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Anyone else feel their Stingray Special neck is a bit unstable?

#21
Smallmouth_Bass said:
Is there any normal situation where this would occur in that a roasted neck would break whereas a non-roasted one wouldn't? I would imagine that if you're getting to that level of stress, roasted or regular is not going to help you! ;)
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I learned the hard way how brittle roasted maple can be when trying to install new tuners into a Charvel San Dimas roasted neck. The screws split/fractured the wood on the headstock even tho I drilled holes for them. Never had that happen on any other wood before. Was working at the same time with another neck made of maple (non-roasted) and one made of wenge and had no issues with hardware install.
 
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#22
Philthy said:
Does anyone else believe their Stingray Special neck to be a bit unstable? I have a 2018 Stingray Special 4 HH in dropped copper with roasted maple neck and fretboard. I'll have it set up to my liking (.012" relief, 7/64" bass side, 6/64" treble side - bridge pu 9/64" bass 8/64" treble neck pu string height) and by the end of a gig night (avg. 2 1/2 hrs of total playing time) it seems like my action has gotten higher. I measure the relief and the neck seems to have moved. I'll have to tighten the trussrod again before the next gig. I've never experienced this with my other Stingrays. Anyone else have this issue? Maybe it's just me and I'm going nuts. :roflmao: but I want to see if I'm not the only one. Not sure what I can do about it. Thanks.
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After Gig when you reset neck relief does it stay set until beginning of next Gig? Do you play it some between Gig's?

If the 'Wood is Wood' is accurate then nothing but New Neck seems a solution; even if you use thick high tension strings and heavy hand; same solution

or just accept and continue as usual[ not ideal] but if the bother of truss tweak after every gig is getting old well....
 
#23
Maxi Funkl said:
So in other words you have no evidence that can be proven scientifically. LMAO
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Yes I do. I personally have not fractured a roasted neck, but I have read scientific reports on testing the characteristics of roasted maple - density changes, chemical changes, modulus of rupture, etc.
 
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#25
Turnaround said:
Yes I do. I personally have not fractured a roasted neck, but I have read scientific reports on testing the characteristics of roasted maple - density changes, chemical changes, modulus of rupture, etc.
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Luthiers often characterize roasted necks as feeling, playing and sounding like a well aged instrument. Have you found the necks on older basses similar to work on and behave similarly to roasted necks?
 
#26
ale_vanlager said:
I learned the hard way how brittle roasted maple can be when trying to install new tuners into a Charvel San Dimas roasted neck. The screws split/fractured the wood on the headstock even tho I drilled holes for them. Never had that happen on any other wood before. Was working at the same time with another neck made of maple (non-roasted) and one made of wenge and had no issues with hardware install.
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Gotta wax them screws!
 
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#27
Philthy said:
Does anyone else believe their Stingray Special neck to be a bit unstable? I have a 2018 Stingray Special 4 HH in dropped copper with roasted maple neck and fretboard. I'll have it set up to my liking (.012" relief, 7/64" bass side, 6/64" treble side - bridge pu 9/64" bass 8/64" treble neck pu string height) and by the end of a gig night (avg. 2 1/2 hrs of total playing time) it seems like my action has gotten higher. I measure the relief and the neck seems to have moved. I'll have to tighten the trussrod again before the next gig. I've never experienced this with my other Stingrays. Anyone else have this issue? Maybe it's just me and I'm going nuts. :roflmao: but I want to see if I'm not the only one. Not sure what I can do about it. Thanks.
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In a word... No. Mine is a lefty '20 4HH Stingray Special, and strung with Galli JF4505 Jazz Flats. I do have to tweek the tuning every other day or so, but... it's no different from the 26 other basses I own. Well... not the aluminum-necked Kramers; nothing has ever seemed to bother those things... I like to keep the windows open as much as possible, and so - being Northern Indiana - the humidity goes up and down like a yo-yo. Hence the tuning tweeks... But, in the 4 years I've lived here? I've only ever had to adjust a truss rod once, after I did a "Re set-up" on everything I own, shortly after I got here. The climate here is Very different from the one in Las Vegas... But, that truss rod was not the 4HH's; it was the one in my German-made '17 Hofner 500/2 Club Bass. And, it only took somewhere between 1/8 and 1/4 of a turn, anyway...
So... sorry; don't know what to tell you. Maybe I just got a really good one, and - unfortunately - you didn't. In any case; the roasted Maple neck on mine seems to be very stable. Feels very good in my hand, too... :cool:
 
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#28
Philthy said:
Does anyone else believe their Stingray Special neck to be a bit unstable? I have a 2018 Stingray Special 4 HH in dropped copper with roasted maple neck and fretboard. I'll have it set up to my liking (.012" relief, 7/64" bass side, 6/64" treble side - bridge pu 9/64" bass 8/64" treble neck pu string height) and by the end of a gig night (avg. 2 1/2 hrs of total playing time) it seems like my action has gotten higher. I measure the relief and the neck seems to have moved. I'll have to tighten the trussrod again before the next gig. I've never experienced this with my other Stingrays. Anyone else have this issue? Maybe it's just me and I'm going nuts. :roflmao: but I want to see if I'm not the only one. Not sure what I can do about it. Thanks.
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Yes. Had mine sent it back to EBMM they "fixed it". I got it back with just setup to factory specs. Didn't address the issue at all. Billy Imperial sent me a t-shift and some strings to make up for it.

