Anyone know the string spacing at the bridge on these? With the sterling coming out it's a definite consideration for me but I haven't been able to find this piece of info
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Short scale Stingray!
- Thread starter BigBigGuy44
- Start date
Yep, 19mm. I play a jazz bass and this feels completely at home in my hands.
Same six bolt neck plate that the Stingray bass had before they came out with the Special. Is it the access to the upper frets that makes it a deal breaker for you ?
It's partially the upper-fret access, but honestly, as an engineer, I'm mostly offended by the inelegance of the design. Contoured heals are objectively more functional, and they don't cost significantly more to implement. For example, I have a $150 Ibanez Mikro bass that has a better contouring than is found on $1600 American Standard Fenders and $2300 non-Special Stingrays. And the Standard Soundgears, starting around $400, are far better. The square heel just gives me the impression that the designer just couldn't be bothered to come up with a better solution.
I feel similarly about non-quick-release bridges and bridges without intonation screws. There are known solutions to these problems that aren't very expensive. Why aren't both those features on all bridges?
I really appreciate the changes Music Man made for the Stingray Special, and I also like that the Short Scale Stingray inherited the contoured heel. I keep coming back to check out the SSS. It would satisfy my interest in a short-scale (but longer-scale than the Mikro) bass and my interest in a retro-styled bass. Additionally, the SSS (both EBMM and Sterling) does two things that are correct in my opinion, but that many short-scales don't do. The bridge is all the way at the end of the body, keeping the reach to a minimum, and the upper strap button is at the 12th fret, helping the balance and keeping the reach down.
Unfortunately, the EBMM version is almost twice the cost of my other basses. Perhaps I'll see if I can find a used one in Ultramarine.
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It actually looks like the shorter Sterling headstock shape, but they're very similar.
I have a Sterling HS, and it's not sad for me. The HS is a great concept, it just didn't really work for me (and apparently, for very many other people, either). The volume differences between the switch positions was EXTREME, like if you switch from the bridge humbucker to the neck single coil position, the latter is nearly inaudible. Also, the various positions needed a LOT of EQ to be musical and not either super tinny or unusably boomy. I thought there was something wrong with it, but it was brand new and people on the EBMM forum said it was normal.
It's a shame, because J/MM has always been my favorite configuration for passive basses, and EBMM has always done awesome with getting the EQ and volume attenuation (augmentation? Equalization? You know what I mean) seamless between switch positions on the single H Sterling or the HH models.
I bought a single H Sterling, which is everything I needed and nothing I didn't, and the best bass I've ever owned by a lot (although I did put my HS neck on it because it just happens to be quartersawn and has a beautifully grained rosewood fretboard that looks for all the world like cocobolo). I'm going to convert my HS to a passive single H setup with Slinky cobalt flatwounds, only with a series/parallel/single switch and a Nordstrand 4.4 pickup, kinda like my take on the Joe Dart bass with a bit more versatility.
I'll probably keep my factory HS pickups/preamp in my big box o' parts in case I want to convert it back, but then again I may not because it's my first Music Man and I'll never sell it. We'll see.
If, and that's a big IF, they build one. I'm a huge Music Man fanatic and would rather have a Sterling than a Stingray ten thousand to one and have been sorta hankering for a short-scale lately, but this short-scale Stingray has totally different electronics, the Sterling headstock, and a downsized body, I doubt they'll build a short scale Sterling. The short- or medium-scale St. Vincent bass is supposed to be coming soon, I might wait for it. I should buy one of these if I can spare 2 grand soon, though, because if nothing else it could become highly collectible.
Oh, you meant the Sterling by Music Man version, not the US Sterling model (most confusing branding system ever, haha!). I took it as the Ernie Ball Music Man Sterling version, for about $200 more, hahaha!
I don't know for sure, but it looks very well-proportioned with that shorter, Sterling-style headstock and the upper horn appears to come to the same point along the scale length as a normal Stingray, so I'm assuming it's a slightly downsized body. I'd be interested to find out for a fact, though.
It is? Man, it looks for all the world like the shorter Sterling-style headstock to me. I guess I stand corrected, haha!
Wait, is that thing not shielded?Well... it looks like a pretty straightforward circuit as far as Music Man basses go, but as I suspected, any "secret sauce" is going to be hidden in that circuit board. Then again, maybe not. That's for you electronics wizards to decide. If it is anything more complicated than a P-bass or J-bass... I'm done.
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I've been playing this thing all afternoon. Talking about a great bass! It plays like butter--very fast and easy neck. I've compared the sound with all my other basses and it is the clearest sounding of all of them (even my active J elite, although I certainly have more tone shaping capability with the J, since it is active--but set flat on the J, the SS Stingray wins). The SS Stringray just has a "full spectrum sound" that can be shaped and prodded with the tone control (I like it at about half to three-quarters most of the time) and the coil switching (I see myself using the single coil mode most of the time). Tonight the bass sees its first band practice. I bet everyone will love the sound.
Hear, HEAR! If they build a short-scale Sterling, I'll be a SUPER early preorder. Don't care whether I can afford it, I'll find the money. I'm afraid they won't, since the short-scale Stingray is so much like a Sterling already (1.5" nut, non-AlNiCo pickup even if it is neodymium, S/P/s switch, etc.) and is so small and light, but I'm just not a Stingray kind of guy aesthetically speaking. Looking forward to the short- or medium-scale St. Vincent bass, too.
Every US Music Man bass I've ever played has been set up perfectly usably from the factory, and I mean every single one out of probably a couple hundred or more (every time I walk past a MM at a shop, I can't help but pick it up and fiddle around with it, at least a little), and that's something I can't say about a single other manufacturer (I've never played very many fancy boutique instruments, though, just a handful of Laklands, a Pedulla, some custom shop Warwicks, etc.).
In my opinion, as well as a whole bunch of other folks' opinions, Ernie Ball Music Man are the most consistently excellent mass-produced instruments available straight from the factory. Their fretwork, fit and finish, nuts, hell, even action and intonation have been impeccable on each and every single new US Music Man I and a lot of other folks have ever seen. To think that you got two extremely rare flukes, while possible, kinda makes me feel like maybe you've got something against the company and are overly critical of them for whatever reason.
That said, if the issues were addressed by a setup, are they at least satisfactory for you now? They're super stable, solid, well-made instruments, if you get them to your liking they should remain that way until you eat the frets off of them.
I believe @Thegrandwazoo was talking about the Music Man Sterling model not the Sterling by Music Man brand (which is not actually the same company as Music Man, unlike Sire/Fender and Epiphone/Gibson).
