Chuck Wright, bassist on “Metal Health (Bang Your Head)” and “Don’t Wanna Let You Go” from Quiet Riot’s historic 1983 No. 1 album, Metal Health, onstage with vocalist Kevin DuBrow. “I always found the StingRay to be punchier than most basses,” he says.
Happy accidents sometimes seem par for the course when it comes to discovery and innovation, and it’s true that the development and subsequent popularity of the model is partly due to such happenstance. But the StingRay, first introduced in 1976, also featured unique appointments that were carefully considered, including the onboard active EQ, the 3+1 headstock configuration, and the single Music Man humbucker. Such innovations quickly made the StingRay the go-to bass for a bevy of dynamic, influential players.
Popular music of the last few decades is full of incredibly diverse examples of how the StingRay helped shape and define the sound of recorded bass for the modern era. Look no further than Flea’s playing on the first six Red Hot Chili Peppers albums, Tim Commerford on Rage Against the Machine’s monumental debut, Louis Johnson’s groundbreaking slap-bass work with Brothers Johnson and on Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Joe Dart’s more recent fleet-fingered approach with Vulfpeck, and, of course, Cliff Williams’ steady pulse within AC/DC’s immense body of work. StingRay-wielding bassists deliver the grooves on a wide range of immediately identifiable hits, including Chuck Wright’s performance on Quiet Riot’s arena-ready anthem “Metal Health (Bang Your Head),” John Deacon’s pseudo-funk on Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust,” Bernard Edwards’ disco dynamite on Chic’s “Le Freak,” Tony Levin on Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer,” and the late Louis Johnson on Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.” And that’s just scratching the surface.
The StingRay bass is alive and well. The Retro ’70s variation seen here faithfully reproduces the specs of the original Music Man model.
That the StingRay can be found in such varied styles gives credence to its versatility, reliability, and craftsmanship. Upon its introduction, the StingRay was poised to forever alter the sonic landscape of the low end. “There wasn’t a whole bunch of innovation happening in the electric bass industry at the time,” says Ball, “and some of the newer rock bassists really wanted a brighter sound. It was the right bass at the right time.”
StingRay Prehistory
The seeds of the StingRay were sown a long, long time ago among a who’s who of electric guitar industry pioneers who knew and influenced each other well before the instrument was even a twinkle in their collective eyes. Ernie Ball and Leo Fender first met sometime in the mid to late ’40s. “Leo was still running his radio repair shop in Fullerton, California, playing around with little amps and the Broadcaster prototypes,” surmises Sterling Ball, who is Ernie’s son. “My dad was just taken by all of it. It was life-changing for him and actually set the path for the Ball family.” By 1946, Leo had turned radio repairs over to Dale Hyatt (future co-founder of G&L, but that’s another story) and renamed his own business Fender Electric Instruments Company, where he focused on building guitars and amps.
Ernie Ball, a steel guitarist, became an official Fender endorsee in 1953. A few years later, in 1958, he opened what he claimed to be the first guitar store in the U.S. in Tarzana, California. By 1962, Ball would pioneer the custom-gauge-guitar-string revolution, setting in motion the decades-long success of the Ernie Ball company.
When the Fender company was sold to CBS in 1965, Forrest White was vice president. He and Tom Walker, an esteemed sales representative, remained with Fender for a short time after the sale, but by 1971, they had formed Tri-Sonix, Inc., with Leo Fender as a financial backer and silent partner. The company’s name was officially changed to Music Man in 1974, and Leo Fender was appointed president the following year, coinciding with the expiration of a 10-year non-compete clause lingering from the CBS sale.
The Early Days
One of Tony Levin’s many StingRay basses takes a rest from his busy schedule of touring and sessions.
Photo by Tony Levin
The StingRay bass debuted in 1976. Designed by Leo Fender, Tom Walker, and Forrest White, with beta-testing input from Sterling Ball, the StingRay was the first production bass to offer onboard active equalization. And because the relationships between all parties involved went far beyond business, it’s worth noting that they decided to honor their personal connection by embedding it into the aesthetics of the instrument via the Music Man company logo. “When you look at the headstock of the Music Man and you see the two little guys there, that’s my brother Sherwood and me,” reveals Ball, who is Walker’s godson. “Some people think that’s not true. It’s true. Unfortunately, no one around but me really knows.”
