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Help!

Which one would you buy if you were me?

  • Music Man Stingray 5HH

    Votes: 17 73.9%

  • Rickenbacker 4003

    Votes: 6 26.1%
  • Total voters
    23
Alejandra DiFazio

Alejandra DiFazio

Guest
Oct 11, 2014
6
0
36
Malta
#1
Hello everybody! I'm just about to purchase a new bass, and ultimately I've ended between these two models:

- MusicMan StingRay 5 HH (Indian Ivory Maple Fretboard)
- Rickenbacker 4003 (2013) (Ruby Red Rosewood Fretboard)

Sadly, I can't go to the store to test the bass guitars myself because where in my country there is no dealers for neither Musicman nor Rickenbacker, so I will order one of those online.

I play in a fusion band, we mix andean traditional music and shamanic chants with reggae, ska, cumbia, salsa, punk, and so on. And I think both bass guitars are suited for that, probably thats the reason I cant decide between those two.

Which one of those would you recommend me to buy? Your help and advice is very welcome and is very very important to me.
Gracias!

Ale
P.s sorry for the bad english :p
 

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#4
Absolutely go with the MM. The Ric does one sound very well, whereas you'll have more flexibility (and range) with the active Music Man. From what I hear, they're also built much better.

Ps. Your English is great- if you hadn't mentioned it, I wouldn't have thought that this isn't your first language. Anyways, welcome to Talkbass!
 
#5
Well, you certainly picked two very worthy basses that are vastly different from each other. I owned a Ric for a number of years; I have not owned a StingRay5, but I've played quite a few and I have owned a StingRay 4-HH.

My choice would be the StingRay 5 HH. It's simply going to be the more versatile of the two. The active EQ and pickup switching combinations are going to give you a lot more tone options, and you may find the extended range of a B string to be of some use for what you're doing. The MM neck will be thicker than the Ric, but it does not require large hands to play comfortably. Another area where the StringRay wins is slapping. Rics just are not built to do that very well. The HH pickup configuration gets in the way of slapping just a bit, but again, it's still better than the Ric.

If you are ordering from a dealer's stock, see if you can find a nearby TB'er to check it out for you in advance before you place the order.

Good luck.

-Alan
 
#9
RIC's seem to be a love or hate thing. It's a classic design but there are good ones and varying shades of bad out there. Out of the probably 15 or so I've played two were keepers. They were pretty awesome though.

The HH music man is pretty versatile. B string will add to that versatility. Build quality is more consistent. It will likely be a 10 + pound bass if that matters. I like the MM sound but haven't really ever bonded with them.
 
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#11
Alejandra DiFazio said:
I play in a fusion band, we mix andean traditional music and shamanic chants with reggae, ska, cumbia, salsa, punk, and so on. And I think both bass guitars are suited for that, probably thats the reason I cant decide between those two.

Which one of those would you recommend me to buy? Your help and advice is very welcome and is very very important to me.
Gracias!

Ale
P.s sorry for the bad english :p
Click to expand...

Hey, I thought my band was the only one doing this stuff! We'll have to compare setlists.

IMO, the Ric is a no-go and the vast majority of MM's I've played were gosh-awful heavy. Do you have any other candidates available via on-line retailers?

Riis
 

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