EBMM StingRay Special Club

[Pet Sounds]

Yours is Amethyst Sparkle?

Im pleased either way. I dont get along with ash. I prefer alder and basswood and mahogany. Ernie Ball uses good wood. No one had issues with their Basswood Bongos. I have no issue with my Basswood Pbass. No dings and no stopped out screws. Mine is a 2010 and the best Pbass I've ever owned.

Do you play out a lot with your Amethyst? How has it withstood gigging, if so? I haven't played out with mine yet, though I practice with it at home a lot and still love it.

 

[LadyLoveStingRay5]

Do you play out a lot with your Amethyst? How has it withstood gigging, if so? I haven't played out with mine yet, though I practice with it at home a lot and still love it.

All of my playing is at home or local ministry related. its not likely to be Road worn so to speak. Doors are opening to do some traveling but I am confident it will hold up just fine.

 

[Pet Sounds]

All of my playing is at home or local ministry related. its not likely to be Road worn so to speak. Doors are opening to do some traveling but I am confident it will hold up just fine.

I'm super careful with my basses while gigging, but stuff happens. I've read that basswood is susceptible to dings, but I've never had a basswood bass. (Until now?)
I play a P-Bass with flats in a Motown band, which of course works great. I'm also in a horn band now but haven't gigged with them yet. So far, I've been using a P-Bass with rounds and a Jazz Bass in rehearsals.
That said, I could see myself just going with my Specials in both groups for a variety of reasons, including weight.
Part of me will die when I inevitably put a ding in my Amethyst !

 

[PrimitiveMan]

I'm super careful with my basses while gigging, but stuff happens. I've read that basswood is susceptible to dings, but I've never had a basswood bass. (Until now?)
I play a P-Bass with flats in a Motown band, which of course works great. I'm also in a horn band now but haven't gigged with them yet. So far, I've been using a P-Bass with rounds and a Jazz Bass in rehearsals.
That said, I could see myself just going with my Specials in both groups for a variety of reasons, including weight.
Part of me will die when I inevitably put a ding in my Amethyst !

Basswood is definitely softer, but the finish on top of it is pretty durable. I'm bumped my aqua sparkle a few times and haven't dented it yet!

And who knows for sure what wood is under the finish.

 

[dave64o]

@LadyLoveStingRay5, have you tried asking your question about the body wood on the Amethyst Sparkle Stingray Special on the Musicman Basses Forum? I know I've seen some animosity toward the other on both sites, but there's probably a better chance of getting your question answered there than here.

 

[monkeyfinger]

Basswood is definitely softer, but the finish on top of it is pretty durable. I'm bumped my aqua sparkle a few times and haven't dented it yet!

And who knows for sure what wood is under the finish.

I believe the first two years, which include aqua sparkle, used swamp ash bodies.

 

[LadyLoveStingRay5]

Basswood is definitely softer, but the finish on top of it is pretty durable. I'm bumped my aqua sparkle a few times and haven't dented it yet!

And who knows for sure what wood is under the finish.

Had one. Ash!!

 

[LadyLoveStingRay5]

@LadyLoveStingRay5, have you tried asking your question about the body wood on the Amethyst Sparkle Stingray Special on the Musicman Basses Forum? I know I've seen some animosity toward the other on both sites, but there's probably a better chance of getting your question answered there than here.

Nah. I enjoy everything about the bass. I was just curious but not to the point that it really matters . I’m not ever selling mine.
I just know what works for me in woods and wanted to confirm that mine was probably mahogany, alder, or basswood. I’ve never kept any ash bass I’ve owned including a Special 5HH Aqua Sparkle. They lack the mids that I prefer.

 

[Stranger Danger]

Nah. I enjoy everything about the bass. I was just curious but not to the point that it really matters . I’m not ever selling mine.
I just know what works for me in woods and wanted to confirm that mine was probably mahogany, alder, or basswood. I’ve never kept any ash bass I’ve owned including a Special 5HH Aqua Sparkle. They lack the mids that I prefer.

That’s why they put the mids knob on them!

 

[DrGroovenstein]

Thanks to TI Jazz flats and Jazz rounds, I have fallen in love with very low tension strings.
I changed out the Cobalt flats on my Special 5 from the standard tension set and stock Slinky round on the low B to a custumized cobalt flats set today.

I had to special order a single low B and the super light cobalt flat 4 strings set. My other set was over a year 1/2 old. Purple wraps were just bout done.
I’m on love with both the sounds and the feel!!!

Cobalt flats are a match perfectly with a Special and the low B is better than the stock Slinky Round.

what gage and how did you order the custom string? I love the sound of the cobalt flats on my Special 5HH, but not the tension.

