Stingray pickup - at the correct spot, passive... definitely Stingray

[drTStingray]

1 hour ago, Maude said:

I meant Ray style hardware. Nothing is genuine. SX body, Harley Benton neck, Warman pickup, ebay bridge and control plate. The electrics will be passive with a tone, volume and rotary switch to select between bridge single coil/series/parallel/neck single coil. 

Obviously nothing like an actual Stingray but I used up a load of bits I had kicking about and spent about fifty quid on the bits I don't have. 

I now have a nice looking, and hopefully nice sounding bass for £50 and used up some bits that were in the way. 

🙂

I'm sure it'll be very usable and sound really good as well - love the colour btw 👍

[mcnach]

That looks sooo nice!

 

[Maude]

Thanks for the kind comments folks. 🙂

I haven't actually screwed it together yet so it might sound terrible. 😆

I really pondered on the colour but then saw this picture, 

and thought yes. A long story but I mixed up some paint I had at home and came up with this red, 

The full story is here if anyone's bored enough to read it. 🙂

 

Edited May 5, 2020 by Maude

[Maude]

Also the bridge I've got allows for string through body, is it worth drilling the body and getting some ferrules? How much difference does it really make, as strangely I've never had a string through bass?

I'm going to source a pair of similar bridge fixings to the big screws on the Stingrays, partially to for looks but hopefully it'll help with sound as well. Every little helps, as they say. 

[drTStingray]

My Stingrays with strings through have more sustain but it's particularly noticeable when they're fitted with roundwounds. 

It's worth mentioning the Stingray Specials don't have the large bolts for the bridges - they're also lighter weight (aluminium) - it doesn't seem to affect the tone (though they have a revoiced EQ and 18 volt electronics as well). 

[Maude]

A set of ferrules is only a fiver and, surprisingly, the cheap ebay bridge has the holes for it so I may as well do it, and I've just ordered some fixings that will look similar but more importantly be a much heftier fixing deep into the body. They were 20p each. Both of these things can only help, especially as it's only going to be passive. Who knows though, if it turns out to be a nice player I could spend some money and put active electrics in there. I've lightened the body so it should be comfy. I've got a set of DR Hi-Beams I've had for a while but never fitted to anything as my go to strings are D'addario half rounds, I may put them on it. 

[mcnach]

2 hours ago, Maude said:

Also the bridge I've got allows for string through body, is it worth drilling the body and getting some ferrules? How much difference does it really make, as strangely I've never had a string through bass?

I'm going to source a pair of similar bridge fixings to the big screws on the Stingrays, partially to for looks but hopefully it'll help with sound as well. Every little helps, as they say. 

 

Personally, I would not bother with it.

I've owned only a handful of instruments that allowed be both ways of stringing them, and of those I only really compared two, both Precisions. I can't say I noticed anything. If the difference is supposed to jump at you, well, it didn't for me, so I am in the "whatever difference must be too small to matter to me". 

[4000]

I had one bass with through body stringing option, a Washburn. It definitely felt and sounded different to me strung through body, and at the time (many years ago) I had no idea it was supposed to be any different. I’m very, very sensitive to minute differences in how things feel and sound though, so YMMV. 

[SICbass]

On 07/04/2020 at 12:49, police squad said:

Agreed. I wanted a rickenbacker copy that I had, so sound like a precision. It was basswood, bolt-on neck, r/wood board.

I placed the P bass pickup in the correct spot and hey presto, instant P bass

Please tell me you've let John Hall have a picture of this, under the title "There, fixed". It would simply make my day.

[miles'tone]

If anyone is putting a MM pickup in a Fender style bass and measuring up by using a Stingray pickguard, remember that a Stingray has 21 frets. If you put it's pickguard up against the neck heel on a 20 fret neck the pickup will not be in the MM sweet spot. 😉

[Kiwi]

On 07/04/2020 at 20:54, mcnach said:

 

But I get why you ask... I never really fully understood why you can place a pickup in a certain position and sound so distinctive (Precision, Stingray, whatever) for any note you play, whether it's top or bottom of the neck. You'd imagine that you probably get the same harmonics if you move the pickup closer to the bridge and fret around the 3rd fret as you would leaving the pickup where it is and playing open strings...

I don't know (shrug). I know what it sounds like because I've tried all these things, but I can't explain it.

Position is part of the recipe but  not all of it, pickup design can play a big part as well.  I went through a stage where I was A/B testing all sorts of basses from Alembic to Warwick with single pickups in the stingray position.  Very few were convincing because they didn't have a parallel wired humbucker for those fat lows and coarse highs and the baxendall eq helps dial in the right amount of oomph when the bass is boosted.  It all works together.