drTStingray

I've carried two in my lead box for years - so long that I've rotated them into basses and put new spares in the lead box. Ive had three failures of active bass batteries in 40 yrs of using them - and non were mid gig - you get more warning than that - each time has been before the start of a gig. One was in a situation where I didn't have spares - luckily the singers had a box of spares for their radio mike equipment. Avoiding active basses because the battery might run out is about as invalid a reason as refusing to use lighter than a 50 gauge G string on a bass in case it breaks!!! (Or not using radio mikes!) I find the batteries in my Musicman basses last for several years - so much so that I replace them on a rota basis. The moral is carry spares and don't leave the bass plugged in for lengthy periods when not in use 👍

This one is a Stingray Special - neo pick ups, 18 volt circuit, revoiced preamp. They also have different body contours as well as the light weight. Although they are single pick up versions, see juliaplaysgroove's channel on You Tube - she does Hair by GCS on an SBMM Sub and Hallucinate by Dua Lipa on a Ray35, which are really cool examples and show how close to a Stingray sound these basses can get.

There's a reasonable amount of variation as well as not all Rays are equal - I suspect what's being referred to are the standard production models in the more standard of colours in good original condition. For a Stingray Classic (2 band EQ, mute bridge, strings through, highly figured lacquered neck etc), they will be more costly - factor in rare, sought after colours or limited editions with cool features, and this will change the value. Stingray Specials are more expensive used and this reflects the £2000+ new price. As I said before, some of this will depend how desperate the seller is fur a quick sale (and dare I say it - time of year - just like cars purchases like basses around Christmas may be low on people's priority lists, so anyone wanting to sell may be willing to lower prices - applies to new as well). For those wanting a mellow sounding Ray, but still with access to the in yer face stuff, a two pick up version helps a lot and can do a lot of other cool sounds at the flick of a switch - they've been around since 2005. Rays are one of the most sensitive basses to plucking intensity and position - move your hand closer to the neck for the mellower stuff - and don't pluck as hard. As I say, the two pick up version gives you broader palette but still the single pick up in your face ability. Hey @ped you'll have to do an NBD with pics for us 👍

From 2005 MM introduced twin pick up Stingray 4 and 5s. I tend to use these as my 'versatile' instrument (now Stingray Specials) - it's wierd, on the twin pick up Rays I use I tend not to use the single pick up settings. I guess used prices will fluctuate with supply and demand. Even US Sub Stingrays will cost £500 + these days (they were cheaper than that new and were dropped partially because a used full fat Ray was only marginally more (we're talking 2003-6). At that time I had the opportunity to buy an immaculate 1977 inca silver pre EB previously owned by a famous player - for £1700 - as there were only about 150 of the inca silver basses made, this was really rare - and for standard coloured pre EB you would pay £2-3 K now. Prices have simply increased!

They're pretty consistent throughout - one of the areas Ernie Ball sought to improve was consistency and quality of manufacturing. They have always had a level of hand finishing (eg necks) that put them on a par, manufacturing/ quality wise with say Fender CS team built, or PRS more recently. The basses up to about 2000 often have heavily figured necks - as do the 2010-20 Stingray Classics. In terms of price of the Stingray Special, for anyone who has played/owned them, they have exquisite necks and really are excellent basses. The price of new instruments has generally risen over the years - apparently a factor of market conditions and manufacturing costs - even some Mexican Fenders are well over £1000 these days (a decade plus ago that would be unbelievable). This site has a lot of info on the gestation of the Stingray over the years/decades. http://www.musicmanbass.global/

You will miss that ceramic pick up MM sound! I used to use my 2003 SR5 still quite often especially on outdoor gigs - v versatile for a single pick up bass. I shan't sell it though I've got a 2 pick up SR5 Special which is my more regular 5 string.

The Stingray Specials are over £2k new - that probably has a bearing on used prices. They tend to have risen as the new prices have risen. I have said it before but my 93 fretless was £725 new. I suspect the low priced used ones are either being sold by people who want a quick sale, have had some modification, or are in poor cosmetic condition. Some finishes are more sought after than others. However, whatever, you get a rock solid, well built, quality pro level bass. The earlier post about the short scale one was presumably a SBMM rather than a US MM (which are around £2k new).

