Okay, so NAMM 2026 happened, and by now it seems like a lifetime ago, so long ago in fact that you would be forgiven for forgetting some of the most-exciting electric guitars that debuted on the show floor at Anaheim.
But surely the following rings a bell: a $749 guitar from Cory Wong anf Sterling By Music Man with a double-cut profile inspired by one of the greatest bass guitar designs of all time, dual humbuckers, Pearl Blue or Silver with white egg-shaped pickguard, built to spec for a man whose right hand is one part quartz crystal, two parts rubber…
That’s right, it’s Mr Cory Wong of Vulpeck’s StingRay II, the first-ever SBMM version of that model, and it looks every bit as fresh in September as it did in January.
Latest Videos FromGuitar World
If it is something completely new for SBMM, the affordable wing of the Ernie Ball Music Man family of brands, then it is also something new for Wong. This is the player who made his name on the lithe, elastic snap of Stratocaster single-coil pickups – and here he is rolling with humbuckers. What gives? Well, he wanted something with more girth.
“I am known by a lot of people as somebody who plays a single-coil guitar. That’s a big part of my sound,” he admits. “But there was a lack of just a fatness in some of the things I wanted to play.”
(Image credit: Sterling By Music Man)
Wong was in luck. He started exploring the idea of humbuckers when the Ernie Ball Music Man R&D team were looking to rework one of their classic designs, and if Wong was in the market for a new signature guitar – complete with the fatness of ‘bucker – then he would be pushing at an open door.
“They’re like, ‘Well, we’re talking about maybe doing the StingRay thing, so why don’t you just help us with the design process?’ I was telling them the things I was looking for sonically and visually, and the collaboration was born,” says Wong.
For $749, the StingRay II is, as they say, a lot of guitar. It has a caramelized maple neck, bolted to a “double-contoured” alder body. There are two of the aforementioned humbuckers, and a three-way switch to select them. Volume and tone knobs serve both pickups.
Wong’s SBMM StingRay II has a vintage-style tremolo, locking tuners, and a rosewood fingerboard, which is always appreciated on the more affordable instruments (no shade to Indian laurel, etc, but rosewood is where it’s at).
Other points to note: these have a Fender-esque 25.5” scale but a Gibson-esque 12” fingerboard radius, and the price is very nice but it does not include a gig bag.
(Image credit: Sterling By Music Man)
For more details, head over to Sterling By Music Man.
