 The same year, MusicMan started using compensated nuts on all their bass and guitar models except the Classic series, after having used them for the Music Man Bongo since 2003.In March 2008, Ernie Ball switched back to AlNiCo pickups for their StingRay 5, after having used ceramic pickups for this model since 1991.The AlNiCo pickups, which are also found in their four-string counterparts, give the instrument a sound more like a StingRay 4.