Ernie Ball Music Man Music Man S.U.B. 5

2006 model with the compensated nut, USA made in the same factory as other EBMM basses. Single alnico humbucker, Music Man 2-band active preamp. Slab Poplar body with red matte textured finish, maple neck painted flat black, rosewood fingerboard, flat black pickguard. Hardware is identical to regular EBMM basses but to save money it is not stamped with the Music Man name. Comes with no extras at all. It's a high-quality instrument with no frills.

The tone is pure Music Man, like Flea's sound on the Blood Sugar Sex Magic album. The treble control has a wide range and is very sensitive. With the treble turned up you get a glassy and sharp attack, with it turned down you get a warm and mellow sound. Definitely not a one-trick pony. The alnico pickup in this bass seems to be warmer than the ceramic pickup in the Stingray 5. Overall it sounds great and has a great B-string.

This bass was sitting on the rack for a long time before I bought it. The store did not set it up well, I think that's why it sat unsold. Once I got it home I set it up to my liking and it plays great. All of the adjustments are easy to make, especially the truss rod wheel, which is the best design in the business. The neck profile feels a bit thinner than a Stingray 5 and the flat black paint is smooth. The only flaw is the G string is quite close to the edge of the fretboard. It forced me to play with better technique which is not a bad thing at all.

The fit and finish is excellent, top-quality.

This bass is built like a tank and feels like it will last forever. The paint finish looks tough and should stand up well. It is a simple instrument, not a lot of things to go wrong. I would gig it without a backup and not worry, though I would test the battery first.

Haven't needed to deal with the company but they have a website with a FAQ and a forum, both of which contain lots of good information.

I own two other 5-strings, a Stingray 5 and a G&L L-2500. The SUB 5 is not inferior to them at all, just different. It is lighter than both of them, has a thinner neck and has a cool look and sound. I only wish it had body contours. I would definitely try to replace it if stolen, but these are becoming hard to find now. There's a reason for that, people who own them keep them.

I bought the SUB 5 string in London as kinda a cheaper option to the stingray. There is nothing fancy about it, just the bare essentials for playing. Californian made Bass.

21 frets, 2 Band EQ and volume. Chromed hardware with bolt on neck (6 scrwews). Thinnish guaged neck and smooth feel,. Active electronics of course. Nice battery holder (easy to change).

One humbucker pickup by the bridge. Poplar body very chunky with a rough matt finish. Oval pickguard that looks like the inside of a freezer. Well made bass overall. It came with a soft case.

I play rock and funk. Inspired by Flea when he used to use the Stingray. Good raw sound with enough variation with the Eq's to bring out the brightness.

Sounds great with a powerful amp/speaker. Enough volume out of the lower B string to match the other 4. Excellent tone for slap and pop. Even sounds good in the studio.

The action factory set was a bit on the high side, not an issue though. No buzzing even on the low B.

I've had it for over a year and no problems so far with reliabilty. I would use it at a gig without worrying about a backup bass.

It could be improved, SUB body is uncontoured no groove for the hip. Can get a little too heavy over a while, +-4.3 Kg's , bear this in mind when choosing one. If it got stolen I would spend he exra cash get go for the Stingray / Sterling.

2005 A. D.
USA made one of the best 34?, 5 strings bass for the price.
Active eletronics, very good finish, Poplar body and Rosewood neck. Amazing sound and playability... What may be improoved??? I neeed a neck pickup sound to play brazilian music. Then...
Pickup configuration: H-H. (?)
No, I?m not crazy (yet)! I put 2 Bass Line MM - Ceramic: 1 in the bridge position and the another one replacement the original pickup.
I put the original pickup in a Brazilian fretless luthier 5 string.
NO REGRETS!!! Sounds like a BONGO with a little part of the money :)
I improove the versatility and it?s much better to play brazilian music like SAMBA, MARACATU, AX? and BAI?O.

The sound becomes nothing but umbeleavable!!!
H - H is one of the best combinations I have ever ear...
In brazilian music is very important the rich and warm sound of neck pickup.
I use it without effects, just plug ?n? play.
Bass Line MM sounds great!! I fell no miss the original MM!
No noisy, fantastic for studio and live stage!!
The Active circuit is the original... sounds very good.

