Sorry, I don't know. You might want to contact them via their website: Chowny Bass | Official Home of Chowny Bass Guitars
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SBMM Stingray Short scale
- Thread starter dralionux
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- short scale bass
Yes… completely different. But so is the Chowny. I played an SWB a number of years ago at NAMM and it was very cool. AFAIK, there isn’t a dealer in the US but you can order directly I believe.
Yes, I just found a chrome retainer that is the correct height, the black looked ok with the old logo but not now. You can see how much better the break angle is behind the nut, it makes a big improvement in feel and sustain
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Went to GC and handled one last night. After reading/watching a ton of reviews I was ready to buy if I had been pleased with it. It was mostly good, but had two glaring features that left me flat.
The strings seemed exceedingly floppy, when a lot of reviewers have said they were surprisingly stiff. I'm used to LaBella DT flats on my Mikro, so maybe that has something to do with it?
Worse, the neck was horribly(!!) sticky, when virtually everyone has praised it as lightning-fast. Again, my Mikro is frictionless by comparison. What's up with that? Poor QC? Result of everybody and his pet chimpanzee having played it in the store?
Also noticed the E & G saddles were bottomed out, which I took as a bad sign. Big deal? No big deal?
Has anyone had similar experiences? Is it worth it to replace the strings and work on smoothing the neck?
The strings seemed exceedingly floppy, when a lot of reviewers have said they were surprisingly stiff. I'm used to LaBella DT flats on my Mikro, so maybe that has something to do with it?
Worse, the neck was horribly(!!) sticky, when virtually everyone has praised it as lightning-fast. Again, my Mikro is frictionless by comparison. What's up with that? Poor QC? Result of everybody and his pet chimpanzee having played it in the store?
Also noticed the E & G saddles were bottomed out, which I took as a bad sign. Big deal? No big deal?
Has anyone had similar experiences? Is it worth it to replace the strings and work on smoothing the neck?
They all feel like that out of the box, to fix it take a green scotch brite pad and buff it out.
And if it has a maple fretboard, buff it too and put a coat of wax on it after you're done.
I use NuFinish car wax, it works great and will polish the frets too, buff it thoroughly.
What do you meant by the E&G saddles are bottomed out, are they all the way down and the action is still too high? That's easily fixed by putting a shim in the neck pocket to adjust the angle, I had to do that to mine and I also put some longer allen screws in the saddles to give fill up the holes and give me more latitude for height adjustment if needed.
If you spend a little time tweaking these, they can be excellent basses and perfect for modifying.
It's fun to work on them and make it your own. I've worked on SBMM, like I do all of my basses, and it has become my "go to" instrument lately. I love the sound, sustain and lack of dead spots on the neck.
Tip, the White and Blue basses have Mahogany bodies and are lighter in weight than the Sunburst, Black and Copper which are Nyatoh wood. Naytoh is an Asian hardwood that is denser than Mahogany so it weighs more. Frankly, I've played both side by side and, in my opinion, the Mahogany basses feel more alive and vibrant than the Naytoh.
Good Luck
There wasn't any fret buzz I could discern, but with the strings so loose I couldn't say the action was still too high either. Bear in mind I'm still fairly inexperienced, just a couple years of self-taught.
Thanks for the encouragement, I was definitely reticent to spend even the sale price and have to dink with it much. And yes, it was the Daphne Blue which felt perfect weight-wise for my old shoulders.
The sale has ended, but I've seen it roll around from time to time. I'll give them another look when it does.
I had to go to a heavier gauged set on my SBMM Short Scale over from what I normally play on my 34" scale basses. I play with a light touch and I like round core, flexible strings. They seem to respond and sustain better for me. I'm using labella flexible flats on my short scale Bronco and they feel excellent and sound great. I'll bet they'd be great on the SBMM too.
I've read about a lot of the more recent ones having all sorts of QC fails... like the one you describe.
Seems I got lucky with the one I bought online a month ago. It was pretty much perfect out of the box. The neck is sweet without any help from me. My only complaint is the weight - 8.2lbs, like Laklandplayer mentioned above... it's dropped copper.
Yeah, that's kind of disappointing. I'd heard so much praise of them I was hoping one would make a small step forward in quality without approaching the $1000 mark.
A couple of notes:
I replaced the strings with LaBella Deep Talkin flats, ( I love 'em )
replaced the wiring harness and pots so I have single volume control, pickup balance, and tone control,
and added a ground wire connection to the bridge. ( body was routed for it but it wasn't installed )
Given that:
What might people consider a good addition to a Mikro without paying an arm and a leg? I had been thinking the Sterling SS or a used Fallout Tribute, for starters.
My dropped copper weighs 7 lbs 1.45 oz. I bought it maybe July '21 or earlier. Fit and finish was awesome as well as the sound for that kind of money. I love the bass so much that I just bought the EBMM version.
yep... luck of the draw. But considering I bought mine as "B" stock for 425 (it was new though), I'll just keep it.
Did yours not come with a chrome retainer? I'm guessing you purchased used?
I like roller retainers myself.
Hmm, did you tune up the strings before you played it? Some of us (raising my hand) do not have a good ear for actual pitch, so it could have been that someone detuned the entire bass and left it that way before you played it.
Or not.
Mine was purchased used from a TalkBass member, and I've had no complaints about it other than I'd like it to be a bit lighter.
Hmm, did you tune up the strings before you played it? Some of us (raising my hand) do not have a good ear for actual pitch, so it could have been that someone detuned the entire bass and left it that way before you played it.
Or not.
Mine was purchased used from a TalkBass member, and I've had no complaints about it other than I'd like it to be a bit lighter.
View attachment 4808470
No, a very pleasant and helpful employee retrieved it from high on the wall, then tuned it and set me up with a combo amp to fiddle around. Given what the people here have been saying, I'm not going to give up on it yet. If a sale rolls around again, or a good used one pops up nearby, I'll have another look.
They definitely have to be cherry picked. This has been my experience .
I purchased new, I installed hipshot tuners with straight non tapered posts to get the string winding all the way to the base of the post, to get a better string break behind the nut. The stock retainer was too tall and I had to find lower one. If you look back a few posts I did one with pictures.
