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EBMM StingRay Special Club

You're welcome to PM me if you want to try mine.
Thanks Jughead6, that’s really kind of you but I’ll be chasing a four stringer and most likely a HH. Thanks sincerely for the offer but I’m honestly happy to be patient. I’ve only had my Old Smoothie for about 6 months and still loving getting to know it still. I’m not in a rush and will keep an eye on the Bass Centre site. They are great guys to deal with.
 
Whats the average weight of a special 5 string?
Seems like the light ones are right at 8lbs and then I see some heavy ones at 10lbs too.
Who owns the lightest SR5?
Doubt I have the lightest, but it’s pretty light at 8 lbs 5.7 oz (or 8.36 lbs).

E2F7BAA5-E77E-472D-8C15-4520C68DEA30.jpeg
 
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My 5HH weighs 9.4 due to extra pickup and heavier aqua sparkle finish . Still a great weight for me.
Lightest 5 string I’ve owned.

My 4HH is the same, about the heaviest I've heard of but it's not a problem for me. That said, my L2K is still my #1 at this point. But that's for tonal + playability concerns, not weight (L2K 2 lbs less), I still haven't fully adapted to the neck pup position vis a vis my picking style.

I did get a LOT less buzz on the low E (actually, kept in D and dropped to C for a few tunes) just by raising the saddle a little, still way withing playable range.
 
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Hello folks, new member here.

I’m a picked up a beautiful black/maple special in December. Here are some pics.

It’s a lovely bass and I want to love it, however I’m having some issues with the neck, and I’m about to go back to the store but I wanted get opinions from you folks first...

I’ve been tinkering with bass setups for a good few years (been playing for 25) and I’ve owned 3 Stingrays and one Sterling in the past, so I’m pretty familiar with them.

I just can’t seem to get a decent low action without a lot of buzz on the lower (and higher) frets.

I know the obvious answer is to give the neck some relief, but the amount of relief required to minimise the lower fret buzz is pretty high, so this means lowering the saddles to get it back to a reasonably low action, but this low saddle height cases most strings to buzz and fret out at around the 19th fret.

So if I continue tweaking to find a happy medium, the best I can get is:
- moderate buzz on Frets 1-5
- no buzz on frets 5-15 (action actually feels quite high between 8-12)
- moderate buzz again on frets 15-22.

Looking down the neck it looks like it slightly curves back around the 10th fret (but it’s hard to see really)

Thanks if you’ve bothered reading and following that, what do reckon? Should I take it back to the store or is there something you would try first?
 

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Hello folks, new member here.

I’m a picked up a beautiful black/maple special in December. Here are some pics.

It’s a lovely bass and I want to love it, however I’m having some issues with the neck, and I’m about to go back to the store but I wanted get opinions from you folks first...

I’ve been tinkering with bass setups for a good few years (been playing for 25) and I’ve owned 3 Stingrays and one Sterling in the past, so I’m pretty familiar with them.

I just can’t seem to get a decent low action without a lot of buzz on the lower (and higher) frets.

I know the obvious answer is to give the neck some relief, but the amount of relief required to minimise the lower fret buzz is pretty high, so this means lowering the saddles to get it back to a reasonably low action, but this low saddle height cases most strings to buzz and fret out at around the 19th fret.

So if I continue tweaking to find a happy medium, the best I can get is:
- moderate buzz on Frets 1-5
- no buzz on frets 5-15 (action actually feels quite high between 8-12)
- moderate buzz again on frets 15-22.

Looking down the neck it looks like it slightly curves back around the 10th fret (but it’s hard to see really)

Thanks if you’ve bothered reading and following that, what do reckon? Should I take it back to the store or is there something you would try first?
You may need to work the nut slots. Sounds like you do indeed need more relief then you’d be able to deepen the nut slots and lower the sadles some. I had a similar condition albeit primarily on the B string and a little on the A string. My B string was about .070” at the first fret. I almost needed a friend to help me fret a low C.
Check out the Jerzy Drozd web sit for some excellent reading on bass set ups.
 
Hello folks, new member here.

I’m a picked up a beautiful black/maple special in December. Here are some pics.

It’s a lovely bass and I want to love it, however I’m having some issues with the neck, and I’m about to go back to the store but I wanted get opinions from you folks first...

I’ve been tinkering with bass setups for a good few years (been playing for 25) and I’ve owned 3 Stingrays and one Sterling in the past, so I’m pretty familiar with them.

I just can’t seem to get a decent low action without a lot of buzz on the lower (and higher) frets.

I know the obvious answer is to give the neck some relief, but the amount of relief required to minimise the lower fret buzz is pretty high, so this means lowering the saddles to get it back to a reasonably low action, but this low saddle height cases most strings to buzz and fret out at around the 19th fret.

So if I continue tweaking to find a happy medium, the best I can get is:
- moderate buzz on Frets 1-5
- no buzz on frets 5-15 (action actually feels quite high between 8-12)
- moderate buzz again on frets 15-22.

Looking down the neck it looks like it slightly curves back around the 10th fret (but it’s hard to see really)

Thanks if you’ve bothered reading and following that, what do reckon? Should I take it back to the store or is there something you would try first?
That sucks. Mine is buzz free and slam bang low with almost zero relief. What strings are you using?
 
You may need to work the nut slots. Sounds like you do indeed need more relief then you’d be able to deepen the nut slots and lower the sadles some. I had a similar condition albeit primarily on the B string and a little on the A string. My B string was about .070” at the first fret. I almost needed a friend to help me fret a low C.
Check out the Jerzy Drozd web sit for some excellent reading on bass set ups.

Thanks, interesting I’ve never had to adjust a nut, didn’t think of that, will look into it.
 
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I actually think the nut on mine is cut a little too deep, and is the primary cause of the buzzing I have. I dig in pretty good, and am not sensitive to fret noise especially, but there’s a lot with low-ish action.
I’m using 60-115 now but even with the stock strings I didn’t have any issues. I hate that y’all are having issues.
 
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Update on my neck issue, took it back to the store in the end, and their tech had a look at it. He just added a load of neck relief resulting in high action on the lower part of the neck but with still unplayabley buzzy high frets. Gave it a try but could see it was clearly an uneven neck.

They were very nice about it though and are ordering a replacement for me. I’m 100% confident that the replacement will be fine, I’m sure I’ve just been unlucky.