drTStingray

We’ll have to agree to differ here - I do agree the mix has a great deal to do with it but I’ve been around long enough to recall just how awful many Precision basses sounded live in bands in the 60s/70s, with the exception of simplistic root and fifth stuff - I can think of a number of situations where what I would call a decent bass sound via a Precision was had - as much down to the bass player as well though - Louis Johnson with Billy Preston (but sounded much better and more articulate in the later 70s with Stingray, Sabre and other basses); Alan Spenner with various artists (but sounded a million times better and you could hear the intricacy and articulation of his superb playing more clearly when appearing with a Wal in the late 70s) - I was lucky enough to see him perform at the Roundhouse at the end of the 70s - that Wal bass sound (an original JG series) was amazing. Robert ‘Pops’ Popwell with the Crusaders and Olivia Newton John. As I say, many people will differ with the view, but Matt Bissonette’s bass sounded very supportive - an excellent mix and sound - and for those interested he appeared to be using the front (series) switch setting on the SR5. Background rumble it certainly was not!!!

Agreed re mix for tv - I’ve already got my SR5s so I’m not bothered 😀!! Having seen Matt Bissonette and his predecessor Bob Birch use them, and also Lee Pomeroy with Take That I was converted years ago!!

Yeah fabulous bass sound and mix for tv. Nice Stingray 5 sound - no inaudible background rumbling going on!! Thank the Lord - the bass is crucially important both rhythmically and harmonically in much of EJ’s music.

One of the few acts where the excellent band got introduced one at a time and did short solos - what was more predictable was the ‘sound engineering’ took several bars of it to catch on to the idea they needed to turn the bass up so it could be heard during his excellent slap bass solo - very apt - something which was lacking in quite a lot of the mixes of the acts I watched was reasonably audible bass - I think the pinnacle may be Jacob Collier - inaudible grand piano for whole sections, inaudible acoustic guitar - and these in sections where they were being played largely solo!!!! 🤣

Fabulous - I’m guessing that’s a 2018 bass? They were done when the early Stingray Specials were being done, summer of 2018. Enjoy - looks great. I’ve found recently a new way of EQ ing my Bongo. Cut the low mids a little and boost the high mids and treble a little - with the pick up pan pointed slightly towards the bridge pu, sounds very much like a super Jazz bass.

I think the controls work in a similar way but otherwise it’s a very different bass - large Musicman bridge with adjustable mutes for each string and strings through body; neodymium pick up; adjustable ramp; long scale roasted maple neck; ebony fretboard; stainless steel frets; figured ash body with clear varnish; lightweight tuners; black hardware.

Which is the exact reason I bought a Musicman Stingray Tim Commerford signature bass - still the only ash bodied, long scale passive Stingray produced. Sounds brilliant - you can choose between series, parallel and single coil pick up selections, have a passive tone control and also a push pull volume cut/boost - really useful in some situations.

A lot of people seem to have had them (or SR4s) in blueburst back in the day. It’s really my favourite older Musicman colour as well (however I wouldn’t say no to a peach one, or pre EB Inca silver - my wallet would not agree though!!) I’ve been playing this bass both at home a lot and taking it to jams to play a couple of songs - home practice has included doing bass parts like Take Five or Moondance and then improvising a solo based around the melodies of the songs - my intonation accuracy is improving with practice. However I took it to a jam last night and was asked to play on Moondance (good as I’d been working around that at home) and also some Shadows stuff - the latter posed a few problems as I hadn’t played some of what was asked for at least ten years - culminating in Don’t Cry For Me Argentina which has a nice bass arrangement - which ends up doubling the first couple of bars of the melody in high register at the end…… well I attempted it and I think it was ok!!! I’d say the original bass arrangement was akin to a West End type show song where the bass performs quite an important function. People in the room were complimentary anyway!!! I felt rather self conscious as the lead guitarist was more perfect!! Nothing like a fretless 5 to focus the mind (I’ve got a fretless 4 but never even played a fretless 5 until I acquired this bass a couple of weeks ago) am loving it though - a couple of gratuitous photos!! 😅