 

[LadyLoveStingRay5]

what gage and how did you order the custom string? I love the sound of the cobalt flats on my Special 5HH, but not the tension.

Slinky Flatwounds 40-95 ( These are the renamed cobalt flats)

Single 130 low B.

You have to order through your local Ernie Ball dealer. I tried direct and was told I had to order through dealer. I could not find any in stock at the usual online string sources.

I have a local Mom and Pop that was able to have the single string in a week along with a set of short scale super slinky for my short scale StingRay.

The other set of Slinky Flatwounds 40-95 I had to ordered through SweetWater. They were out of stock at Ernie Ball. It was the last set. 3 people had it in cart but didn’t check

It has not been easy getting strings lately. But it was well worth the hunt.

 

[dave64o]

Wow, something happened last night I didn't think could happen. We had a three set gig, as usual I brought two basses with me, as usual one them was my beloved 2007 SR5HH, but I played the entire gig WITH THE OTHER BASS!

Why post that here? Because the bass that I used for all three sets was my recently bought Special 5HH. I always bring two basses and one has always been my 2007. About half of the time I use both and pick which one would better suit the songs in which set, but the other half of the time I just use my 2007 with the other bass being there as a backup because, well, I just love that bass. But last night the unthinkable happened.

To be fair to the 2007, I did intend to use it for at least one of the three sets, but after the first one, I decided to test the Special on the full variety of our song list for the night - some rockers, some blues, some blues rockers, some jazzy songs, a few pop-ish songs, and a couple of ballads. What I noticed included:
- All five pickup selections have the same basic character as those on my 2007, which I was hoping for.
- The lower weight (8.3 pounds vs. 9.5 pounds for my 2007) is definitely noticebale. We only played three sets instead of our usual four, and I'd guess the difference would have been even more noticeable after a four set gig. Very comfortable to play.
- The one song my wife recorded sounded a little ... less beefy?... than I hoped. However, this was one of the smallest bars we've played and I remembered that I purposely set the HPF on my amp pretty high (at about 70 Hz) to avoid overwhelming the room. So I'll want to pay close attention to this the next few places we play to see if I get the same impression. One of them is a outdoor festival next month, so that will give me a great opportunity to not care much about room boom and to just enjoy all the beef I can get from my basses and my amp/cabs - as long as there's no threat of rain. If there is, then I'm bringing the "beater"/backup gear.
- I've been enjoying the Elixir Nanowebs the previous owner put on it - enough to have just bought two packs of Nanowebs, thinking I'd put at least one of those sets on my 2007. My current plan is to replace the Chromes on my 2007 with Nanowebs and replace the Nanowebs on my Special with Chromes, thinking the string change would widen the tonal differences between the two basses. But I do want to hear how this bass sounds at a couple more gigs before making a decision.
- I posted pictures of my Stingrays with the wooden Revo straps that I initially put on them. They're beatuifully made and they match the finishes on both basses really, really well. However, the wood is highly polished so the basses do slide around on my shoulder a lot. For last night, I put wider leather straps on both basses and, though neither matched the basses as well as the Revos, they still looked nice and they were noticeably more comfortable. As much as I love those Revos, I think I need to use a different strap, even on the lighter weight Special.

So I've now used it for two gigs (in addition to three or four basement jam sessions). The first time was at a larger, nicer club with a great house PA system and last night was in a small bar where I only needed a single 1x12 cabinet to fill the room. In both cases, the Special proved that it's a fantastic bass overall - comfortable to play, tonally versatile, and able to sound fantastic across our entire song list.

Sorry for another long post, but I'm really enjoying this bass!

 

[LadyLoveStingRay5]

Wow, something happened last night I didn't think could happen. We had a three set gig, as usual I brought two basses with me, as usual one them was my beloved 2007 SR5HH, but I played the entire gig WITH THE OTHER BASS!

Why post that here? Because the bass that I used for all three sets was my recently bought Special 5HH. I always bring two basses and one has always been my 2007. About half of the time I use both and pick which one would better suit the songs in which set, but the other half of the time I just use my 2007 with the other bass being there as a backup because, well, I just love that bass. But last night the unthinkable happened.

