Mokl

Oof, nice score!

A giant of the music industry if ever there was one, and what a life lived!

I've had an extravagant year for me, by recent standards anyway. Acquired an Alusonic Django Std 5 earlier in the year and very pleased with the tonal variety and playability of it. Somehow convinced myself I needed a Stingray Special a month or so back (I've had a late 80s Stingray a good 30 years now) and am really loving it now I've adjusted to the slightly different tone and getting to grips with the 18V preamp. It's a great sounding thing and really rekindling my passion for playing, so worth every penny. No duff purchases I'm pleased to say. A few difficult farewells to some lovely basses though.

I typically don't like Bartolinis, but ironically I had a Lakland 55-01 with the MK1 pickups in, and that sounded brilliant in a band context. It did have an upgraded (Bartolini) NTMB preamp though, so perhaps it was that?

That looks awesome 😎

When I worked in musical retail we had a few instruments stolen. The first places we would always check were Cash Generator/Converters. I can't speak for how they conduct their business now (my experience was over a decade ago), but back then they definitely didn't follow due diligence in establishing ownership of the items they were selling. This was borne out by the number of stolen instruments that used to turn up in there. I'm sure plenty of the stock in them is fine, but I would treat anything of half decent quality in there with a healthy dose of suspicion.

My Special comes in at ~8.8lbs, whilst my '89 is about 1lb heavier. I feel like a good chunk of that difference in my 2 basses is in the hardware. I'm fortunate that weight doesn't bother me (yet),within reason...

Looks vaguely Fernandes-y to me?

I've had a 2 band 1989 Stingray since the early 90s and it has been my main bass and reference for playability and tone since then. For years it was my only bass so always feels like 'home'. I recently picked up a Stingray Special as wanted to try the new 3 band EQ and to not rely too heavily on the 89 as a primary gigging bass. I'm really loving it, but the tone is quite different, especially the treble quality which to me seems 'sweeter' but not as transparent. The midrange character is also subtly different to my ears. It can get very close to the tones I like from my 2 band when bass and treble are cut. Boosted it sounds great, but different. In a band setting it's not huge, but I am already appreciating the bigger range of tones on offer. In summary I'm really glad to have both as they offer similar ground in the things I like about Stingrays, but different enough to justify having both! There's really great choice if you're in the market for a Stingray now, either pre-2018 used, the Sterling ranges etc etc that you're bound to find something you're happy with at a price you're comfortable with. I managed to pick up a new Special for not much more than I see then go for used, so deals are out there if you are flexible about colour and fingerboard material.

Weird double post thing..

Me too 😄