How old is the SR5?

Wow very nice 👍

Wow, that looks great - trans red usually (from that era) has an alder body so a little mellower sounding than an ash bodied one. As I said in the other thread, matt white would be the period correct pg if you can get it. You should be able to approximate to a 2 band sound if you cut the mids by about 50% and noisy the bass and treble a little. Hope you enjoy it anyway (Boz is one of my favourite bass players as well 👍 )

I think there may be slight differences during the production period, in the relative positions of bridges and control plates and the scratch plate - may only apply to the earlier production (a lot of interesting info on this site - in the section on bridges some differences in relative position with scratch plates are shown http://www.musicmanbass.global/ ) However the later pre EB are possibly the same as the EB ones up to the changeover from 4 bolt to 6 bolt neck with wheel truss rod adjuster (beginning of the 90s) and may be available from EBMM or Chandler.

An early 90s original spec will be matt white - Chandler may do them (certainly used to).

You should be able to order one through a Musicman dealer (eg Andertons/Gak), or contact the UK distributor, Strings and Things. If you want to be a bit more adventurous, Chandler/Pickguard Heaven in the US have a large range available (including many of the variants like Abalone that EBMM stopped doing). These are good quality OEM spec.

That's sounds great - nice playing - what is the pre amp (appears to be a 2 band but a Ray 34 would have a 3 band).

We will need to!!! It works the same way for manufacturers as their product will increase in price in the EU (and anywhere the currency bombs), making exports less competitive and more difficult. I guess this is just one of the prices to pay for becoming 'a proud and strong independent nation like we always were'......😁 No doubt there are advantages, but I have yet to hear any that will impact me personally - buying bass gear will almost certainly become more expensive for makes from the EU.

It depends what you call a sensible tempo and as important, the quality of the tone in the sustained notes. I can think of several songs which require long notes and if I was playing them would pick certain of my basses over others. Mr Big by Free is an example (that is an EB3 through a large valve rig and is a particularly fat sound, as is most of what Free played - he also plucks mostly right next to the bridge) - during the guitar solo section. A number of ballads I can think of do (Anita Baker springs to mind - that has both staccato notes and much longer held ones). Its not uncommon to require notes to sustain on a bass guitar.

Ouch - does that mean the Flea has an ill fitting scratch plate or is it actually naked and showing it's latter day Fender Jazz under the pickguard routing (or body lightening features dependent how you view it) 😯

I think you have to get away from the mechanics/electronics and potted history (eg they used xyz with abc strings in the 60s - they might have for some things but not everything and there were lots of different ideas) of it all and think of it in terms of a musical instrument and what you require it to do. If you need to play long notes (such as in ballads), the volume and quality of sustained notes is going to be important - and of course a double bass has always been required to play long notes - they are an orchestral instrument after all. As a number of people have said, if the sustain is available you can use it - and if you learn techniques to do so you can also mute the strings on a resonant bass with more sustain (and round wound strings) to play short staccato notes without resorting to basses which either have less ability to sustain a note or fit them with strings and other bits and pieces (eg mutes) which prevent them from sustaining a note as well. So it depends what type of music you need to or want to play with the instrument - if it's all 8th note picked clang a la punk rock, then sustain may matter less (but I doubt you would want flatwound strings). When I first learned to play bass, I did so a lot with headphones and when I first played in a live setting through a large rig I was dismayed to hear all the strings I wasn't playing (especially the E) vibrating as well - not sure if that's sustain, sympathetic resonance or a bit of both, but I developed my own techniques to deal with this - unconsciously using both fretting and plucking hands - this also meant that when mid 70s R and B appeared I found I could play the Rocco Prestia type of grooves, which actually rely on left hand muting. So my preference is for bass guitars with enough sustain and quality of tone to enable me to play whatever style of music I want to, be it reggae, rock, ballads, funk or anything else, and I'll use my fingers to control the sound created. I guess it's the players who need the longer notes and specific tone who might agonise over which bass does this best, or how you get a bass which doesn't to perform better by swapping parts, string gauge, string type etc - there are so many variables!! I once took my classic Ray to a jam session (at the time it had round wound strings) and that bass has a lot of sustain - a mate played it for a while and after the first song said to me, he was going to have to play it properly because the notes were so resonant and sustained more than he was used to. I think this is the thing - a bass which has that level of sustain is something which gives you options, but also means you have got to be careful with your muting technique. Thump along sounds can be more percussive and perhaps less tonally accurate in some respects and are particularly not needed to sustain. Rather like the bass drum in a drum kit in a group compared to say a bass drum in a marching band which has more of a boom to it.