Sterling Ball was a burgeoning bass player by the mid ’70s; he’s played with Albert Lee and Steve Lukather among others. In addition to his beta-testing input, Ball explains that his personal/professional vantage point also put him in the position of mediator, when needed, between Walker and Fender. “Tommy and Leo would argue,” he recalls. “When I first went there, the bass was unplayable because the preamp was so hot it would overdrive the input impedance of just about any amp.” Walker, who was also an electrical engineer, “self-taught like most of the great ones,” according to Ball, designed the preamp. Walker had previously designed the Blender Fuzz pedal for Fender and would ultimately be responsible for developing Music Man amps.
The StingRay’s distinct sound also had a lot to do with Fender’s personal predilections and physical ailments. “People think Leo was a sonic shaper and that his intention was to change how the world hears sound, but Leo was deaf,” [Editor’s note: not literally.] laughs Ball. “Leo had no idea about funk, and he had no idea about slapping. He fancied country music, where the guitar is brighter. If you grow up eating hot peppers, your tolerance for heat is normal. So, if you grow up with a Stratocaster, that shapes what you think an electric guitar should sound like.” The fact that the bright, snappy-sounding StingRay would appeal to slap bassists like Louis Johnson was essentially pure luck, according to Ball, because Fender was getting Walker to crank the active circuit to his own taste, as well as compensate for the diminished frequencies in his own hearing.
“When you look at the headstock of the Music Man and you see the two little guys there, that’s my brother Sherwood and me.” —Sterling Ball
Tony Levin has played StingRay basses throughout his career with Peter Gabriel, King Crimson, and others, and he got his hands on one in the early days through the late Joel DiBartolo, 18-year veteran of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and another beta-tester for the burgeoning Music Man company. “My memory of that bass is recording a Peter Gabriel album, probably in ’79,” recalls Levin. “The high-end was so sensitive it was picking up crackles from static electricity. I was in the control room with a wire wrapped around my ankle, attached to the studio desk for grounding, to keep the crackle down.” That crackle didn’t deter Levin from realizing the StingRay’s sonic potential, though. In 1980, he played the same bass on John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s iconic Double Fantasy album.
Flea and his StringRay catch some air at Lollapalooza on Montage Mountain in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on August 15, 1992.
Photo by Ebet Roberts
The development and inclusion of Tom Walker’s active onboard preamp/EQ circuit was by-and-large the biggest innovation for a production-model bass guitar at the time. In this case, Ball likens Fender to a hot-rod enthusiast. “He liked having all that power,” he says. “He got a wider frequency response, and he could hear the bass better.” Levin says the original Music Man StingRay bass “felt like a Fender but had lows that engineers were craving, and that I just couldn’t get with my Precision.”
The preamp/pickup/bridge combination was the main source of the StingRay’s bright tone. According to Ball, Fender was not particularly concerned about tonewood when designing instruments. “His beta-testing was all done on finished-plywood board, which has no resonance,” reveals Ball. “It had a hole routed out where he could move different pickups in, and it had breadboarded circuitry on the outside.” It also had the high-mass, string-through-body Music Man bridge, another signature component. “When you went into Leo’s lab, he’d make you put a screwdriver on the bridge and then press the other side on the cartilage of your ear to listen to it vibrate,” recalls Ball. “If you do that, you feel the whole body vibrate. The guitar’s alive. One of the great things about the StingRay bridge is it really gives the instrument that ability to ring and vibrate. It’s so cool.”
Also contributing to that kind of lively sustain is the 3+1 tuning key headstock configuration, which was Forrest White’s contribution to the instrument’s design. Because this arrangement eliminates angled string pull on the headstock, it also prevents dead spots. At least that’s the theory. “Nothing’s bending to make it to the tuning peg,” explains Ball. “It's a straight string pull.” The 3+1 setup also made it identifiable for marketing. But there was one aspect of that design on the original Music Man models that clearly irked Ball. “They put the string tree on the G and the D. It didn’t need to be there. Most instruments we make don’t need a string retainer, but we’re trying to stay true to the original design.”
The latest iteration of the StingRay is the new DarkRay, a thoroughly modern take on the StingRay formula that was created in collaboration with Darkglass Electronics. It features a 2-band EQ preamp from Darkglass with clean, distortion, and fuzz modes, plus a neodymium humbucker, roasted maple neck, and more.
