First a season greeting from the Nerherlands: I wish you all the best (bass) for this New year!
I recently finished the beginner-to-bad-ass course and had loads of fun with it. I completed the course on my Fender accoustic bass. I started with an accoustic model, because I wasn’t sure if playing the bass would stick around. But the course really made me love doing it! And I enjoyed the accoustic bass very much as well, even though it requires a bit more effort. However, there are some limitations.
Now I’m ready to invest a bit more in my gear and buy an electric (passive, for simplicity sake) bass. I came across the Sterling Made by Musicman sb-14 blue pearl, which I really find stunning! Both the sound and the look. But… the price is pretty high, notably given where I’m at in my musical development.
So I’m wondering if there’s someone out there who can recommend a good alternative for the sb-14? In general I enjoy these genres: britpop (Blur), hiphop (Delinquent habits) and jazz (Ernest Ranglin). Looking forward to hear from you!
That said I would just go for the Sterling Made by Musicman sb-14. Playing the instrument you really want makes it a lot more fun IMO. I started out with a b-stock Sandberg bass as a complete noob!
Generally those Stingray basses hold value quite well if you ever decide to resell it.
What you are referring to is most likely the new SB14, the one with 2 knobs, passive pickup, and offset toilet seat pickguard. Fast and narrow jazz profile neck. It’s alright. I have the Ltd natural version released a couple years earlier
it would be near impossible for you to find a used old school SB14 which is the “Gem” it’s the exact replica of the MusicMan Sterling. That one has probably the best MusicMan pickup and electronic. It’s Active with Pickup selector series/ phantom coil (noiseless single coil)/ parallel.
Hi @Paul and @Al1885 , thanks for your replies! I think the Z range of Sire is very interesting to look, besides MusicMan basses. Will update in a couple of months what I’ve chosen. Thanks for replying andgiving me something to think about.
i suppose fender fans are so used to it that they don’t even blink an eye, but it still is just bizarre to me that there are stingray clones out there now. i guess it’s a compliment
hah, you are asking the wrong guy. i don’t exactly hate fenders, but i am not going to point you to one. the entry level sterling stingrays are nice but the very cheapest one, the intro series, is a little bit of an odd duck in that it is only about $75 cheaper than the upgrade sub series. so unless you really need $75 it doesn’t make a lot of sense to look at that one. also i’m not sure how reverb/shipping works where you are but there is always a lot of them (sterlings) on reverb.