\0/ Amazing Action: The Ernie Ball know my perfectly use...
\0/ I love the textured paint and the aluminium like pickguard...
\0/ The main electronics cavity is further shielded with conductive, adhesive-backed copper foil, which is seam soldered and grounded to the conductive paint.
\0/ The 2 Bass Line pickups was put for one of the best luthier in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Heber (Binho) Gomes. It was necessary the changes in the position of the pots and rearrange of cable entrance.

I use this bass in studio and stage.
This bass is very well done.
Execellent reability and durability.
The finish is good enougth to resist the perspared of the hot climb of Rio de Janeiro.
The strap buttons are solid.

I play bass since 1981. I had many Fender, Ibanez, Ken Smith, Yamaha and a lot of Brazilians and Europeans luthiers.
The relationship money / benefit is the great deal!
With this pickup configuration, H-H it?s one of the best sound I?ve played.
If you have a good luthier, have some courage and You like changes in your sound and mind, I strongly recommend this practice.

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This is an update to my previous post. I toured all Summer in the cover band with this bass, and only it. Never let me down, except one evening when the strap pulled off while I was playing, and the bass fell down hardly on the stage. NOT A SINGLE DING ON IT ! Looks like these basses, despite of their weird textured finishes and basswood bodies, are definitely built like tanks.

I just had to get in touch ONCE with people at Ernie Ball Customer Service. Asked on Sunday, replied on Monday. That was just a tiny fuss with the G-string jumping out of the nut when plucking, but it was actually me who had not winded the string correctly around the tuner. Fixed in seconds. The Ernie Ball reply was not a real solution to my problem since the e-mail said "call us", but I believe they were helpful though.

Though I bought another bass recently, and though a few other ones are on order too, I want to keep this bass. I took the ugly pickguard off and the bass looks better, IMO. Next step is considering a refinish, but there I have to choose the colour and I am still undecised.
Last words : GREAT BASS. Not a "cheap" StingRay 5. Really different, and actually close to the "classic" StingRay (w/2-band EQ).

I won this bass at Emergenza Festival at 2005.

- American made
- 22 frets, 5 strings.
- Poplar body and maple neck with rosewood fingerboard.
- Musicman pickup (ceramic magnets)
- Active electronics with bass, treble and volume pots.
- Black satin finish neck and grey textured finish body with custom artwork (conmemorative of Emergenza'05)
- No accesories

I think that the features are basic but very efective

Sounds like a Music Man. Deep and nasal but crank the treble pot and you will get the sparkle sound instantly. The bass/treble eq is enought for get a wide variety of tones.

Simply perfect. Very low action without buzz frets. The string spacing is very comfortable for slap.

No problems here. Very solid an clean building.

Not needed.

I think that's a good bass for the price. Very comfortable, great sounds and american made.

I started playing bass 12 years ago. I've played a lot of basses and I think the SUB is a great mid-priced bass.

This is a SUB 5, supposingly made in 2004 or early 2005. These basses are made in America.
It is the 2-band active EQ version.
The finish is textured blue (awesome finish, pretty dark).
This bass comes with no accessory at all (not even a gigbag).

As far as the Stingray 5 is pretty different from the "classic" StingRay 4 (I owned both of these models), the SUB 5 (at least in its active version) is quite close to the old StingRay 4's.
I actually couldn't notice any hearable difference between this one and my old pre-EB StingRay. Very good point here, and you all know how the classic StingRay sounds, since you heard it so many times on so many records.
The sound is punchy and bright, but when you crank the highs down you reach a very deep tone, round without being muddy.
This bass is pretty quite.
Nothing I dislike here.
I play this bass through an Ashdown MAG-300R head and an Ashdown MAG-210T cab. I plug into it through an AKG UHF wireless system.

The action was perfect. I didn't have to adjust it. The strings are very low and there is no buzz ar all.
The finish of this bass is a bit curious (strange paint, though nice looking) but well done.
This bass seems a bit heavy when you pick it up, but as soon as you have it strapped on your shoulders, it balances so well that you don't feel it any more.
One point for 4-bangers who think of switching to 5 : I only had a small experience of 5ers. The first time it was a StingRay 5, and I was not very comfortable with it (though I guess it's because it was my first 5-string). The second bass was a not-so-good one, so that I was most often playing on my 4-string Jazz Bass. With the SUB 5, I could adapt myself immediately without a fuss. I believe the SUB 5 is an excellent bass if you want to switch to 5.

I can't say on this point, since I only had this bass for a few days. But it seems to be very dependable.

