stingrayPete1977

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1352303950' post='1861337'] Personally when I'm playing, I'm playing at have no time to fiddle with the controls no matter where they are placed. When I'm not playing my amp controls are right there for me to fiddle with. What I have discovered over the last few years of playing through my amp and using backline supplied by venues or other bands is that when I use my rig no matter what the venue is I always sound right and hardly ever have to make any adjustments at all. With other rigs all bets are off, but having adjustments available on my bass are rarely of any use. What I do find useful on a well designed pre-amp is that the volume and pickup balance controls tend to work more smoothly than most passive basses, but even that doesn't hold 100% true. And now we've gone way off topic... [/quote] Sorry as its OT I know but I go the opposite way altogether! Nice flat amp almost any make and model (as flat as you can tell by ear I know nlah blah) and rely on knowing I have put the sound Im after into the amp from the bass controls (always active) which meens the desk DI has that good bass sound not good bass amp sound to work with. Just shows how we all do thing our own way neither right nor wrong really

I dont like a gloss neck anymore even my '79 pre EB has had the 1200 grit paper run over it A sh*t gloss neck is still a sh*t neck, the varnish wont solve that. The MM wheel of fortune takes me less than a minute to adjust and has only needed doing twice a year on all my Rays, not a massive issue TBF

[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1352130945' post='1859109'] Sometimes I wonder if companies in the music business actually know *anything* about their customers. For £3k, if I wanted a vintage Precision bass, I could get a real vintage Fender or even get a Fender custom shop and probably have some change. WTF is the point in this? [/quote] Alleva, Sadowsky and overwater etc etc all have full order books

Yep my first bass was a Peavey Foundation with that headstock shape. Boring boring boring but plenty of people buy these boring basses, many of them play and sound great but they are still boring.

Looks like a 20th anniversary edition special! Bargainous

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1352139023' post='1859260'] I know some people have this experience but I've never been able to tell any difference. [/quote] Funnily enough I have just bought another pre EB Ray, it's string through only and does feel much tighter than my '82 pre EB that is top load only so I can concur with the theory, EB strings on identicle basses both set up from scratch by me only difference is the bridge. I can see why some basses were offered with string through or top load bridges.

When he was trying to sell them I do fancy a G&L actually i wanted a L2500K instead of my black SR5 but that came in a trade and I like it so it has stayed soon though.....

I put it down to poor marketing? MM and EBMM should of got more big names playing the Sabre to boost the popularity, I think a lot of people see the Sabre and to the same extent the Sterling as a girls Stingray, harsh I know but I really think thats what the smaller size body does for both of those models although they are very different in many good ways to Stingrays, I have room in my heart for a pre EB Sabre one day

Regardless of the head as long as its a good one then that Genz 2x12 neoxT cab with a Roscoe 5 is always going to sound the dogs preverbials! My Alnico equipped SR5 sound massive through mine even if I only use the Genz 3.0 head, them cabs are seriously good IMO/E

Most of them have a plastic one from the factory which suggests to me its intentional rather than a piece of fag packet you find normally, it gives people options as not everyone want a mega low action do they? For some people it could actually be too flat right from the heel to get that bow and arrow some folk like, not me though

[quote name='Les' timestamp='1351550280' post='1852620'] Really I'm getting my scissors out right now. Glued on then ? [/quote] I put a dab of super glue on mine 2 years ago, they are all still in place

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1351596572' post='1852989'] I think stingrayPete meant 0.5mm rather than 5mm. Indeed, from the pictures they look very thin. I'm going to go for it. ... and ordered! [/quote] I was indeed there is a [b].[/b] if you look close enough

A shim would not affect the width of a neck pocket? The shim is their to adjust the angle of the neck at the heel joint just like the microtilt used to do for super fine adjustments, anyone who likes a super low action often has to shim even the best quality basses to achieve this. You need mcnach for the answer to the OP

[quote name='Les' timestamp='1351545378' post='1852516'] what's the foam bit like ? quite dense ? My 79 has all the mechanics but someone took the foam off, might try it, I assume the foam is just glued on ? [/quote] Mousemat is the commonly used replacement

I think you could probably use a bench grinder to create the little recess in the back of the bridge failing that the spring plate is really only about .5mm anyway so it might just squash down, I did not realise the OLP had the big flat area like the ebay ones so its crying out for the mute kit! I will send you a link when its up Jose for the Mag cover, I'm not really sure exactly what is going on there myself 28'000 copies though

I would get one of those cheap copy bridges off ebay as they have the extra metal that the pre EB bridge has for the spring plate to wrap around, it will be floating in fresh air else wont it? Get the kit then just bond 4 matching nuts into the body to create the captive threads, there is not much tension on them really. The only thing is that it wont be reversable as the holes will all be on show if you put the old bridge back on. Should be good though or just get a pre EB you know you want to! btw I have bought another one OT but as an avid fan David Barron has a track on the front of next months Prog Magazine with some top notch bass playing by a certain someone this time, its that track from the video we did but the proper version with my lines etc.

Cool, Plectrum mystery continues and original frets then

Well the top coat has a few damaged areas which appear to show maybe 3 layers of paint its hard to tell, there are also a few areas that have bubbled up which might suggest that that newer coat was not prepared fully in those areas. It could be a factory extra top coat to cover a poor first attempt even its hard to say even after stripping it to pieces, the finish itself is certainly not a rattle can effort or anything similar. Did it have all the body dings on it when you had it or have they appeared more recently? I might have the areas repaired or just leave them as battle scars, I even found a red plectrum behind the pick guard which might be yours then The honey coloured neck and headstock with the worn through area behind the playing area are both really nice and give it that vintage feel that a classic Ray or similar reissue bass just cant recreate. I presume its had a refret and new varnish on the board but its been done well apart from a few stray dribbles of varnish that I have now sanded off. All in all its never going to lose any value and its a pre EB you can use without fear of collecting the odd ding, a 70's pre EB in black with a black guard will always be cooler than a fridge

[quote name='drTStingray' timestamp='1351351282' post='1850458'] The Musicman database is pretty accurate - in fact totallly so!! You are right though - the trans logo (Ernie Ball applied over the Musicman name) as on my Classic (attached) was only used for a couple or three years - resurrected for the Classic series in 2010. [/quote] I meant comparing serials to the database rather than the confirmation from ernie ball, I see a lot of comments from people who have looked at basses either side of their serial and dating it from that, those pre EB bridges can pop up all over the place!