drTStingray

Yeah a bit odd @AndyTravis - particularly as the piezo has its own control, so you can mix in as little or more you like. You can have full magnetic (no piezo) or full piezo (no magnetic) and anything in between. The three EQ controls work on both. So if you preferred, you can ignore the piezo completely (turn it off). The quantity of bass players these days whose experience is that bass guitar controls comprise only a volume and tone control in 2026 is absolutely astonishing - if it was 1971 ok, but you’d have thought we’d learnt a bit more in 45 yrs lol!! Back then there were cars being sold without heaters and rubber mats instead of carpets, let alone any of the other gizmos we’ve come to expect all these years later, but no one in their right mind would accept that in a modern vehicle!!

That’s a rare Stingray - it has a piezo V nice colour etc and looks like a late 90s/early 2000s from the serial number (it’s actually 2nd December 1999 from EBMM database). It shows as exactly as per your photos, down to the pearloid pg - quite rare for a pearloid straight from the factory)! It would be worth trying one of the retailers who sell on consignment - eg Bass Bros, Andy Baxter, The Gallery and see what they suggest (remembering you’ll have to pay a percentage to them). If you read back through the thread there are plenty of ideas of current prices. Stingrays do pop up for relatively low prices (under £1000) dependent on how much the seller needs the cash and how clued up they are on current values. You could register and try to sell it in the for sale thread - I don’t recall the last time I’ve seen a Stingray with piezo for sale - I have a Bongo with piezo and would certainly be looking for slightly more than for a non piezo one (I’m not selling it)!! Having recorded with it and used it live the piezo adds another very usable sound and timbre to the bass!

Yes I was playing in that era and that was my experience as well - the Stingray was in a different league playability and sound wise. However price wise, my Stingray was £375 new (not including case) in about 1981 (it was sunburst, maple board, through body stringing with a 4 bolt neck plate - not unheard of but quite rare) - at the time a new Jazz was about £350 and a Precision about £320. So not much more expensive. Unfortunately sold it to pay a bill in about 1986 I think - I got £450 for it from the first person who came to see it!! They drove 100 miles!! The Musicman QC was good right from the start.

To be more accurate, Musicman contracted CLF (yes, also a Leo Fender company) to manufacture the instruments - there ensued a dispute as Musicman rejected a lot of instruments, some of which were refinished by CLF before they were deemed acceptable - the final straw was the manufacture of a batch of Stingray necks incorrectly with inoperable truss rods. After that Musicman transferred the manufacture to Charvel, and the quality improved significantly. When Ernie Ball took over they improved some elements (for example pick up winding) to improve consistency of product and thus quality. However Pre EB basses are pretty consistent and certainly compared with comparable Fenders.

Thanks, and yes, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there! It’s the same with everything people sell to be honest - if people need the money quickly they may be more willing to accept less than a sensible price. I agree re Stingray Specials although I bought mine new for not much more than £2k - is it really nearly 8 yrs ago - I’ve got a 4HH and a 5HH, both in, to my mind, pretty colours. I hardly ever use the 5 - if I play a 5 it’ll be my ceramic pick up natural/maple 5H, which I still love despite its 10-11 lbs weight (the Stingray Special 5HH is just north of 8 lbs)! I wonder if the new ones will become more affordable here with the weakening dollar? Not holding my breath though!! For those officianados who really want to weep, I bought my immaculate 1993 Stingray fretless in sunburst, crazily figured neck, for £752 just over 15 yrs ago!! I don’t play it often but I absolutely love it!! They fetch quite a lot more these days and are pretty rare..