Didn't have to deal.

I have been playing since 29 years. I have owned many basses previously, including a StingRay 4, a StingRay5, 3 Fender's, 4 Rickenbacker's, a Status, etc.
The only surprises I had with this bass for the moment are only good surprises : excellent tone, fabulous action.
There's nothing I hate about this bass.
If this bass were lost or stolen, I'd certainly buy another one.
When I bought this bass, I was at the shop with the purpose of buying a brand new Fender AM Deluxe Jazz Bass 5, but Fender France had none in stock and the delivery deadline was 2 months minimum. And the StingRay 5 was too pricey for my budget.
Finally the guy in the shop gave me a good deal (600 EUR off) for this SUB 5.

Addendum to the second review down. See Sound.

After owning this for a few months now I made one mod. Had to get rid of the stock pickup in favor of an SD Music Man replacement pickup (alnico wired in series to stock preamp). The stock pickup is just too bright. Before the mod the SUB5 was too trebly (great for slap but not for fingerstyle). Now with the SD wired in series to the stock preamp I'm getting the bass low and low mid fingerstyle rock tone (that still has the inherent spank of a Stingray) that I've been hearing in my head. Great improvement over the Stock pickup which btw is hard-wired in parallel thus boosting highs and high mids causing it to be too bright.

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This instrument has very basic features. There is a pot for volume, one for treble and and of course, one for bass. This bass is really nothing special, yet what do you expect for the price? In my opinion, the pickguard is absolutely awful. I feels like a cheap piece of tin. In fact, I disliked it so much I had a new one made from plastic. Musicman told me that there is now another black matted pickguard that can replace the one it comes with. The finish on the bass is not transparent which is one of the reasons the bass is quite a bit less than the StringRay. According to what Musicman said to me, this is one of the reasons why they are able to sell this bass at a cheaper price - they don't have to spend as much time on the finish. If you're looking to see wood, you won't find it anywhere on this bass. Here's a quote I got from Musicman in regard to what's different about the overall appearance between the S.U.B. bass and the StingRay:
"The body wood is poplar instead of ash, the back side and headstock on the necks are painted matte black, the bodies have a textured durable finish unlike the gloss polyester available on the StingRays. The pick guard has the StingRay 4 shape oval shape."

I use two different amps. One is a Crate Taxi Amp for practicing and the other is an SWR preamp, with a Trace Elliot poweramp going through to a Hartke 4x10 cabinet and a Hartke 1x15 cabinet. The bass sounds quite good. It has a nice slap sound and there is lots of bass.

Having a mid-range pot would have been nice so that one could change the sound a little bit more. But onece again, what do you expect for this price?

When the treble pot is turned up full it makes somewhat of a buzzing sound. I have been told that this is a grounding problem that really can't be solved. I solve it by never turning the treble pot up full blast. This is somewhat unfortunate as my Yamaha TRB 5P doesn't ever make this buzzing sound regardless of how I have the pots set.

The way the bass was set up when it came from the factory was awesome. In fact, it turned me on to the Ernie Ball gauge strings that it comes with. Now all of my basses are set up with this gauge. The pickup was set up perfectly and therefore the pickup volume balance was even. There was no fret buzzing and the neck was well set up.

The hardware is first rate. The only thing I did was change the strap buttons to Jim Dunlop strap locks so that my strap can't fall off. I have used the bass on numerous gigs now and it stays in tune nicely. Setting it up is also very basic and the way Musicman has the truss rod made, makes it easy to adjust.

I have called Musicman numerous times. Their support staff is very helpful and one can get ahold of them via a 1-800 number which I wish more music instrument companies would do. The only downfall I found was the way they answered the phone. As silly as this may sound, the first people answering the phone make it sound like you're bothering them. Once you get passed them however, you have a super bunch of people who are more than willing to listen to you and make suggestions.

I have been playing bass for over 25 years and have owned well over a dozen basses ranging in price from $200.00 to $4000.00.

If you're a professional player I wouldn't recommend purchasing this bass. However, you have to look at your budget. This is a great deal if you're not going to be recording or playing in a steady professional group. If you've been playing a cheap bass and want to move up in quality this is a good investment. However, if you've got time to save and want a bass that you think you'll keep for awhile, be patient and purchase what you really want or need. And of course, never and I repeat never, buy this bass or any other bass that you haven't put your hands onto and tried first.

