70’s Musicman guitars - the last bastion of affordable vintage??

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70’s Musicman guitars - the last bastion of affordable vintage??

Post by Marc » Sun Jun 19, 2022 12:29 am

Always liked the look of these instruments but heard they are heavy and the active circuit makes them way too bright. Who has owned one or played one and is this true? The brightness would be nothing rolling the tone off couldn’t cure right?

Looking at the used prices and it seems they go for under 1500.

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Re: 70’s Musicman guitars - the last bastion of affordable vintage??

Post by Axolotl » Sun Jun 19, 2022 2:31 am

I had an early Stingray and it was indeed very trebly and heavy. I sold it after a few months. Other than that, it felt built like a tank. But I couldn't get over how trebly and harsh sounded to me.

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Re: 70’s Musicman guitars - the last bastion of affordable vintage??

Post by Pacafeliz » Sun Jun 19, 2022 3:10 am

Axolotl wrote:
Sun Jun 19, 2022 2:31 am
I had an early Stingray and it was indeed very trebly and heavy. I sold it after a few months. Other than that, it felt built like a tank. But I couldn't get over how trebly and harsh sounded to me.
No I guess the mistake most people make is to turn all the knobs to full as usual. Since they have active electronics it will be shrill as hell.
I have an old Stingray II guitar, also a Gibson RD, and they are very "manageable", even extremely versatile!

Lemme elaborate later. But don't be scared of em.
Except for their weight, a little... :blush:
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Re: 70’s Musicman guitars - the last bastion of affordable vintage??

Post by Axolotl » Sun Jun 19, 2022 3:44 am

^^^ Of course I used the volume and tone knobs to explore different sounds but the pups still sounded harsh and sterile to my ears (FWIW I play mostly clean or slight overdrive). Definitely not the sound I look for in a guitar. But just because I didn't like it doesn't mean it's a bad sound. Playing styles, amps and personal preferences will factor a lot into how these are perceived.

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Re: 70’s Musicman guitars - the last bastion of affordable vintage??

Post by Marc » Sun Jun 19, 2022 3:57 am

Axolotl wrote:
Sun Jun 19, 2022 3:44 am
^^^ Of course I used the volume and tone knobs to explore different sounds but the pups still sounded harsh and sterile to my ears (FWIW I play mostly clean or slight overdrive). Definitely not the sound I look for in a guitar. But just because I didn't like it doesn't mean it's a bad sound. Playing styles, amps and personal preferences will factor a lot into how these are perceived.
I’ll have to check out some videos…

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Re: 70’s Musicman guitars - the last bastion of affordable vintage??

Post by sal paradise » Sun Jun 19, 2022 4:05 am

What, volume & tone knobs can move from “on”?
I have nothing to offer anybody, except my own confusion?

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Re: 70’s Musicman guitars - the last bastion of affordable vintage??

Post by Jonesie » Sun Jun 19, 2022 6:14 am

I'd say that vintage Guilds are largely affordable too. You can get an S series guitar for under $1500 easy.

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Re: 70’s Musicman guitars - the last bastion of affordable vintage??

Post by Larry Mal » Sun Jun 19, 2022 6:29 am

I'd say the last bastion of affordable vintage is early G&L.
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Re: 70’s Musicman guitars - the last bastion of affordable vintage??

Post by BoringPostcards » Sun Jun 19, 2022 10:57 am

Larry Mal wrote:
Sun Jun 19, 2022 6:29 am
I'd say the last bastion of affordable vintage is early G&L.
+1
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Re: 70’s Musicman guitars - the last bastion of affordable vintage??

Post by Kinx » Mon Jun 20, 2022 6:29 am

I would love to find a non heavy example of 70s Stingray I - I love the flat fretboard radius and as others mentioned, if you use the tone controls appropriately, they sound really, really awesome. I'm not sure how would my fuzz pedals take the active circuit tho.
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Re: 70’s Musicman guitars - the last bastion of affordable vintage??

Post by JamesSGBrown » Mon Jun 20, 2022 2:32 pm

My bandmate has a Sabre 1 and I had a Sabre II briefly. Very cool sounding guitars, very loud, also very easy to make sound shite. But unique for sure.

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Re: 70’s Musicman guitars - the last bastion of affordable vintage??

Post by Embenny » Mon Jun 20, 2022 4:18 pm

I had a Stingray for a bit.

Here's the deal with the active circuit. The rocker switch is an active bright switch, and the active tone controls are highly interactive. Plus, the knobs have no center detente, and "5" is flat - which is plenty bright.

So the horrible reputation for brightness comes from guitarists turning everything to 10, which is about as unnecessarily bright as a slapped Stingray bass with everything cranked to "10". If you've never experienced that, it's eardrum-shattering.

In the end, it was a bright and heavy humbucker guitar, and I had a recent back injury that made playing it uncomfortable.

I agree with Larry that G&L is the last bastion of affordable vintage guitars. I've owned 3 early 80's G&Ls, and each of them was superlative. My F-100 had the same feel, and better fit and finish than the best 60's Fenders I've ever played. The only reason I sold it was that I bought it during a really rough time that I wanted to forget about, and it just had too many memories attached to it.

Shame, because it sounded and felt as good as any guitar I've ever owned. Even the coil split was incredible, it has a capacitor across one coil so you retain a little bass from it, so the drop-off in volume and tone was more subtle than I was used to. Very quiet too. With the PTB circuit, it really could do anything you'd want any two-pickup guitar to do.
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Re: 70’s Musicman guitars - the last bastion of affordable vintage??

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Tue Jun 21, 2022 1:24 am

Jonesie wrote:
Sun Jun 19, 2022 6:14 am
I'd say that vintage Guilds are largely affordable too. You can get an S series guitar for under $1500 easy.
This.

Interestingly I'm seeing a lot more Starfire love around these parts. I wonder if they'll be the next guitars to rise in value, now that the price of comparable vintage Gibsons has long since gone through the roof.
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Re: 70’s Musicman guitars - the last bastion of affordable vintage??

Post by Highnumbers » Tue Jun 21, 2022 10:14 am

It's debatable if something like a 70s Musicman is truly considered a "vintage" guitar (being old doesn't qualify it, according to many people).

That said, I've always liked the way the early MM Stingray guitars looked. But every single one that I've picked up in guitar shops has been a total boat anchor. I'm talking 12+ pounds, by the feel of it.

The build quality is ok, but guitars in the late 70s are what really led people to seek out earlier examples and kickstarted the entire concept of "vintage guitars." It feels like these days, people are forcing themselves into buying a 70s guitar because it's perceived as "affordable vintage" and not because it's a better quality guitar than what is being made today.

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Re: 70’s Musicman guitars - the last bastion of affordable vintage??

Post by Kinx » Wed Jun 22, 2022 8:40 am

I would say that late 70s Fenders are hit and miss, but MM's are much more consistent.

about considering late 70s guitars vintage or not: I think they just became fashionable in mid 10s and that trend still prevails. Lots of contemporary indie/mainstream musicians around me are lusting after 70s Fenders not just for their looks, but for their sharp, articulate and treble focused sounds as well. Almost nobody I know thinks of them as "last affordable vintage". I personally love my 70s Fenders, despite their poorly routed neck pockets and weight in some cases (13lbs ash bodied Strat that probably has something to do with my recent spine surgery).
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