You may have been able to buy a used Stingray 15 yrs ago for £750 - the operative phrase being 15 yrs ago! These days I’d say £1500 for a standard one (not a Special, Classic or anything else unusual), with price increasing dependent on model. The Specials appear to be around £2000 used but that can vary upwards dependent on pick up spec, colour etc etc, much along the lines suggested by @hiram.k.hackenbacker Talking of whom, I bought a particularly special Stingray he once owned last year, courtesy of @MM Stingray 62 (thanks both of you). It’s basically a factory spec 3 band Stingray, with strings through body, a Status made graphite neck - called a NAMM 100 bass (basically a Cutlass with strings through and a 3 band preamp). Now this bass (which cost nearly twice what I’ve just been talking) normally sits locked away but I got it out for a couple of recording sessions - blues/funk type of thing - and it sounds fantastic - absolutely thunderous Stingray sound! I also used my 4HH Stingray Special and whilst sounding slightly different (actually slightly darker), that sounded great as well. I couldn’t have asked for better recorded bass sounds (I got three tracks - a DI, one speaker on the upper of an ‘isolated’ Mark Bass 2 x 10 Traveller and one on the lower one). I also did some recording work with my Stingray Classic (I bought it when they were first announced in 2010) - that bass I’d fitted with TI flats - once again a great Stingray sound but slightly different (down to the flats more than anything). I used that bass for a ska gig very recently and from some ambient vids taken, the bass sound is great. A nice balance between supportive bassy sound and poky mids, which allow the notes to be heard. In none of this was there any issue with ‘weak G string’ syndrome - in fact my experience is it doesn’t occur in recording work - and if it does live, it’s usually down to stage EQ, other band members (eg keyboard players/ guitarists) playing in the wrong register too often, and room dynamics. However my experience has shown this to be a stage sound issue - generally not an issue in FOH. I have rarely encountered it with any of my Stingrays - the worst experience I had with D and G string absence was on a Fender Jazz but this was compounded by the factors mentioned above! So £1500 is a reasonable used value in my view, £2k for a Stingray Special and more for some of the more esoteric versions. And don’t forget the early 2000s US built Subs - these are 2 band EQ and appear to command various prices up to £750 last time I looked - again dependent on colour etc etc.

I have Musicman basses with lacquered maple necks, painted maple necks, oil and wax finished maple necks, oil and wax finished roasted maple necks and one with a graphite/phenolic neck!! My main player is a 2018 Stingray Special with the roasted maple neck (it has an ebony board). I have found over the years that all of the basses may need minor adjustment when the weather changes significantly (such as into summer, with higher ambient temperatures) and into winter (where the ambient temperature may fluctuate significantly) especially if, like my Stingray Special, the bass is left out available to play and is out in the centrally heated/non centrally heated home environment, and gets transported to/from gigs quite regularly and is exposed (in a gig bag) to in car temperature and the temperature in a venue/during the gig (where the neck gets exposed to sweaty hands)! My observation with this main player bass is that the roasted maple neck currently varies very little. It did require a minor truss rod tweak when the weather changed after the summer (to be fair it had a very low action as well). However it doesn’t even go out of tune from one venue to another currently. So I have no problem with the roasted maple neck in this context. I don’t think the other basses I have exhibit different characteristics than this. From my observation, ultra low action will exhibit buzz at the end of the summer/beginning of the winter, requiring a minor tweak of the truss rod (which is, of course a very simple activity on a Musicman). I don’t think there is any difference exhibited between painted, lacquered, oil and wax, or roasted oil and wax necks with Musicman basses - as someone has already said, if the neck’s wooden it will exhibit to some extent the standard effects of temperature/ humidity on wood - AND if you have a very very low action this is likely to become noticeable through minor fret buzz at the start of winter.

I have Ernie Ball cobalt flatwounds on both of my fretlesses (4 and 5 string Stingrays) - I can’t afford the luthier costs of the repairs to the fretboard damage inflicted by roundwounds - however they do sound very good - but definitely not that much better than decent flatwounds……

Well I’m astonished - I’m afraid I’m one of the Basschat members who was around in the 70s and who remembers only roundwounds available in the UK shops! You went and bought (usually) one bass string (to replace the one you’d broken) and it’d be a Rotosound roundwound. Every high noon and holiday (or if you’d got enough gig money) a complete set would be bought - which would also be Rotosound roundwounds. Even my new pre EB Stingray came with roundwounds (I know the pre 78 ones came with flats). So back in the day (the 70s and 80s) many things were of a decidedly previous era and extremely unpopular (include Shadows instrumentals from 1960 ish, pastel coloured electric instruments, certain 1960s fashions) and most certainly flatwound bass strings!!! They’ve only really come back into vogue since Pino reinvented himself in the late 90s, and all things 1960s became the ‘latest thing’, including fitting flatwound strings which have such high tension you need to be a champion weight lifter to play a bass shod with them 🤣🤣 Though I say all this, I have a Stingray Classic fitted with TI flats and I’ve been playing it a lot recently - most specifically after watching Scott’s Bass Lessons interview of Joe Dart - I’m afraid I come over like this about every six months as a result of hearing Joe Dart either on a new Vulfpeck concert or like this, just playing some of his stuff. The flatwounds definitely help with fretting hand muting. However I’ll no doubt be back to my Stingray Special with zingy roundwounds in a week or three again!!! One thing I haven’t tried with the flatwound shod Stingray is playing it through my new MXR bass synth - the zingy roundwound one is great at the various preset sounds - I caused somewhat of a stir during setting up at an outdoor gig - the previous band’s keyboard player wanting to know where the very accurate ARP Herbie Hancock sound was coming from 😀😀 must try a flats fitted Stingray or Stingray fretless on it (Ian Allison’s demo on SBL absolutely sold me on getting one and it’s bloody brilliant 👍)