The was the 4th StingRay with a bad neck I had. 1st was a 90s Honey Burst the neck twisted 2 years after i got it and the warrant is only 12 mo.

2nd was a 2014 PDN (mahogany body in Neptune Blue) same thing, neck twisted. This one was at 13 mo but they covered it anyways

3rd was the neck through Starry Night PDN. Huge chips in the fretboard in 3 places. Bought from Sweetwater and Sweetwater fought them for me!

4th was a 2023 Special, bought from CME. Neck was twisted when I got it. Had a 30 day return. CME said to send it to EBMM for a fix and if there was still a problem they would accept the return past 30 days. EBMM just did a setup and sent it back warped and all. In the mean time the salesman I was working with at CME left and they said they had no record of his promise so I was SOL

I'll never touch a StingRay again except as firewood.

Good luck
 
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#29
All my basses will have their necks move around a bit depending on weather and temperature. It’s not a big deal, especially with Music Man’s truss rod wheel—I just tweak the truss rods a bit and off I go. In the past I have even done this in between songs on stage.
 
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#30
RevOgre said:
Yes. Had mine sent it back to EBMM they "fixed it". I got it back with just setup to factory specs. Didn't address the issue at all. Billy Imperial sent me a t-shift and some strings to make up for it.

The was the 4th StingRay with a bad neck I had. 1st was a 90s Honey Burst the neck twisted 2 years after i got it and the warrant is only 12 mo.

2nd was a 2014 PDN (mahogany body in Neptune Blue) same thing, neck twisted. This one was at 13 mo but they covered it anyways

3rd was the neck through Starry Night PDN. Huge chips in the fretboard in 3 places. Bought from Sweetwater and Sweetwater fought them for me!

4th was a 2023 Special, bought from CME. Neck was twisted when I got it. Had a 30 day return. CME said to send it to EBMM for a fix and if there was still a problem they would accept the return past 30 days. EBMM just did a setup and sent it back warped and all. In the mean time the salesman I was working with at CME left and they said they had no record of his promise so I was SOL

I'll never touch a StingRay again except as firewood.

Good luck
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Yikes!

I bought as new a 1991, and owned it up until last year. Loved the feel, and it sounded great, but I was always turning the wheel to correct the relief. I don't know if it was backing off or what, but it always needed to be tightened.

Wasn't there an old joke about the wheel being the "5th tuner" on a 4 string bass? 😅
 
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#32
I had a special 5HH, without the roasted neck, that had the same issue. I had to adjust the neck once a month. Between that and the weight, I didn't own it too long. Sucks, because it sounded incredible. My Bongos virtually never need neck adjustments.
 
#33
I have the exact same year and model EBMM Stingray Special in Charging Green. Same roasted maple neck and fingerboard. And yes, I too find that bass needs a little more adjustment than any of my other basses. It's not terrible, but certainly not as stable as I would expect it to be.
 
#35
My Special is from this year with a roasted neck and it hasn't moved to any noticeable degree since I got it. I suppose only time will tell what it will do, but I think that's the gamble with any piece of wood on any manufacturers guitar for the most part.
 
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#36
Maxi Funkl said:
Which sources?
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My go-to source for information like this is a publication from the Forest Products Laboratories Division of the Canadian Forestry Branch. It contains detailed measurements of Specific Gravity, Static Bending, Impact, Compression, Hardness, Shear, Clevage, Tension strength Perpendiculat to Grain, etc. for most commercial Canadian woods, maple included.

There are also a number of publications from The Forest Products Laboratories of the U.S Department of Agriculture and the Natural Resources Research Institute and a number of Universities.
 
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#37
I had a Stingray 5 about 25 years ago, and I could count on needing to adjust the truss rod when the seasons changed.
🎵"Winter, Spring Summer or Fall
The neck wasn't stable at all...
At least that truss rod wheel at the neck made it easy. That was a genius invention.
 
#38
All of mine have been very stable with exception of my 2018 Ray special. I sold it because I didn’t love the sound. It’s the only one I bought new and I loved the tone at first but I swear it slowly changed. Like it lost that snap. I tried new battery’s and pickups and changed the preamp out. Between that and having to adjust my neck every 2-3 months I couldn’t keep it.
 
#40
Maxi Funkl said:
Which sources?
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Since wood is used as structural components in many many engineering applications much more important than musical instruments, there is a LOT of published research out there about the materials properties of many types and treatments of wood products.

So a blanket statement like “X is more brittle than Y” is not far fetched.
 

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