Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Ernie Ball Music Man Custom Design Experience
- Thread starter minionwrangler
- Start date
-
- Tags
- #ernieball #musicman
!!
Precisely. I wasn’t expecting any gloss finish on the back of the headstock, let alone HEAVY gloss. But now I like it.
The sheen of the satin-varnished headstock appears visually darker than the oil-and-wax finished neck (and maple fingerboard).
DUDE! That looks amazing! I'm not a huge fan of the sparkle finishes myself - I have a StingRay Special 5HH in Ocean Sparkle and while the color itself is amazing there's something about the glittery finish that doesn't really do it for me - but I must say yours looks tremendous. That gold color is gorgeous. And you definitely had to go with all gold hardware, right? I mean, it'd look wrong otherwise
Thanks for sharing the pics!
Last edited:
I went with chrome for a couple of reasons. One is that I really like the chrome look of classic Music Man hardware. Another is that I like the contrast on darker instruments - I love how the chrome pops against the body. I feel like I have a fairly good idea of how it's going to look because my StingRay Special 4HH is in Pacific Blue Burst which comes with chrome hardware and I love the look. I replaced the black pickguard with an aftermarket "chrome" mirror version and it looks great. I do like black hardware, but I'm not a fan of the matte black finish that EB uses.I'm very curious to see this. When I ordered my Blue Dream I went for black hardware as I wasn't sure I'd love chrome with an otherwise dark looking instrument (ebony fretboard too). I do love the dark look of the whole thing but sometimes I wonder if a bit of shiny from chrome would look good too
Your Blue Dream was what tipped me in favor of that color. I love my Pacific Blue Burst and this is similar but different enough to be really attractive. I was considering Translucent Oxblood and especially Translucent Purple, and I really thought about Vintage Sunburst, but none of them really screamed "this is the one!" to me. I would have liked to see a pic of Translucent Teal, but I kept returning to your pics a bunch of times, and decided that was the one, and it was time to stop farting around with the design and place the order.
The one option I would like to have chosen would have been an ebony fingerboard, but they only offer pau ferro for fretless. For the neck I went with the standard profile where in the past I might have gone with SLO Special due my love of Jazz Bass necks, because the neck on my 4HH StingRay Special is so comfortable. I chose roasted plain maple over flame because I wanted to keep the cost as close to the minimum as possible and I don't care how pretty the back of the neck looks like enough to spend an extra $250. I chose the Mono case for the same reason; also my other two StingRays have Mono cases and I like them.
I did get an option that was not available to choose from the CDE, which was the setup I wanted. I like that you can choose four different tunings, because I tune to DGCF, but I'm not putting roundwound strings on it, especially as my favorite strings are Ernie Ball Cobalt Flatwounds. I emailed them a couple weeks ago about this and they told me they could offer Cobalt Flats and to just reply to the confirmation email with my string preference and they'd update the order. So that was nice. Especially as those strings are now $60 everywhere where I was paying half that not long ago.
So overall I'm pretty stoked and eagerly looking forward to delivery.
Last edited:
I got an email a week ago telling me that my order had shipped. I didn't notice this for a day or two because I don't check email conscientiously and I had long since stopped religiously checking my order status. When I did a few days ago I was surprised to see it marked as complete, so I went looking for an email and tracking number. I ordered it on August 2 and it was shipped October 23, so it took 10-11 weeks, plus shipping time, which is well within not bad at all, well within the 4-6 months the website FAQ says.
So, my Blue Dream CDE fretless StingRay 4HH arrived today. I'm delighted with it. The color looks exactly as I'd expected after seeing jamesog's pictures of his Blue Dream fretted 4H. I love how the chrome hardware pops against the body. I still wish the CDE didn't restrict fretless fingerboards to pau ferro because I would preferred ebony, but it does look good and more importantly, of course, sounds great. It arrived almost perfectly in tune to DGCF, per my setup choice and with the Cobalt Flatwounds I requested post order. I've played it a lot this evening, and I'm very happy with the sound and the overall feel. It's also really light at around 8.5 lb, but feels veyr well balanced. So, overall, I'm really stoked with my CDE buying experience and would definitely order again.
Pics (the last one includes the aftermarket pickguard I'm probably going to use instead of the black one):
So, my Blue Dream CDE fretless StingRay 4HH arrived today. I'm delighted with it. The color looks exactly as I'd expected after seeing jamesog's pictures of his Blue Dream fretted 4H. I love how the chrome hardware pops against the body. I still wish the CDE didn't restrict fretless fingerboards to pau ferro because I would preferred ebony, but it does look good and more importantly, of course, sounds great. It arrived almost perfectly in tune to DGCF, per my setup choice and with the Cobalt Flatwounds I requested post order. I've played it a lot this evening, and I'm very happy with the sound and the overall feel. It's also really light at around 8.5 lb, but feels veyr well balanced. So, overall, I'm really stoked with my CDE buying experience and would definitely order again.
Pics (the last one includes the aftermarket pickguard I'm probably going to use instead of the black one):
That looks stunning indeed! The chrome hardware does look good here, I think because you have a lighter fretboard but now I'm wondering if it would've worked with ebony too.
Congrats on such a gorgeous bass.
Congrats on such a gorgeous bass.
