Am I ever glad I didn't sell off my Stingray... gigged her last night

There is nothing better than getting great results from a bass you already own.

 

Seems like you could raise the pickup under the D and G strings to improve the level of them. But if you are happy with the current solution, so be it.

Otherwise, yes, that's a rockin' bass! I have a Precision and a Jazz and I love them both. And I play them when the employer (contractor of the gig, recording artist/producer, etc) request me to do so. But my Stingray has been my go-to bass for 16 months now. And I wish I had gotten one a long time ago. But no matter, I have one now.

Enjoy!

 

95% of the time I don't need to see the edge of the fingerboard; but shallow or not, I gig primarily with a maple-board bass most of the time because they're easier to see in the dark (I must be getting old...). The rosewood-board basses only come out in the daylight or somewhere I know I will be able to see them.

 

I recently got a maple board Sub ray, as I wanted a MM for a while, and I only had my P bass as a maple board at the time. They really put out a lot of sound, and the neck works really well for me.

 

A friend of mine has one from the mid 80's. Still sounds great. He plans to keep it until the day he dies.

 

that's the same reason I don't like rosewood boards.

 

Funny, I never use my Ray at home but it's my go to bass for playing out. played that style of music in a very successful cover band for about 6 years. Went through many basses but always thought my Stingray fit best.

 

NOTHING like a stingray. They will always be my go to. I can't make them sound bad. (well, unless I hit a wrong note.. which happens way more than I'm willing to admit)

 

Love it!!! My first "real" bass was a '79 MM that was a loaner from my Uncle.......then an '82 which I received mint in '96 (best Christmas present ever..thanks dad!) and proceeded to beat the piss outta her on the road. She is now retired and has just enough fret life to be playable I would never sell her.......moved to a 5 string after I retired the MM.

 

I have a 97 Sterling with 3EQ...definitely a different bass, but interesting you mention the weak D and G because I have that too. I put flats on it and the D and G came to life.

Now I'm thinking of getting a jazz bass to use for the roundwound must-have situations and keeping flats on the MM full time. I'm worried that I'll keep buying dedicated roundwound basses and decide they all sound better with flats!

Would you say your Fenders are more even with rounds?

 

For some reason this didn't get results for me, just got to the point where it was clipping out a bit. Aside from the flats I've just had to deal with it by adding compression and playing softer a la Jeff Berlin style which is actually not how I prefer to play. I can dig in a lot more since I put the flats on and get a robust sound.

 

There ya go, then. (LOVE Jeff Berlin!)

 

The way to fix that is to unscrew the pickup,flip it over,and push the D and G string pole pieces out a bit. There is a video on youtube on this. Easy fix.

 

I dont notice a weak d or g on my rays. I wonder if the years matter? Im sure ebmm got wise to the weak string output and tried to fix it some how right? Comparing my classic ray and my 3 band they made alot of changes over the years. The only one I wish they would have kept was the string through bridge with the mutes. In my opinion it looks alot cooler.

 

You have everything with that bass - the individual 2eq Stingray sound, that bite and zing that cuts through the mix. Nothing not to love!

I had a similar experience on Saturday - After gigging my Enfield quite a lot recently, I took my new Fender Rascal out on a job with the Classic Sabre. I loved how the Rascal fitted in, but switching to my Sabre for the second set just blew everything away - The massive wall of tone and the gritty top end sparkle just brought a smile to my face.

I've experienced the weak G syndrome on previous Stingrays, but my Sabre thankfully doesn't suffer from that issue.

 

Is that some kind of green? (like sherwood or something) That bass looks a-w-e-s-o-m-e!!!!

 

I wish I would have thought about that. I bought a Stingray back in '79 and I loved it. Use to play full time, 4 sets a night and the on board EQ came in very handy when going between finger style or when using a pick. Learned to get a good balance. But yeah, no matter what I tried that G string was almost non existent which was weird considering how much kick the other strings had, including the D string.

Have they fixed that problem? I've read yes and no.