To be fair to the 2007, I did intend to use it for at least one of the three sets, but after the first one, I decided to test the Special on the full variety of our song list for the night - some rockers, some blues, some blues rockers, some jazzy songs, a few pop-ish songs, and a couple of ballads. What I noticed included:
- All five pickup selections have the same basic character as those on my 2007, which I was hoping for.
- The lower weight (8.3 pounds vs. 9.5 pounds for my 2007) is definitely noticebale. We only played three sets instead of our usual four, and I'd guess the difference would have been even more noticeable after a four set gig. Very comfortable to play.
- The one song my wife recorded sounded a little ... less beefy?... than I hoped. However, this was one of the smallest bars we've play and I remembered that I purposely set the HPF on my amp pretty high (at about 70 Hz) to avoid overwhelming the room. So I'll want to pay close attention to this the next few places we play to see if I get the same impression. One of them is a outdoor festival next month, so that will give me a great opportunity to not care much about room boom and to just enjoy all the beef I can get from my basses and my amp/cabs - as long as there's no threat of rain. If there is, then I'm bringing the "beater"/backup gear.
- I've been enjoying the Elixir Nanowebs the previous owner put on it - enough to have just bought two packs of Nanowebs, thinking I'd put at least one of those sets on my 2007. My current plan is to replace the Chromes on my 2007 with Nanowebs and replace the Nanowebs on my Special with Chromes, thinking the string change would widen the tonal differences between the two basses. But I do want to hear how this bass sounds at a couple more gigs before making a decision.
- I posted pictures of my Stingrays with the wooden Revo straps that I initially put on them. They're beatuifully made and they match the finishes on both basses really, really well. However, the wood is highly polished so the basses do slide around on my shoulder a lot. For last night, I put wider leather straps on both basses and, though neither matched the basses as well as the Revos, they still looked nice and they were noticeably more comfortable. As much as I love those Revos, I think I need to use a different strap, even on the lighter weight Special.

So I've now used it for two gigs (in addition to three or four basement jam sessions). The first time was at a larger, nicer club with a great house PA system and last night was in a small bar where I only needed a single 1x12 cabinet to fill the room. In both cases, the Special proved that it's a fantastic bass overall - comfortable to play, tonally versatile, and able to sound fantastic across our entire song list.

Sorry for another long post, but I'm really enjoying this bass!

The Special are my favorite era of StingRay basses. I’m glad you are enjoying yours. If it turns out that it takes over as your # 1, no harm in that. You still have your trusty 2007 as a solid #2. That’s a winning combination in my book.

 

[dave64o]

100% agreed. If that happens, it happens. But I can't lose either way.

But, based what I've seen from them so far, I'm pretty sure that I'll get exactly what I hoped for from this pair of basses - two basses with a nearly identical feel in the neck, the string spacing and the way they hang on me but with and even wider tonal variety than I'd get from either bass on their own. And sharing the #1 spot.

As much as I've loving it, it's still hard to get rid of my Precision V, which I decided is the "one out" now that my Special is the "one in". I took nice pics of the Precision, wrote the copy for the for sale ad, and put the Precision away in its case, but I just haven't worked up the nerve to actually post it for sale yet. Gotta do that soon.

 

[Pet Sounds]

Practicing at home today with my Amethyst. I simply have to start playing out with this bass. I guess I've just fallen back on the P-Bass with flats for live shows out of force of habit and because it's so easy to dial in.
Anybody have experience using a Special with a horn band?

 

[Pacman]

Practicing at home today with my Amethyst. I simply have to start playing out with this bass. I guess I've just fallen back on the P-Bass with flats for live shows out of force of habit and because it's so easy to dial in.
Anybody have experience using a Special with a horn band?

I'm using mine in my salsa band, with horns, and it's awesome

 

[Stranger Danger]

Practicing at home today with my Amethyst. I simply have to start playing out with this bass. I guess I've just fallen back on the P-Bass with flats for live shows out of force of habit and because it's so easy to dial in.
Anybody have experience using a Special with a horn band?

I wouldn't overthink it. If it makes bass noises (and these certainly do) it will serve you just fine.

 

[Pet Sounds]

Thanks, guys. I haven't been playing out much since I got the Amethyst and none since March, but we'll be resuming soon. I'll just dive in with it!

 

[LadyLoveStingRay5]

Thanks, guys. I haven't been playing out much since I got the Amethyst and none since March, but we'll be resuming soon. I'll just dive in with it!

Looking forward to the good report. I’m sure it will exceed your expectations .

 

[dave64o]

Thanks, guys. I haven't been playing out much since I got the Amethyst and none since March, but we'll be resuming soon. I'll just dive in with it!

Mine's not an Amethyst Sparkle , but it still sounds fantastic and is very comfortable to play. I've only had it for a month, but it's been gigged twice and I've used it in a few basement jams and it has handled a wide variety of song styles really well. I suspect it will work out very nicely for you.

Will be looking forward to hearing your opinion once you start back up.