Music Man Stingray minus 9 volt battery

[Keith Guitars]

I have owned a couple of Stingrays that still had output with the battery removed.
My guess is that the EQ module is in parallel to the output rather than in series, though I haven't verified this.
In any case, it does work - it's just the sound of the pickup, passive, without any EQ function.
Nice to know for emergencies.

 

[Swerve]

I tried this tonight. I also have a 2008 3EQ Ray. I pulled the battery out and it still had sound, albeit much quieter. Only the volume knob works without the battery. It still sounded like a Stingray, just set totally flat. Kinda cool in its on way.

Lol 10 years later and I'm messing around with my Ray34 without the battery. It does have a cool organic tone. But it doesn't sound "set flat" like I said on my Stingray, its just the sound of the pickup with no pre-amp. Which could be useful for recording, not sure how good the low output would work in a band. Maybe you could crank your amp. I might try it someday.

I'm not sure how the Joe Dart models are done but I'm guessing the voicing has a little more oomph and color than just a straight Stingray with no battery.

 

[Jeff Scott]

The '13 3-band SR I had was as most describe here. No EQ available, obviously, but the sound was fine when compensated for the significantly lower output level. Test recordings I made were great sounding.