drTStingray

I have checked mine - it's just over 42 mm - and so are a 2003 rosewood board and a 2004 maple one. However they all have rounded off edges and are hand finished so the neck profile may vary marginally. Im not sure whether the Specials have a slightly flatter profile - if so its marginal but the thing that stands out is the smoothness of the roasted maple with oil and wax finish - they really do feel great. The neck profile and width was always a big plus for me right from the 70s - it seemed to fit (me) far better than the Precisions I tried, which seemed more clunky in comparison and certainly the ones with the wider neck profile. I still think it's an area where Musicman set the benchmark - the Specials have particularly nice necks to play.

My SR4HHS has an ebony board - the neck doesn't feel any wider than my 2007 SR4HH - the finish makes it even smoother to play. I'll measure it when I get home and let you know but to be honest, it's as comfortable if not more comfortable to play than my other Stingrays. There are some SLO spec ones available in the EBMM Vault - not sure if those instruments are available outside the US though.

I really enjoyed that. Superb sound and rendition of the songs - great bass playing. Im a Level 42 fan, having seen them in every decade (except 2020s), starting in 1983. I would definitely watch your band. And remember, the Average White Band brass section was called the 'Dundee Horns' - and are very cool and accomplished musicians!

Of course, they had many many appalling prejudices but their main objection would surely have been brain scramble caused by the requirement to follow music which is based around clapping on beats 2 and 4 rather than 1 and 3 (with the customary raising of one leg to be horizontal to the ground on beat 1. Down on beat 2 and repeat with the other leg, beats 3 and 4. This issue still occurs on main land Europe (without the leg movements) - I well recall a TV programme which showed a famous British rock band (may have been Queen in early days, but I can't remember) doing a breakdown in a song in which they tried to get the audience to clap on 2 and 4 - the lead singer and part of the band all clapped to get the audience in mind - when they stopped, the audience reverted to 1 and 3 after, hmmmm, about 2 bars. The band repeated the same process two or three times and eventually gave up in a quite comic and ironic way, continuing with the song with the whole audience clapping on 1 and 3 😂 As with everything else, the Nazis appear to have trumped up a series of 'rationalisations' to justify appalling inhuman behaviour, when in reality it was rooted in racial hatred and musical brain wiring rejecting off beat music (rather than marching music).

Nope my fault - I derailed it 😧 Look forward to your posts, thank you 👍😊

Aha - you're at NAMM - would you be able to post some nice pics for us please - especially the Musicman/SBMM booth - especially the short wheelbase SBMM Stingray 😯 I have heard Rickenbacker have a novel and impressive booth (but would understand etc etc 😉), and the Warwick and Sadowski by Warwick (SBW) booths are mightily impressive also. Anyway any pics would be welcome thanks 👍😊

Nor me - I suspect any problems may be related to additional 'traffic' caused by NAMM related viewing and posts. Or maybe some 'foreign actors' are bombarding the Internet in the US. This term always reminds me of Omar Sharif or Walter Matthau.....

Yeah I think so - best way to check (I think it's basically the same as the full fat MM version in that respect), email EBMM customer services and ask them in respect of the Stingray short scale.

The covered ones do, yes - not sure on these first production ones. They also had issues with the neck pick up pulling the strings - I thought they were Stingray spec pick ups. Gav's site may help and if not he'd be sure to know. http://www.musicmanbass.global/ Nice bass btw - look great in sunburst

Same as the regular Stingray Ray 34 I'd guess. Quality of tuners, maybe other hardware and the fact it's made in Asia. Otherwise probably similar enough to not notice, if you're on a budget. Not sure they do the oil and wax neck finish neck on these and the Ray 34. Re the passive boost, people on Talkbass have described it as like running in a 'cut' mode (though still powerful enough) on normal and the boost gives you enough to stand out where necessary (eg a solo). How it's achieved have been discussed at some length esp on Talkbass.

SBMM have announced quite a few new items for NAMM but this caught my eye - pretty colours as well in daphne blue and Olympic white. https://intl.sterlingbymusicman.com/pages/stingray-short-scale

I'm reasonably sure those pick up covers are the same as each other and the same as the current Stingray Classic (black version) - if you email EBMM Customer Services they may be able to supply a new one. However you need to note it's the early Sabre neck pick up with exposed pole pieces as opposed to the more usual covered version.

Nice colours for the short scale Stingray. Also quite an interesting article on basswood on that link as well, along with the Joe Dart bass.

Even James Jamerson used a fretless Precision on at least one recorded track - as they recorded so much and on an industrial scale you can bet he used it on more than one even if some didn't see the light of day!! PS best of luck with it - I like playing fretless on this stuff and it does sound good - people like Pino were largely playing Fretless on R and B - also Jaco.

