Sterling by Music Man CT50 HSS Cutlass

About the Sterling by Music Man CT50 HSS Cutlass

The Cutlass shape is where this guitar's real story sits: its double-cutaway curves trace back to Music Man's original 1970s design, which itself echoes the six-string StingRay - the first instrument Leo Fender helped shape after his years running the original Fender company. That makes this budget-tier guitar a distant descendant of Leo Fender's own post-Fender design language rather than a generic Strat-adjacent shape invented independently.

The spec itself is straightforward and honestly built to a price: a poplar body, roasted maple neck with a five-bolt joint and dual-action truss rod, rosewood fingerboard at a 12-inch radius, and three Sterling-designed pickups in HSS configuration through a 5-way switch. Hardware is functional rather than premium - locking tuners and a vintage-style tremolo rather than boutique-grade components - consistent with a guitar built to hit an accessible price point rather than compete spec-for-spec with the USA-built Music Man instruments it's licensed from.

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Sound character of the Sterling by Music Man CT50 HSS Cutlass

The HSS configuration produces a fuller, deeper acoustic character than the guitar's SSS sibling, and the bridge humbucker balances well against the two single coils in both output and tonal quality rather than overpowering them - a genuine all-rounder tone that reviewers specifically noted works well for overdriven power chords as well as cleaner single-coil work.

What owners of the Sterling by Music Man CT50 HSS Cutlass say

The review consensus lands close to fun, well-built and honestly priced rather than merely acceptable - specific praise for the neck feel and factory setup, paired with a specific, repeated caution about the vibrato bridge's tuning stability rather than a vague overall complaint. An 8/10 rating and description as a fun little all-round rocker reflects genuine enthusiasm within realistic expectations for the price bracket, not faint praise.

Playability & handling of the Sterling by Music Man CT50 HSS Cutlass

Reviewers describe genuinely comfortable satin-finished necks, gently curved neck-join heels and solid factory setups - real, specific praise rather than generic budget-guitar approval. At 3.5 kg (7.7 lb), the guitar sits comfortably in a typical modern electric's weight range.

The one consistent, specific caveat is the vibrato bridge: less rigid than the fixed-bridge SSS version of the same guitar, it's flagged as struggling with pitch stability, to the point that reviewers specifically recommend trying an individual example before buying rather than assuming consistent performance across units.

Recommended accessories & strings for the Sterling by Music Man CT50 HSS Cutlass

At the standard 25.5-inch scale, .009-.042 or .010-.046 both work depending on preference. Given the documented tremolo stability concerns, players who don't plan to use the vibrato actively should consider having the spring claw carefully set up or the bridge blocked flat, which removes the pitch-stability weak point entirely while keeping the rest of the guitar's genuinely solid build intact.

Technical data for the Sterling by Music Man CT50 HSS Cutlass

Price history for the Sterling by Music Man CT50 HSS Cutlass

Cheapest seen: 369 EUR  ·  Most expensive seen: 749 EUR

The history of the Sterling by Music Man CT50 HSS Cutlass

The Cutlass shape's lineage runs directly through one of the more precisely documented chapters in electric guitar history. Music Man was founded in 1971 by Forrest White and Tom Walker, with Leo Fender initially involved only as a silent partner - a non-compete clause from his sale of the original Fender company to CBS legally barred him from active participation. That restriction expired in 1975, and following a board vote, Fender became Music Man's president, designing and producing instruments through his own company, CLF Research.

The StingRay bass launched in 1976 under his involvement - the first production bass guitar with active electronics, a genuine engineering first rather than an incremental update. The Cutlass shape, Music Man's double-cutaway electric guitar answer, carries visible echoes of the StingRay's curves from this same era. The relationship between Fender and Music Man soured by the end of the decade, though, and in 1979-1980 he left to found G&L (George & Leo) with George Fullerton and Dale Hyatt - his final guitar company. This Sterling-branded, Indonesian-built Cutlass sits at the far, affordable end of a design lineage that traces back to Leo Fender's own post-Fender work, licensed by Ernie Ball Music Man the same way Gibson licenses the Epiphone name to a lower price tier already covered elsewhere in this research.

About Sterling as a manufacturer

Sterling's relationship to Ernie Ball Music Man mirrors Epiphone's relationship to Gibson almost exactly: a licensed budget brand, built overseas (in this case at Cor-Tek's Indonesian facility - the same manufacturer behind the Squier Classic Vibe '50s Telecaster already covered in this research), designed to bring the parent brand's shapes to a much lower price without diluting the parent company's own USA-built line. That pattern of major guitar brands licensing affordable sub-brands to large Asian manufacturers rather than building down-market guitars in-house recurs repeatedly across this research - Fender/Squier, Gibson/Epiphone, and now Ernie Ball Music Man/Sterling all follow essentially the same commercial logic.

Notable players & recordings featuring the Sterling by Music Man CT50 HSS Cutlass

No verified professional endorsement ties a specific touring artist to this budget-tier model - consistent with its role as an accessible entry point into Music Man's shape language rather than an artist-driven design. Leo Fender himself, the figure behind the shape's deeper DNA, designed instruments rather than performing on them, so there's no direct artist connection to draw on even at the historical root of the design.