dub_junkie

2022 Raspberry Burst and 2023 Smoked Chrome

Ah cheers Mike yes I now see the one for $500. Will have another look. Have you placed an order? Keir

Newly aquired 2022 Raspberry burst Special. Also pictured is my 2023 Smoked Chrome.

Prices for the five are showing as starting at almost double what it cost me for my Apollo 4 string including import costs. Bit gutted as was told these would be a few hundred more. Ah well one less thing to worry about having to save for. Every cloud....

Parallel - more transparent, open sounding than series. Like a Stingray but with a little extra grind due to the ceramic pickup and voicing of the preamp Single coil - more focused, thinner sounding, actually found the more I used this the more I liked it. Series - biggest sounding of the three with more low mids? Just never felt it worked for me as such because the almost smiley face EQ curve in the parallel setting was what I liked about musicman from the off. Deep bottom with almost clicky top 🙂 All of the above goes for the Stingray 5. Old habits die hard.

I just bought Bobby's Classic StingRay off him. He was kind enough to accept a holding deposit while we sorted the logistics then offered to bring the bass to me. Spent some time yesterday geeking out on bass and Bobby got to try my basses (think the ACG 4 was the winner) Bobby's a top fella with some great stories to tell and the man seriously knows his basses. Nice player too! The Stingray is fantastic, was a great price it's gone a good new home next to a pair of Sabres. All in such an easy deal. Bobby went above and beyond imo and I really appreciate how easy he made it all. Deal with him in absolute confidence. Many thanks Bobby. All the best!

I've owned a few. Love the neck profile, probably still my favourite 4 string bass neck out there. I never used the series setting (closest to neck) on either my Sterlings then or Stingray 5 basses now. Parallel (nearest to bridge) 90% of the time but I do like the middle single coil setting as well. Congratulations! Black/black/maple is an iconic look on a MusicMan too😍

Love the Starry Night. Such a great finish

Received a free Sterling by Musicman bass gig bag from Martin. who was super helpful through the whole process. I am super appreciative of this kind hearted gesture and the bag will be used every gig/rehearsal rather than having to take a hard case. Many thanks Martin, you're an absolute credit to this forum. All the best! Keir

Zon Sonus is a dream bass of mine too. Hope it serves you well and Congratulations!

I had a Mayones BE-4 fretless. Wonderful bass which had MEC pickups and preamp and had the convex/curved body shape of the Warwich Thumbs and Streamers. Build quality was very high.

My Skyline 55-02 which I got from Paddy777 on here. Has quickly become a gigging favourite.

And took delivery of an Ocean Blue Metallic 2014 Standard. Passive with V/V/T

Just goes to show how we all can perceive tone a bit differently. I've had a number of ceramic pickup StingRay 5s and never thought them to have as much grind as the Sterling. Always thought the SR5 was a bit more polite, sit in the mix nicely bass and the Sterling a bit more aggressive with more prominent mids.

Another vote for the Sterling getting the Special makeover/treatment fwiw. I had a few USA Sterlings over the years and I never had one that was lighter than any other MusicMan bass I owned at the same time. Which I always found a bit odd as the body is downsized from a StingRay. If they ever did it as a Special I would hope they would stick to ceramic magnets on that model. Definitely grinds a bit more than any alnico or neodymium equipped MM I've owned. Always loved that (and the neck) about the USA Sterling bass

Swapping some basses round and as part of that, I managed to pick up another USA Dimension Deluxe, this time an H in the rootbeer finish. Had a couple of Dimensions before (both HH).

Stingray 5 Special has a great neck profile and dimensions but unless there are specific features you want that the Special has, any StingRay 5 is easy to get round. Only issue is that the G is close to the edge of the board and may need a bit of adaptation in technique to stop pushing the string off the edge of the fret. I only ever had one Sandberg 5, a VS5 and I thought it was a really good feeling/playing bass. The plek'd neck allowed for a silly low action. Cort NJS-5 Elrick is 35" scale and has a slightly bigger profile at the first few frets than I generally go for but I genuinely love mine. So much to like about that bass and I gig mine regularly over instruments costing three times as much. I had a Sire V5-24 and while I liked the neck profile, I couldn't get the action quite as low as I wanted and the roasted neck was way too dark. The neck I am really enjoying playing at the moment is my Lakland 55-02. Again plek'd neck and crazy low action. Bigger neck than any of those above but supremely playable. I've come to realise that I don't mind a bigger neck profile if the action can be made low. And also that if push came to shove and I could only afford one 5 string I'd pick a Stingray 5 every time 🙂

2023 Stingray 5 Special in smoked chrome. Haven't weighed it yet but can't be anymore than 9lb. Looking forward to comparing it to my 2005 StingRay 5.