drTStingray

It’s against the rules of that forum - calling other people’s expensive basses toilet seats is considered offensive. Those who call mine such names usually come into contact with the pointy headstock at some point or other - purely accidentally of course 😉 HOWEVER it should be noted it’s only bass players who have this toilet-type fetishy thing 🤣

What even this one??!!! Quite right too - one of the reasons I’m not a subscribing member here is the lack of infractions for such things 😀 mind you it has it’s upside - at least we can praise counterfeits (especially of Rickenbackers), refer to pre 1966 Fenders as the musical equivalent of early mechanised agricultural equipment - but beware of mentioning real Rickenbackers though 🤣🤣

Wow that’s a big bass - if it was a toilet seat all but the largest people would fall through it!!!! I was playing my white Bongo 5 at a jam session a couple of nights ago and the house bassist came up and made comments about the lavatorial nature of my bass - I pointed out the pointy headstock makes a superb ear wax remover if he cared to continue the conversation 😂😂🤣 he obviously hadn’t noticed the Bongo, in comparison to the comparatively weedy sounding passive basses being used by others, had enough bass EQ to rip his speakers out 👍😀😀 however I didn’t activate it for fear of structurally damaging the venue!!!! 😁 Enjoy the Bongo they’re great basses!!

The original Precision Special 5 string had a humbucker at the bridge. I tried one once but IMO it didn’t sound like a Stingray 5 - It had been offered by a retailer who didn’t have an SR5 at the time!!

Yes there was a massive hoo haa over this with literally hundreds of posts demanding a 19 mm spacing SR5. IIRC one was offered, one colour available, providing 50 orders would be received within a month. I seem to recall less than five (maybe four) expressions of interest were received - which goes to prove the old adage that internet commentators generally disappear once they’re required to do anything but……. internet commentate!! Go on any specialist forum and you’ll find plenty of people with sage advice for established companies on how to run their businesses better, or improve their product one way or another, this one is no exception (eg Rickenbacker; BBC/Jools etc etc). The suggested alternatives (Lakland, Fender Dimension) are good but also I understand a 19 mm spaced G and L can be ordered, which would also get you in the ball park, sound wise. Sandberg California can get similarish sounds (not sure what the 5 string spacing is). However another suggestion is to get an SR5 and simply get used to it (it doesn’t take much quite frankly). I play 4 string Stingrays (19 mm spacing) and 5 strings (17.5 mm spacing), and have no trouble interchanging one to the other - in fact I find playing intricate pieces (eg Teen Town) less challenging on the SR5. As with any 5 string, managing the left hand muting is a key to success, rather than string spacing. A 19 mm spacing 5 string makes for a significantly wide neck, which would be pretty difficult to play for me.

Yes alive and well!!! Although I must confess I’ve lowered the ramp a lot more recently.

Ah you finally got one 👍😀

Beautifully posed though eh (I think they had some sort of Gibson deal for a while) - fear not, Louis played a Precision, then a Stingray (and Sabre) and also an Alembic in the 70s- early 80s era. Some great bass parts in the book!! That pose is, of course, Musicman’s original symbol - appears on several albums (Louis with a Stingray, and a Precision at the start).

Merry Christmas all. This rather fabulous book by Stuart Clayton.

I bought/downloaded the iReal Pro app. Has transformed my ability to play jazz standards to chord sheets and other stuff. Has tons of other stuff as well for those moments when you get asked to play Stand By Your Man or Black Velvet and you can’t remember it. Highly recommended.

I think you’re right there aren’t many passive Subs - IIRC there was very little, if any difference in price - I recall one of the Denmark St shops having bought up most of the stock of Subs after they were discontinued, from the distributor - they were selling them at £420 each (probably 2007 or so). At around the same time, the store under the Virgin Superstore in Oxford St had a whole display of Musicman Sub guitars - the only time I’ve ever seen one. I have a long scale Tim Commerford signature passive - whilst slightly different electrically (neodymium pick up; series/parallel/single coil selector) I suspect it’s fairly similar in parallel mode to the passive Sub. Anyway it’s a very usable sound in a band setting although I do tend to favour the series setting as it’s a bit fatter sounding. The parallel gives a nice slap sound as well.

I loved his playing both with Canned Heat but especially John Mayall. I hadn’t realised until reading it recently that he had worked on some of the Wrecking Crew recordings - I believe Max Bennett also did.

