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Stingray 5 Club!
- Thread starter armybass
- Start date
. 
Those early 2000's with the ceramic pickup are my favorite. This thread is seriously making me reconsider my 30th.
Here’s a pic of my classic ray 5
Used to have an el dorado gold classic 4
What’s everyone using for strings on their Ray??? flats or rounds ?? I’m using cobalt rounds atm
The 30th Anniversary basses are great! The neck on mine feels just a tad chunkier than those of the two Specials I have - just noticed that today while playing through tunes on each. But the sound of the 30th is different in such a good way. I love how smooth the Specials sound, but the 30th has an interesting bite to it. Likely negligible once it reaches FOH, but noticeably different to me.
All of my SR5's currently wear GHS Pressurewounds. I like Chromes on a 'Ray also.
I said that for a few weeks after getting my 2011 SR5 and missing the ceramics of my earlier 98, 99, and 2004.
But after that, I was able to get quite used to the Alnicos in the 2011. I can get it nearly as gritty as the ceramics so much so that I no longer lament the absence of the ceramics. It’s different, no doubt. But it’s all Ray.
I too have a fondness for the ceramic pickups. The alnico pups were hard for me to get used to at first but I dig them too now. But the ceramics are always my numbers one when it. Ones to SR5’s. But the new Specials are gonna give them a run but I have yet to get my hands on a single H model.
I usually use EB Slinkies on my SR5’s (on everything for that matter) but over the last year I’ve had TI jazz flats on all of them. I’ve really been happy with the results. Especially in a band context. Recently I’ve discovered DR Lo-riders on a different bass..thinking about giving them a try on an SR5.
On the strings topic, I've used Elixir nickel-plated steels (NPS) on everything for years now. I did buy some of the Elixir stainless steels (SS) fairly recently (and have bought some in the past), but I prefer the NPS. The Elixir SS seems to lose their mojo quicker than the NPS, which sound the same for months. I do find myself cutting more treble than I used to, especially on the Special 5H, so I've wondered about the Cobalt Flats that I've read a lot of good things about here on TB. But, every time I've tried flats in the past, I have a honeymoon with them and miss the feel and sound of Elixirs. However, I've never tried flats on an SR5 other than playing a friends Classic SR5 that had DR Legends on it - I wasn't a fan.
Oooooh, I like that! Really love the sparkle finishes!
I use Cobalts on both my SR5 and my Sterling HS (both 2007 models) and I freaking love them!
I had posted over in the Special Club, but I've been auditioning the 5HH Special and have decided that I just prefer the 5H. This is in the classifieds if anyone is interested. Asking $1750 shipped.
For Sale - EBMM StingRay 5HH Special - Charcoal Sparkle
![IMG_0828[4943] (2).jpg](https://www.talkbass.com/attachments/img_0828-4943-2-jpg.3466419/ "IMG_0828[4943] (2).jpg")
For Sale - EBMM StingRay 5HH Special - Charcoal Sparkle
I've been a Stingray5 user since 2001. I've played many (also owned a Sterling5 HS and own a SBMM Ray35 -for sale these days-) but I'm settled in the ceramic era 3 coil pickup SR5.
First I got in 2001 is a 1997 model, got it from LA bassist Toby Skard (Poe). The bass already had a history (and many dings Toby was kind enough to document for me) and it traveled half the world with me during heavy gigging years (2005-2011). Back then I lived in Argentina (where I was born) and import taxes are no joke there for this kind of stuff, so even tho' the price was SO GOOD, it ended up costing me almost 1.7 times that. Lately I got her a MM case in decent condition (she's always lived in non original ones). She gets mostly played at home (well maintained, regularly adjusted) and occasionally comes with me as a backup. She's light, slightly over 4kg.
Now I live in Spain. In 2012 opportunity arose to get a "mint" 2003 model with OHSC for a good price (a friend who trades stuff with people he knows in the UK) so I went with it. This is my gigging SR5. Prefer her sound to the other. They play almost exactly the same (even tho' I have this one setup higher, while the one I play home -mostly fingerstyle- is damm low). She's a slightly heavier, still not bad at all for Stingray standards.
As you might have noticed they both have an added switch. What this switch does is swap one sounding coil for the other (inverting wires in the process so that it still bucks hum with the phantom coil). It might be almost unnoticeable to others but I've always used the single coil position the most (weird, I know). In these 3 coil MM humbuckers (and Sterlings') the bridgeside coil is the one that's singled in the middle position. When in that position this extra switch chooses what coil is singled. The result is a nice "MM meets P" sound, more mids and clonk, definitely noticeable if you're into Stingray5 nuances (4th occurence of the "Leave that thing alone" riff in this sample -mod wiring explained in the video and discussed in this thread-).
About the Ray35 and modern alnico Stingray5s I find them tame (as in "not wild / aggressive") compared to mine, sort of hi-fi'ish and mid/lo-mid shy. The lowend seems more "sub low" (the whole response sounds sort of more extended, highs too) but the low is less focused or "compact", and definitely they don't have as pronounced a lo-mid growl as the ceramics. I'm still not ready to jump in any alnico vs. ceramic debates (I've always liked both) and in this case I think there's something to do with the modern preamps too. The Sterling5 HS I've owned sounded also a little mid shy too (and overall less "in your face") and I often found I had to boost/cut further to get the same result I'd get in my ceramic SR5s with a much slighter boost/cut, the modern preamps act sorta' shy to me too.