It was pretty clean when I bought it but has now had a polish and deep clean (ie under the pickguard, in the routs, and lemon oil of the fretboard) - scrubs up beautifully and looks new - the neck now has Cobalt flatwounds which not only feel great but sound great as well - you can almost hear the fretboard saying ‘Ah thanks’ in a mwah-ish sort of way, having been relieved of the stainless rounds it had (which are going to find their way - well four of them - on to my Tim Commerford long scale passive)!! I’ve had to delete the earlier pics to make space for the new ones (crikey - forum restrictions or what 🤣🤣🥴)

Thanks guys - the colour is called blueburst and was available in the late 80s and early 90s. I agree - it’s a great colour. I’m told Flea’s Stingray 5 (used on Funky Monks) may have been this colour - although not fretless!!

No frets here and what a gorgeous bass. I got this from @jhk at the weekend and I’m very happy. It weighs just under 10 lbs and sounds huge!! It’s a 1992 bass, so over 30 yrs old. The neck has a lot of Birds Eye and the fretboard also has figuring. Altogether a very pretty (imho) and great sounding bass.

Oh yeah - hadn’t thought of that!!

Does their lack of presence reek of complacency or is it just my feeling? I guess if you’re only showing 60+ yr old designs there’s nothing much new anyway - however Rickenbacker seems to be able to enthuse people! No Warwick + Sadowsky either? Or Spector?

New Stingray Special colours (from their NAMM blog) - as well as a number of new guitars - haven’t seen any photos of these new pastel Stingray Special colours with matching head stocks in Wintermule’s thread - I presume there may be some there - interesting no 1976 Ray reissue either?

But which one? There are three of four iterations. For a 1976 bass, it’s probably the first version. Im pretty sure the manufacturer has access to the correct information. They’ve also used period correct tantalum capacitors and the longer pick up pole pieces. So as stated by @Misdee they appear to have gone to some lengths to make these 100 basses absolutely period correct. In the US, these basses cost significantly less than an original 76 Stingray - in this country it’s a slightly different story as we have to pay shipping and tax, the exchange rate is dreadful (one of our famous B**xit dividends) and possibly a pre EB Stingray is not as expensive as in the US on the used vintage market here. In any case we’re very unlikely to get our hands on one of these basses as they all seem to be sold! Im hopeful they’ll do some more reissues in due course - I might be tempted dependent on what appears (77 in silver with white pick up cover and black pick guard would be v nice, or a natural)

Really - mass produced to me smacks of robots and machines making and fitting most of the parts together on a production line with little human input (rather like a car). And what do you call ‘mass’ in terms of volume? To me, a run of 100 instruments put together from non standard parts, with levels of skilled human input to various elements, but in a factory, is not ‘mass’ production. As others have said, it’s also not cottage industry - however I’d wager if you attempted to select options from Fender on your Custom Shop selection something akin to this would put you immediately into Master Built territory, with prices well in excess of what’s being asked here. I personally don’t get the analogy with cheaper import instruments - of course you can buy a serviceable cheapo entry level instrument (copy of a more expensive one) for the low hundreds of pounds - you could in the 70s with Antoria and others. That might float some people’s boats but frankly, that’s not the sort of audience/demographic that basses like this are aimed at. In the same way people have bought bog standard entry level Ford Capris, for instance, in the 70s, others (probably enthusiasts) bought the 3 litre version at a vast mark up - they both functioned perfectly well as cars, but the most expensive gave the owner a lot of added value (and performance) the owner of the cheapo one likely couldn’t afford. But were enabled to enter the market by Ford offering an entry level sporty looking vehicle. You can substitute any type of car (including modern day) in this analogy), or many bass guitars. Any argument that the more expensive one was not worth extra money because the cheapo one did the job was so much pi**ing in the wind (or even the type of argument young boys engaged in talking about their father’s cars in the school playground). I can understand guys buying entry level (perhaps student) guitars where they might be newbies to playing an instrument - however I do find it a bit odd when long standing players buy cheapo instruments with the idea they’re somehow getting a bargain and demonstrating a post rationing, early post war austerity mentality (I’ve come across a lot of enthusiast guitar players like this - who then buy a hard case for their entry level instrument which then scratches up the inside of their higher end Mercedes cars when they take it out somewhere). Equally, I find it even odder when those people moan about higher end instrument prices as being not worth it. These are really nice basses in my view, and in a similar way to some CS reissue instruments, probably appeal to people like me who prefer new pristine instruments rather than playing something that cost a small fortune but looks like it needs a good paint job, amongst other things!!

