Appeal: Stolen 1980 Musicman Stingray

[Guest finlaymac]

Hi everyone,

This is a long shot, if ever there was one...

Around 10 years ago I had a bass guitar stolen whilst moving house, and I've never been able to track it down. Quite honestly I think about it all the time and would love to get it back. It was really the first instrument I ever gigged with, I saved up for ages to buy it and my mum, who has since passed on, helped me finance it. It goes without saying it holds [i]huge[/i] sentimental value for me.

The bass is a 4-string cream pre-Ernie Ball 1980 Musicman Stingray. I think the date on the neck was August 1980. Unfortunately I didm' have a not of the serial number. The most discerning feature is that it had my name (Jamie Macdonald) scratched on the inside of the battery plate, and also Manchester musician Paddy Steer's name scratched on there too.

The bass was stolen from a removal van in summer of 2004, if memory serves (it could have been 2003). It was stolen from West Didsbury in Manchester. I think it could possibly have ended up in the Liverpool area.

I've attached a couple of photos of an identical bass guitar, currently trying to track down some old photos to add too, but this one is almost exactly as I remember it.

As I say this is a long shot. It could be anywhere by now, and I doubt anyone who has it would want to admit to it, but hopefully there's some honest soul out there who will fess up, or if anyone has come across it in the last ten years, please drop me a line. Any info would be much appreciated.


Thanks

Jamie

[Jazzneck]

It certainly is a long shot and I really feel for you.
I'll spread the word in The Anglian area just in case it has emigrated.
Did it have the teardrop case with it?

[Rich]

There are many others that look just like it, but this is the only one that the OP's late mother helped him to buy.
Are you seriously suggesting that none of your possessions have any sentimental value to you?

[mcnach]

[quote name='spectoremg' timestamp='1430030875' post='2757168']
Don't take this the wrong way, and it's just an opinion but attaching sentimental value to 'stuff' gets you on the road to obsession. It's a guitar and there are many others just like it.
[/quote]

I think it's a pretty normal thing.
I have a pen knife my grandfather gave me when I was 10 and I was a boy scout. I still have that pen knife and it has sentimental value to me way above the value of the knife.
My world would not stop if I lost it, but I'd be sad about that. Another pen knife would not do. I already have another couple of them, but THIS one is the my grandfather gave me.
You don't understand that?

edit: I just remembered, and coincidentally is also about knives... but I have no obsession with blades, I promise! My dad bought me a hunting knife when I joined the boy scouts. We all had one back then. And most of us had small axes too, and we were taught how to use them for various things, I'm glad kids were allowed to do things back then... but I digress. One day the handle broke. My dad made a new handle for it using a hazel branch from my uncle's farm. It was beautiful, it had a copper ring as well, and my dad's signature and date.
When I moved to the UK, I brought the knife with me, not sure why... but it made sense, it was one of my precious possessions and at the time I was still doing lots of outdoor activities. That knife was always with me in my hiking rucksack. The number of sticks I have sharpened to roast chorizo on a camp fire, I can't count! Yum.
The thing is that I put it in a pocket of my suitcase when I flew here. On arrival, I collected my bags, and everything seemed normal. I went to my then girlfriend's place and unpacked. The knife was gone. Someone had taken it from my suitcase!!! I'm still angry about that.
I did not replace the knife. I didn't really need it and my smaller pen knifes do the job. But that one was a present from my dad, and had a handle hand made my him. That has value you cannot measure in £.
Is that obsession to you?

Edited April 26, 2015 by mcnach

[spectoremg]

[quote name='Rich' timestamp='1430036479' post='2757206']
There are many others that look just like it, but this is the only one that the OP's late mother helped him to buy.
Are you seriously suggesting that none of your possessions have any sentimental value to you?
[/quote]No, I didn't say nothing has sentimental value to me, it's quite clear in the post what I'm saying.
Through divorce I've learned to walk away from a situation with what I could carry in two hands - the rest I've replaced if I needed/wanted to.

[LayDownThaFunk]

[quote name='spectoremg' timestamp='1430030875' post='2757168']
Don't take this the wrong way, and it's just an opinion but attaching sentimental value to 'stuff' gets you on the road to obsession. It's a guitar and there are many others just like it.
[/quote]
Dumbest. Paragraph. Ever.