The Ernie Ball Music Man StingRay Emerges
In 1984, the Ernie Ball company bought Music Man at auction. “I didn’t have a guitar factory. I thought, ‘What the hell am I going to do?’” Sterling Ball chuckles. “So, I had to build a factory.” Ball brought in Dan Norton, his dad’s right-hand-man, and Dudley Gimpel, a renowned builder who worked at Knut Koupée Music Store in Minneapolis. “It was Dudley, Dan, and me. And now we have to make a bass [laughs].”
It was important to Ball that their builds were consistent, and since the original Music Man StingRay basses have notoriously inconsistent weights, Ball and his fledgling crew sought to rectify that issue. “Some were so heavy, I don’t think if you had a live-in chiropractor you could play them, and then there were others that were feather light. I gravitated towards the lighter ones.” Ball charted his course by trying to discern the difference between making a good bass versus making a great bass. “You could take one log and make 20 basses, and two of them are just going to be infinitely better.”
“[Leo Fender] liked having all that power. He got a wider frequency response, and he could hear the bass better.” —Sterling Ball
Other changes in the Ernie Ball era included moving the string tree to the D and the A strings, automating pickup production, adding contours, and changing the finish. Perhaps the most significant development, however, was adding the 3-band EQ and eventually offering an 18-volt circuit option. “What was fantastic when Ernie Ball took over was the addition of a midrange control,” states Levin. “I could make it sound like the Precision some engineers still wanted, but, for my preference, I could roll the midrange back.”
Bernard Edwards and his StingRay behind the board at the Power Station in New York City on April 6,1983.
Photo by Ebet Roberts
Ball concurs: “When we came out with the 3-band, which was cut and boost, you really got a lot more flexibility and a lot more options.” They eventually learned to voice the 3-band EQ based on customers’ tendencies to crank all the knobs. “In our business, everybody’s idea is everything has to be fully on,” explains Ball. “We could give you a lot more, but we know that if somebody turns everything up and plugs it in, they’re going to think it sounds terrible. So, we actually have to put it where we want it when it’s pegged. I’m not saying that we were putting a limiter on it, but we do voice it for being dimed.”
The StingRay remains a preeminent electric bass for many hotshot players, and the model’s line ranges from the vintage-informed Retro ’70s model to the heavy-music-tinged DarkRay to a host of signature models. But one thing that Ball says has been a little frustrating and limiting is the fact that most companies are still primarily selling 60-year-old designs.
“The path to innovation is very tough because of what players are willing to accept—it’s a narrow cast,” he says. “When you come out with a guitar or bass that looks different, it’s so interesting to see how strongly people oppose it at first. But if you don’t like it, you don’t have to get mad. It’s just not for you. We’re not taking your birthday away; we’re not taking Valentine’s Day away. All we’re doing is adding choices. You have to remind them that we didn’t take anything away. We just gave somebody else another choice.”
![Fall Out Boy Rig Rundown [2024]](https://www.premierguitar.com/media-library/fall-out-boy-rig-rundown-with-patrick-stump-joe-trohman-pete-wentz-guitar-bass-gear-tour.jpg?id=52823626&width=1245&height=700&quality=85&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0)
Back in March, Chicago’s Fall Out Boy blasted through Birmingham, Alabama, in the middle of a year-long tour supporting their 2023 release, So Much (for) Stardust. It was their first solo headline tour since 2018, and they brought along loads of new noisemakers for the occasion.
Frontman Patrick Stump has moved on from his trademark Gretsch electrics, guitarist Joe Trohman scored an Explorer that may or may not remind us of a certain purple McDonald’s character, and Pete Wentz packs some basses that bring both ice and fire to the gig. And while tube amps still reign supreme in the studio, including the recording of So Much (for) Stardust, the band goes digital and speaker-free on the road.
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After his love affair with Gretsch came to a close, the Guild S-60D has become Patrick Stump’s new muse. Given his intense vocal responsibilities during performances, he’s aiming for function over form these days, and the S-60D and S-300 models are fitting the bill for playability and position in the mix. “I want something that stays in tune,” he says. “I try to be as minimal as possible.”
Stump bought this S-60D with its all-over bright-red paint job, then set about sourcing red components to make it almost entirely monochrome. He also dropped a DiMarzio Super Distortion humbucker in the bridge and a Seymour Duncan Little ’59 in the neck.
