Question about an early Stingray guitar

[basscaster]

I recently saw an early Stingray I, and the owner claimed is that it is one of the first seven guitars produced, serial #00100X. I read an account from George Fullerton that the first guitars originally shipped in the summer of '76, but this one has dates that are in the last quarter of '76. The back neckplate has the serial number. The neck pocket and neck is initialed by FW and JPQ.

The George Fullerton quote also stated that these were the models shown at NAMM shows that year. Can anyone shed any light on how this could have the later date stamps, when the first ones have these later dates?

 

[jcm900]

You should post this question in the Serial Number thread, if there are infos about this guitar, they'll help you.
http://www.ernieball.com/forums/music-man-guitars/3830-important-my-ernie-balls-serial.html

 

[Rod Trussbroken]

I recently saw an early Stingray I, and the owner claimed is that it is one of the first seven guitars produced, serial #00100X. I read an account from George Fullerton that the first guitars originally shipped in the summer of '76, but this one has dates that are in the last quarter of '76. The back neckplate has the serial number. The neck pocket and neck is initialed by FW and JPQ.

The George Fullerton quote also stated that these were the models shown at NAMM shows that year. Can anyone shed any light on how this could have the later date stamps, when the first ones have these later dates?

What I've been told is that there were 7 pairs of instruments at the 1976 Chicago Summer NAMM. Each pair consisted a Sting Ray Bass and a Sting Ray Guitar with corresponding serial numbers...B001001 for the Bass and G001001 for the Guitar. The serials ran from 1001 through to 1007. Music Man hadn't gone into full production at that stage and the colour of the instruments was Natural. A probable explanation for the low number on the one you saw is that when production increased an earlier serial plate was used. Serials were not necessarily chronological as time went on.

 

[basscaster]

Thank you for the replies.

That is what I don't understand - the guitars were supposedly shown at summer NAMM, yet this early G00100X (less than 1008 serial) was dated in late 1976. It is supposed to be one of those first seven guitars. Is it possible that they later swapped bodies and necks and kept the original hardware? It seems unlikely, but the chronology is confusing on this one.

 

[Rod Trussbroken]

Anything's possible. Maybe something went wrong with the neck and latter a problem with the body???

 

[basscaster]

That must be the deal. It was probably displayed with the current summer iteration at NAMM, and later updated as it was a demo guitar for dealers.

 

[John C]

Normally going to the serial number thread can help you out, but that is only for the EB-era instruments. EBMM didn't get the production info on the Leo-era instruments when they bought MM from bankruptcy.

As a side note - the Leo-era MM instruments were actually made by Leo Fender's other company - CLF Research. As you might guess, "CLF" stands for "Clarence Leo Fender". Leo was one of 3 shareholders in Music Man, and he worked out the deal for CLF Research (his wholly-owned company) to produce the guitars and basses; Music Man (the company with 3 shareholders) actually owned the amp factory.

Leo had a falling out with the other two partners and sold his shares back to them but continued to produce the guitars at CLF. He also partnered with George Fullerton to form G&L Guitars about this time (1979); for a while the CLF factory in Fullerton was making both lines of instruments; by around 1980/81 the Music Man contract was broken and "CLF Research" was dropped and the factory renamed "G&L Guitars". That factory still makes G&Ls today.

There are some people who are hooked up with the remaining old-timers from CLF/G&L over on the G&L Forum (Guitarsbyleo.com) who might be able to track down that info on the first sets of Music Man instruments. You might try posting over there also.