I’m learning a lot about StingRay History.
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New MusicMan Stingray BFR - thoughts?
- Thread starter facetsquared
- Start date
Dont get me wrong it has value, but just not a value I think is justified.
I could play a great bass line on a bass costing $2500 less. Each their own. Go spend spend spend. And I hope you enjoy the instrument.
I’m not buying one. Just saying it’s not an outrageous price.
You’d hear more of the tonal difference between the special, the eb era stingray and this bass with flats on it, a brand new set of round is gonna make it sounds like any ol stingray for about 2 months till those strings mellow out
Would love it if they let people do customs, they had an informal way of doing that for a long time, you could sorta just ask for it to be fretless etc don’t know what happened besides the pandemic obviously, they had less competition back then.
I do a lot of window shopping and I’ve played some 77s and 78s and they’re a whole different animal
If I have the money would be an instant buy if i found a light one.
I don’t see much a difference between this and a high end boutique bass just based on the labor and specialization required for the parts.
A 7.5 radius neck is gonna be particularly hard to craft and will need extra sanding and work considering that radius is notorious for dead spots: the entire reason the stingray headstock is set up the way it is is in order to eliminate dead spots from this particular radius. The electronics themselves are weird outliers, one inch long giant pole pieces aren’t a common addition to basses, most replica stingray pickups are the shorter pole pieces and these have to be assembled and wound separate from the normal pickup stock, and that’s not factoring in whether or not they’re scatter wound and not considering the type of wire they’re using is period specific!
a lot of what became the boutique guitar and bass industry was as a response to fenders declining quality in the 70s and electronics innovations but a lot of that has to do with fender switching to a fretboard radius that didn’t require as much time spent with the instrument and cnc machines
the pickup cavity itself has to be done differently too. Here’s a 76 stingray body and a 78 for comparison. You can also see the difference in pole lengths in this picture too
You gotta think, what’s the cost of a standard single h stingray, around 2 grand in todays money it’s always been around that, or has for a while, now what would it cost to bring that bass to a luthier and pop in a very rare and specialized custom pickup and route the body to accommodate it, what would it cost to buy and swap out the bridge for a vintage bridge and you’re looking at about a thousand dollars to have the same bass through mods
A 7.5 radius neck is gonna be particularly hard to craft and will need extra sanding and work considering that radius is notorious for dead spots: the entire reason the stingray headstock is set up the way it is is in order to eliminate dead spots from this particular radius. The electronics themselves are weird outliers, one inch long giant pole pieces aren’t a common addition to basses, most replica stingray pickups are the shorter pole pieces and these have to be assembled and wound separate from the normal pickup stock, and that’s not factoring in whether or not they’re scatter wound and not considering the type of wire they’re using is period specific!
a lot of what became the boutique guitar and bass industry was as a response to fenders declining quality in the 70s and electronics innovations but a lot of that has to do with fender switching to a fretboard radius that didn’t require as much time spent with the instrument and cnc machines
the pickup cavity itself has to be done differently too. Here’s a 76 stingray body and a 78 for comparison. You can also see the difference in pole lengths in this picture too
You gotta think, what’s the cost of a standard single h stingray, around 2 grand in todays money it’s always been around that, or has for a while, now what would it cost to bring that bass to a luthier and pop in a very rare and specialized custom pickup and route the body to accommodate it, what would it cost to buy and swap out the bridge for a vintage bridge and you’re looking at about a thousand dollars to have the same bass through mods
terrible idea lol, but it’s nitro, and if you naturally play it a lot it’s gonna age beautifully, necks gonna yellow up really nice and the paint will check etc
Hahaha, yea sure.
So, what would you price it at, considering what else is on the market? Enlighten us potential suckers, please.
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I could design a Musicman bass that everybody would want. I'd just put those alnico pickups and vintage preamp in the modern version, add a satin urethane neck and a narrow nut width option. Bam, I'm a millionaire.
I'd dig all those options, except for the narrow neck. I like my Stingray neck on the Precision side thank you.
But yeah, vintage specs, lighter weight - done. That's all that's needed. I'd also change that the pickups have flat pole pieces instead of staggered. Staggered are extremely uncomfortable for playing aggressively over them and that's the first thing I change on pre-Special Stingrays. String-to-string ballance is also better that way.
Yes the original and this Retro have Nitro
That's how I got mine. It was basically a completely custom bass. I told Sweetwater what I wanted, and they just included it in their next order to EBMM. I picked the color, pickguard color, fretboard wood, non-matching headstock, preamp type, and pickup type. Now, maybe some of my choices for those things were standard anyway, but still, it was for all intents and purposes a custom bass. I had more choices on that bass than on my Pedulla! It's a shame they don't let you do that anymore.
This is correct. The only thing that irks me about the modern Stingray, which I take to mean the Special, is that I can't unsee the extra-fret neck protruding into the body too much. It looks weird to me, and I swear the upper horn is also slightly different and looks weird. Like it doesn't curve back toward the neck as much. Also not a big fan of hollow saddles for the bridge since you can potentially run out of room for adjustment, which happened on my old Classic.
But, trivial complaints aside, a 2-band alnico Stingray Special would be a threat indeed.
neos sound neat but they should be an option and not the only thing, I think the neo thing has more to do with keeping the bongo in production than anything, or giving the bass more versatility but I think the standard alnico is much more versatile than is advertised, it’s tricky
I'd dig all those options, except for the narrow neck. I like my Stingray neck on the Precision side thank you.
Yeah, it would be an OPTION.
Those are some pretty cool knobs. I dig it. I played a stingray as my main bass for like 15 years, don’t think I’m ever going back. Great basses, I just moved on.This just showed up
Whilst I'm not personally in the market for such a thing, I thinks that's a really cool idea :
A pre-EBMM StingRay, with a 3-bolt neck featuring micro-tilt, and 1976 longer pickup pole pieces, in a StingRay Special body *, with a nitro finish.
Very cool!
My only gripe would be that I never liked those radio knobs, and I've never seen another StingRay with such an exposed bullet truss rod (normally only see them that long on old G&Ls).
This makes me wonder if EBMM would have the I.P. rights to reproduce the StingRay prototype (with the reverse P pickup, and cut only EQ) that still resides at CLF / G&L HQ?
* Edit : having now seen some different photos, it looks like a traditional slab body, and not the contoured front to the body of the Special - so I guess it really is a reissue, which will make collectors very happy.
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Congrats!! When can we expect video showcasing this beauty on a lovely Chic/Brothers Johnson/Sade mashup?This just showed up
