NAMM 2025: Cory Wong with a guitar that isn't a Stratocaster? Do not adjust your set. The maestro of 21st-century funk guitar has teamed up with Ernie Ball Music Man for a pair of signature guitars that were inspired by the iconic StingRay bass guitar.
Available in two versions, the high-end StingRay II, and the even more high-end StingRay II Deluxe (would you just look at that roasted figured maple fingerboard!), these dual-humbucker equipped electric guitars present Wong with new tone options that he has been spent years searching for.
“I’ve been on the hunt for a humbucker guitar for a lot of years and I finally found one,” says Wong. “So many great tones in R&B, funk and rock require humbucker, and I’ve been missing out on some of those tones in my sonic palette. I’ve been a Strat guy my whole life, but I wanted another guitar, that would be a good contrasting companion.”
Wong has not soured on single-coils. And he for sure is not decommissioning his signature Strat any time soon, not ever. In the Ernie Ball Music Man intro video, Wong even thanks Fender for being cool with him teaming up with a rival company on a signature model. But these StingRays, well, they are like he says, they are something different, a launching pad for different sounds and styles – even if they do look kind of familiar.
Yeah, the oval white pickguard, the body shape, you can see the resemblance; the apple has not fallen that far from the tree. There is a lot of StingRay bass DNA, albeit with considerable updates. Look at that 4x2 headstock shape. This is non-traditional. Wong wanted it a little longer than your regular EBMM headstock. The ergonomics were tailored for a guitar player.
If you’re looking for a reference point for the neck shape, the James Valentine signature model is a good place to start. Wong’s custom profile is a little thinner.
The builds of Wong’s StingRay IIs are quite similar. Both have Custom HT Music Man humbuckers at the neck and bridge positions, both hooked up to a five-way selector switch. The body is solid alder. The necks are roasted figured maple, with a rosewood fingerboard on the StingRay II with the aforementioned Deluxe having a figured maple ‘board.
The Deluxe has a painted headstock to match the finish. The StingRay II (we hesitate to call this “the regular StingRay” because there’s nothing standard issue about these top-shelf electrics) shows off that figured roasted maple on its peghead.
The necks are finished with gunstock oil and hand-rubbed wax, and that always gets us with EBMM – its super Cali factory goes ballistic on making these builds as premium as possible. Ditto, the Schaller M6-IND locking tuners, the Music Man tremolo. Yes of course the hardware is gold.
Wong loves the neck. “I don’t know what kind of sandpaper they’re using at the factory, but I’ve honestly never felt a smoother neck in my life,” he says. Cory, it’s the gunstock oil and the hand-rubbed wax! Cory!
We could go on. But just check them out in the video above, and see more of them over at Ernie Ball Music Man.
The Cory Wong StingRay II is priced $2,999 available in Charcoal Blue and Cashmere, the StingRay II Deluxe is priced $3,299 and comes in Pine Green and Polaris White. Exquisite. The Polaris White is an EBMM Vault exclusive, limited to 30 units worldwide.
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