EB Forum (http://forums.ernieball.com/music-man-basses/39452-sting-ray-5-without-phantom-coil.html) schrieb:
The SR5 was originally to be similar to the StingRay 4 in that it had essentially the same alnico pickup and preamp combo. At this same time, we had just finished development of the 3-band EQ system. We didn't want it to be simply a replica of a StingRay, simply having an extra string. Remember, we were still kind of new at this Music Man thing and this was the first EBMM bass we were making from the ground up. We wanted it to have something extra, so we thought having a 3-way switch to go from parallel (the original SR sound) , single-coil, and series would be a cool thing. And it was so, and the first SR5s started shipping in late 1987.
However, after a while it was apparent there was a noise issue in the single-coil mode and that was not what we wanted. So after a few years of experiments, trials and tribulations, it was decided to go to ceramic /ferrite pole pieces. That smoothed out the sound, and helped quiet that single coil a bit, though not enough. At the same time, the Sterling bass was being R&D'd and there was some experimentation with something called a Phantom Coil. So it was added to the StingRay 5 sometime in late 1992 (don't have the exact dates) although we see some w/o the phantom as late as early 1993. So the phantom coil was added, and it remained that way until March 2008, at least on the original H version. Even though in Oct. 2006 the look of the pickup and pickguard changed slightly, the essence of the electronics remained unchanged until March 2008.
In January 2008, the long-anticipated Sterling 5 was introduced. Until that point, for the prior 15 years, the Sterling and the StingRay 5 essentially had the same electronics. It made sense to us that the Sterling 4/5 and the StingRay 4/5 should match each other. So ... we essentially moved the electronics that were in the StingRay 5 into the Sterling 5. We then started putting alnico magnets back into the StingRay 5 as in the beginning, coming full circle, so to speak - with one difference. The single-coil setting, which had proved so bothersome in the beginning, was replaced by a more ballsy Enhanced Parallel setting, eliminating the need for a phantom coil, at least on the single H version.
Meanwhile, at Summer NAMM 2006, we came out with dual-pickup versions of StingRay, StingRay 5, and Sterling models. At this point, all StingRay 5s still had ceramic magnets. All StingRay 5's - in H, HH, and HS pickup configurations - made the jump from ceramic to alnico magnets and corresponding preamp in the aforementioned March 2008.
Out of the 3 pickup configurations, the HS (hum/single coil) version is the only one that still uses the phantom coil - because it is the only one of the three that employs a pickup in the single-coil position. However, instead of gluing it to the pickup, it is now directly under the pickguard in between the two live pickups, eliminating any need to rout out deeper into the body to accommadate the phantom coil.
