OLP MM4 Stingray bass - Stealthy £245 Chorley, Lancs., PR6

[ead]

Hi folks, for sale is my OLP bass in black with a BWB pickguard, a nice looking Rosewood board and black hardware (honourable exceptions being the jack socket nut and washer and the jack plate on the bottom of the bass; see below).  I think these were mostly made around 2006 in China under licence by Ernie Ball and were the forerunners of the SBMM bases.

 

My research would suggest that this is one of the 3rd series basses characterised by:

• Small bridge plate as on modern Stingrays, with studs flanking the saddles, as on Stingrays.
• The body edges have a smaller radius.
• Many black, silver and metallic blue finishes.
• Lots of rosewood fingerboards.
• Basswood body.
• No natural finishes to speak of, but quilt and flame top veneers appeared.
• The usual passive VVT controls.
• Necks stayed wide but relatively shallow profile (the nut width is 42mm)

 

The bass is in good condition as I hope you can see from the photos.  Black basses are a bit of a ‘mare for me to capture properly (so any tips welcome) and I’d be happy to produce more pics as required.

 

As is often the case, this bass has been modded or upgraded (depending upon your POV) as follows:

• The almost standard upgrade to fit a Retrovibe Stinger ’77 preamp.  This is one of the newer ones with smaller pots to allow more space for board and battery.
• Warman MM4 AlNiCo; there is plenty of info on the Warman website.  It’s a really nice sounding pickup imho and currently wired in parllel.
• I have hollowed out the control cavity a bit more to allow the battery and preamp PCB to fit more comfortably flat on the bottom of the cavity.
• The knobs are now Spector knobs.  Sorry I don’t have the originals, but I think these look way nicer.  Again YMMV
• The previous owner has created a hole for a jack socket on the bottom of the bass (please see the pics).

 

The bottom jack socket is not currently in use, but I was thinking about adding in the Artec QDD onboard overdrive unit (also for sale on here) and moving the jack there again.  Please check out the Low-End Lobster mod video for creating a budget version of the SBMM Dark Ray.

 

The bass comes fitted with D’Addario EXL170BT strings that are maybe 4 months old now and will come with a decent gig bag.  As with many of these basses, it weighs just over 4.3kgs according to my scales.

 

It’s a lovely instrument and only for sale as arthritis is starting to badly impact my playing so slowly (and painfully) getting rid of my gear that I have accumulated over the years.

 

Collection or meet up would be preferred, but I have suitable packaging so I can post this at cost; probably around £15 to £20.  Here are some pics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Monday at 14:26 by ead

[Grooverjr]

Sorry that you can no longer play the longer scales. It must be gutting because from what has come up from you over the last months you really do have a fantstic eye for a good-looking and interesting bass. Did you get a picture of all of them before they started to go? It could have made a great mini museum. 

[Steve Browning]

Excellent instruments and the Retrovibe Stinger is a brilliant preamp. GLWTS.

[ead]

4 hours ago, Grooverjr said:

Sorry that you can no longer play the longer scales. It must be gutting because from what has come up from you over the last months you really do have a fantstic eye for a good-looking and interesting bass. Did you get a picture of all of them before they started to go? It could have made a great mini museum. 

 

Thanks for the message.  I have got pictures of quite a lot of them and I did think of doing a (very) mini personal version of Geddy Lee's  Big Beautiful Book of Bass, but I am wondering what She Who Must Be Feared And Obeyed would do if it was ever discovered.  Most likely something injurious to my health and wellbeing.