What is the plural form of MusicMan?

[Ken Baker]

I mean officially. Or even semi-officially. I know the the term Balls is used, seemingly in a wink-wink/nudge-nudge sort of way.

"I have a StingRay, a StingRay 5, and a Bongo." Descriptive in a plural sort of way, but kinda wordy.

How about a more global plural.

And yes, this is probably kinda silly. But the subject came up and I'm curious about it. Besides; I do silly pretty well some times.

Ken...

 

[JayDawg]

I just refer to them as my Music Man basses.

 

[maddog]

kerpow!

been discussed before.

A fun thread ensued:

http://www.ernieball.com/forums/mus...ghtly-off-topic-attention-all-wordsmiths.html

 

[TNT]

Yeah, just like getting a bag of M&M's.

 

[Jimmyb]

Guitars.

eg, I have three musicman guitars

 

[Chuck B]

I own some Rays...

 

[bovinehost]

In linguistic terms, this may harken back to Steven Pinker's rules of irregular and specific verbs (such as "fly out" in baseball, which in the past tense is not "flew out", of course, but "flied out").

Not everything is equal when words are used to build phrases.

A fireman is, in fact, a man. Thus the plural would be, obviously, firemen.

However, in our case, a Music Man is not a man at all, which is why "Music Men" is funny but inaccurate - and it feels wrong. Which it is.

There were some interesting studies done on pluralization. Kids were given a puppet and told it ate rats. They had to fill in the blank for this: "This puppet is a _______ eater."

Interestingly, none of them said "rats eater" although when you think about it, it would be accurate. It is, of course, a "rat eater". (Don't make me explain why "mouse" is different!)

Anyway, "Music Men" is incorrect because there are no men involved.

Some interesting and more technical reading here:

http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/papers/Berent & Pinker reply to Seidenberg Mental Lexicon.pdf

Jack, the basses-player

 

[MadMatt]

Or maybe there are like sheep... You can have a whole heard of sheep, or only one sheep. Its still just sheep.

You can have one Music Man like I do (I accept donations b.t.w. ) or yo9u can have a whole room full of Music Man like most of the people here do

 

[bovinehost]

...you can have a whole room full of Music Man like most of the people here do

You can have a Music Man Room, but it isn't full of Music Men.

 

[danny-79]

My head hurts !
Ive just got a couple of Stingrays

 

[RobertB]

The Rothschilds are not the Rothschildren.

 

[five7]

Balls to the wall.

 

[Ken Baker]

I'd forgotten about Jack's linguistic proclivities. Not that he provided a definitive answer to this conundrum.

I'm thinking "MusicMan instruments" makes the most sense, and it certainly flows well.

Still, I was hoping for something simpler. After all, I'm a simple guy.

Ken...

 

[BrandonS]

"What is the plural form of MusicMan?"

... Marital Strife?

 

[bovinehost]

Think of "Music Man" as an adjective.

Q: What type of basses do you play?
A: Music Man basses.

Q: What color is your car?
A: I have two silver cars.

You cannot say, "I drive silvers" and leave it at that. "I drive silver cars. I play Music Man basses."

These are just observations and are in no way legally binding.

 

[Holdsg]

I'm sure its been covered, but what about "Ernies"?
I am thinking, like Grammys, Emmys, Oscars, .... and Ernies.

 

[jeffrey]

I call'em my "EB's".

Works for me.

 

[sitonmybass]

"MusicMans" would be the plural of the actual brand name.

Conversation example:

If someone asks me: "Of all your basses, which ones are your favorites?"

My response would be: "Definetly my MusicMans."

The quote above was my response the last time this was discussed on the forum.

 

[oli@bass]

You cannot say, "I drive silvers" and leave it at that. "I drive silver cars. I play Music Man basses."

Jack, I love when you do such explanations. As English is a foreign language to me, I find it interesting to learn about some of the more intricate cases of use in a fun way.

However, I still dig that "I play Balls" works well.

 

[register2]

I'm really intrigued about this rat eating puppet.