Treb

This does punchy quite well... [attachment=209234:image (2).jpeg] Two NY804's, Tone Hammmer 350. A bit too loud for the living room.

[quote name='obbm' timestamp='1450450239' post='2932970'] Lakland Daryl Jones. [/quote] +1 The reason I bought myself a DJ4: smaller body and the really comfy neck. Warmoth has the dinky j body that is compatible with its necks, the difference in size isn't very large though. There is a graphic on their site showing the difference. Sadowsky J's are smaller, the Will Lee appears really slender. Avoid the UV range, ultra vintage in appearance and size. Dunno about the relative size of the Hamer Cruise basses. Anyone?

wow! nice one! does it sound as killer as it looks?

What I like about the DJ-Retro I have is that the bass is boost-only (I never saw a bass cut as useable), the pull bright pot adds sparkle yet no brittleness whatsoever, the semi-parametric mid is awesome for dialing in the mids right where I want to. Brilliant stuff!

Popular class d power amps are the 125asx2 and the 250asx2 from Icepower. Both come with a switched mode power supply, all on a single board. All you do is hook up mains power, connect to output and hook up a preamp to the input. For powering preamps there's a 24 volt aux power. I make it sound easy but that is basically what a lot bass amp brands do. Aguilar Tone Hammmer, Swr Amplite, Kustom Kxb500, GenzBenz, the GK MB stuff etc. Markbass however doesn't use these. What is both interesting and confusing is that amps using the very same module all get a different power rating from their makers. The amps with the 250asx2 modules are rated 500, 800 and even 900 Watts @ 4 ohms... Go figure.

Love the J-retro, John East clearly knows a thing or two about equalisation. He's quite a pleasure to deal with should you feel the need to contact him. Brilliant piece of kit, can't fault it.

Back in the day when I had my black Streamer Stage 2 the preamp was one of the things I didn't like about it. Sold the bass. John makes very good preamps, it might actually benefit from it. Go for it! Report back though.

Earlier this year, april-ish, there were two Slo Specials for sale @ essemusic.it. One is still on their website, a tangerine pearl Slo Special StingRay 4 HH, it must have been sold in the mean time as it is unavailable atm. My Sterling is also still viewable!

Nice one! You can get a StingRay with a jazz width neck, they are StingRay Slo Special basses. I bought a new Sterling this year, vintage sunburst rosewood fb. Took off the black pg and put a tort one on it. Looks and plays great. Not exactly like a StingRay but damn near a StingRay tone like you said. I really like the smaller body of the Sterling.

[quote name='Naetharu' timestamp='1439237491' post='2841220'] Its got a sort of Larry Graham vibe going on. [/quote] Yeah, either Larry Graham or Verdine White. Gold hardware, headless, coffee table wood, single cuts look clunky to me, +1 on Fodera 4 string headstocks being too big, 5 or even more strings, LEDs, pointy heavy metal shapes, Rickenbacker and Gibson basses, weird organic shapes, light brown rosewood (it needs to be dark brown!), soft basswood bodies, huge bodies (JayDee, Alembic, regular J-bass), sunburst on a headstock looks weird cool on bodies though,

Nice Sport Utility Bass ;-)

Listen to John Scofield's "Loud Jazz", "Blue Matter" & "Pick Hits Live". Now that's old skool StingRay tone! It made me wanna have a MusicMan. Bought a USA Sterling for the smaller body and narrow neck. The Sterling is kind of a more agressive StingRay.

Good luck making a choice... Do play one before buying, that Stingray sound can be very in-you-face. If you really want that sound go for it but remember, there is no substitute for da real thang.

Candy apple red... Yummie, but do you want a warm or cold CAR? Warm is over a gold base, cold over a silver base coat... Aaargh! Choices, choices...

LPB matching headstock. Pickguard parchment, cream or white perl. White perl usually matches with the block inlays nicely....

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1439144654' post='2840382'] A Sterling will also feel rather like a Jazz (certainly in terms of neck shape and playability) if that is what you like [/quote] I beg to differ. Got a Sterling and a Lakland DJ here. Nut width may be the same, but feel and balance is quite different. ymmv.

There's no substitute for the real thing. Buy a StingRay, a Sterling or a Sabre for that MusicMan sound.

[quote name='grenadilla' timestamp='1438634463' post='2836029'] lovely bass and Neptune is one of my favourite planets ! [/quote] I usually go for Uranus. Couldn't resist... Lovely bass BTW. Love those roasted maple necks!

The EBMM Sterling has parallel, single coil and series switching. The single coil mode is hum free by using a third "dummy" coil. Don't think that the parallel and series modes offer two vastly different sounds, it doesn't. Both sounds are signature MusicMan sounds, differences are small IMO.

My 2013 DJ4 in LPB gets a lot of love. Really comfy neck, great string action. Strung with DR Fat Beams and combined with its DJ Retro preamp it does "that J-bass tone" effortlessly. Great bass even if the finish on the neck is quite thin in places. Some would call that mojo...

EBS makes nice ones: pcf series in 10, 18, 28 and 58 cm. great patch cables for pedal board use, the flat connector allows positioning of the effects really close together.

A competent luthier will be able to tell you if it needs that kind of work. Dunno if it affects sound.

Properly applied an oil finish doesn't form a layer or coating if you will. Oil should be in the wood. Use of a polymerising oil makes sure the wood doesn't end up greasy or sticky. These oils are also knows as drying or hardening oils. These oils usually contain a mixture of tung and boiled linseed oil, some fragrance and additives that speed up drying time. The trick is to wipe off excess oil that the wood will not absorb. If you fail to do that you end up with a sticky mess. i have used such oils dozens of times. An unfinished maple jazz bass neck came out great. Rosewood fretboards likewise. These oils darken the wood a bit and as an added bonus make the wood grain pop up nicely.

I would clean it with turps, then apply a polymerising wood oil mixture. Something like Danish Oil or another tung oil & boiled linseed oil mixture with a cobalt catalyst. Remember an oil finish should penetrate the wood instead of forming a layer on top of the wood. Ebony being such a dense wood it probably will not absorb much oil if any at all. Ebony doesn't require a finish...

What a nice specimen you got there. Sterlings are great basses in all aspects, the signature MusicMan type sound is an acquired taste however. It might not suit in some settings as it is very much in-your-face. A wedding gig with a Sterling... You've got balls... :-)