Sterling by MusicMan SB14 Bass

Hi there!

Today we are looking at a very nice Sterling by MusicMan SB14 bass guitar. For those of you that are not familiar with the brand, here is a little background of this MusicMan bass copy:

MusicMan instruments are expensive, and are financially out of reach for many beginning musicians. In an effort to provide reasonably-priced quality instruments to this crowd, the Ernie Ball company made a deal with Praxis to sell imported versions of popular MusicMan guitars and basses.

They named the brand “Sterling by MusicMan”, which is confusing as there is already a MusicMan Sterling bass. Oh well.

Sterling instruments are very good and are made from nice woods, and are equipped with good quality hardware and electronics. They are made in Indonesia, and are inspected and set-up by Praxis in Orange, California.

The Sterling SB14 we have here today is a copy of the MusicMan Sterling. A Sterling Sterling, if you will. See what I mean about the brand name being confusing?

As this bass is sold at a lower price point, there are not as many configurations or color choices as you will find on MusicMan basses. For 2011 the SB14 is available in black with a rosewood fretboard, or tobacco burst with a maple fretboard. They are only available as a 4-string with a single pickup.

This one is a 2009 Sterling SB14, and it is finished in Candy Apple Red over its basswood body. The body has the same shape and contours as its MusicMan cousin. The paintwork is first rate and the neck and body fit very well together.

The hardware is heavily chromed, and is heavy duty, but lacks the MusicMan logos. The tuners hold well, and the high-mass bridge is bolted to the body, just as it would be on the MusicMan version.

The 3-band pre-amp and electronics are very good. There is a MusicMan designed ceramic humbucker with a phantom coil underneath to quiet the circuit down. This is a very loud bass, and it has an edgy tone, leaving nothing on the table.

The 5-bolt neck is good, and the fretwork is well done. The frets are level and the edges are smooth with nice bevels to them. Sterling has adopted the truss rod wheel too, so adjustments are a snap.

The SB14 is growly as all get out, and it has a smooth and playable neck and action, making it a true winner. The only reason I sold this bass was that I no longer prefer narrow jazz-width necks, so I am more of a Stingray bass guy.

The Sterling SB 14 basses have a list price of $849 and a minimum advertised price of $599, which is the same price as they were in 2009 when they were introduced. They are a great value, and if you are not label conscious you will get a great bass for not much money.

Mahalo!

Vistaprint Business Cards

Good day!

All musicians or bands should have business cards with their contact information and website link on them, and there is no excuse not to have some now that they are easy and cheap to order online. But I cannot recommend Vistaprint after my experience with them.

You see Vistaprint’s banner ads everywhere on the internet, and they are always advertising that they will give you 250 business cards for free. Of course there is no such thing as free, but on initial checking, it seemed like their cards were a good deal.

I was able to pick my own design and put a photo on it (extra charge, of course), and it was going to be $19.99 for 250 cards. Plus shipping, so it was really more like 25 bucks, but I should have upgraded the paper too – more on that later.

After putting the order together I had to click through page after page of offers for stuff I did not want, so it took quite a while (which was made worse by the slow Vistaprint web site). There was also a tricky box that needed to be unchecked so that I would not be enrolled in some sort of shopping service.

When I finally got to the checkout screen, I decided not to pay extra for expedited service, so it took about 3 weeks for the cards to show up. And when they showed up it was a real disappointment.

When I finally got my cards, they felt and looked cheap. They print these “Premium Business Cards” on 80# stock, while the industry standard uses 100# stock. Should you want to upgrade to 100# stock there is a $16.99 upcharge for 250 cards.

Also, Vistaprint’s cards are actually smaller than normal sized cards, measuring 87mm by 49mm. Other printers supply normal sized US market cards which are 89mm by 51mm. There is no mention of this at all when ordering the cards from their website.

Do you really want your card to be smaller and thinner than the other guys? Perception is everything, and people might think you cheaped out when you bought your cards.

And, to add insult to injury, you can count on receiving an endless succession of annoying spam e-mail offers from Vistaprint for free or discounted products. And often when you check into the offers you will find that they are no longer valid.