MIA in 2003. 21 frets, 5 strings. Poplar body with "textured" black paint job. Volume, active bass boost and active treble boost. One MM humbucker wired in parallel. Neck is maple with rosewood FB. All the hardware is standard American Ernie Ball hardware...solid. The neck is just as highly playable as the Stingray 5. No accessories. Pretty low on the features but what it does have....rocks.

Sound is great. Killer SR tone (4 string tone not SR5 tone). Not noisy. The preamp allows for many tones from thumpy dub to biting treble but always with the underlying Music Man / Stingray tone mid growl tone. Tone can be a little harsh in the high mids but that is what EB SR basses are kinda known for.

Set up darn good. Low action and flat neck...like I like it. Pickup needed to be lowered a little to "tame" some of the harshness. No construction flaws AT ALL. Typical of Ernie Ball...they truly make some of the bass production basses. No five string I've ever played plays as well as a Stingray 5 except for the SUB 5. String spacing is perfect and the neck is very comfy.

A solid bass. Not as heavy as my ash 5 string jazz copy but solid nonetheless. Hardware is solid. The bass is built tough. I'm sure I can depend on it...without a backup.

Ernie Ball has some great customer service. Email them and find out.

I've been playing for 14 years. Overall it's the best bass I've owned. I've been searching for a 5 string that was built as well and sounded as good as my old Rickenbacker...I've found it with this bass. I would definitely buy another if it was stolen or lost. These are awesome USA made basses for the money. Sound just like a Stingray.

US made, one humbucker, 5-string bass with active controls (one volume, two tone controls). It has a painted neck and a graphite textured finish and aluminium pick plate. It's basically a Stingray bass on the cheap however the neck is good a solid, not too thick and the string spacing is nice, not too close like on many basses in this price range.

I don't know if you can give a bass with one pickup and a painted neck a high rating in this category. It suits my needs but compared to other basses it only gets a 7 (active controls are very nice).

The bass can range between a meaty jazz sound to total funk. The active controls offer a wider range than you would expect from one pickup. I tried several models in the store (both passive and active) and it came down to Fender American Deluxe Jazz featuring a humbucker, a jazz pickup and a maple neck and the Music Man SUB 5. Three things I didn't like about the Jazz where, the string spacing, the colour (a horrible tri-burst) and the price.

The sound both got was very similar except I would say the Jazz has a growl that the SUB won't get. There is a spanky quality that is unique to Stingray basses and the SUB gets that sound. So it just depends on which way you lean. I play more Jazz fussion so the SUB was the obvious choice.

Noise free, wide tonal range for a one pickup bass however it won't get a fat P-bass sound even with the tone controls rolled all the way back (the spank still sneeks through on the higher strings) Sound quality is a 9.

Excellent all around, it's been stated in many SUB reviews (both 4 and 5-string) that this is an incredibly well built machine for this price range and I agree. It compares to anything I've played, even the really nice basses I know I could never afford. It does lack a tummy and forearm relief, minor issues for me. The action is fine and did not need adjustment. Fret work and neck are in excellent order all parts are high quality.

The textured finish is an eye catcher, it's quite different as a matte finish. The pictures on the web make it appear as a glossy finish, when I saw it at ye olde local music store I was initially taken a back since they placed the SUBs next to the Stingrays and other expensive basses.

That's why I liked the graphite finish, you wouldn't expect that colour to be too glossy so it fits in with my other instruments. I'm sure they'll come out with a glossy/nitro/laquer finsh model since I already bought this one and sell it for an extra $150, right in the middle between the matte SUB and fancy Stingray.

Very solid instrument and well set-up, but no reliefs and a matte finish knock off a point. I'd give it an 8.5 but I'll round up.

Seems solid with a 6 bolt neck. It feels good but not too heavy.

I have used it in the studio but I don't often play bass live so I have nothing to add there.

Past experience lead to believe this bass will stand up to just about anything. Therefore a 10.

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I've been playing one musical instrument or another for 30 years. I own several which comprise an mildy odd collection. I currently have two basses and is now my number one bass.

This bass is an awesome value and clearly is a bass you should check out if you're in the market for an American made 5-string. It's solid sounds great and has tonal range.

The matte finish is the only thing that may set off some people, I liked it in graphite however it doesn't quite work in every shade. Go to ye olde local music store and check it out. I would recommend this bass to anyone looking for a 5-stringer.