drake_kaiser's Reviews

Simply Amazing

Probably one of the greatest guitars I have ever played and my personal favourite that I own.

Insane amounts of comfort on the very thin neck and perfect for that shred feel, the pickups yield a great tone for both distorted and a very surprising crisp sounding clean tone, and can't forget the amount of time that one can spend with the Sustainiac in the neck. Just with that your creativity just expanded itself by an astronomical amount.

Despite looking like something a 14 year old would dream up with the headstock and pinstripe design (all of which still look awesome to me), don't be fooled because this is loaded and ready to go. And as a lifelong A7X fan it's a dream come true to own one of these.

Only thing I'd have wished for is a gig bag of sorts or a case when shipped. I was surprised to open the box and find it wrapped in plastic and nothing else, for a price like that I would hope but it got home safe so that's all that matters.

Sounds just like an EBMM and that's about it

I play metalcore and wanted the punch of a StingRay for a long time because I love how that tone really shines through a mix and when I found out about Sterling I was very excited, great price compared to an EBMM and sounded just like a StingRay.

The best part about this bass is how it sounds and how it looks, that's really it. It feels pretty good, a bit of a chunky neck for some people but it works for me. After playing one of these and then grabbing the real thing there is quite the difference; however, this is to be expected from the Squier/Epiphone variant of Music Man. The worst part of this bass though has to be the Quality Control from Sterling themselves.

I got the Dark Scarlett Burst version and everything felt and sounded great but when it came time to put new strings on and tune up, the tuners were grinding and very stiff. So I brought it back to my local music store and they initially ordered new tuners from Sterling but it was taking far too long so I was ordered a replacement bass which showed up fast. When it showed up I saw the serial number was the very next digit in the production line so I got 2 basses from the same line of production. I brought it to the luthier in the store and he immediately checked the tuners and sure enough the were also grinding and very stiff so he went and ordered tuners not from Sterling but from AllParts for an Epiphone bass and they work perfectly. I also wanted some Schaller Strap Locks installed too so when the luthier went to replace them he showed me where from the factory the place where they initially screwed the strap button was in the wrong spot, so they had patched it with a shim and screwed right next to it and installed the strap button like it was nothing. Sure enough during a show the strap lock unit that was installed came right out while I was on stage, I had to fix it myself with toothpicks, carpenter's glue and duct tape and that did the job.

Very much a disappointment to go through that. It's quite a toss up, if you love the sound of a Stingray and don't want to spend $4k on the real deal then this would be great for you. However: if you pull the trigger be prepared to deal with a poor build.

P.S. The truss rods are also very stiff and sometimes don't even budge.