You're wrong - he broke the Flea Jazz (or rather it broke itself i believe, but has/had a Status neck following this). @AndyTravis I recalled @hiram.k.hackenbacker has/had one of these - glad he's still got it 👍 suffice it to say if he has some sort of aberration and decides to sell it, I'd be more than happy and willing to pay the proper price plus a multi - pack of Twix or any other biscuit based snack that takes his fancy (PS stranger things have happened - I heard a story I think of a gilded white Stingray Classic, if not other Stingray-based models) 😉😯

As well as the Cutlass 1 (Stingray with Modulus graphite neck) and Cutlass 11 (Sabre with Modulus graphite neck), on 1982/3 (rare - only around 700 made), EBMM issued a Ray in 2001 with various different features including a Status graphite neck and through body, mute fitted bridge as a NAMM 100 model - only 100 made so even rarer - suffice it to say I'm envious of anyone with one of these basses.....😎

It looks like it may be an exact copy (3 bolt, headstock truss rod) - in terms of price, given that Fender charge well over £3500 for the team built Pino Precision, then a similar price for one of these, which is easily as good if not better than a team built CS in terms of quality and comparative level of manual input would not be out of order, if this rather than a Precision tickles your fancy - we'll have to see what it retails for. All very interesting - and talking of Pino, how far from the Cliff Williams 79 to a well known fretless sunburst 79? Mmmm (not that I have any info - just wild day dreaming). I also happened on the spec of the Mike Herrera signature Stingray and mistakenly thought it was a special blue paint job on a standard 2 EQ Stingray - it's not - the electronics are different - wired straight to the Jack socket, bypassing the EQ. So an interesting twist and all these signature models are different from standard (including the John Myung six string).

There was a US Sterling mentioned a few years ago (on the EB forum) that was 7lb 9oz - as with Stingrays (and Stingray 5s), they are out there. The more general weight for the 4 string pre Stingray Special is 9.5 lbs. My SR5 is very heavy (10 lbs+) but it sounds absolutely great. That said the SR5 is a bigger instrument than the SR4. I have an SR4 Special and an SR5 Special from the first year they were built - they are both noticeably lightweight.

That will possibly be with the new registrations and really good deals - there have been vast airfields full of unsold and stored ones as well - still are (I have had two emails in as many days from my VW dealer saying they have a large stock of pre registered 70 reg vehicles with good deals - presumably they're trying to clear the backlogs of vehicles before the next lock down season...) This is because not only were people not buying, those who did months before lockdown were unable to take delivery until May/June - most dealers storage areas are full of unsold cars. Presumably people are taking advantage of deals and it looks increasingly likely the UK will have a second crisis interspersed with the Brexit one....... interesting times ahead 😐

I'm surprised no one has noticed the you tube stuff showing Guitar Centres with virtually no guitars (except high end unsold Gibsons and Fenders). Covid has probably debunked the whole guitar market scam and myth whereby certain major manufacturers store their over production in large stores by insisting they carry certain (vast) levels of stock. It appears if you try and order most popular makes from a shop, depending on the model etc, if it's not in stock or at the distributor you're likely to be in for the lbw!! (Long bloody wait).

Mine's probably 200 times better to me!! But mine has also been discontinued since 2016 - in fact the whole Classic and Old Smoothie ranges are discontinued so you can't get one unless someone deigns to sell their's - not mine btw! OP I hope you enjoy your Stingray Classic 5 style bass 😏 Sounds a good price. I have something similar.