EBMM StingRay Special Club

[MIJ Fender Guy]

I had posted this over in Music Man Sound and Pickups but that thread's a little slow. Figured I'd copy it here since this is the highest traffic Stingray thread these days. Sorry, it's a bit of a nerdy topic.

Basically, I'm curious what folks normally have for pickup height on their Stingrays.

I've had a long and annoying adventure with this in pursuit of a perfect compromise between tone and magnet pull/chorusing in the upper register.

At the factory recommended single H pickup height of 6/32" from plastic casing to the bottom of the string, unfretted, there is chorusing in the upper register due to magnet pull. Mostly on the E string, which becomes unusable by about the 14th fret I'd say. It just sounds too out of tune by that point. However, any further away and the tone starts to drop off pretty substantially. It can be almost completely dialed out at about 7/32" but at that point the output of the bass is maybe a little less than a passive P bass. The tone is substantially diminished too.

The best tone from a Stingray is found with the pickup closer than 6/32", at which point the chorusing becomes prominent on the A string as well, and gets even worse on the E.

Is there something uniquely wrong with my bass? I rarely hear anyone talk about this with Stingrays. I've been playing mine for 12 years and have never been able to find a pickup height that eliminates all chorusing and still retains enough of the Stingray tone to make it worth playing vs just a P bass or something. I still love the aesthetic, UX and overall tone of the Stingray, which is why I persist with it.

So, what is your pickup height? And do you experience any chorusing above the 12th fret?

I had a regular Stingray 4 H that had this problem. The tone of that Stingray was awful. Sorry about your issue.

 

[Moving Pictures]

I had posted this over in Music Man Sound and Pickups but that thread's a little slow. Figured I'd copy it here since this is the highest traffic Stingray thread these days. Sorry, it's a bit of a nerdy topic.

Basically, I'm curious what folks normally have for pickup height on their Stingrays.

I've had a long and annoying adventure with this in pursuit of a perfect compromise between tone and magnet pull/chorusing in the upper register.

At the factory recommended single H pickup height of 6/32" from plastic casing to the bottom of the string, unfretted, there is chorusing in the upper register due to magnet pull. Mostly on the E string, which becomes unusable by about the 14th fret I'd say. It just sounds too out of tune by that point. However, any further away and the tone starts to drop off pretty substantially. It can be almost completely dialed out at about 7/32" but at that point the output of the bass is maybe a little less than a passive P bass. The tone is substantially diminished too.

The best tone from a Stingray is found with the pickup closer than 6/32", at which point the chorusing becomes prominent on the A string as well, and gets even worse on the E.

Is there something uniquely wrong with my bass? I rarely hear anyone talk about this with Stingrays. I've been playing mine for 12 years and have never been able to find a pickup height that eliminates all chorusing and still retains enough of the Stingray tone to make it worth playing vs just a P bass or something. I still love the aesthetic, UX and overall tone of the Stingray, which is why I persist with it.

So, what is your pickup height? And do you experience any chorusing above the 12th fret?

Currently both of my Stingrays are using the factory recommended pickup height with no issues. I did mess with it a bit and one thing I observed was that Stingrays are very sensitive to even the smallest pickup height adjustments. I went back to the factory recommendation as it suited my tone goals for my basses.

 

[ics1974]

I had posted this over in Music Man Sound and Pickups but that thread's a little slow. Figured I'd copy it here since this is the highest traffic Stingray thread these days. Sorry, it's a bit of a nerdy topic.

Basically, I'm curious what folks normally have for pickup height on their Stingrays.

I've had a long and annoying adventure with this in pursuit of a perfect compromise between tone and magnet pull/chorusing in the upper register.

At the factory recommended single H pickup height of 6/32" from plastic casing to the bottom of the string, unfretted, there is chorusing in the upper register due to magnet pull. Mostly on the E string, which becomes unusable by about the 14th fret I'd say. It just sounds too out of tune by that point. However, any further away and the tone starts to drop off pretty substantially. It can be almost completely dialed out at about 7/32" but at that point the output of the bass is maybe a little less than a passive P bass. The tone is substantially diminished too.

The best tone from a Stingray is found with the pickup closer than 6/32", at which point the chorusing becomes prominent on the A string as well, and gets even worse on the E.

Is there something uniquely wrong with my bass? I rarely hear anyone talk about this with Stingrays. I've been playing mine for 12 years and have never been able to find a pickup height that eliminates all chorusing and still retains enough of the Stingray tone to make it worth playing vs just a P bass or something. I still love the aesthetic, UX and overall tone of the Stingray, which is why I persist with it.

So, what is your pickup height? And do you experience any chorusing above the 12th fret?

I do 6/32 for the g string and half way between 7/32 and 8/32 for the e string

 

[Geri O]

It's why I loved doing this through Sweetwater. There is so much variation on this kind of finish between the grain of the wood, the darkness of the outer burst and the size of the burst. I am not a shill for Sweetwater, but it's a great shopping experience.

I was able to select the Stingray Special the bass to the left in my profile pic) at Sweetwater by choosing between 3 examples of the same bass (and yet another big thanx to @LadyLoveStingRay5 for pointing me to them!). I picked the bass with the top I liked best. It wasn’t the lightest, but they were all very close in weight.

People can think what they want of my positive comments toward Sweetwater. Don’t give a RRRA…..

 

[IronLung1986]

I had a regular Stingray 4 H that had this problem. The tone of that Stingray was awful. Sorry about your issue.

Yea, I'm trying to figure out if they're all like this or if some are worse than others somehow.

I'm curious - in what way was the tone awful?

 

[IronLung1986]

I do 6/32 for the g string and half way between 7/32 and 8/32 for the e string

That's quite far on the E side. You still find that the tone is strong enough? 7/32 is pushing it for me.

