Music Man Sabre

[Jazzjames]

I'm trying to get some more information on Music Man Sabres. I played a new Classic Sabre in a shop recently and really liked it. It had a 5 way pickup selector, and covered pickups like the Ernie Ball Sabres.

How do these 3 types of Sabre (Late 70s pre Ernie Ball, 80s Ernie Ball, and the new Classic Sabre) compare in terms of sound, tonal options etc?

There's not a whole lot of info out there about them.

I know that the Classic Sabre and 80s ones have a 16 pole piece front pickup, which will obviously change the sound, and were introduced to counter the big magnets interfering with the string vibrations, is this a big disadvantage of the pre Ernie Ball basses?

Thanks,

James

Edited October 24, 2013 by Jazzjames

[Chiliwailer]

[quote name='Jazzjames' timestamp='1382643605' post='2255025']
I'm trying to get some more information on Music Man Sabres. I played a new Classic Sabre in a shop recently and really liked it. It had a 5 way pickup selector, and covered pickups like the Ernie Ball Sabres.

How do these 3 types of Sabre (Late 70s pre Ernie Ball, 80s Ernie Ball, and the new Classic Sabre) compare in terms of sound, tonal options etc?

There's not a whole lot of info out there about them.

I know that the Classic Sabre and 80s ones have a 16 pole piece front pickup, which will obviously change the sound, and were introduced to counter the big magnets interfering with the string vibrations, is this a big disadvantage of the pre Ernie Ball basses?

Thanks,

James

[/quote]

Not sure if this will help but all I can tell you is that I owned a '78 Sabre and it recorded like an absolute dream. Only sold it to fund a '64 Jazz Bass and I still regret letting it go. When I played the later 80's one's I felt there was something missing.

Great basses Sabre's, nothing like a Stingray, but that's not a bad thing too.

Edited October 26, 2013 by Chiliwailer

[drTStingray]

The new Classic Sabre has the figured neck like the Classic Stingray but also the compensated nut used across the whole of the EB bass range except the Classic Ray and Sterling.

The switching is different on the Classic Sabre - for one thing there's an HS setting which may be very useful, also the single coil options are said to be very good - they have a patented silent circuit which is designed to counter single coil hum. The late 80s and early 90s EB Sabre has a selector switch but with less intuitive options.

The 16 pole piece neck pick up is designed to beef up the sound of that pick up compared with the pre EB Sabre variants.

There are two pre EB variants - the earliest one has switches on the control plate and the bridge design which Leo took to G and L - the later pre EBs have the Stingray pre amp and bridge but with a selector switch on the body like the EB ones. The neck pick up still has exposed pole pieces though.

All Sabres have contoured bodies - some pre EBs have a narrower neck dependent on the option originally ordered.

Have a look on musicman bass.org for more info and the EB Musicman site should have info re both the new and old Sabre switch selector. Better still find somewhere to try both types - I believe a famous bass shop near Camden has right now!!

Edited October 26, 2013 by drTStingray

[Jazzjames]

Thanks for all the info!

[brensabre79]

Pre EB Sabre here. It's my Go-to bass for recording. Gig wise, my 74 Jazz is slightly less hard work, and sightly less rewarding to play. The neck profle on my '79 is somewhere between Jazz and Precision, i.e. exactly like a Stingray (which I've also had, loved and lost)

The first Sabre's had the following controls:
3 pos. pickup selector switch • Out of phase switch (puts the two pickups out of phase!) • High Frequency boost switch
Volume, treble, bass rotaries.
these all had exposed 8 pole pickups like the Stingray (but they were smaller!)
they also had the pesky 3 bolt necks with 'micro-tilt' - which is a PITA

then in the very early 80s they changed to:
5 position strat style pickup selector with Volume, Treble, Bass
They also changed to the covered pickups around this time. but ther is an overlap period where you'll get combinations of both. Around the EB time in the mid 80s they phased out the Sabre, but you do also get some models with the EB 3-band EQ.

The modern reissue I believe is mainly based on the later 'improved' Pre EB model. Although i don't think it was much of an improvement, if any. They also have incorporated many of the improvements made to the Stingray during the Sabre's hiatus.

I never understood why these were not as popular as the Stingray, and the classic ones don't fetch as much ££s either - despite being basically a Stingray with more - albeit in a marginally less attractive body shape.

I'm biased of course, I have the original type (designed by Leo) but have re-wired the Phase switch to be a Series/Parallel - so have a good range of tones right there.

Edited October 29, 2013 by brensabre79

[brensabre79]

Type 1:


Type 2:

[Jazzjames]

Thank you!

[drTStingray]

[quote name='brensabre79' timestamp='1383049177' post='2259466']
Type 1:


Type 2:

[/quote]

There's a type 1a - pre EB as type 1 (ie exposed pole pieces - but neck pick up with possibly shorter pole pieces) stingray EQ and bridge but with slide switch as per the post EB version. This is so different as to probably be type 2 and the EB 80s/90s version pictured above is type 3.

The new EBMM classic sabre is as type 3 but with different coil selections, single coil patented noise reduction, the 6 bolt neck joint and wheel truss rod adjuster with birds eye or flame maple figured neck - type 4?!!

Edited November 18, 2013 by drTStingray

[Kees_SoS]

I own a 1979 rosewood factory fretless Sabre in black. Beautiful instrument, but not quite what I need at the moment, so it's up for sale, should anyone be interested: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/215184-1979-factory-fretless-music-man-sabre-price-drop/page__fromsearch__1"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/215184-1979-factory-fretless-music-man-sabre-price-drop/page__fromsearch__1[/url]

[ZakSnaporazzz]

Hello you beasty bass beasts ;o)

I just got me a very nice 79 Sabre bass, but there is one thing I do not understand with the out-of-phase switch : if it is true all it does is putting the 2 pickups out of phase, as described, then why the hell does the tone change when flicking this switch with either the bridge or the neck pickup soloed ?  Sure enough, and as many claim here and there in the forums, the out-of-phase is not very usable with both pickups selected because of the overly thin sound - but ! - with either the front or the rear pickup soloed, the so-called out-of-phase switch actually does something quite nice to the tone, making it sound a bit like a fretless / upright bass. So I am wondering what that switch really does ...unfortunately there does not seem to be much information around about this topic. 

And also, does anyone know whether the Sabre pickups are wired in series (like the Sterling) or parallel (like the Stingray) ?

Cheers !