Love my Rays, they've travelled a lot, got them on a bunch of records, and have always been my 5ers of reference because of...
PLAYABILITY: plays so soft and comfortable, even the pickup position is the perfect place to pluck (not that stiff, not that loose), 17.5mm string spacing is defintely my cup of tea (I can go down to 16mm no problem, but defintely don't lik'em wider), neck is almost SDGR thin front to back.
MIX OWNING TONE FOR DAYS: not only their aggressiveness but these basses (mostly the ceramics) have a "PRRRRRRRRRRR" to their tone that makes them present all the time, even if really quiet in the mix you can still distinguish what the bass is doing.
LOW B: that's solid, usable and shares the same character as the rest of the bass' registers.
Here are my Stingray5s in action...
A side note. As it frequently happens with Musicman guys, we're always looking for an alternative "versatile" bass. Not that the SR5 isn't, people play from bossa to grindcore with it, but I'm thinking occasional "fenderish" duties for when I (or the music) crave for P/J/other 2 pickup tones territory. I've been swapping basses for years around that idea (the aforementioned Sterling5 HS, A Maruszczyk Jake 5a+, Fender AM DLX P 5 -particularly poor-, Yammie BBs, 2 pickup ATKs). Only recently got the only bass (so far) that met the 3 aspects described above (plays like my SR5s, sounds aggressive -in their own character-, has a decent low B -unlike Fenders-), the Schecter CV-5 (passive, 2 humbuckers -J-buckers-, with a coil tap for each). Even tho' it's a 35" scale (I barely notice it) it plays just like my SR5s (neck's even thinner, 17mm spacing too), gets wild easily with minimal extra digging and has a real nice low B.
First I got in 2001 is a 1997 model, got it from LA bassist Toby Skard (Poe). The bass already had a history (and many dings Toby was kind enough to document for me) and it traveled half the world with me during heavy gigging years (2005-2011). Back then I lived in Argentina (where I was born) and import taxes are no joke there for this kind of stuff, so even tho' the price was SO GOOD, it ended up costing me almost 1.7 times that. Lately I got her a MM case in decent condition (she's always lived in non original ones). She gets mostly played at home (well maintained, regularly adjusted) and occasionally comes with me as a backup. She's light, slightly over 4kg.
Now I live in Spain. In 2012 opportunity arose to get a "mint" 2003 model with OHSC for a good price (a friend who trades stuff with people he knows in the UK) so I went with it. This is my gigging SR5. Prefer her sound to the other. They play almost exactly the same (even tho' I have this one setup higher, while the one I play home -mostly fingerstyle- is damm low). She's a slightly heavier, still not bad at all for Stingray standards.
As you might have noticed they both have an added switch. What this switch does is swap one sounding coil for the other (inverting wires in the process so that it still bucks hum with the phantom coil). It might be almost unnoticeable to others but I've always used the single coil position the most (weird, I know). In these 3 coil MM humbuckers (and Sterlings') the bridgeside coil is the one that's singled in the middle position. When in that position this extra switch chooses what coil is singled. The result is a nice "MM meets P" sound, more mids and clonk, definitely noticeable if you're into Stingray5 nuances (4th occurence of the "Leave that thing alone" riff in this sample -mod wiring explained in the video and discussed in this thread-).
About the Ray35 and modern alnico Stingray5s I find them tame (as in "not wild / aggressive") compared to mine, sort of hi-fi'ish and mid/lo-mid shy. The lowend seems more "sub low" (the whole response sounds sort of more extended, highs too) but the low is less focused or "compact", and definitely they don't have as pronounced a lo-mid growl as the ceramics. I'm still not ready to jump in any alnico vs. ceramic debates (I've always liked both) and in this case I think there's something to do with the modern preamps too. The Sterling5 HS I've owned sounded also a little mid shy too (and overall less "in your face") and I often found I had to boost/cut further to get the same result I'd get in my ceramic SR5s with a much slighter boost/cut, the modern preamps act sorta' shy to me too.
Love my Rays, they've travelled a lot, got them on a bunch of records, and have always been my 5ers of reference because of...
PLAYABILITY: plays so soft and comfortable, even the pickup position is the perfect place to pluck (not that stiff, not that loose), 17.5mm string spacing is defintely my cup of tea (I can go down to 16mm no problem, but defintely don't lik'em wider), neck is almost SDGR thin front to back.
MIX OWNING TONE FOR DAYS: not only their aggressiveness but these basses (mostly the ceramics) have a "PRRRRRRRRRRR" to their tone that makes them present all the time, even if really quiet in the mix you can still distinguish what the bass is doing.
LOW B: that's solid, usable and shares the same character as the rest of the bass' registers.
Here are my Stingray5s in action...