Probably haven’t noticed!!

That’s true for Fender but certainly the EBMM US built ones are on a par with team built Fender CS instruments - last time I looked, such an instrument (Pino P Precision) was over £4k new. I don’t know about Rickenbacker but EBMM is low volume with a lot a manual work. I must say that looks v nice - colour wise it’s very similar to my original late 70s/early 80s Stingray - it had a four bolt neck plate, however. I believe this model has a nitro cellulose finish. The radio knobs were fitted to very early production basses. I just wonder……. do you think they may re- issue a natural 77 (as per Bernard Edwards’ bass). Dependent on price I may be interested!! The 76 EQ is a little too polite for my liking - maybe the 77 can be a bit more in yer face (as would a 79). There are several EQ iterations.

As the 3/1 headstock arrangement is trade marked, that won’t be available for long 😉😂

From my own experience - prices of Stingrays - early 2000s (NB certain models may be more - there are more than just a 3 band 4 string) Used - £750 New - £1300 Pre EB - £1750 Now Used - £1500 New (Stingray Special only available) - £2900 Pre EB - £3500 NB a new 3 band 4 string was about £720 in 1993. The price of a new 4HH Stingray Special in a sparkle colour, late 2018 was circa £2250 - suggesting 30% increase since then - 30% inflation in 3.5 yrs - probably reflecting the general inflation rate. Thus the prices have roughly doubled in about 20 yrs - main factors affecting this -simple year on year inflation and then after 2019 COVID - massive impact on manufacturing and distribution costs and delays. Brexit crippled the exchange rate and screwed up intra EU trading. The former will have affected the new costs of Stingrays in the U.K. I am guessing that this is reflected with other manufacturers with the possible exception of Fender, whose previous business model of parking loads of product in certain large retailer’s premises might have front loaded availability - thus price rises for them are probably a little delayed compared with others.

I like the white pearloid best - but noticed yours, like mine, had a matt white with black screws originally. I’ve retained the original on mine - a certain vintage look!

I can guarantee there’s life after P basses - although I’ve played several owned by other people I haven’t owned one in nearly 50 yrs of playing. Stingrays, however are a different matter - over a significant period of time I haven’t been able to stop playing (or occasionally buying) them. I’m told there is a support group for basses which have plastic inflicted on their strings 😂😂 - maybe they can help with P bass withdrawal symptoms as well……..

I played a Ray 34 through a Mark Bass combo in a shop last week - actually to try out a compressor and to use something approximating to my basses/amp etc I was highly impressed - great sound, lovely blue sparkle finish, roasted maple neck and reasonably light - very very impressed with the bass - did the Bernard Edwards/ Flea thing (Funky Monks) v authentically. Not koa though - I’m guessing they may sound a little darker.

They have made a small batch of SLO neck Stingray Specials which were available in The Vault (on line shop which shops internationally as well) a whole back. In a similar way there are currently left handed H and HH Stingray Specials available. @fretmeister my TC signature is about 7lbs 10oz and my Stingray Special HH is more or less 8 lbs. The current neck profile seems flatter and narrower to me - a joy to play! Perhaps try one to see (though I’m not sure where they have them in stock - maybe Anderson’s?)