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SBMM Stingray Short scale

#2,881
Another update!

I sent the photo of the pickup wiring to Sterling and they said that it was wired correctly (at least for this bass's electronics as then intend them to function).

I got the new wiring harness (all the pots, the switch and the input jack) today in the mail and will get it wired in with the stock pickup in the next few days hopefully and will post the results here.

Also, I have read mostly negative things about the Sterling customer service and I have to say, my experience with them has been spectacular! I bought this bass used, so they technically don't have to offer me any support really, and they have been very responsive and even sent me the replacement electronics for free. Very impressed!
 
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#2,882
koppinjo said:
Another update!

I sent the photo of the pickup wiring to Sterling and they said that it was wired correctly (at least for this bass's electronics as then intend them to function).

I got the new wiring harness (all the pots, the switch and the input jack) today in the mail and will get it wired in with the stock pickup in the next few days hopefully and will post the results here.

Also, I have read mostly negative things about the Sterling customer service and I have to say, my experience with them has been spectacular! I bought this bass used, so they technically don't have to offer me any support really, and they have been very responsive and even sent me the replacement electronics for free. Very impressed!
Click to expand...
Wow that’s really great to hear. I’ve been following your saga on this thread and still hoping for a happy ending for you.
 
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#2,883
As I am only using the SS Stingray in boost mode I would like to eliminate the normal mode and use it for something else. I like the sound better in boost mode because it has more mids and bass. I just have no idea what to use the pull switch for.
 
#2,884
TheBass said:
As I am only using the SS Stingray in boost mode I would like to eliminate the normal mode and use it for something else. I like the sound better in boost mode because it has more mids and bass. I just have no idea what to use the pull switch for.
Click to expand...
The pickup is probably in paralelle when in boost mode and you could wire the pull switch to make the pickup go into series mode which will give you the same mode that stock P pickups are wired. That's what I would do.
 
#2,885
laklandplayer said:
The pickup is probably in paralelle when in boost mode and you could wire the pull switch to make the pickup go into series mode which will give you the same mode that stock P pickups are wired. That's what I would do.
Click to expand...
no. series and parallel are accessible via the three way knob. My understanding is that the push/pull knob adds some resisters in the "normal" mode and removes them in boost.
My guess is the best pathway is just to replace the pot with a plain one, using it as a normal volume control. If my push pull ever dies, that is what I will do.
 
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#2,886
Well, what I figured from the wire harness is that in normal mode there is simply an additional 154k resistor parallel to a 1.5nF added in series to the whole pickup assembly , as well as in series, parallel or SC mode. It's just a resistor shortcut by a cap which explains the gain loss only in lower an mid frequencies. And it also explains perfectly why I rather like the sound in boost mode: this is just the natural pickup sound.

Atm I really don't know what to use the pull switch for. May be I just add another cap to the tone blend, but I just have no clever idea. My only restriction is to keep the electronics passiv.
 
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#2,887
TheBass said:
Well, what I figured from the wire harness is that in normal mode there is simply an additional 154k resistor parallel to a 1.5nF added in series to the whole pickup assembly , as well as in series, parallel or SC mode. It's just a resistor shortcut by a cap which explains the gain loss only in lower an mid frequencies. And it also explains perfectly why I rather like the sound in boost mode: this is just the natural pickup sound.

Atm I really don't know what to use the pull switch for. May be I just add another cap to the tone blend, but I just have no clever idea. My only restriction is to keep the electronics passiv.
Click to expand...
Once again the push/push volume boost shows itself to be gimmicky and unnecessary. Perhaps Sterling will eventually just replace it with a standard volume control.
 
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#2,889
WestyBassBob said:
Once again the push/push volume boost shows itself to be gimmicky and unnecessary. Perhaps Sterling will eventually just replace it with a standard volume control.
Click to expand...
I already replaced the flimsy push/push pot with a mechanically better push/pull pot months ago. I am hesitating a bit to replace it again. I guess I will try a few LC networks with it to check what sounds nice. Currently I want to try a mid range LC suction circuit. Let's see.
 
