drTStingray

If anyone didn't doubt the public concern about this, try buying alcohol based hand cleanser currently - there isn't anywhere in my town that has any such has been the run on it. I think @Silvia Bluejay is right - the level of punters will drop. As for the government advice, they have already admitted it will be a balance between economic and health concerns - ie trying to avoid the fragile economy crashing - although I suspect that China being in lock down will achieve that worldwide anyway. I'm writing this sat on the train as normal at this time - difference today is NO ONE is coughing - which must be a first - I shall be avoiding hand rails etc - if I remember!! Anyway I would have thought with the demographic of this forum, most of us would at least qualify as elderly (at risk group)!!

Really???! It's probably one of the best bass designs around, hence posting it.

Just to remind you - here's mine - it's lava pearl (bright orange) and has a piezo also. I agree the bottom horn isn't the most comfortable when seated with the bass - but standing it's the most ergonomic bass ive ever played - super comfortable.

Is it just me or does the very long bass fill/link before the last chorus sound reminiscent of the second 8 bar pattern in Teen Town? I learnt the Four Seasons bass part (including that fill - which I've used elsewhere) when the song first came out but have only managed to learn and play Teen Town more recently - of all the phrases in it, that second 8 bars seemed the most 'natural' to play for me - probably because of knowledge of the Four Seasons track. Anyway it's a great bass part, as were many around that era - various tracks off Grease being great examples.

I had heard that the idea of battered basses had originated in Scotland 😁😂 (along with battered versions of other things - eg Mars bars).

I watched the classic album show and concert - both great and thoroughly evocative of that era. In the classic album show, they isolated a couple of the bass lines, which were very good - stated they were played on a Steinberger bass.

That G and L bass sounds great - especially with Ed Friedland playing it. Interesting that a lot of country players are using short scale basses. @dannybuoy the Stingray short scale is around/just over £2k, but the SBMM short scale Stingray is around £700.

I think where the confusion arises relates to the Musicman Bongo - the HH and the HS have the bridge humbucker in a slightly different place compared with the H version - that also has a 3 band EQ rather than 4 band on the multi pick up ones. In reality all of the Stingray, Sterling and (afaik) SBMM multi pick up variants have the bridge H in exactly the same position as the single H version. I found it very useful a year or so back getting someone to try out one of my HH Stingrays through my rig after a jam session, whilst I tweaked the EQ for each of the switch settings - it's remarkable what a different perspective you get facing the rig, and not actually being distracted by thinking about playing the bass at the same time - I learnt several useful tweaks from this!!

Congratulations, that's a great bass - I especially like that they have a white logo - the only non stealth bit of the bass. It should sound exactly like an SR5H (in parallel mode), with the blade switch closest to the bridge - that's tge classic Stingray sound. The only difference with an SR5H is you can switch to single coil or series. However yours has five settings - if you don't know, 2nd in from bridge is outer single coils (pumped up Jazz like sound), centre is both humbuckers (scooped like a Musicman Sabre - may need a bit of a mid range boost to cut through, but a fabulous sound - especially slap), 2nd from neck is inner coils - towards a P sound, and closest to neck is bridge H only - with a tweak of the EQ this can sound in an Alembic ball park. That's one very versatile bass you have there - I use my HH Stingrays all the time! 👍

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.