Music Man was founded in 1972 initially under the name Tri-Sonic. The company is mostly famous for their electric guitars, bass and guitar amplifiers. It was founded by Leo Fender, who is also the founder of the company Fender. Here was the famous Music Man Stingray bass invented, which offered a crucial development in Active Sound and remains to this date to one of the most popular all-round bass in general. There is also the Sterling, a slightly modified Stingray, based on the Fender Jazz Bass (in moderation), the Bongo (of a BMW-designed designer) and the silhouette (a mixture of guitar and bass).

Leo Fender left Music Man in 1980 due to health problems. In 1984, the Ernie Ball string manufacturer bought the company.

 Ernie Ball / Music Man has more than 200 employees, about a third of them are responsible for the production of Music Man. 40-50 instruments are made per day, 800 a month.

Copies of some instruments from the family were produced until 2008 in the Far East under licensing with the name of OLP (Officially Licensed Product). Since 2010, the parent company markets Ernie Ball instruments from Asian manufacturing itself as "Music Man".

Music Man basses and guitars are or have been played by a number of artists: Dogan Yalcin (Cock au Vin), Paul Landers (Rammstein), Pino Palladino, Michael "Flea" Balzary (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Dave LaRue, Steve Morse (Deep Purple, among other things), John Deacon (Queen), John Petrucci, John Myung (Dream Theater both), Robert Trujillo (Metallica), Eddie Van Halen (Van Halen), Steve Lukather (Toto), Shavo Odadjian (System of a Down), Mark Hoppus (Blink 182), Dougie Poynter (McFly), Phoenix (Linkin Park), Cliff Williams (AC / DC), Sheryl Crow (up to 2001)