Tubster Posted March 13, 2020 Posted March 13, 2020 No, not Duracell vs Ever Ready! hope members can clear up a couple of questions which arose from a discussion with a friend who is a prospective MM stingray purchaser. He claims that when battery goes flat, there is still usable sound. I’ve had 3 over the years and all of mine went dead. Has something changed? second question - all mine needed screwdriver to access battery, do all models have quick change battery box? thanks so much. Quote
NJE Posted March 13, 2020 Posted March 13, 2020 I’m with you, I have a 2001 and as soon as the battery starts going I get very farty distorted sounds coming out and the volume drops. I think after the early 90s they all moved over to having plastic battery boxes apart from the Classic series. 1 Quote
Lozz196 Posted March 13, 2020 Posted March 13, 2020 My Stingray is a 2014 and as NJE says, battery goes and so does the sound. Quote
fretmeister Posted March 13, 2020 Posted March 13, 2020 Battery dead = no sound. Installing a bypass switch won't really help either as most of the volume from the EBMM pickup comes from the preamp - it's actually a pretty quiet pickup when wired up passively. Quote
gjones Posted March 13, 2020 Posted March 13, 2020 I've only had my 2014 Stingray for a few months. When the battery went it started to fart. If I'd continued playing with it, I assume it would have cut out pretty quickly. It has a quick access, plastic, battery box. No screws. Quote
No. 8 Wire Posted March 13, 2020 Posted March 13, 2020 Maybe this depends on which preamp you have. On my 3EQ with plastic battery box there is a passive signal when the battery is completely dead. When the battery is dying you get the farty sound, but remove it and I get a weak passive signal which can be used if you have enough amp gain left. I don't see why an active/passive switch wouldn't work. Aren't some of the USA sub basses passive with the same pickup? 1 Quote
uk_lefty Posted March 13, 2020 Posted March 13, 2020 Just don't let the battery go flat! Get a stock of them from the pound shop, change in a new one before each gig, keep some spares in your gig bag. Quote
Skybone Posted March 13, 2020 Posted March 13, 2020 I had a late-80's model ('89 IIRC) that was the 2 screw plate, then I later had a mod-90's model that had the quick access battery cover. I'd assume that they changed the battery access sometime in the early 90's? Quote
BlueMoon Posted March 13, 2020 Posted March 13, 2020 On my 2005 Stingray, when the battery went down it first sounded like a motorbike going at 60 mph in the next street, then farted out on switch off/back on. Quote
pineweasel Posted March 13, 2020 Posted March 13, 2020 (edited) My ‘96 seemed rather quiet when I got it, then I checked and found it had no battery. It definitely produced some output without one. (edit) it’s a 3eq as in the post above Edited March 13, 2020 by pineweasel Quote
drTStingray Posted March 14, 2020 Posted March 14, 2020 (edited) On 13 March 2020 at 00:14, Tubster said: No, not Duracell vs Ever Ready! hope members can clear up a couple of questions which arose from a discussion with a friend who is a prospective MM stingray purchaser. He claims that when battery goes flat, there is still usable sound. I’ve had 3 over the years and all of mine went dead. Has something changed? second question - all mine needed screwdriver to access battery, do all models have quick change battery box? thanks so much. First question - I've never got usable sound out of one when the battery's failed. That said I've only had that happen two or three times in about 40 yrs and always during setting up, not in the gig. Two were 2 band, one 4 band (Bongo). Second question - all Musicman basses from 1996 or so have flip out battery boxes - EXCEPT Classic collection basses, including Sabres and Old Smoothies which have the chrome cover with two screws holding them on, as pre 1996 basses. The Stingray Specials have twin flip out battery boxes. Battery life is quite extensive - I've had my two Specials for around 18 months and they're still on their original batteries and fine. Edited March 14, 2020 by drTStingray Quote
Tubster Posted March 15, 2020 Author Posted March 15, 2020 Thanks so much for the answers. Seems jury is still out on #1 though. Quote
mcnach Posted March 15, 2020 Posted March 15, 2020 (edited) On 13/03/2020 at 09:46, fretmeister said: Battery dead = no sound. Installing a bypass switch won't really help either as most of the volume from the EBMM pickup comes from the preamp - it's actually a pretty quiet pickup when wired up passively. That is most definitely not true. The preamp, when flattish, has pretty much the same volume as the pickup wired passively. But it's true that when the battery is dead, there's no usable sound coming off (edit: only ever owned 2-band ones). Unless you bypass the preamp (Iike I have done on mine). Edited March 15, 2020 by mcnach Quote
leschirons Posted March 15, 2020 Posted March 15, 2020 My SR5 has a Glockenklang pre with passive option pull switch. It's the future. Quote
Tubster Posted March 15, 2020 Author Posted March 15, 2020 On 13/03/2020 at 20:43, pineweasel said: My ‘96 seemed rather quiet when I got it, then I checked and found it had no battery. It definitely produced some output without one. (edit) it’s a 3eq as in the post above Quote
Tubster Posted March 15, 2020 Author Posted March 15, 2020 Well, I think that “no usable sound” wins me the prize. So I’ll collect ‘my smart donkey award’ as soon as the bars reopen here in Spain - although that could be some way off. Quote
Defo Posted March 15, 2020 Posted March 15, 2020 Long term Stingray/Bongo user, agree that when the battery starts to fade, the bass starts to fart. Quote
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