EBMM StingRay Special Club

[KaseOfBass]

Hey everyone! I'm in the market for a 5 string - first off I'm very much a P bass kinda guy and have been trying to figure out the best 5 string for me. I've been lurking on this thread for a while and became convinced the Special might be the one for me. I notice my local GC had a 5HH in stock so i went this morning to check it out and it was pretty much everything i hoped and am now convinced i need to get one. My question for ya'll is H vs HH and finger/thumb rest positioning. Being a P bass player mainly, I like where my thumb rests in the middle to upper middle closer to the neck. Playing the 5HH I naturally rested my thumb on the neck pickup and wasn't feeling the placement of the bridge pickup for finger style. So I'm kinda thinking I HAVE to get a 5HH. Can any one chime in on this?

Also I liked the tone in the center with both pickups, felt more balanced and beefy than just the traditional bridge pickup solo'd, maybe another reason I have to get a 5HH over 5H. Would appreciate any thoughts!

PS - i realized that i was seated and that it might feel different than standing with a strap. so maybe that would be something to consider...

I'd think that an HH would be more up your alley. As far as position 3, yes, it's very meaty and fat. I wanted to love it and it's what I call the bedroom tone. For me, that position sounds great, excels at slap, but is just too scooped for my particular tone goals. Plenty of people use the HH basses in that setting though and it works just fine for them. There's no going wrong with either flavor of them, but the HH definitely has a wider choice of tones baked in. Since we're talking five-string basses, I found I could get a variety of tones with the H using the parallel/series+filter/series switch and adjusting the position of my fretting hand. If you like the StingRay 5 best in parallel mode, then the HH is definitely worth considering since it's entirely in parallel.

 

[Stranger Danger]

Here is some music I have done recently with my Stingray Special:

Dropbox - Back on the Train - Phish Tribute DFW - Demos - Simplify your life

And some videos:

Back on the Train - Phish Tribute DFW - Video

 

[Taustin Powers]

I'm going to play around with pickup height on my SS4H tonight. I find that the E and A strings overpower the D and G strings currently.

Never messed with pickup height. What's a good approach? Start out as high as possible, then lower until comfortable, and no string/pickup contact while playing? I assume, the smaller the distance to the pickup, the louder the string? So, lower on the E string side to fix my "problem"?

Thank for any pointers!

 

[mojomike001]

The neo magnets on the Special are very powerful. Most pickups, I shoot for an 1/8 inch space from the E and G poles with the string fretted on the last fret. On the special, I’d go with a bigger gap, perhaps somewhere between 3/16 and 1/4 inch. You will still have plenty of output.

 

[bdplaid]

does anyone recall what EBMM said it should be? EBMM says that the magnet pull can cause string buzz. I find a closer sounds better. I haven't had string buzz since i got my frets levelled. Bill Lawrence used to say pickup height should be the width of two nickels, and I usually start there.

 

[KaseOfBass]

does anyone recall what EBMM said it should be? EBMM says that the magnet pull can cause string buzz. I find a closer sounds better. I haven't had string buzz since i got my frets levelled. Bill Lawrence used to say pickup height should be the width of two nickels, and I usually start there.

"If you have a single pickup bass set the pickup height to 6/32" from the plastic pickup cover to the bottom of the G string. Adjust the bass side of the pickup to be parallel with the pickguard."

 

[HD007]

does anyone recall what EBMM said it should be? EBMM says that the magnet pull can cause string buzz. I find a closer sounds better. I haven't had string buzz since i got my frets levelled. Bill Lawrence used to say pickup height should be the width of two nickels, and I usually start there.

The neodymium magnets are much stronger than others so regular spacing doesn’t really apply.

If you email them they’ll send you specs or maybe someone has those

 

[HD007]

does anyone recall what EBMM said it should be? EBMM says that the magnet pull can cause string buzz. I find a closer sounds better. I haven't had string buzz since i got my frets levelled. Bill Lawrence used to say pickup height should be the width of two nickels, and I usually start there.

This is what they sent me for a 5 string:

 

[Stranger Danger]

I'm going to play around with pickup height on my SS4H tonight. I find that the E and A strings overpower the D and G strings currently.

Never messed with pickup height. What's a good approach? Start out as high as possible, then lower until comfortable, and no string/pickup contact while playing? I assume, the smaller the distance to the pickup, the louder the string? So, lower on the E string side to fix my "problem"?

Thank for any pointers!

What strings are you using?

 

[JaseOfBase]

I'm in search of a video of someone with flatwound strings on a Special...anyone?!

I just ordered a set of La Bella 760FS that I can't wait to try out but I would love to hear if anyone else loving their Specials with flatwounds?

I am still amazed with everything you can do with this bass. I am SO happy with my tone but I think Flatwounds are going to be the icing on the cake for the ultimate tone I am searching for.

 

[bdplaid]

I used the EB cobalt flats and liked them a lot. They're not really "flat" sounding flats, but they are really good on this bass.

 

[wurmhole]

Well I made it through the first 150 pages of this thread by the time my new 4HH arrived. I guess I'll go ahead and check in. Now back to learning all of my Dead tunes on a new axe. This is my first grown up instrument after gigging for 20 years with an Ibanez Soundgear extreme.

 

[Pagorn Suebwong]

View attachment 3084920 View attachment 3084919 In! This is the best made instrument I’ve ever played or owned.

Yes I agreed

 

[Pagorn Suebwong]

View attachment 3085014

I like to have one like this.

 

[Pagorn Suebwong]

Well I made it through the first 150 pages of this thread by the time my new 4HH arrived. I guess I'll go ahead and check in. Now back to learning all of my Dead tunes on a new axe. This is my first grown up instrument after gigging for 20 years with an Ibanez Soundgear extreme.
View attachment 3514827

Nice bass.

 

[Taustin Powers]

What strings are you using?

DR Steel Lo Riders, 45‘s

 

[pertyman]

DR Steel Lo Riders, 45‘s

I use DR Lo Riders on all my basses, but on the Special they buzzed extra for some reason.
I switched to the Cobalts, same grudge, and they buzzes much less and sounds great.

 

[bovinehost]

I'm in search of a video of someone with flatwound strings on a Special...anyone?!

No video but I strung my 5H up with Cobalt Flats. My band needed a 'proof of concept' for something I wanted to do live, so I made a quick demo for them:

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THis is not technically challenging bass work. I do know that. And it was just me on everything so don't expect any of the other instruments to be really impressive. It was just to show the band how it would/could work.

But that's a 5H with Cobalt flats. No matter what, the TONE is good, eh?

I think I took a line out from a LittleMark II and that was about it. Maybe a little compression. Certainly nothing fancy.

Jack

 

[Taustin Powers]

Turns out I had to lower the pickup to get a more even response. Much better now!

 

[Taustin Powers]

Also, turns out there is one thing I don't like about the Stingray after all - the bridge! Or rather, the fact that it's string-through. Putting on new strings is more comfortable on "open" bridges.

That's it though. That's my only niggle!