When I started gigging seriously at the end of the 70s, the guitar shops (in the U.K.) I frequented stocked ONLY Rotosound Bass strings. They tended to be on view only in single strings. I never had enough money to buy more than single strings anyway - I’m guessing they sold a lot of Gs!! I remember, when I was playing in a touring disco/funk band in the early 80s, breaking a D string on my Stingray (which I bought new around 1980), about half way through the set - playing octave bass lines created somewhat of a problem leading to some improvised positions and techniques….. and a trip to the guitar shop for a Rotosound bass D string at the next opportunity. Bear in mind I asked for ‘a bass string’ of whatever position I wanted (almost always G) and got given a Rotosound of whatever was the standard gauge - I got the impression that’s what everyone used. In those far off days no one used flatwounds and there was little choice for bass players. Of course, it was a different time, when even players at the pinnacle (eg Pino) generally only played one bass - and mere mortals certainly did. The days of dentists and other professionals storing and displaying multiple high end instruments were unheard of dreams yet to be thought up - mind you I recently asked my dentist, a very pleasant young lady, how many guitars she has……… she looked rather strangely at me so maybe it’s one of those musician tall tales that’s a complete fantasy 🤣🤣

I’ve got two fretless basses:- 1) 1993 Stingray 4 string, 3 band EQ, in what they used to call sunburst, but later honeyburst. Has a crazily figured neck, pau ferro fretboard. Purchased in 2010. 2) 1992 Stingray 5 fretless in blueburst - also with a crazily figured neck. Has a rosewood fretboard also with striped figuring. Purchased in 2023 or so. Ive played both in gigs - I find the 5 string more of a handful to achieve good intonation. The 4 string was used in every gig for a period of about 3 years whilst I was in a rockabilly band. I play both of them sometimes at home - however I find I need to play them for a couple of hours to start to get the best out of them! Probably just down to me and my poor technique habits being displayed more readily on fretted than fretless. Stingrays make superb fretless basses (well fretted as well 😀)

Yeah I suspect they extended the run and issued them to coincide with an anniversary - and added white as an option - I recall them placing ads in the bass magazines based around a large Union flag. @dub_junkie no doubt got his from the initial run - I also recall they advertised it as a real Stingray for less than £1000 (even though it was very marginally less)!! Marcus was playing his original modified Jazz bass, with Bryan Ferry - I remember at the time thinking how dreadful the bass sound was on that - it looked like he was struggling with the stage sound as well - we were all used to hearing Alan Spenner play a Wal on Roxymusic stuff. By contrast, Pino’s sound on the Paul Young set was astonishingly good!! But then it always seemed to be, in those far off days when guitarists didn’t have to be the loudest instrument!! Pino played through a Trace Elliot stack.

I think they were red, white and blue - UK flag colours (UK distributor anniversary). I notice one or two demos of the Pino Stingrays are starting to appear on You Tube.

The only difference between these basses and a standard 2 band Stingray of that era ordered in any one of those three colours (candy apple red, metallic blue and white) was the lack of a hard case and substitution of an EBMM gig bag instead. They were certainly sold cheaper at the time (£995 IIRC) but that was because Strings and Things had a bulk order for them and used the slightly cheaper gig bag (nevertheless the gig bags are reasonably expensive - I bought one for a used Stingray which came in a very cheap cover). They are red, white and blue as they also celebrated an anniversary of Strings and Things, the U.K. Distributor. So don’t feel you’ve been done - it’s a standard full fat Stingray. This is rather similar to the fact that certain finishes (such as natural and sunburst) had a higher new price than say, a solid colour - despite this they often don’t seem to command commensurately higher used prices….. Poplar was used on most solid colour basses made up until the Stingray Specials in 2018, which all had ash bodies for the first couple of years. Poplar was also used on the late 80s/early 90s blueburst basses (as well as the US Sub basses made in the early 2000s). Alder was used on most translucent red basses. Ash was used on most natural finishes and original sunburst/ honeyburst basses.

I would hate to contradict you but an ex Pino signature Stingray fretless (his spare one) sold via the Bass Gallery for getting on for that figure. I think they’re only making 15 of the exact copies of Pino’s bass. The other ones (fretted or fretless) are not relicked but are to the exact same spec as Pino’s bass, as it was when new and at the lower (£3700) price.