Rage Against the Machine's Tim Commerford partners with Ernie Ball for the Music Man Artist Series StingRay Bass collection

Ernie Ball Music Man has announced a new limited edition run of Tim Commerford signature StingRay bass guitars. 

The four instruments all feature a range of customizations favored by the Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave bassist, who has a long-running association with the StingRay bass.

Most notable among the signature tweaks is an adjustable plastic thumb rest – what Commerford dubs ‘the curve’ – that allows Commerford to anchor his thumb in his preferred position.

As Commerford points out in the video above (approx. 5.55) you can lower the thumb rest to be flat to the body with the turn of a few screws, making adjustment a breeze for pick players. 

Alongside this is a classic string-through body bridge, but it’s been tweaked with mute pads, which Commerford uses to damp down unwanted frequencies when he’s playing with distortion.

There’s also a sculpted five-bolt neck joint, which allows for improved access to the neck’s dustier regions, with Commerford's trademark tattoo etched into the neckplate.

Electronics-wise, the bass is available in passive and active configurations, both with a single neodymium StingRay humbucker.

Commerford says: “I literally was like 18 years old when I saw a Music Man StingRay. It was a blonde StingRay with a black pickguard, and it was at a pawn shop. I scraped up the money and I got it, and that bass became the bass I used to record the first Rage [Against The Machine] record and it was a big part of my life.”

The four models are limited to just 50 instruments each, including a 50 full scale active basses in black, 50 full scale passive basses in natural, 50 short scale active basses in natural and 50 short scale passive basses in vintage sunburst.

The collection will be available exclusively from Music-Man.com. We'll take one of each, thanks...