Chinese Sting Rays

whered u find this?

 

They are everywhere. Brand name is OLP, you can get them at Musician's Friend.

 

I'm going to check them out today. In MD, about 1/2 mile from my home, is Victor Litz Music of Gaithersburg.

 

I tried a natural 5 with a maple neck (neck and board actually). I think that the passive deal is a mistake BUT you could buy the bass and customise it later.

A fretless version would be tempting.

 

Are these available in stores? or are they only available from Musicians Freind website? I have never heard of "OLP" as a brand name???

 

I was just at the GC in Natick MA during lunch checking things out and they had a bunch of 4's and 5's. I didn't get to plug in but I held a black 5 with maple board and played it acoustically for a minute. I wasn't wowed with it's unplugged tone and the neck felt chunky to me but when I have more time I'm planning to sit down and actually spend some real time with one. Just by looking you can tell that the hardware was cheap but at $299 for a 5 and $249 for a 4 that's to be expected.

Scored a brand new SKB 4 space roto rack for $59 before leaving though.

 

the UK distributor's info page http://www.stringsandthings.co.uk/olpspec.htm
says the body is either basswood for solid colours or elm for natural, as opposed to poplar/alder and ash on a real Musicman.

 

Tried a 4 and held a 5 briefly today.

The four was okay, it looks like a Stingray. The sound was okay, I'll chalk that up to whatever strings were on it (didn't like them). Adjusted the trussrod (very easy) got the action down and playability was fine. Nice workmanship, two way adjustable bridge, there were holes in the bridge, too, which could come in handy if someone decided they wanted to mod it for thru-body stringing. Overall not bad, for the price.

I briefly looked at a five. The string spacing was very narrow, even though it could have been much wider with the neck width available. The bridge doesn't adjust for spacing. Didn't plug it in.

These strike me as similar to the Toby Pros... they look like Tobiases but once you hold one you won't mistake it for one. I don't think anyone will mistake the OLP for a real 'Ray.

OT: this kind of reinforces why I like the MTD Kingston and Heir. Instead of making a lower priced bass that looks almost exactly like the flagship model, Mike designed something new... and quite nice IMO.

Spector, Ernie Ball, Gibson Tobias, Curbow, Conklin and now Lakland have cheapened their lines by making budget basses that look like the real deal. I think that's a bad idea. I doubt that we'll see budget Alembic Series II's or Sadowskys anytime soon. A budget Fodera would be a hoot.

 

And now they have started showing up on E-bay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1468989173

$499 BIN? Can be had brand new at GC for $299. Of course the seller is in Canada and I have no idea of the exchange rates. I hope that some kid doesn't get screwed.

The OLP Stingray is the MIM Fender of the next generation apparently, there is a large entry level market out there.

Jeff

 

These are probably dumb questions, but since I've never taken much interest in MM's and such, I don't know the answers.

Just two quick ones:

1) What does the acronym OLP mean?

2) What are the most prominent differences between a Sterling and a Ray?

 

Zoomboy! Good score on the SKB! At GC even!

 

Offshore Licenced Production

The main differences between Stingray and Sterling are body shape and electrics. The Sterling has a series/single/paralle switch. Just to confuse things the Stingray 5 has the same switch.

I like all 3

 

I like all three.. but of course for somereason i love the stingray 5

 

Couldn't agree more Brad. It's as if they're saying LOOKS are the most important feature of an instrument. Sure, it's nice to have a good looking bass. Some are absolute works of art. But at the end of the day when it sounds like sh*t no one's gonna care how pretty it is.

The funny part is that, for the price of an imitation crab meat lakland, you can get the real mccoy used.

 

Nah, the lowest end "Skyline Series" Lakland is selling for $699. The one with the USA electronics is $1119; again, actual discounted price. So both are still priced quite a bit under the real thing.

 

Thanks for the response CS

 

Not for $250!!!!

Active would easily add $100 to the price.

 

Check out the AMB-200 at www.aslindane.com

 

I just went to the GC store here in Minneapolis and played around with the OLP Stingrays. They did not have any 5's, but I plugged in on 2 of the 4's. There was a big difference in the sound from one to the other. One had a clear sound, and the other was very muddy (I am not a set-up expert, so it may just need some tweaking). The rep told me he hears that from people who try them out. I am used to my MIM Jazz, so the neck seemed big to me, althought the frets wer nice. No rough edges. The strings were like playing razor blades, very rough.
As far as the controls, the rep told me it has a master volume, a bass, and treble roll-off control. No pickup switching. I suppose for $249 maybe I was expecting to much...