Jerry Scheff Max Bennett Larry Taylor Robert (Pops) Popwell John Rostill Max Bennett is on loads of famous songs including (on DB) Fever, Peggy Lee; electric on work by the Crusaders and Gumbo Variations (Frank Zappa) - one of the first truly funky bass parts I ever heard. After the Shadows John Rostill played in the Tom Jones band, including in Las Vegas, contemporary with Elvis (who considered Tom Jones’s band to be the best). Some accolade when you hear Elvis’s band of the time - Scheff on bass is fabulous.

I watched your ‘50 years later video’ and I’m sure I heard some slappity slappity on that upright 🤔😀🤣

If you’re talking the B string resonating, I’ve found that raising my thumb on the back of the fretboard so that it just touches the top of the B string works, as does leaning the back of my right hand against the B string. Slightly less easy than slapping on a 4 string though!

Before I saw that explanation I’d thought of it as a Bernard Edwards Stingray sound - it seems the sample is based on that sort of sound. Something similar on quite a few tracks in the last couple of years including the latest single from Calvin Harris plus various others including Pharell - also Justin Timberlake. That sound works well on dance orientated music.

Yeah they are my favourite too - I like all the variants and have found ways of working with the pre Special 3 band to get really nice sounds from them.

The gold tops continued to be made through a lot of 1958 so there were comparatively few bursts made in the latter part of 1958 - they have a more chunky neck profile. 1959 is the only full year of bursts - they have a slimmer neck profile. Bursts are the only guitars with the top joint down the middle - stripped gold tops do not have the joint down the middle. The likelihood is the original now famous people who bought these bursts bought them as a nice looking Les Paul as a relatively cheap used guitar (it is thought the model was introduced to combat the sunburst Strat). Lasted till 1960 when replaced by the SG. There are plenty of articles available on the subject (on line and in print).

Interesting comparison at a recent jam session - 2010 Classic Stingray (TI flats, mutes on); 1960 Precision. Vast difference in current value - however I know which one sounded and arguably looked better…. the Ray has a stunning neck (birds eye and flamed). I don’t know the answer to the OP question but I do know I wouldn’t pay the going rate for the P bass!!

Those look very nice @Old Horse Murphy - love the sparkle Special. I’ve been using my Classic (which weighs in at 9.75 lbs) with TI flats also but with the mutes engaged. It makes some very nice sounds like that and would recommend giving it a try. I’ve used it quite a lot lately and am loving the sound. Having seen this thread I had a look at the Bass Bros site and noticed they have a rather nice late 80s/early 90s 2 band Stingray in white - must resist……..have too many Rays already!!

They tend to make a few one offs of Stingray Specials (over the last couple of years, left handed in both HH and H formats, SLO Special neck versions, and occasional BFR model Stingray Specials in fretless format - all have been available in the vault for international shipping). That seems to be the business model these days - standard models available (Stingray Specials with a decent range of colours) and anything slightly different is done in limited runs.

Considering it’s not long ago Fender was saying their sales were at record levels, one wonders what’s happening here - that will make a huge dent in production. That said, when I went to a branch of Guitar Guitar a couple of weeks back there were lots of Fender guitars and some basses parked in the shop, it was noticeable many were Player series and Vintera (and thus not Fender USA), and looking very nice too with some of the nice colours they offer. Perhaps the US range has hit a dip in sales? Interestingly there were a few Sterling by Musicman basses but no full fat US basses.

Correction on this - the Tim C signature was four models, two with active electronics (a long and a short scale) and two with passive electronics, series/parallel/single coil selection, passive tone control and cut/boost (a long and a short scale) - all the models have the retractable ramp and through body stringing with mute assembly. There were fifty of each made. I have a passive long scale from the series (that variant sold out within two or three days) it is natural ash with an ebony board - it’s sufficiently different from any other Stingray available, and also sounds great - it’s also very light (8 lbs). I quite like the original Joe Dart signature bass - which is a stripped down Sterling with select woods (conceived by Vulfpeck as a posh version of the cheap Robelli copy Musicman which Joe Dart used on a couple of recordings).

The reason for the Flea departure, I believe is his ‘advisers/lawyers’ wanted the bass (Stingray) renamed Flea. Although I’ve also heard it was because he wanted a graphite neck version - (which Musicman have only done once since the 80s - the NAMM 100 bass (100 made) - I’m still waiting patiently to get one of those - nearly happened once or twice but not yet 😀)

I believe select swamp ash body (they do virtually no basses in this material as it’s now a scarce wood); Select flamed maple neck with matched fretboard.