling – appeared to be easier to handle and more compact than Music Man StingRay. It featured a thinner 22-fret neck, a new preamp and a selector switch for parallel, single coil, and series pickup coil configurations. The “phantom coil” pickup technology is applied.
There were four-string, five-string versions and a Classic Collection introduced.
Colin Greenwood of Radiohead, Dave LaRue (of the Steve Morse Band, The Dixie Dregs, and Bruce Hornsby), Johnny Christ of Avenged Sevenfold, Dougie Poynter of McFly used to pick it up and play a lot.