Yes, Yes and Yes, you got it right. Sterling By Music MaN (SBMM) Has produced a Sterling before, and I actually owned ont, thinking it was a super cheap stingray copy and upgraded to a Ray4. Had I known what I kow now, I probably would have kept it just for the nostalgia to it, as a stingray collector or something like that.
Recently there nave been a couple Sterling Sterling’s on Reverb, both sold I think, and one of them was dug up from the US shop, and was the S/N. 0001, was the first SUB Stingray (or Sterling, can’t recall) made in San Luis Obispo at Music Man. They did a few years, or at least one, making the lower priced SUB Stingray and Sterling, but then either created SBMM or handed the project off to them and it has been with them since.
There is also a listing I had saved for a SBMM Sterling, but I am not sure if I still have it, although there is one for sale on that website someone shared showing the Bootsy bass, in New Jersey. there is a particular model they call it, but I can’t recall, but I am gonna look for it really quick and see if I can find it.
Here I found it, it was the SBMM SB4. IDK what years they were started or stopped. I would love to get one for my collection sometime, but I will wait til I see a great deal of somebody that doesnt’ know what they have, or if it needs work that I can do to it.
I should be clear, the first link was for a SUB STERLING bass made BY MUSIC MAN in the USA
while the 2nd one is made by STERLING and was made somewhere n the far east, not sure if it is Indonesia like they are mode now, or China. I can tell you the quality of the Sterling by Sterling I had was very much noticeably lower then what is put out from Indonesia today. Still was a fun piece and if I knew exactly what I had at the time, I would have kept it for sure.