 

[IronLung1986]

Currently both of my Stingrays are using the factory recommended pickup height with no issues. I did mess with it a bit and one thing I observed was that Stingrays are very sensitive to even the smallest pickup height adjustments. I went back to the factory recommendation as it suited my tone goals for my basses.

Yea, I inevitably obsess over it with all my basses but the Stingray in particular lives or dies by its pickup height. So you don't have any chorusing at, say, the 15th fret on the E string at factory spec? Mine definitely does.

 

[MIJ Fender Guy]

Yea, I'm trying to figure out if they're all like this or if some are worse than others somehow.

I'm curious - in what way was the tone awful?

Very thin on that bass and would chorus easily. And also the pickup had a problem going down far enough. There was no physical blockage, but it just somehow didn’t go down as far as other Stingrays.

 

[Plinkerton]

I’ve never seen a picture that does the Charcoal Sparkle justice. I was blown away by how good this finish looks the first time I saw one in person. They’re spectacular!

Haha yeah it’s way better in person. Ideally outside the sun.

It’s a gorgeous bass. The sculpting of the body, the ebony, the giant humbuckers, all of it.

And even better is I can’t put down. I’ve been playing it all day.

 

[ics1974]

That's quite far on the E side. You still find that the tone is strong enough? 7/32 is pushing it for me.

Yep seems fine to me. If I don’t slant the pickup the E string is overpowered. This way all strings have equal volume

 

[IronLung1986]

Yep seems fine to me. If I don’t slant the pickup the E string is overpowered. This way all strings have equal volume

One more question if you don't mind - what gauge strings do you use?

I use 45-65-80-100 EBMM Super Slinkies. Going down from 85-105 helped a little bit with the chorusing, but going down further than that didn't help much.

 

[panama]

I was able to select the Stingray Special the bass to the left in my profile pic) at Sweetwater by choosing between 3 examples of the same bass (and yet another big thanx to @LadyLoveStingRay5 for pointing me to them!). I picked the bass with the top I liked best. It wasn’t the lightest, but they were all very close in weight.

People can think what they want of my positive comments toward Sweetwater. Don’t give a RRRA…..

Looks fantastic! There were 4 in the gallery when I picked, including an open box one for $300 off, and I still chose mine. I noticed after I took delivery of mine another popped up in the gallery. I would bet if you worked with your sweetwater rep they'd send pics of all the tops of a specific color they have in stock, including ones not yet in the gallery.

 

[panama]

Another shout out to Sweetwater - they do pricing protection for 60 days, and this morning I noticed my new bass dropped by $300. Called them up and I am being credited back that amount.

I imagine the price drop has to do with the incoming new colors? Who knows.

 

[ics1974]

One more question if you don't mind - what gauge strings do you use?

I use 45-65-80-100 EBMM Super Slinkies. Going down from 85-105 helped a little bit with the chorusing, but going down further than that didn't help much.

45-105

 

[IronLung1986]

45-105

That makes sense. I put the pickup to 7/32" on both sides (plastic cover to bottom of string unfretted for anyone who's wondering) yesterday. Took it out today, tried it and surprisingly liked what I was hearing. 7/32" has always seemed too hollow and distant on the E string, but for some reason I'm liking it now. Might have had a bad E string when I tried it before. I moved everything to your spec just to try it, but the G string was ringing out too loud over my .100 E string. So I messed around a bunch and didn't like anything, then just put everything back to 7/32" across the board and it locked in. Started really enjoying it again. No chorusing, except maybe the last two frets on the E string and very, very slight at that.

It's not the same juicy, compressed sound that you get from having the pickup close to the strings, but it's not neutered either. It's still a good, strong sound, more passive in character with that sort of hard midrange honk that you hear from some of the 70's Stingray players like John Glascock for example.

Cautiously optimistic I can stop messing with it now finally!

 

[Kubicki Fan]

Those sparkle finishes are insane. Congrats on the new bass!

Even the white sparkles are the schizz, never mind these purple, green and gold beauties.
Starry night, eh?

Paint is not the most expensive thing in the world. Its contribution to the aesthetics is huge. Other brands never thought of mixing some paint? Doh

 

[Kubicki Fan]

Howdy! First time Stingray owner. Took delivery of this Special in Hot Honey a little over a week ago and couldn't be happier. I picked this one at Sweetwater due to the knot on the lower horn, the bits of birdseye on the back, and all the flaming on the neck. There is also flaming from frets 1-7 on the fretboard that isn't showing well in photos.

As a long time Precision guy I'm excited about the tone of the Ray. If I'm being honest with my first impressions, this makes my Mexico P bass feel like playing a 2x4. This Stingray just feels so refined, and the sound really cuts through a mix in a way the P bass doesn't.

The set up out of the box is spot on with no buzzy frets or dead spots. The neck profile on this thing is just perfect. The nut width is the same as my P bass, but the neck profile makes it feel so much more manageable in my hand. So much easier and comfortable.

And the preamp does THE THING really well, obviously. But then rolling off the treble and mids gives more of a passive/vintage thing, but it never loses the signature musicman thing.

Thoroughly impressed with this thing! Cannot find a flaw with it. Nice job Ernie Ball.

I've had a couple of band rehearsals with it, and I was worried it wouldn't sit in one of my bands well (all the recordings are done on a Mustang), but my band leader commented on how good it sounded. He had previously expressed some skepticism of active pickups, so I was happy that he was into it.

2 more rehearsals tomorrow and 2 gigs this weekend. Excited to put this thing to work!

That honey izz hott!

 

[bozric]

 

[CaptainRuss]

View attachment 7446548

WOW! Just wow.

 

[Element Zero]

View attachment 7446548

What?!?!?!?