- Feb 16, 2008
- 21,240
- 23,636
- Disclosures
- John K Custom Basses
for the last 7 years, my stingray just hasn't been getting used on gigs as much as it really should, due to it being such a heavy bass, weighing in a 10lbs 6 oz.
when i first bought it, being used to my early 1976 rays, i didn't care for the unfinished feeling necks on the new ones, so right after i bought the new one, i cleaned up the neck, sealed it and shot it with gloss nitro.to me, it felt much better that way, and besides having large frets, it totally reminded me of my vintage ones. it had a black pickguard on it, but i made a new one out of W/B/W.
in an effort to shave even a couple ounces off of it, i actually drilled 8 small (lightening) holes in the bottom of its four heavy brass knobs, and doing so lightened it by almost 2 ounces. still, a 10+ lb bass is just too heavy for me, both for my back, and tone-wise so i bit the bullet and bought a featherweight piece of swamp ash from a guy that buys from the same supplier as fender's custom shop to make a new body for it. (the stock stingray body, stripped of every component weighs 5lbs 9.4oz.)
here's a picture of the new swamp ash plank:
it is mostly one piece, with about a 1 1/2 lam on one side. the whole plank weighed 6lbs 9 oz.
i drew the outline of the MM body and indexed the centerline and neck mounting holes:
then cut it out on a band saw:
the new body weighs only 3lbs 14.9 ounces as it sits, and once the arm relief, tummy cut, pickup, neck, battery and control routes are finished, i expect it to weigh less than 3 1/2 pounds, and probably closer to 3 1/4. i really miss the versatility of sounds from my old sabre that i sold long ago, so on this one, i'm going to build it as an HH (using a duncan SMB4A for the other one)
i don't mind the look of one big black stingray pickup on a w/b/w guard, but i always thought that two of them on a white guard looks kinda hideous, so musicman sent me two new white pickup covers for it. i intend to shoot this body black too (only with nitro instead of poly).
anyway, next comes the routing & rounding of the body's edges. hopefully it'll be ready for paint in about a week.
when it's finished, i'm just going to transfer all the parts to the new body, and either sell the stock one, or keep it if i ever sell the bass (which is very unlikely).
when i first bought it, being used to my early 1976 rays, i didn't care for the unfinished feeling necks on the new ones, so right after i bought the new one, i cleaned up the neck, sealed it and shot it with gloss nitro.to me, it felt much better that way, and besides having large frets, it totally reminded me of my vintage ones. it had a black pickguard on it, but i made a new one out of W/B/W.
in an effort to shave even a couple ounces off of it, i actually drilled 8 small (lightening) holes in the bottom of its four heavy brass knobs, and doing so lightened it by almost 2 ounces. still, a 10+ lb bass is just too heavy for me, both for my back, and tone-wise so i bit the bullet and bought a featherweight piece of swamp ash from a guy that buys from the same supplier as fender's custom shop to make a new body for it. (the stock stingray body, stripped of every component weighs 5lbs 9.4oz.)
here's a picture of the new swamp ash plank:
it is mostly one piece, with about a 1 1/2 lam on one side. the whole plank weighed 6lbs 9 oz.
i drew the outline of the MM body and indexed the centerline and neck mounting holes:
then cut it out on a band saw:
the new body weighs only 3lbs 14.9 ounces as it sits, and once the arm relief, tummy cut, pickup, neck, battery and control routes are finished, i expect it to weigh less than 3 1/2 pounds, and probably closer to 3 1/4. i really miss the versatility of sounds from my old sabre that i sold long ago, so on this one, i'm going to build it as an HH (using a duncan SMB4A for the other one)
i don't mind the look of one big black stingray pickup on a w/b/w guard, but i always thought that two of them on a white guard looks kinda hideous, so musicman sent me two new white pickup covers for it. i intend to shoot this body black too (only with nitro instead of poly).
anyway, next comes the routing & rounding of the body's edges. hopefully it'll be ready for paint in about a week.
when it's finished, i'm just going to transfer all the parts to the new body, and either sell the stock one, or keep it if i ever sell the bass (which is very unlikely).