I will be trying another online printing company and will let you folks know the results.

Mahalo!

Fender Custom Shop 1963 Telecaster

Howdy!

It looks like I have fallen down the relic hole again. Intentionally worn-out looking new guitars are contrived, but every now and then I happen upon one that plays and sounds so incredible that it is worth it. And this one is worth it.

Today we are looking at a Fender ’63-reissue Telecaster that is a real peach. It is finished in Fiesta Red nitrocellulose lacquer over an alder body, and it was built in 2008 by the Fender Custom Shop.

The neck is the best part of this guitar, and it is a boss piece of quarter-sawn maple with a rosewood fretboard. It has a C shape, a 9.5-inch fretboard radius and 6105 (tall/narrow jumbo) frets seated into it. The extra work they put into sanding down the back of it during the relic-ing process gives it a super smooth feel.

The next-best part of this guitar is the electronics package, which is a bit different than your usual re-issue Telecaster. There is a Seymour Duncan ’59 humbucker at the neck, and a vintage ’63 Tele single-coil at the bridge. The 3-way switch is wired as follows: position 1: bridge pickup, position 2: neck pickup with tone control (Bright Vintage Circuit) and position 3: neck pickup with no tone control (Dark Vintage Circuit). This is the way it came from the factory, and I see no reason to change it as this guitar is amazing. In position 3, this guitar gives a tone that would make any Les Paul on the planet jealous, and this Telecaster could actually make one think that the Stratocaster was not a very good invention. Really.

The rest of the specs are as expected: it has nickel/chrome hardware with Fender/Gotoh vintage style tuners and a 3-saddle bridge.

As far as the appearance of the ’63 Telecaster, it is reliced beyond reason, but it is what it is, and I will learn to love it. It is, after all, a great playing and sounding guitar.

These guitars all shipped with a nice G&G hardshell case and the Fender Custom Shop certificate of authenticity, as well as a bridge cover that came in a nice accessory pack.

Alas, these guitars do not come cheap. A Fender Custom Shop ’63 Telecaster like this has a list price of $3400 and a street price of $2889.

Mahalo!

Best Contact Cleaner: DeoxIT

Hola!

Before replacing that scratchy or sticky pot on your guitar, you really should give DeoxIT a try. I have been using their products for years to fix cranky guitars and amplifiers.

This stuff is not the canned air that you buy from Office Depot, but are cleaners and protectors that will flush crap out and help fix intermittent connections.

There are a slew of DeoxIT products, so to make it easy, here are the two you are going to need:

1. DexoIT DN5. Make sure you get DN5, not D5, because the DN5 evaporates more quickly and will not drip all over the place. This is a 20% cleaning action, and works well as a stand-alone application.

2. DeoxIT Gold GN5. This product only has a 0.5% cleaning action, as its purpose is to act as a protectant. You would use this product to protect new electronics or older parts after you have cleaned them up with DeoxIT DN5.

This stuff lives up to its claims. I used these to clean up the original pots on my 1963 Jazz bass, and they were quiet and smooth after I worked DeoxIT through them. This allowed me to have a bass that worked well, without having to screw up its collector value by replacing factory-original parts.

I have been using the same 14 gram (½ oz) spray cans for a few years, and they retail for about $11 per can, which makes the product about as expensive as unicorn blood. I know it is a cliché, but DeoxIT will pay for itself the first time you use it.

You can buy DeoxIT directly from the manufacturer’s web site at http://store.caig.com , or if you are in a big hurry, you can usually find it at Radio Shack or Fry’s Electronics stores.

Mahalo!

Slicker than Snot: Taylor V-Cable

Hi there!

It was an “ah-hah!” moment for me when I saw this product – the Taylor V-Cable. In the past I have owned acoustic guitars that had pickups but no electronics or volume controls, which meant relying on a sound guy or having to go over to the amplifier to change volume levels. Or having to carry a volume pedal everywhere I went.

