Oh. My. God. (first encounter with Stingray & Bongo)

hey saw you on the warwick forum. Man the stingray is a great bass. I love it myself. I say if you prefer it to your warwick, I think you could do a direct trade for your $$ 5. I think the reason you find the MM so easy to play was the thin maple neck. In fact, maple necks give a more traditionnal slap tone to the bass. As for the ovangkol neck, it gives a very compressed tone. Anyway, I wouldn't have bought a bass with music man style pickups to slap.

 

OH GOOD GOD I KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN!
The first time I played one I was like, is this MADE of butter?!
Its got the smoothest feel of any bass Ive played! And Im an AVID fan of playing like every bass in GC every time I go haha.
I want one BAD!
So far theyve been the best that Ive played for what I like, and I like all three styles even though I suck at slpa, ya know pick finger etc.
The clank with the pick is nice on those too!

 

That's why I got a Stingray 4. First time I played it, everything felt so... right... I could play everything so much smoother, I wasn't all mechanical like I usually am and it was just a dream to play. It blew everything else out of the water, Spectors, Warwicks, Fenders, they all became irrelevant and the bass I NEEDED to have was a Stingray.

Stingrays (and any EBMM instrument for that matter) are absolutely, ****ing amazing.

 

Well I've played alot of basses over the last 25 years or so, and have owned a few, and now a StingRay is the only bass I own. I'm not saying there aren't better basses out there, but its signature sound is the one that I'm in love with. Also, the build quality is fantastic. For the money, I don't think you can do better in a production bass, especially if you buy used.

I scored my "Burnt Apple" Ray (discontinued finish) on Ebay a few years ago for a ridiculous price. The seller quoted the shipping charge of something like $150. This apparently scared everyone away, but I kept my eyes on the prize, and emailed the seller a short time before the auction ended to find out if he screwed up. Indeed he did, and quoted me a realistic shipping charge. An hour later, this mint condition Ray in a hard case was mine for just under $700. The rest is history. For me, a Ray paired up with a Mesa amp is tonal bliss, plain and simple.

 

I've owned 'Rays and Sterlings in the past and was recently looking to get one of the newer HH versions but while I was in the shop I tried a Bongo 4HH. About a week later a Stealth Bongo showed up on my doorstep.

 

Whats the differince between the standerd stingray and sterling? I tried a sterling at GC and wasent too impressed..

 

I'm definitely more of a Sterling guy, but all three of EBMM's models are pretty awesome. I was talking to a student of Dave Larue's today, and the six string Bongo model that's coming out soon came up - apparently Dave got his hands on a pre-production model and loves it. So that's good news for people like me who've been waiting on that for a while.

There really is just something about those basses, especially when you run into that rare Stingray that's actually set up properly. Magic comes out of those things.

Oddly enough, I STILL don't own one. Maybe once that six string comes out...

 

BONGO 6! im so anxious for that monster, thats gonna be my self graduation gift =)

 

yeah man, you can't go wrong the the stingray IMHO...Before I played my first stingray, I HAD a Warwick NT thumb '94 and a NT streamer '91 , along with a pedulla buzz (which i miss ) and a 78 pbass ... i liked the stingray better than all of them ... I've not got to try the Bongo yet, but I am looking forward to the oppertunity...

 

Am I the only one here who thought that they weren't that playable? The necks felt kinda chunky to me...


and the tone was meh.. nothing special, nothing to get excited about... sounded kinda boring.

 

I love how stingrays look and sound, but man, I don't like those necks. To each his or her own--it's probably about the size of my hands and what I'm used to. Good to hear that you found something you can really dig.

 

I guess there are similarities between the $$ Wick and the Ray because this Stingray player been GASsing for a $$ Vette for the last three weeks.

 

Yep. I took a Bongo off the wall at the guitar center for the hell of it, and as soon as I played it I knew I was in love. They play like sex. Really great sex. Unfortunately I could never get a tone out of it that satisfied me the way the feel did.

 

Put it this way, a chance encounter with a Stingray 5 is the reason I'm currently a bass heavy and trawling the bottom end of my overdraft. I don't regret it for a second. DO IT!!!

 

Different model with a different pickup; alnico vs ceramic.

Slimmer neck, different heel joint, 3-way switch for different pickup voicings.

I like the Sterling better myself but there are lots of people in both camps.

Oh, smaller body too.

 

Last time I had an afternoon to myself I went to GC, and I tried almost every bass on the walls. My favorite was the $$ Corvette 5, but very close second was the
HH Bongo 5. I would gladly play either.
The Stingrays are very nice basses, but they didn't do it for me.

 

Wow really? I loved the neck and Ive heard that the $$ necks are alot alike but when i played both the Rays neck seemed alot more comfy to me.
Different strokes I guess. =]