Ernie Ball Music Man has expanded its range of StingRays with a signature model for bass guitar icon Pino Palladino.
Palladino needs little introduction. His credits list compares favourably with anyone you care to mention. The Who, Beyoncé, Nine Inch Nails, Jeff Beck, Don Henley, Elton John… We could go on (Okay, a couple more; Eric Clapton, Tears For Fears).
If you have followed his career, you might well recognise the similarities between his new signature bass from Ernie Ball Music Man, because it is based on his 1979 fretless StingRay that has served him so well over the years. This is the one that gave him his sound, and it was love at first sight.
“I ran back to the hotel, got my tour manager with the band at the time, I said, ‘I need bucks, like, now.’ Which he wasn’t very happy about,” says Palladino. “But he came up with it eventually and I went back to the store and bought the bass. I played it that night on the gig that we had, and since I bought that bass, that just really changed my career. I became known as a fretless bass player and used that bass exclusively on nearly all the recordings I did from ’81 to ’95/’96"
Indeed, for those with deep pockets – and the chops for fretless bass – there is the Icon Series model, which is described as a “museum grade” replica of the 1979 original, with every ding and scuff on the finish replicated on the new model.
The specs are period-correct, and such has been the level of detail applied to this that only 15 Icon Series models will be made.
But, for those willing to put their own wear on the finish, the Pino Palladino StingRay shares the same specs. It has a solid poplar body.
The neck is maple, given a dark tint to for that vintage vibe, complete with skunk stripe down the back, and it joins the body with a three-bolt joint that features a Micro-Tilt adjustment for taking some of the pain out of neck adjustments.
You can get this model fretted or fretless. Either way you’ve got a 34” scale to play with, and a rosewood fingerboard that has dot inlays on the nickel-fretted version, and is left blank on the fretless.
This is a single-pickup bass. You’ve got one big ‘70s-voiced Alnico V humbucker wound with original 42-gauge wire. This is a Palladino signature deal, but it’s also a time capsule instrument, presenting today’s player with a Music Man StingRay before Ernie Ball’s name was on the headstock. Just look at that bullet-style truss rod.
The StingRay was the world’s first mass-produced active bass and that’s what we’ve got here, with electronics accurate for a late ‘70s model, and to Palladino’s original. The 9V 2-EQ preamp is wired with CTS pots, with the 1M tone pot swapped out for a 500K pot.
This is a stunning bass – those brass saddles on that steel plate bridge look amazing under studio lighting – but many of the details are those you’ll feel rather than see, such as the asymmetric neck profile that starts out all vintage V profile before graduating to a C. Very nice.
The Pino Palladino StingRay is available now, priced $3,499. The Icon Series version is $5,999. See Ernie Ball Music Man for more details.
