Stingray I History

[Lrickert]

Hey Everybody,
I'm a 63 year old recent retiree fulfilling a lifelong dream, learning to play guitar. Having a blast (behind closed doors of course).
I'm trying to learn the differences and understand the acronyms, (Piezo,axis.ALS,Lukes,Silos's,etc.) and I'm starting to pick it up.

Here's my question. I purchased a MM Stringray I from a friend about 26 years ago, and it's been in my closet until I recently started my learning experience. I'm curious about the Vintage of my MM (the serial # is G002185) and what the strengths and weakness's of it are. It's got a blond ash body and has a small 9 volt battery in the back. Also any known resource for what the knobs, 4way switch and dip switch control. I tried to atach pictures but they're all too large a file size.

Please no laughing, Thanks in advance.

Les Rickert

 

[ivanmihaljevic]

Hey Lrickert, welcome to the forum!
You'll probably get more responses to your questions if you post this on the bass side of the forum - http://www.ernieball.com/forums/music-man-basses/

 

[Lrickert]

Thanks for your reply, but it's actually a six string guitar.

I'm thinking it probably dates back to pre-EB days when Leo Fender was involved.

Les

 

[Fusionman]

Hi Lee...welcome to the forum. The guitar you have is an original MM gtr from when Tom Walker and Leo Fender owned the company. The current owners, the Ball Family, were not involved in the design of this gtr.

You wont find alot of info about these gtrs here unless someone else that has more knowledge of the original company could pipe in.

These gtrs electronically depend on using an ACTIVE eq system. Thats the function of the 9v battery. It enabled you to use long gtr cables without any loss of signal. I believe you have a master volume control, a treble boost/cut tone control and a bass boost/cut tone control. Some of the gtrs had a small bright switch. The 4 way switch chooses the pickups. They also offered 2 different radiuses for the fingerboard...thats why there were Stringray I's and II's. Although I never owned a Stringray gtr I was always a fan of the original MM company. I loved their amps.

I know that a good condition original model MM gtr goes for a nice buck on the used market. I know there were alot of complaints about the gtrs regarding the tuners and the 3 bolt neck joint but electronically they were a fairly innovative gtr for their time.

 

[Spudmurphy]

You have a piece of guitar history there as they were only made between 1976 to 1979. So it`s a nice guitar to have. It was made before Ernie Ball purchased the Music Man company.

I don't recollect reading much about them here on the forum and it's difficult to obtain info using the forum search facility - I seem to get a lot of hits for the Stingray Bass.

So welcome to this great forum and ask as many questions as you want, because I'm sure that somebody here will know the answer.
Spud (wishing to retire!!)

 

[ivanmihaljevic]

Oh sorry, I thought you were talking about a regular Sting Ray bass guitar.
That's a very cool story by the way!