Ibanez Musician bass

From 1979 to 1981, Sting was a user of a range of models from the Ibanez Musician series, detailed below.

## 1979 Ibanez MC-900DS (modified to fretless)

The **Ibanez Musician MC900** was Sting's main bass during the ***Reggatta De Blanc*** era (1979-1980). This is the first of the Ibanez basses Sting had, and is probably the most notable of them.

He first acquired the Ibanez fretless bass on 15 June 1979 according to The PoliceWiki; its earliest appearance was in the "Can't Stand Losing You" video, shot 17 June 1979. Eventually Sting would migrate to the Ibanez as his main bass from the Fender Precision fretless following the completion of the *Outlandos D'Amour* tour later in June.

Sting had used this bass for recording the ***Reggatta De Blanc*** album at Surrey Sound Studios in Summer 1979. He of course played it in concert it for a majority of the *Reggatta De Blanc* tour shortly afterwards. In Spring 1980, the Ibanez appears to have had a sticker on it.

With regards to the model, it had always been documented as an Ibanez Musician MC940. But it is in fact a standard Ibanez Musician MC900 model, except modified to a fretless. This becomes apparent when you look more closely at the bass in several photos & videos; it is worth noting that edges of the frets (from the original bass) are visible around the sides of the fingerboard. So most of the fingerboard appears to have been layered over to make the Ibanez a fretless.

A similar Ibanez bass (which isn't Sting's but shares the same kind of overlaid fretless neck) is currently owned by Fabio Trentini of The Police tribute band *The Ghost Machines*.

### References

* Dietmar of The PoliceWiki
* Various photos
* Bass magazine November 2003 (Japanese)

## 1979 Ibanez MC-800DS

This is the fretted bass that’s visible beside Sting onstage in photos at the Hammersmith Odeon concert on September 22 1979, but there’s no photo of it being played. Sting later gave this bass to Henry Padovani.

### References

* Hammersmith Odeon photo
* Dietmar of The PoliceWiki

## Ibanez MC-940NS natural

### Introduction & gear specifics

This was a custom-made Ibanez bass for Sting with a natural finish and a maple neck. It was made to the same specification as the standard MC-940 model, although the layout of the control is different and has a pearl inlay with Sting's name included at the fingerboard end.

Sting first got the Ibanez natural bass in February 1980 in Japan. Live, he used this bass for intermittently (i.e. part of the setlist) during performances for the rest of the ***Reggatta De Blanc*** tour. This bass is seen in the *Around The World* documentary.

Studio-wise, the bass was used to help record the ***Zenyatta Mondatta*** album.

### References

* *Everyone Stares* documentary (2006) – bass visible in background of Wisseloord Studio footage during Zenyatta sessions
* *Bass Magazine*, November 2003 (Japanese)
* Rotterdam concert photo from April 1980

## Ibanez MC940DS white

### Introduction and gear specifics

This was a custom-made Ibanez bass with a pearl white finish, maple fretless neck and two Super P5S pickups mounted - presumably a forerunner of the MC924 Polar White model (or Pearl White).

Sting received this bass in January 1981 during the ***Zenyatta Mondatta*** tour.

### References

* *Bass Magazine*, November 2003 (Japanese)
* *Police Confidential* by Danny Quatrochi
* Police live in Japan photo from 30 January 1981 concert

## Ibanez MC980 8-string fretless

Sting acquired an Ibanez 8-string fretless bass in February 1980 and used it intermittently during performances for the rest of the ***Reggatta De Blanc*** tour, which lasted through to April 1980.

### References/links

* *Bass Magazine*, November 2003 (Japanese)
* The PoliceWiki
* Various photos
* Basstalk forums
* Photo of Sting with Ibanez 8-string at Rotterdam concert