Headstock question

[Morrow]

When did Music Man first do the 4+2 headstock ?
I’m usually poking around the bass forum , but I figured it might be better to ask that here . I did try looking around the internet for an answer but got the old google runaround and decided This might be the best place to ask …

 

[tbonesullivan]

Probably 1986, after the "rebirth", when the Silhouette guitar came out. The original Stingray and Saber guitars had 6 on a side. When they brought guitars back, they went for a design more similar to the bass.

 

[Morrow]

I was thinking shortly after Ernie Ball resurrected the company , but didn’t know for sure .

 

[John C]

Yep the 4+2 headstock makes its production debut on the Silhouette guitar in 1986. As tbonesullivan says the Leo-era StingRay and Sabre guitars had 6-inline tuners, but the basses of course had the 3+1 headstock. Somewhere here on the forum (or possibly in one of Big Poppa's old blog posts) there was a mention that among the intellectual property was a drawing of a 4+2 headstock by George Fullerton; Sterling and Dudley Gimple found it while they were designing the Silhouette guitar - again as tbonesullivan says their goal was to make a guitar that looked more like the StingRay Bass (since the StingRay guitar had/has a different, more-or-less "offset" body than the bass). Dudley tweaked the shape into the current one (the smaller-sized one found on older designs).

 

[Morrow]

Thank you !