That's an annoying experience. My experience with new bassss is very different. Ive bought 7 Musicman basses new over the years. These have come via 4 different dealers, one from Scotland, and one collected straight from the distributor. They were all factory ordered and sight unseen. Of those five came straight out of the shipping box and all seven were set up perfectly well from the factory to play. I tweaked some of them marginally to suit. I was very pleased with all of them and prefer in some respects buying a new instrument - there's a parallel with a brand new car for me. I suppose if a bass is kept in a shop window (which I have seen happen many times) it's likely it will be subject to environmemtal conditions which might screw up the set up. Similarly something that has been on a shop wall or out on a stand in a shop for many months may have similar issues. However the same can be true of a used Bass guitar - the only (marginally) unplayable bass I've ever encountered in a shop was a vintage Bass which had such a ski ramp in the neck a number of frets didn't work - however I was told by the shop owner it could easily be fixed ........... which begged the question why they hadn't bothered to and expected a customer to find out 😯

The early 90s ones have sharp edges to the pick up poles but from about 96 on have rounded edges - the Stingray Specials have pole pieces which are completely flush with the cover. Just lowering the pick up a little tends to avoid contact and clicks as a result (I developed this issue on my SR5 - very noticeable on solos and resulted from me resting my thumb on the B string at the pick up - lowering the pick up marginally resolved the issue). Putting tape over the poles also works.

I don't doubt that - however my understanding was the US recording industry at that time had more of a problem with the whole ethos of British Beat Groups - boy bands effectively - I think Dave Clark Five was also one of them - I think Motown was a slightly different audience. Record volume no doubt played it's part but only one element.

Much as I love Jamerson's bass playing, Signed, Sealed Delivered and Inner City Blues remain two of my favourite songs and both have Bob Babbitt on bass. From a UK perspective, volume wars on singles on juke boxes would have featured few Motown singles (probably half a dozen) until the very late 60s - the Beatles possibly had that many singles in the charts at the same time in the early 60s. They were in competition with bands like the Hollies, Herman's Hermits and other acts like Lulu and Tom Jones. Motown was very obviously important but let's get things in perspective. We all noticed the bass playing (even though it wasn't very audible to us at the time).

It should be possible to get this to sound acoustically. You pluck all three notes as harmonics at once, so you'll need three on the fretting hand as well - then slide the pattern down the strings - I press the strings down slightly whilst doing that. I found getting hold of a transcript of Portrait of Tracy (Jaco) helped a lot in learning harmonic techniques - although it took me about a year to learn to play it - and I had to substitute some notes because I don't possess very long fingers and there are one or two extreme stretches!! Pino's Fretless was really a follow on from Jaco as applied to pop and (as Jaco) R and B, and also rock. Great feel and choice of notes though - and such groove!!

I play it as an F7 shape (F on 8th fret, A string; A on 7th fret, D string; and Eb on 8th fret, G string) - play as harmonics and lightly press the strings as you slide down the fretboard, followed by a Bb note at fret 1, A string. Im not sure what those harmonic notes actually are but on Fretless it sounds authentic to me. Slid harmonics work on fretted Bass but not nearly so well as Fretless.

That all may be but I was merely commenting on the lack of development of attitudes of certain demographics over a period of many years to gender confusion (possibly extending to sexual preferences). In other words, some people demonstrate the same prejudices of previous generations, which I find very surprising. Frankly to me in 1981 it didn't really matter because it was a good song - no doubt an interesting point of discussion for the old farts at the time, and used as another reason for them to conclude pop music (in 1981) was crap compared to the good old days (I seem to remember they were Rolling Stones and James Last fans).....

Agreed - generally you can make a fretless sound like a fretted. They are certainly the same instrument as far as the role of a bass/bass guitar is concerned, so I think the OP is wrong. Dependent on the bass, even thumb slapped playing can sound fretted. A Stingray will achieve this with a skilled player. Eg Pino with Paul Young (a good example is the performance on Live Aid). However there are several things you can do on a Fretless which can't really be done on a fretted - various levels of mwah, step less glissando (especially downwards) and slid harmonics (even in chords - a good example can be heard in Pino's work on Wherever I Lay My Hat is My Home - Paul Young - there's a slid decending 7th chord played in harmonics) Mwah can be controlled by playing style and intensity from very subtle to totally in your face - also mid range plays a big role in how much or little you can achieve - having a mid control on your Bass EQ can help you with this significantly. The main difference between a fretted and Fretless bass is the need for playing accuracy on a Fretless to play in tune. Even the slightest variation can be very audible. I think most people find this when they first try Fretless bass guitar. I play both (in the same bands) but more usually fretted. I did use my Fretless as my main Bass in a particular band for several years. Fretless can be great fun - well worth the effort, and can sound great.

I agree with this with the exception of the timeframe. I still recall going into work the day after Culture Club's first appearance on TOTP (about 1981), and the talk of the over 50 yr old males was what sex George was, along with a load of expletives about the BBC putting rubbish on the tele. Interesting to see, as @skankdelvar has so clearly observed, that such attitudes (amongst certain demographic groups) haven't changed in at least 55 years, if not longer. I wonder what Darwin would think!!!

Lawrence Llewelyn Bowen?? 😬

He seemed OK to me squire!! 😂