Originally formed in 1971 by Forrest White and Tom Walker, along with Leo Fender as a silent partner, the company started manufacturing electric and bass guitars under the Music Man name in 1974.

Eventually, he became vice president, and stayed on after the company was sold to CBS, but grew unhappy with their management and resigned in 1966.

In 1974, the company started producing its first product, an amplifier designed by Leo Fender and Tom Walker called the "Sixty Five," a hybrid of tube and solid-state technology.

In 1975, Fender's legal restriction expired and, after a vote of the board, he was named the president of Music Man.

The StingRay Bass featured a single large humbucking pickup (located somewhat toward but not adjacent to the bridge) with a two-band fixed-frequency EQ.

Problems with fibers in the finish caused Music Man's inspectors to reject a high percentage of the instruments, and return them to CLF for refinishing.

The guitar was called the Cutlass (with a 'Cutlass II' variant with two pickups) and had a neck made by Modulus and new translucent finishes.

Sterling Ball, Ernie's son, was an acquaintance of Fender and helped beta-test early Music Man models.

[5] 2003 saw the introduction of the Music Man Bongo Bass, the result of a partnership with DesignworksUSA, a design firm better known for its work with BMW.

This mid-range line, with production cost one-third to one-half less than the "standard" Music Man instruments, was launched in 2003.

Produced at the same facilities as the Music Man models, the major defining factors of the SUBs were a non-angled "slab" body finished with a textured (non-polished) paint, as well as necks with a matte painted back instead of the "oil and wax" finish applied to the higher-end models.

Savings were realized largely from reduced production time, as opposed to cutting the quality of the wood, hardware, or electronics, allowing the SUB lines to achieve their price-point.

[10] In 2012, Praxis expanded this line with the "Sterling By Music Man SUB Series" to compete with other sub-$300 USD "beginner" instruments.

They were produced in Indonesia and other Far East countries using "non-standard" woods (i.e. not typically thought of as "tonewoods") to keep production costs low.

[11] In March 2016, Ernie Ball announced that St. Vincent had designed a signature Music Man guitar.

[13][14] A St. Vincent HH signature model was released in 2018 featuring two humbuckers in place of the three mini-humbuckers on the original.

[15] In 2021, a new St. Vincent Goldie signature model was released, featuring three gold foil mini-humbucker pickups, a reverse matching finish headstock, redesigned pickguard shape in 3-ply parchment, a roasted maple neck, and stainless steel frets.

It has an okoume body in an angular shape with a laser-etched floral pickguard, and two custom humbuckers featuring two volume knobs with a tethered tone circuit, which creates variations in treble response when the pickups are set at different levels.

[18][19] In 2022, the Kaizen model was launched in collaboration with Tosin Abasi, a multi-scale 6- or 7-string guitar with an “infinity radius” fingerboard and Heat Treated humbuckers.