Multicolor Halo
Stump commissioned this Halo guitar, which turned out radically different from what he initially pitched. It was first envisioned to help Stump out with some metal playing he was recording for a TV project, so he called for some classic touches like scalloped frets, a Floyd Rose, and a Seymour Duncan Dimebucker in the bridge. But the color ended up anything but metal. It’s not totally applicable to most Fall Out Boy material, but Stump is giving it a shot at some live play time.
Horse With Name
For slower moments, Stump goes with this Martin X Series acoustic he picked up at Guitar Center around 15 years ago. Since he had a deal with Fender, he covered the headstock Martin logo with some black tape that’s remained there ever since.
Mighty Zemaitis
First up, Trohman shows off this Japanese-made Zemaitis The Portrait Hisashi Signature Model, a model built in honor of Glay guitarist Hisashi Tonomura. While not a genuine Tony Zemaitis build, Trohman likes this one for its stability and build quality.
The Grimace
Trohman was lusting after this ’80s Gibson Custom Shop plumburst Explorer when he saw it pop up on Reverb, and when it sold, he was heartbroken. A few days later, his wife surprised him with it. It’s named Sanders, in honor of her maiden name.
Smokin' a Sig
Trohman also brings out his signature Squier Joe Trohman Telecaster, a take on the Tele Deluxe that includes a 5-position rotary selector switch to navigate the triple-pickup configuration.
Catching Rays
Tech Christian Zayas shows off this stunning custom paint job Sterling by Music Man Pete Wentz StingRay, which is outfitted with passive (rather than the typical active) pickups and a Hipshot drop tuning system. Note the signature red-eyed-loon inlay art on the 12th fret.
Winter Wonderland
This brand new, heavy-as-hell signature StingRay is full of some type of liquid (Zayas believes its anti-freeze) plus white material that turns it into a bass-shaped snowglobe. Wentz pulls it out for a fantasy sequence in the show, and it doesn’t stick around long because of its weight and more mellow tone.
Don't Sink the 8 Ball
This Pete Wentz StingRay is also a new addition, and comes out for an 8-ball-related encore.
Pete Might've Started the Fire
The last Sterling in the stable is also Wentz’s most deadly, doubling as a flamethrower during some of the show’s pyrotechnic flourishes. A primer on the upper bout preps the rear-mounted flame system, and the red-covered switch controls ignition. The pyro team tests it before each show with local fire departments to ensure its safety. “Sometimes we wanna be KISS, and we are,” says Zayas.
Farewell To Tubes
Joe Tone
Joe Trohman's tech Ben Young helped the FOB lead guitarist creep in digital modelers and here he provides additional details for what's happening inside the Axe-Fx III:
"The Fractal is set up where we have a different patch for each song, and then use scenes for each section of the songs. I have a template with all our dialed in amps and effects for everything. All the amp sounds are based off a JCM800 for our mid gain “crunch” sound, and a Dual Rectifier for our classic Fall Out Boy heavy sound. We also have a Friedman amp and a “brown sound” amp for other higher gain options that we’ve been using on newer songs and a Matchless for clean stuff."
Steve Morse and Andy West are legendary players. In addition to co-founding the Dixie Dregs together in Augusta, Georgia, in 1970, both virtuosos have colorful personal resumes.
Guitar giant Morse’s is more high-profile. He remains the leader of the Steve Morse Band, who opened the Dregs’s late April show at Nashville’s CMA Theater, where this Rundown was filmed, with 45 minutes of smart shred. He’s also been a member of Kansas and Deep Purple, as well as another instrumental powerhouse, Flying Colors.
Besides his tenure in the Dregs, West has recorded with Vinnie Moore, the Steve Morse Band, Paul Barrere, and Henry Kaiser, with whom he’s been a member of the Mistakes, Crazy Backwards Alphabet, and Five Time Surprise, which also includes Messthetics guitarist Anthony Pirog. (Full disclosure: I recorded a version of Steppenwolf’s “The Pusher” with Kaiser and West as part of Kaiser’s Moods & Modes of Halloween video quarterly in 2023.)
The Music City show was classic Dixie Dregs, with more than two hours of high-wire playing, all anchored by the bold melodies that mark their compositions. Joined by longtime Dregs drummer Rod Morgenstein, violinist Allen Sloan, and special guest and former Dregs keyboardist Jordan Rudess, now from Dream Theater, the concert was an affirmation of Morse and West’s vitality and musical partnership after sharing stages for more than 50 years.
