OLP Basses - What Happened?

[bassatnight]

Folks,

I have just got myself a lovely 5 String OLP via E-Bay and am amazed at the quality for under £200. Does anyone know why they were discontinued?

[Delberthot]

A complete guess but maybe a trial for the Sterling by Musicman range?

[Hobbayne]

Many folk believe that they became to popular for MM to justify keeping them on.

[Machines]

It makes sense that ErnieBall had the Sterling range planned for some time as they were unhappy with the product produced by OLP. I imagine it's better business to run the factory they're made in than get a cut of the profit as a license fee. Also, OLPs were not very indicative of what to expect from a US Musicman and perhaps wasn't that complimentary to the brand - the Sterlings are much closer.

[Chris2112]

I think the great popluarity of the OLP's perhaps wasn't to EBMM's liking. Ok, the brands occupy totally different market segments but you know that EBMM is very brand concious and all those nice, cheap basses wern't doing to proper Musicman stuff any favours!

[stingrayPete1977]

Bing bong- mcnach to checkout 1

[EdwardHimself]

I thought that bass only needed 4 strings though?

[mcnach]

[quote name='Machines' timestamp='1317659785' post='1392886']
It makes sense that ErnieBall had the Sterling range planned for some time as they were unhappy with the product produced by OLP. I imagine it's better business to run the factory they're made in than get a cut of the profit as a license fee. Also, OLPs were not very indicative of what to expect from a US Musicman and perhaps wasn't that complimentary to the brand - the Sterlings are much closer.
[/quote]

This makes sense.
I love the OLPs, but they need a couple of mods to make them decent.

[Darkstrike]

I'd imagine because of the Sterling line, but OLP made other stuff as well, cheaper Trabens(which were dang cheap in the first place.....), and others I can't remember right now.

I'm thinking the VAST majority were EBMM copys though.

[Vibrating G String]

I remember reading that they were dropped by the Asian builder. Shortly after that it became Sterling dumped them and that seems to be the current story.

Once they ended they were discounted heavily in the US and I got my MM3 for $115 delivered to my door.

[dlloyd]

The origin of the Sterling range came with the discontinuation of the SUB in 2006. EBMM couldn't afford to continue manufacturing the SUB in the US and was looking to replace it with one that was less expensive to produce.

OLP was a licensed deal with the Hanser group. It was seen as a way to prevent the flooding of the market with unlicensed knock-offs and to protect EBMMs trademark. The license expired and EBMM didn't renew it. There had been some issues of product consistency with the OLPs, but ultimately why license your trademark to another company to build guitars in Asia when you're going to be doing that yourself?