Saw this came out recently:
Thoughts?
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Sterling’s a good instrument
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Looks really nice in fiesta red 
No other expertise on the brand/model otherwise.
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It would sound pretty good just like the stingray. What I like is the Vol and tone only. One more than Joe Dart but still cool none the less. I had the Squier version with just Vol knob, that’s an exceptionally cool bass. Now @T_dub has that bass.
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I’ve always wondered if the Sterling is an Ernie Ball Music Man clone? They sure look alike.
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It’s not a clone, it’s basically their Squier. Sterling is a brand line of EBMM.
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So a passive Stingray - I have mixed feelings about this. It will likely sound awesome, but so much of the classic Stingray sound is with that preamp. This is another thing where I think the EBMM’s really win over the Sterling, you get the original 3-band in the EBMM. I am not a huge fan of preamps with 2-band EQ, it’s usually the mids I would want to tweak. I would want to mod a Sterling.
Then again these days I usually record flat and EQ in software anyway, so 
Yes, it is an EBMM brand, and a high quality one at that. EBMM made it’s own clone.
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Passive MM pickups are usually hotter and stronger than active one for obvious reasons this makes for delicious attack which makes for even more satisfying tone out of the large magnet pole pieces.
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Hence Sterling by MusicMan
I’ll say this. Unless you playing both side by aside you can’t tell the difference between the imports and made in USA. They sound very good and very close.
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Yeah I think the sweet spot would be a Ray34 which you then mod.
I wish Sterling made Bongos.
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Oh yeah! You said it.
Not much you can or want to mod on the Ray34. It has the ramp style pickup cover like the EBMM Sterling. And it already sounds very good.
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I posted elsewhere that I had picked up a Players P Bass.
Technically I’m renting it so that I can see how much I love it. And although it’s only been a week now, I’m beginning to realize is that much of the praise that P Basses get are for the older/vintage ones as the wood, pickups etc are different.
It’s a great bass but not amazing?
So it has me wondering if it’s the best bass I can get for around 1000 bucks (Canadian).
The Stingray above popped up and I’m also considering the Ibanez 600E which looks incredible.
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I like my P bass above the rest but I love my musicman and shamelessly bias towards that tone, lol.
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I wondering if I’m wearing rose-coloured glasses with the P Bass as it’s my only reference point right now lol.
But I do want to try a few others before I buy.
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No you are fine. P bass is the most recorded type of basses in the industry right now. Probably more than Jazz and MM combined.
Going from a p bass to the Pete Wentz MM is probably a great move as it has the same vol/ tone just like p bass. On the Ray34 it’s vol, bass/ mid/ treble.
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Appreciate the input!
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I’d mod the preamp to be 3-band. Maybe go with a Tone Capsule.
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Ray34 is already 3 band EQ. Tone capsule is an excellent route. It would be an attack overload. 
what I’d love to do is to add the jazz neck pickup, do some north coil south coil combo with the pickups.
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Oh really? I thought it was 2-band like the Ray4. Ok nevermind, it’s fine as is.
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