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#2,892
Okay it's me again! I wired the stock pickup to the new harness and things were working great - ...until...I was switching the pickup settings and the sound was cutting out. I re-checked my solders and everything was good, then I tapped on the pickup and the sound reacted to tapping (e.g. sound wasn't present, and a couple taps would bring it back, then a couple more would make it cut out again). SO, I was able to sort of narrow it down to the wires where they were connected to the pickup. Squeezing them made the sound cut in/out so I'm guessing there is a broken wire inside the casing but I wasn't able to narrow it down to one wire in particular. I had a lot of slack in the pickup wire bundle so I cut off the last 2" or so, stripped & re-soldered the wires to the back of the pickup and it is now working as expected after many hours.

...Anybody want to buy a SBMM short scale bass?

Thanks everyone for all the input / advice / guidance / help along the way!
 
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#2,893
koppinjo said:
Okay it's me again! I wired the stock pickup to the new harness and things were working great - ...until...I was switching the pickup settings and the sound was cutting out. I re-checked my solders and everything was good, then I tapped on the pickup and the sound reacted to tapping (e.g. sound wasn't present, and a couple taps would bring it back, then a couple more would make it cut out again). SO, I was able to sort of narrow it down to the wires where they were connected to the pickup. Squeezing them made the sound cut in/out so I'm guessing there is a broken wire inside the casing but I wasn't able to narrow it down to one wire in particular. I had a lot of slack in the pickup wire bundle so I cut off the last 2" or so, stripped & re-soldered the wires to the back of the pickup and it is now working as expected after many hours.

...Anybody want to buy a SBMM short scale bass?

Thanks everyone for all the input / advice / guidance / help along the way!
Click to expand...
Are you joking? It would be a shame to put all that work into it just to ditch it. It’s really unfortunate as most people seem to really like the bass. But as I’ve often said. If a product works right 99% of the time it doesn’t really matter if you’re in that 1%.
 
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#2,894
koppinjo said:
Okay it's me again! I wired the stock pickup to the new harness and things were working great - ...until...I was switching the pickup settings and the sound was cutting out. I re-checked my solders and everything was good, then I tapped on the pickup and the sound reacted to tapping (e.g. sound wasn't present, and a couple taps would bring it back, then a couple more would make it cut out again). SO, I was able to sort of narrow it down to the wires where they were connected to the pickup. Squeezing them made the sound cut in/out so I'm guessing there is a broken wire inside the casing but I wasn't able to narrow it down to one wire in particular. I had a lot of slack in the pickup wire bundle so I cut off the last 2" or so, stripped & re-soldered the wires to the back of the pickup and it is now working as expected after many hours.

...Anybody want to buy a SBMM short scale bass?

Thanks everyone for all the input / advice / guidance / help along the way!
Click to expand...
Had a notion that it was the pickup. Glad you were able to figure it out and get it working again! Now that all the things are worked out, play that thing until you wear it out!
 
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#2,896
koppinjo said:
Okay it's me again! I wired the stock pickup to the new harness and things were working great - ...until...I was switching the pickup settings and the sound was cutting out. I re-checked my solders and everything was good, then I tapped on the pickup and the sound reacted to tapping (e.g. sound wasn't present, and a couple taps would bring it back, then a couple more would make it cut out again). SO, I was able to sort of narrow it down to the wires where they were connected to the pickup. Squeezing them made the sound cut in/out so I'm guessing there is a broken wire inside the casing but I wasn't able to narrow it down to one wire in particular. I had a lot of slack in the pickup wire bundle so I cut off the last 2" or so, stripped & re-soldered the wires to the back of the pickup and it is now working as expected after many hours.

...Anybody want to buy a SBMM short scale bass?

Thanks everyone for all the input / advice / guidance / help along the way!
Click to expand...
Now that you know how to fix it and mastered the beast I'd keep it.
 
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#2,897
WestyBassBob said:
Are you joking? It would be a shame to put all that work into it just to ditch it. It’s really unfortunate as most people seem to really like the bass. But as I’ve often said. If a product works right 99% of the time it doesn’t really matter if you’re in that 1%.
Click to expand...
Ehh, I'm kind of kidding. If Sterling sends me a new pickup then I'll probably install it and keep the bass. I let them know what happened but I'm guessing they'll blame me for the broken/damaged wires since I removed some of the resin on the pickup so that I could actually see the wires. We'll see!
 
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