Curse you Marketplace ( USA MM Sub 5 )

[JohnFitzgerald]

Didn't plan on buying one of these this weekend, but I'm a real fan of these 2003-2006 SUBs.

Sports Utility Bass ?
Stingray's Ugly Brother ?

It certainly has 'that' tone.

Next weekend, I won't plan on buying a Highway One Precision in 3TSB.

 

[iconic]

A proper SUB, when it meant a great bass😎

[JohnFitzgerald]

26 minutes ago, iconic said:

A proper SUB, when it meant a great bass😎

I guess this means I know a good thing when I see it.
Here with its 4 string brother.

[iconic]

1 minute ago, JohnFitzgerald said:

I guess this means I know a good thing when I see it.
Here with its 4 string brother.

Sweet pair👌

[Waddo Soqable]

Interesting.. I've got a 4 string one, never knew they did them as a 5.

Makes a nice set 👍

[Grahambythesea]

I know they’re good basses but it gets my vote for the ugliest headstock logo, surely they could have come up with something a little more tasteful.

[Owen]

You can do all sorts of things with them. 

[uk_lefty]

I like how they've avoided the (IMO) ugly pickguard you usually see on five string Stingrays. Lovely!

[JohnFitzgerald]

On 24/04/2023 at 12:28, Grahambythesea said:

I know they’re good basses but it gets my vote for the ugliest headstock logo, surely they could have come up with something a little more tasteful.

I don't disagree, but I won't be changing it.
It is what it is and I'll keep it pretty much original.

[Twincam]

I had the 4 string. 

As most know it's practically a fully fledged Ray.

Made on the same line.

Same pick up and electrics.

The bridge is actually the same but not stamped. 

Different tuners but still quality. 

Poplar wood body. No contour. 

The maple they used for the necks was of lower quality, but only from a cosmetic view. If you see these striped. 

And of course the famous, super durable, easy spray on, no finishing required finish. 

And stamped scratch plate being a USA sub only part. 

 

I believe they actually lost money on everyone they sold, hence then going to the far East made line. 

 

Pretty interesting mm history and there is lots of info about these. 

 

The only thing I wasn't keen on was the slab body. And I like a jazz neck. 

 

On a side note I stripped mine and had it refinished. It changed the tone, and I personally thought it sounded better with the original finish on. 

These will become more collectable so maybe worth keeping original???

[LewisK1975]

I had one of these when I was using 5 strings for a band I was in a few years ago, also found locally on marketplace IIRC, may have been gumtree, got it for £250! - definitely the best sounding B String of the fivers I went through inc mex Fender & Sandberg Basses.

 

Slab body got on my nerves a bit though.

 

Sold on at a profit after a couple of years ownership!  Winner!

[LewisK1975]

Double post!

Edited April 26, 2023 by LewisK1975

[JohnFitzgerald]

21 hours ago, Twincam said:

I had the 4 string. 

As most know it's practically a fully fledged Ray.

Made on the same line.

Same pick up and electrics.

The bridge is actually the same but not stamped. 

Different tuners but still quality. 

Poplar wood body. No contour. 

The maple they used for the necks was of lower quality, but only from a cosmetic view. If you see these striped. 

And of course the famous, super durable, easy spray on, no finishing required finish. 

And stamped scratch plate being a USA sub only part. 

 

I believe they actually lost money on everyone they sold, hence then going to the far East made line. 

 

Pretty interesting mm history and there is lots of info about these. 

 

The only thing I wasn't keen on was the slab body. And I like a jazz neck. 

 

On a side note I stripped mine and had it refinished. It changed the tone, and I personally thought it sounded better with the original finish on. 

These will become more collectable so maybe worth keeping original???

I'll definitely be keeping these two original. 
I'd want them to be as they left the factory, including the ugly logo.

[Waddo Soqable]

The one I've got has the neck completely stripped (the orig paint was damaged) to bare wood.. certainly doesn't look like "ugly" wood to me, so I may just nitro it, not sure.

I've also been messing with a maple neck on it from an indo Sub, which has a Jazz style skinny nut. 

[Ritsugamesh]

18 hours ago, Waddo Soqable said:

The one I've got has the neck completely stripped (the orig paint was damaged) to bare wood.. certainly doesn't look like "ugly" wood to me, so I may just nitro it, not sure.

I've also been messing with a maple neck on it from an indo Sub, which has a Jazz style skinny nut. 

 

Do you have a picture of yours with the stripped neck? I've got a USA SUB in white and have often found the painted neck to get a bit questionable after a long gig. It's definitely not leaving the collection so not afraid to mod it but would be interesting to hear/see the process/result! 

[Waddo Soqable]

Well some quick pics, the camera on this thing isn't great, I've just laid a scratchplate in place for completeness, it's not screwed down. I'll use a black one probably rather than the silver check plate thing. (a single ply matt black would be nice in fact) 

I'll also include a pic with the maple "cheapo sub" neck experimentally attached, purely out of interest. 

The maple of the original neck is certainly not substandard or anything so I assume it was pot luck and they randomly took a bunch of necks from the general production line?? 

You can't see in the pics but there's some slight staining from the black in the grain, but I'll likely do it in tinted nitro or whatever so it'll look fine I'd think. 

It's just bare stripped wood at the moment. 

Acetone easily dissolves the paint they use on these necks btw. 