A side note. As it frequently happens with Musicman guys, we're always looking for an alternative "versatile" bass. Not that the SR5 isn't, people play from bossa to grindcore with it, but I'm thinking occasional "fenderish" duties for when I (or the music) crave for P/J/other 2 pickup tones territory. I've been swapping basses for years around that idea (the aforementioned Sterling5 HS, A Maruszczyk Jake 5a+, Fender AM DLX P 5 -particularly poor-, Yammie BBs, 2 pickup ATKs). Only recently got the only bass (so far) that met the 3 aspects described above (plays like my SR5s, sounds aggressive -in their own character-, has a decent low B -unlike Fenders-), the Schecter CV-5 (passive, 2 humbuckers -J-buckers-, with a coil tap for each). Even tho' it's a 35" scale (I barely notice it) it plays just like my SR5s (neck's even thinner, 17mm spacing too), gets wild easily with minimal extra digging and has a real nice low B.
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I've been a Stingray5 user since 2001. I've played many (also owned a Sterling5 HS and own a SBMM Ray35 -for sale these days-) but I'm settled in the ceramic era 3 coil pickup SR5.
First I got in 2001 is a 1997 model, got it from LA bassist Toby Skard (Poe). The bass already had a history (and many dings Toby was kind enough to document for me) and it traveled half the world with me during heavy gigging years (2005-2011). Back then I lived in Argentina (where I was born) and import taxes are no joke there for this kind of stuff, so even tho' the price was SO GOOD, it ended up costing me almost 1.7 times that. Lately I got her a MM case in decent condition (she's always lived in non original ones). She gets mostly played at home and occasionally comes with me as a backup. She's light, slightly over 4kg.
Now I live in Spain. In 2012 opportunity arose to get a "mint" 2003 model with OHSC for a good price (a friend who trades stuff with people he knows in the UK) so I went with it. This is my gigging SR5. Prefer her sound to the other. They play almost exactly the same (even tho' I have this one setup higher, while the one I play home -mostly fingerstyle- is damm low). She's a slightly heavier, still not bad at all for Stingray standards.
As you might have noticed they both have an added switch. What this switch does is swap one sounding coil for the other (inverting wires in the process so that it still bucks hum with the phantom coil). It might be almost unnoticeable to others but I've always used the single coil position the most (weird, I know). In these 3 coil MM humbuckers (and Sterlings') the bridgeside coil is the one that's singled in the middle position. When in that position this extra switch chooses what coil is singled. The result is a nice "MM meets P" sound, more mids and clonk, definitely noticeable if you're into Stingray5 nuances (4th occurence of the "Leave that thing alone" riff in this sample -mod wiring explained in the video and discussed in this thread-).
About the Ray35 and modern alnico Stingray5s I find them tame (as in "not wild / aggressive") compared to mine, sort of hi-fi'ish and mid/lo-mid shy. The lowend seems more "sub low" (the whole response sounds sort of more extended, highs too) but the low is less focused or "compact", and definitely they don't have as pronounced a lo-mid growl as the ceramics. I'm still not ready to jump in any alnico vs. ceramic debates (I've always liked both) and in this case I think there's something to do with the modern preamps too. The Sterling5 HS I've owned sounded also a little mid shy too (and overall less "in your face") and I often found I had to boost/cut further to get the same result I'd get in my ceramic SR5s with a much slighter boost/cut, the modern preamps act sorta' shy to me too.
Love my Rays, they've travelled a lot, got them on a bunch of records, and have always been my 5ers of reference because of...
PLAYABILITY: plays so soft and comfortable, even the pickup position is the perfect place to pluck (not that stiff, not that loose), 17.5mm string spacing is defintely my cup of tea (I can go down to 16mm no problem, but defintely don't lik'em wider), neck is almost SDGR thin front to back.
MIX OWNING TONE FOR DAYS: not only their aggressiveness but these basses (mostly the ceramics) have a "PRRRRRRRRRRR" to their tone that makes them present all the time, even if really quiet in the mix you can still distinguish what the bass is doing.
LOW B: that's solid, usable and shares the same character as the rest of the bass' registers.
Here are my Stingray5s in action...
A side note. As it frequently happens with Musicman guys, we're always looking for an alternative "versatile" bass. Not that the SR5 isn't, people play from bossa to grindcore with it, but I'm thinking occasional "fenderish" duties for when I (or the music) crave for P/J/other 2 pickup tones territory. I've been swapping basses for years around that idea (the aforementioned Sterling5 HS, A Maruszczyk Jake 5a+, Fender AM DLX P 5 -particularly poor-, Yammie BBs, 2 pickup ATKs). Only recently got the only bass (so far) that met the 3 aspects described above (plays like my SR5s, sounds aggressive -in their own character-, has a decent low B -unlike Fenders-), the Schecter CV-5 (passive, 2 humbuckers -J-buckers-, with a coil tap for each). Even tho' it's a 35" scale (I barely notice it) it plays just like my SR5s (neck's even thinner, 17mm spacing too), gets wild easily with minimal extra digging and has a real nice low B.
Awesome post man! Love the SR5’s! Nice video clips too. Great assessment of the SR5’s too. Welcome!
