Sterling’s new Music Man Session line starts with premium four- and five-string StingRays
The Indonesia-built series revives ’90s and 2000s StingRay cues with roasted-maple necks, Schaller tuners, compensated nuts and an Alnico 5 active platform.
· Edited by Peter Luha
Credit: Sterling by Music Man (via source)
Sterling by Music Man has launched Music Man Session, a new premium tier positioned above the brand’s established imported ranges. Its first instruments are the Session StingRay and Session StingRay5, introduced as part of the 50th-anniversary year of the original StingRay bass. The line is designed in collaboration with Ernie Ball Music Man and manufactured in Indonesia, with four- and five-string versions offered across ash and poplar body options.
The specification looks deliberately toward StingRays of the 1990s and 2000s while adding current appointments. Both formats use a 34-inch scale, a roasted-maple neck finished in oil and wax, a compensated nut and Music Man Schaller open-gear tuners. The four-string has 21 frets, while the five-string has 22. Fingerboards vary between roasted maple and rosewood depending on the finish.
At the electronics end, the instruments pair a Music Man Session-designed Alnico 5 humbucker with an active three-band preamp. Controls cover volume, bass, midrange and treble, keeping the familiar single-pickup StingRay layout. A Session-designed bridge and a six-bolt neck joint complete the hardware package, and each instrument ships with a premium Music Man Session gig bag.
The launch matters beyond another StingRay variant because it establishes a new top rung for Sterling. The Session models are meant to narrow the gap between the company’s accessible production instruments and Ernie Ball Music Man’s US-built catalog, using brand-specific hardware and a more exacting specification rather than simply adding premium finishes to an existing Sterling model.
Credit: YouTube
Why it matters
Session creates a new premium position inside Sterling’s lineup and makes the StingRay’s core design available with Music Man-specific hardware and modern neck appointments below the US-built range.
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