In the video, Steve and Andy explain their rigs in person and in detail. Their setups:
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The Warhorse
Steve’s number one guitar is literally serial No. 1—the first Steve Morse signature model to come out of the Ernie Ball Music Man shop in 1985. Its appointments include a Tune-o-matic bridge with thumbwheel height adjustment, a roasted maple neck, Schaller tuners, a graphite-acrylic-resin-coated body cavity and aluminum-lined pickguard, master volume and a highly responsive tone control, 22 frets, and DiMarzio’s Steve Morse signature pickups. Two toggles control his mix of humbuckers and single-coils. The wear makes this instrument a thing of beauty—it’s clearly, like its owner, led a storied life. At the headstock, you’ll notice a homemade foam mute (with Ernie Ball’s name on it) that Steve fashioned to compensate for the arthritis that makes it painful to bend his hand. That said, it doesn’t seem to slow him down a bit.
The Mute
Here’s a close-up look at Steve’s handmade mute. Currently, it’s in muting mode. Flip it up and the strings ring open.
Next!
Steve’s backup signature model has a little more chunk in its voice, and the neck pickup has more clarity, he tells us. “I could pick it up and play it all night long.” He is using Ernie Ball Paradigm Slinky strings, gauged .009–.042. And his picks are flexible nylon Ernie Balls with a serrated edge. “The hard celluloid picks really impact my wrist,” he says.
Synth-tillating!
There’s a Roland GK-3 divided pickup at the heel of Steve’s main axe, so he can use a synth to add strings and pads to accompany himself as he plays in the Steve Morse Band.
The Engl's Have Landed
Steve plays through a pair of 3-channel Engl Steve Morse signature 100-watt amps—one wet, one dry—but his volume can go down to a whisper without losing a bit of tonal depth thanks, in part, to the amps’ careful tube interaction and circuitry. In fact, Steve says he can play his nylon-string acoustic guitar through these powerhouses. He keeps the amps on their sides to disperse the sound to the left and right.
Stack of Synths
And Steve’s synth of choice is the Roland GR-55. It comes stock with 910 tones, 93 effects, and three foot-pedal controllers.
Pedal On!
His pedal chain is a Keeley Compressor, two Ernie Ball volume pedals, two TC Flashbacks, a Korg Polytune, and a foot controller for his 3-channel Engls.
Wet or Dry?
Perched atop an amp head is a GigRig wetter box, which allows Steve to fade reverb or delay into his dry-signal cabinet. The reverb and delay are generated by two adjacent TC Electronic Flashback pedals (using his own TonePrint settings) and a TC Hall of Fame reverb.
The Bass-ics
Two key components of Andy’s rig are his main G. Gould 6-string bass and these flat-response EV monitors, which serve as his instrument’s audio feed on stage. Between them is a Line 6 Helix floor unit—the sonic spine!
Good as Gould
The G. Gould was custom-made for Andy about six years ago. Despite being a 6-string, it has a 5-string neck, because he plays with a pick and prefers tight string spacing. It has a pair of EMG pickups. The neck is graphite, made by Goeff Gould, and it has two volume controls and a coil-splitter.
Second Bass
Built in 1985, this bass was designed by Andy and Geoff Gould, who was the founder of Modulus Graphite guitars. It has a graphite neck and originally had a tremolo bridge, but it started to crack the neck, due to its additional tension, so Andy had a wood block inserted plus a more conventional 6-string bass bridge. It has EMG pickups, too. The robust flame-maple finish is killer.
What's My Line 6?
Andy’s amp is a Line 6 Helix floor model and he uses a few key tones, with a lot of midrange focus, some chorus, a lower octave, and overdrive—“all really subtle,” he observes. And the signal goes directly to the EV monitors onstage. They have two 12" speakers and tweeters, and the signal also goes direct to house, of course.
Shop Dixie Dregs' Rig
Roland GK-3 Divided Pickup
Engl Steve Morse Signature 100-Watt Amps
ENGL Amplifiers E412VSB 240-watt 4 x 12-inch Amplifier Cabinet
Roland GR-55 Synthesizer
Keeley Compressor
TC Electronic Flashback
TC Electronic Hall of Fame Reverb
Ernie Ball 2023 Super Slinky Paradigm Electric Guitar Strings - .009-.042
Line 6 Helix Guitar Multi-effects Floor Processor
Electro-Voice ZLX-12P-G2 1000W 12-inch Powered Speaker Pair