[spectoremg]

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1430037457' post='2757215']
I think it's a pretty normal thing.
I have a pen knife my grandfather gave me when I was 10 and I was a boy scout. I still have that pen knife and it has sentimental value to me way above the value of the knife.
My world would not stop if I lost it, but I'd be sad about that. Another pen knife would not do. I already have another couple of them, but THIS one is the my grandfather gave me.
You don't understand that?
[/quote]Would your world implode if you lost that knife?

[spectoremg]

[quote name='LayDownThaFunk' timestamp='1430037890' post='2757224']
Dumbest. Paragraph. Ever.
[/quote]Here we go again - people who aren't allowed an opinion on here.

[mcnach]

[quote name='spectoremg' timestamp='1430037966' post='2757226']
Would your world implode if you lost that knife?
[/quote]

Of course not, didn't you read what I said?

Anyway, this seems a bit like a pointless argument. I think we should focus here about the OP's Stingray. It's a long shot already without diluting the post in a discussion about sentimental value of objects... but feel free to start an OT thread about it

[LayDownThaFunk]

Self imposed exile? Please feel sorry for me? Leaving thread to let you know? Lurk in the shadows without posting? Posting as normal 2 weeks later? Probably because you want something in the FS section?

I disagreed with your statement. I didn't have to, but I did.

[andytoad]

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1430038236' post='2757231']


Of course not, didn't you read what I said?

Anyway, this seems a bit like a pointless argument. I think we should focus here about the OP's Stingray. It's a long shot already without diluting the post in a discussion about sentimental value of objects... but feel free to start an OT thread about it
[/quote]

this

[Rich]

[quote name='spectoremg' timestamp='1430038087' post='2757229']
Here we go again - people who aren't allowed an opinion on here.
[/quote]
Here we go again - people who can't tell a difference of opinion from a denial of free speech.

[Number6]

I hope you can make some progress on tracking down this bass. After all this time it is likely to be very difficult but nevertheless it's out there somewhere so good luck with the search.

[Skol303]

To paraphrase:

"This is my bass. There are many like it, but this one is mine."

[mcnach]

[quote name='finlaymac' timestamp='1429980880' post='2756935']
Hi everyone,

This is a long shot, if ever there was one...

Around 10 years ago I had a bass guitar stolen whilst moving house, and I've never been able to track it down. Quite honestly I think about it all the time and would love to get it back. It was really the first instrument I ever gigged with, I saved up for ages to buy it and my mum, who has since passed on, helped me finance it. It goes without saying it holds [i]huge[/i] sentimental value for me.

The bass is a 4-string cream pre-Ernie Ball 1980 Musicman Stingray. I think the date on the neck was August 1980. Unfortunately I didm' have a not of the serial number. The most discerning feature is that it had my name (Jamie Macdonald) scratched on the inside of the battery plate, and also Manchester musician Paddy Steer's name scratched on there too.

The bass was stolen from a removal van in summer of 2004, if memory serves (it could have been 2003). It was stolen from West Didsbury in Manchester. I think it could possibly have ended up in the Liverpool area.

I've attached a couple of photos of an identical bass guitar, currently trying to track down some old photos to add too, but this one is almost exactly as I remember it.

As I say this is a long shot. It could be anywhere by now, and I doubt anyone who has it would want to admit to it, but hopefully there's some honest soul out there who will fess up, or if anyone has come across it in the last ten years, please drop me a line. Any info would be much appreciated.


Thanks

Jamie
[/quote]

very long shot it is, but always worth looking! Chances are the current owner has no idea it was once stolen... But maybe if you find him he might be willing to sell it back to you.

Were there any other distinct marks on the bass that do not require getting so close and opening the battery cover?

[Kirky]

Good luck with this, although it is a long shot. I had my first Rickenbacker guitar stolen many years ago and have sometimes wondered if it would be possible to track it down. Like the OP it was financed by my Mum, now passed away. The thing with this one is that there was some suspicion at the time as to who stole it ( a singer in a NZ touring band), the police investigated it to no avail, and then (I understand) he confessed to it many years later in an interview. It would be interesting to try and trace it, but wouldn't expect to get it back if it been sold to someone else in good faith.

[chriswareham]

Kirky - if you still have the crime number, then you stand a chance of getting it back. A minute chance given the culprit sounds like he's in another country.