Edited April 27, 2023 by Waddo Soqable

[Twincam]

57 minutes ago, Ritsugamesh said:

 

Do you have a picture of yours with the stripped neck? I've got a USA SUB in white and have often found the painted neck to get a bit questionable after a long gig. It's definitely not leaving the collection so not afraid to mod it but would be interesting to hear/see the process/result! 

 

I also stripped the neck on mine but left the front of the headstock alone. It's very common for people to strip the back of the neck.

I then oiled the neck, during the stripping process I also tried to take a very very small amount of neck width off and a tiny amount of depth. Made it easier to play. But was still a bit to large for me. 

 

Mine didn't have any ugly looking wood either. And I don't think I've seen any with bad wood, actually maybe 1 on a us forum. Theres loads of info on these and people modding them over the years to trawl through.

You won't get any with flamed maple. Just very plain wood, which is OK to me. Even so it's better than the paint. 

Mine. Wish I kept it now! 

 

At work. Where I stripped it.

 

How they can look at the factory

 

 

Edited April 27, 2023 by Twincam

[Waddo Soqable]

41 minutes ago, Twincam said:

 

I also stripped the neck on mine but left the front of the headstock alone. It's very common for people to strip the back of the neck.

I then oiled the neck, during the stripping process I also tried to take a very very small amount of neck width off and a tiny amount of depth. Made it easier to play. But was still a bit to large for me. 

 

Mine didn't have any ugly looking wood either. And I don't think I've seen any with bad wood, actually maybe 1 on a us forum. Theres loads of info on these and people modding them over the years to trawl through.

You won't get any with flamed maple. Just very plain wood, which is OK to me. Even so it's better than the paint. 

Mine. Wish I kept it now! 

 

At work. Where I stripped it.

 

How they can look at the factory

 

 

Interesting, I couldn't leave the front of the headstock painted as my enthusiastic stripping with acetone sloshed on the corners so all had to go.... if leaving the paint on the HS obv. best to sand the edges ( with hindsight!) 

You clearly just sanded the paint off the body too by the looks, not that I'm particularly thinking of stripping the body or anything at the mo. 

What oil finish did you use on the neck btw? I might consider doing oil rather than laq. Ideally though it would darken or "vintage" yellow the whole thing a bit as it's very white as is. 

[Twincam]

9 minutes ago, Waddo Soqable said:

Interesting, I couldn't leave the front of the headstock painted as my enthusiastic stripping with acetone sloshed on the corners so all had to go.... if leaving the paint on the HS obv. best to sand the edges ( with hindsight!) 

You clearly just sanded the paint off the body too by the looks, not that I'm particularly thinking of stripping the body or anything at the mo. 

What oil finish did you use on the neck btw? I might consider doing oil rather than laq. Ideally though it would darken or "vintage" yellow the whole thing a bit as it's very white as is. 

 

Nothing else but 80 grit will make the finish come off. Especially the earlier version which I believe had a thicker application. 

Used a combination of boiled linseed and tru oil if remember rightly. Satin finish. Both oils tint then darken over a few days in sun. Not baking heat!

Note the nice Amber neck colour.

Was only a fairly thin finish as was the body paint. Wonder how the neck finish has held up. 

 

 

[Ritsugamesh]

1 hour ago, Twincam said:

 

I also stripped the neck on mine but left the front of the headstock alone. It's very common for people to strip the back of the neck.

I then oiled the neck, during the stripping process I also tried to take a very very small amount of neck width off and a tiny amount of depth. Made it easier to play. But was still a bit to large for me. 

 

Mine didn't have any ugly looking wood either. And I don't think I've seen any with bad wood, actually maybe 1 on a us forum. Theres loads of info on these and people modding them over the years to trawl through.

You won't get any with flamed maple. Just very plain wood, which is OK to me. Even so it's better than the paint. 

Mine. Wish I kept it now! 

 

At work. Where I stripped it.

 

How they can look at the factory

 

 

You've done a really good job there, very clean indeed! Agree that the unfinished neck looks miles better than 20 year old black paint that's seen too much action (at least is the case on mine!). 

 

I'd be tempted to do a slightly more reliced approach to the headstock transition personally, but mad respect for getting such a clean job done. I think I need to get researching on the best approach to sanding it down now, always get conflicting reports on grits, etc.! 

 

Cheers for the pics too, very enlightening and that looks like a lovely bass indeed. 

[Twincam]

3 minutes ago, Ritsugamesh said:

 

You've done a really good job there, very clean indeed! Agree that the unfinished neck looks miles better than 20 year old black paint that's seen too much action (at least is the case on mine!). 

 

I'd be tempted to do a slightly more reliced approach to the headstock transition personally, but mad respect for getting such a clean job done. I think I need to get researching on the best approach to sanding it down now, always get conflicting reports on grits, etc.! 

 

Cheers for the pics too, very enlightening and that looks like a lovely bass indeed. 

 

320, 500, 800 for the neck. By hand. Use a block on side of headstock you can tape both headstock sides and trim with a razor for added protection. I wanted to keep the originality of it being a USA subbass. But you could remove all the paint and apply a waterslide stingray decal. 

I also as mentioned sanded right to fingerboard/frets to take a tiny amount of width off. And roll the edges. I reprofiled, polished the fret ends. 

Easiest oil to use is boiled linseed. Takes a long time, days to apply even a finer finish. Just wipe it on and let it dry, first a few thin coats to let it soak in, then thicker coats can be applied. Not dripping off amounts!

Tru oil is good, much more durable, but can be messy and can go wrong but not in a bad way, but you would need to start again. Or of course lacquer it.