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Douglas Stingray copy

#43
king_biscuit said:
It looks to me, from the pictures above, that on the cheapie knockoff, the stings run right across the center of the pickup pole piece magnets for all four strings. On almost none of the real EB basses do the strings runs directly across the center of all pole piece magnets (the G and E/B strings are almost always right across the very edge of the magnet; this is even more pronounced on the two pickup basses (go to the basscentral site and look at some picture of two pickup stingrays if you don't believe me). Compare the E string on the Douglas above to the gray Bongo 4 in Bovine's post. The 20th Ray 5 is pretty close, and all EB basses should look like this. You might argue that its only aesthetic, but so is a bad pait job. I happen to think that it can affect the tone and volume of some of the strings, and is part of the reason for the weak g string some experience on Stingrays.

Hey, I have a few Rays, and I love them too, but this bugs me. I'm sure the Douglas is worth about $100.00, though, and nowhere near the quality of the real thing.
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My Bongo 4HH has the strings and polpieces in the typical MM alignment but it doesn't really effect anything and since a string's excursion doesn't take it outside of the magnetic field, it won't.
 
#45
Rumblin' Man said:
My Bongo 4HH has the strings and polpieces in the typical MM alignment but it doesn't really effect anything and since a string's excursion doesn't take it outside of the magnetic field, it won't.
Click to expand...

Unless you slightly bend a string. Hey, I love EBMM basses too, but they should have made a more narrow pickup -- like other companies do -- for the neck position.
 
#50
Unless you slightly bend a string.
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Really? I can be pretty aggressive and have been known to bend and flog strings pretty good, and I have NEVER - in thirty years of experience with Stingrays and those that came after - had a note fall dead away because I'd bent it out so far away from the magnetic field.

But I can't hear the difference between batteries either, so there is that.

king_biscuit said:
And you can tell none are made by EBMM because the strings are centered over the pickup pole pieces on those instruments. :smug:
Click to expand...

It's easier than that, really, to tell - they're the ones I don't play.
 
#51
bovinehost said:
Really? I can be pretty aggressive and have been known to bend and flog strings pretty good, and I have NEVER - in thirty years of experience with Stingrays and those that came after - had a note fall dead away because I'd bent it out so far away from the magnetic field.

But I can't hear the difference between batteries either, so there is that.



It's easier than that, really, to tell - they're the ones I don't play.
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Shouldn't you be posting on the problem with my Bongo thread? ;)
 
#52
king_biscuit said:
Shouldn't you be posting on the problem with my Bongo thread? ;)
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bushandsquirrel.jpg
 
#55
If the polepiece alignment of pickups was such an issue, than how do you explain this?

267971.gif


:eyebrow:

Must be a horrendous bass.

My Bongo's polepieces didn't line up *perfectly* with the strings, but no amount of bending (within my capabilities) could take them out of the magnetic field enough to cause signal loss.
 
#56
82Daion said:
If the polepiece alignment of pickups was such an issue, than how do you explain this?

267971.gif


:eyebrow:

Must be a horrendous bass.

My Bongo's polepieces didn't line up *perfectly* with the strings, but no amount of bending could take them out of the magnetic field enough to cause signal loss.
Click to expand...

Well, that is a different pickup design all together, and part of the design (for the RB Fender) requires that the strings are in between the pole pieces; so this bass looks ok to me. And all of the strings are uniform with respect to the pickup.

I am holding my Stingray 4 H right now, and if I bend the g-string up a whole step at the 12th fret there is a noticible volume drop -- hey big deal right. I love my Rays -- I have a few too :)
 
#57
Let me say this again before Bovine sees this :) I love Stingrays! I just wish EB would have narrowed the neck pickup on the two pickup models. I have three Stingrays at the moment, and I have had many over the years -- killer basses!
 
#60
king_biscuit said:
Well, that is a different pickup design all together, and part of the design (for the RB Fender) requires that the strings are in between the pole pieces; so this bass looks ok to me. And all of the strings are uniform with respect to the pickup.
Click to expand...

;)

I am holding my Stingray 4 H right now, and if I bend the g-string up a whole step at the 12th fret there is a noticible volume drop -- hey big deal right. I love my Rays -- I have a few too :)
Click to expand...

You do a whole-step bend at the 12th how often?

If you do this commonly in performance, then I can see how it might be an issue, but if you're just doing it for argument's sake, then that's a pretty sketchy basis on which to say that polepiece alignment is an issue.

It's not the same bass, but the amount of movement required to attempt a whole-step bend popped the G-string out of the saddle on my Alembic, and I didn't even get the full bend, so I'm not sure how possible it is on other basses, but it's certainly difficult.
 

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