The Taylor V-Cable takes care of this situation handily. The Rapco/Horizon company makes these in the US for Taylor, and they combine a quarter-inch cable with a master volume control and a mute. These can be used on pretty much any instrument that needs to be plugged in, and come in 250k and 500k versions, depending on what you will be using it on.

Choosing the 250k or 500k version might be a confusing decision for folks that are considering the V-Cable. Then again, these are the same specs you would have for the pots in your guitar, so it is not quite a voodoo science. In most cases I would go for the 250k version, unless I was going to be using it exclusively on a guitar equipped with humbucking pickups.

Looking at the cable construction, it is apparent that this is a quality accessory. It has a 20-gauge all copper center conductor, and top drawer connectors. The knob feels solid, works smoothly when turned, and has a satisfying click when the mute function is engaged.

I tested a 10-foot 20k cable on an older acoustic guitar, and found that it did not add any extra noise to the signal chain, and the volume control was easy to use while it was plugged into the end pin. The cable seemed a little stiff, but it was new. I think this product is a winner, and if you don’t want to upgrade the electronics on your guitar, it will add a lot of functionality.

The Taylor V-Cable comes in seven different lengths between 3 feet and 25 feet, and all lengths are available with 250k or 500k pots. The cables have a limited lifetime warranty for the original purchaser, if they register it through Rapco/Horizon.

Of course, the good things in life are not cheap. The Taylor V-Cables run from $61.99 to $73.99 ($49.19 to $59.19 street price), depending on how long of a cable you need. Of course, it is still cheaper than buying a volume pedal, and it makes for less gear to haul. Think about it.

Mahalo!

1998 Musicman Stingray 5 Bass

Greetings!

Today we are looking a peach of bass I picked up from a local guy who had advertised it on Talkbass – a 1998 Ernie Ball Musicman Stingray 5.

Ernie Ball started building fivers in 1988, and they have gone on to become the best selling 5-string basses ever made. It seems like every country bassist I have ever seen on stage has a Stingray 5. They have a relatively narrow (17.5mm) string spacing, so the neck is not too wide. Originally only available with a single humbucking pickup, Stingray 5s can now also be had with 2 humbuckers or a humbucker and a single coil. You can even throw in a piezo bridge and go fretless if you want to.

This one is a plain-Jane single humbucker bass, and it rocks. It looks to have been hardly played at all over the past 13 years, and the glossy black poly finish is in great shape.

It is all original, including the kick-ass hardware, which includes the high mass bridge (bolted to the body) and the Schaller tuners. This was made before the age of compensated nuts, so it did not get one. Do you really need a compensated nut on a bass?

The electronics are the stock ceramic pickup (alnico did arrive until 2008), with a 3-way selector switch. The positions are: series, single coil (closest to the bridge) and parallel. I am a big fan of the parallel mode.

The previous owner strung it with DR Black Beauties, which I ordinarily hate, but they really sing on this bass. I’m going to leave them on there for awhile and see how they hold up.

Of course, my track record with 5-string basses has been horrible. Most do not stick around for more than a month or two, but I am going to give this one the old college try, and it is a great playing bass. We’ll see if this one makes it until my 4th quarter inventory update…

Mahalo!

Please Help Out My Buddy (The Author): WAHOO RHAPSODY

Como estas?

I know that this has nothing to do with usual music topics, but the best book of the summer is WAHOO RHAPSODY. Well, it is the best book any of my friends have published this summer, but it's still really good. Think Carl Hiaasen funny and Elmore Leonard snappy with a kick-ass mystery woven through.

An American deckhand is smuggling pot from Cabo San Lucas to San Diego inside the bellies of dead fish. He steals from the drug lord and bad things happen. There's a corrupt federal prosecutor from Arizona, a beautiful and fearless P.I., and an expatriated hero with millions in cash hidden away. It's a fast-paced, salty tale that's perfect for the beach or the pool.

Go to shaunmorey.com to read the first chapter for free, and then go buy WAHOO RHAPSODY on Amazon. It is also available for the Kindle for 8 bucks. Trust me.

Mahalo!