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Music Man StingRay Club | PART FIVE

#5,781
When I was figuring this out, I wrote to Ernie Ball. They sent me a schematic of the preamp and also the wiring code for the pickup. There are only two coils in the Special's pickup, north and south. There is no third phantom or filter.

Don't know where you are getting your info from, but according to the manufacturer, it's just a regular humbucker that allows splitting the coils, for series, parallel or single coil operation.

What took a while was figuring out how to wire the replacement 3-position 3rd party (Kaish) switch.
 
#5,782
BQFS said:
When I was figuring this out, I wrote to Ernie Ball. They sent me a schematic of the preamp and also the wiring code for the pickup. There are only two coils in the Special's pickup, north and south. There is no third phantom or filter.

Don't know where you are getting your info from, but according to the manufacturer, it's just a regular humbucker that allows splitting the coils, for series, parallel or single coil operation.

What took a while was figuring out how to wire the replacement 3-position 3rd party (Kaish) switch.
Click to expand...

I could not figure out how to attach the regular pickup to a different 3rd party preamp, so just bought Nordstrand Stingray pickups that went well with their MM preamp
 
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#5,784
murphy said:
I could not figure out how to attach the regular pickup to a different 3rd party preamp, so just bought Nordstrand Stingray pickups that went well with their MM preamp
Click to expand...
At first I thought of using the preamps I build myself which are clones of the original 2-band Stingray pre-EB preamp, but those only have two controls which would leave me with an empty hole, so I went with the DarkGlass Tone Capsule and I am certainly not sorry. I have used the TC for quite a few upgrades. It never disappoints.
 
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#5,786
BQFS said:
When I was figuring this out, I wrote to Ernie Ball. They sent me a schematic of the preamp and also the wiring code for the pickup. There are only two coils in the Special's pickup, north and south. There is no third phantom or filter.

Don't know where you are getting your info from, but according to the manufacturer, it's just a regular humbucker that allows splitting the coils, for series, parallel or single coil operation.

What took a while was figuring out how to wire the replacement 3-position 3rd party (Kaish) switch.
Click to expand...
StingRay 5 has the filter:

IMG_0008.jpeg
 
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#5,788
murphy said:
Not anymore ....It was called 1978 Nordstrand-Preamp 2B-MM
I have mine in a 5ver I sent to England.
I added an EMG vari mid to fill the hole..MM5.2 pickups.
Sounds phenomenal...But bass was too heavy for me
Click to expand...

I use the Nord MM4.2 and 5.2 for all my Ray4 and Ray5 upgrades, coupled with my 2-band preamp. Sounds almost identical to my '77 Stingray for a whole lot less dinero. :bassist:
 
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#5,789
I was recently told that 1983 and earlier SR 4H pups were in the 1750-1850 ohms range and 1984 and later (non-special) pups were closer to 1950 ohms DC resistance.
Can anyone confirm this and is the difference that big a deal?

Thinking of converting my 07' 3-band to a 2-band, to be a lighter version of my 1983.
Might even route under the pickguard as it kinda sucks as a 3-band....
 
#5,790
Jim C said:
I was recently told that 1983 and earlier SR 4H pups were in the 1750-1850 ohms range and 1984 and later (non-special) pups were closer to 1950 ohms DC resistance.
Can anyone confirm this and is the difference that big a deal?

Thinking of converting my 07' 3-band to a 2-band, to be a lighter version of my 1983.
Might even route under the pickguard as it kinda sucks as a 3-band....
Click to expand...

Shameless promotion - here in the classifieds, I sell an exact clone of the pre-EB 2-band preamp. Lots of happy customers. I also sell on Sweetwater's Used Gear page, and Reverb. 100% positive feedback.
 
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#5,791
Yes, we talked before and I'm still looking for the one I had from when Uncle Fluffy made boards and put together a component list.
My question is, are the pre 84' SR pups any different than current (up to the the Specials)?
 
#5,792
Jim C said:
Yes, we talked before and I'm still looking for the one I had from when Uncle Fluffy made boards and put together a component list.
My question is, are the pre 84' SR pups any different than current (up to the the Specials)?
Click to expand...

Afraid I can't help you there. I am no overall Stingray expert. The only thing I know about is the preamp that I fabricate myself. I will take an educated guess based on what I have read that other people have posted, and say that the newer basses used different preamps. What the differences are, I have no idea. The 3-bands are very different from the 2-bands and the Ernie Ball preamps are again very different from the ones found in the SBMM models. That's probably no help at all. Sorry.
 
#5,793
Jim C said:
Yes, we talked before and I'm still looking for the one I had from when Uncle Fluffy made boards and put together a component list.
My question is, are the pre 84' SR pups any different than current (up to the the Specials)?
Click to expand...

Not really, but also, it depends :roflmao:

From Music Man Bass Global - SR4 PUPs and Preamps Pre-EB & EB (Part 1)

"Pre-EB pickups (above) varied individually due to winding techniques adopted at that time. Ernie Ball automated the windings to make the pickups more consistent.

As with the Pre-EB Sting Ray pickups, Ernie Ball Sting Ray 4 (SR4) pickups are passive, the coils are wired in parallel and pole pieces are Alnico. The battery powers the pre-amp only.

Similarly, as with the second version of the Pre-EB pickup from circa second half of 1977 onwards, pole pieces measure 5/8 inch in length with a diameter of 3/8 inch. Each coil measures approx 3,900 ohms with a total output of approx 1,950 ohms (in parallel).

[...]


With the next generation Sting Ray Bass Special 4 (and 5), introduced in July 2018 and replacing the regular SR4 Bass (and SR5) altogrther, single and dual pickups now have Neodymium pole pieces [...]. However, the Sting Ray Special does not replace the Classic Collection nor Old Smoothie Sting Rays which still retain their Alnico pickups"
 
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#5,795
_B_E_A_D_G_ said:
Not really, but also, it depends :roflmao:

From Music Man Bass Global - SR4 PUPs and Preamps Pre-EB & EB (Part 1)

"Pre-EB pickups (above) varied individually due to winding techniques adopted at that time. Ernie Ball automated the windings to make the pickups more consistent.

As with the Pre-EB Sting Ray pickups, Ernie Ball Sting Ray 4 (SR4) pickups are passive, the coils are wired in parallel and pole pieces are Alnico. The battery powers the pre-amp only.

Similarly, as with the second version of the Pre-EB pickup from circa second half of 1977 onwards, pole pieces measure 5/8 inch in length with a diameter of 3/8 inch. Each coil measures approx 3,900 ohms with a total output of approx 1,950 ohms (in parallel).

[...]


With the next generation Sting Ray Bass Special 4 (and 5), introduced in July 2018 and replacing the regular SR4 Bass (and SR5) altogrther, single and dual pickups now have Neodymium pole pieces [...]. However, the Sting Ray Special does not replace the Classic Collection nor Old Smoothie Sting Rays which still retain their Alnico pickups"
Click to expand...
Thanks very much for this!
Super helpful.
 
#5,800
soong said:
So happy to finally have a US Stingray in my collection after almost 20 years of playing bass.
2013 Classic, single H. :hyper:

Click to expand...

Fantastic; no other bass gets close to that perfect funk slap tone IMO. It's the sound I fell in love with back in the late 70's. Congratulations on your new bass and great slap technique too soong. What gauge strings do you have on your Classic please? Cheers.
Oh, and thank you for introducing me to High Fashion.
 
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