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Fretless Stingrays
- Thread starter Bassis78
- Start date
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- ebmm stingray fretless
- Feb 5, 2013
- 1,686
- 2,281
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: Used Fender Lead Sleds and Hartke cabs with bent grills
If it hasn't already been said ... find the SR that checks all your boxes and yank the frets. It ain't rocket surgery. I'm dumber'n a bag of hammers and I've done three Ibbys like that. There are several threads on the process, two of them my own.
I hate playing wif speed bumps.
I hate playing wif speed bumps.
An Ibanez is not ever going to be on the level of a Music Man. If you pull the frets out of a Music Man, there is a special ring of Hell for you. An Ibanez? No one cares what you do to it.
Bought mine 12 yrs ago and it was 17 yrs old then - just like Pertyman’s - sounds absolutely excellent!!
Having played both Ibanez and Musicman basses - fretted and fretless - pretty extensively for 30+ years I have to respectfully disagree. Musicman will always have a higher monetary value in the marketplace but the upper echelon of Ibanez basses are, and always have been, very fine instruments. I’d put my late ’70s Ibbys up against anything, quality-wise.
Getting back on topic, I’m a little surprised how many people posted that they didn’t find SRs to be well suited to fretless. Tone and feel are totally subjective so I’m not about to say they’re wrong, but I’ve had my ’88 2-band fretless ‘ray since the early ‘90s and an ‘87 fretless Sabre that I got about 5 years later and both are extremely good sounding basses (to my ear, anyway). Is it just that the Jaco tone is so ingrained in most bassists that a fretless J is everyone’s default for what sounds “right”?
I am not a big fan of the Single H Stingrays, but I do think they make excellent fretless basses. The way a lack of frets changes the sound lends itself quite nicely to the pickup position (IMHO).
Flats on a 2EQ Stingray Fretless
Anyone arguing about this I can’t understand
Yes I realize Tone is Subjective
Anyone arguing about this I can’t understand
Yes I realize Tone is Subjective
- Feb 5, 2013
- 1,686
- 2,281
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: Used Fender Lead Sleds and Hartke cabs with bent grills
Some people mistake what is essentially a tool, for a religion. Not my old bass player (I was still lead guitar). He yanked the frets out of a 60s Precision. 
OP ... Send me your new high-dollar Sting Ray ... I'll have it back to you in two weeks with a smooth, unlined (I match the board color with the filler) board. It's just a tool. Not a religion.
OP ... Send me your new high-dollar Sting Ray ... I'll have it back to you in two weeks with a smooth, unlined (I match the board color with the filler) board. It's just a tool. Not a religion.
Though I'd never yank the frets out of a USA SR, I'll swap the neck on a Japanese one! It's kind of a bummer that you can't get a regular fretless 'Ray anymore. I hope that SBMM re-releases them. I saw Juliaplaysgroove got a custom one, which is awesome!
Here are my fretless rays-
MIJ EBMM Stingray EX w/ Status Neck-
EBMM Stingray Special BFR Fretless-
Here are my fretless rays-
MIJ EBMM Stingray EX w/ Status Neck-
EBMM Stingray Special BFR Fretless-
Some people mistake what is essentially a tool, for a religion. Not my old bass player (I was still lead guitar). He yanked the frets out of a 60s Precision.
OP ... Send me your new high-dollar Sting Ray ... I'll have it back to you in two weeks with a smooth, unlined (I match the board color with the filler) board. It's just a tool. Not a religion.
That's not an unlined fretless. LOL. That's a hack job.
I wish I could swing the 3k for the BFR fretless. I think I’ll try to get a Ray35 and convert it to fretless. I really dig my EBMM stingray 5 special and wish I had the fretless companion.
Do the fretless 'Rays typically use alnico pickups? Or are they most recent ones ceramic like their fretted counterparts?
I think the BFR used alnico.
I'm building a fretless MM bass and trying to decide between alnico and ceramic.
I think the BFR used alnico.
I'm building a fretless MM bass and trying to decide between alnico and ceramic.
BFR uses Neodymium magnets like the other Stingray Specials. The EX has an Alnico pickup
Oh, that's right. They've gone to neodymium. I have a feel for the tone change going from alinco to ceramic but neo is new ground for me (pun intended)
I'm looking for a pickup that has good upper mid response (say 800-2000 Hz) response to somewhat counter the natural darkening that going fretless causes. I just swapped my fretted from the Nordy 4.2 to an SD. Both are alinco and both sound pretty much the same. The SD might be just a tad brighter. Both are darker and thicker than I want for the fretless so I'm leaning toward a ceramic SD.
Ceramic will most likely get you there, along with faster transients, clarity in the low end and transparency at the top, IME. To my ears the Neo is even darker than Alnico. I went for the ceramic offering from Delano (DELANO MC 4 FE), but I would expect the Duncan to be similar.
Oh, and I forgot to mention. My SR fretless clone is ebony fingerboard and TI flats. Probably a slightly darker sound than pau ferro with rounds? Preamp is East 3-band. And yes, I'm looking for Pino's sound but in a live setting where the sound systems / room tends to run bass into marshmallow mush.
Mine is PF and the 'flats' are actually EB Cobalt, so 'on the bright side'. I also have an East 3-band, which plays very nicely with the Delano. Captures the '80s Pino' sound very nicely.
