The best starter Stingray (Poll)

[Al1885]

My first instinct is to vote for the Ray34. It looks and feels darn close the the EBMM StingRay for less than half the price. Roasted Maple neck feels super awesome. Solid body feel, and it sounds great as well. The only difference between the Ray34 and the EBMM StingRay is the pickup wiring Series on the Ray34 and Parallel on the EBMM. Big deal? nah a turn of tone knob match the tone, but it's not the same. I own about half a dozen of these 34/35.

I voted for the ShortScale. That's straight from the EBMM Sterling pickup playbook, Series/ Phantom (single coil)/ Parallel switch and the volume boost as well as being Passive. Compact overall length too as the bridge starts at the very end of the body, so as a 30" short scale it feels great and compact. It's my favorite MusicMan Pickup setup besides the HS.

 

[brianrost]

Buy a real Ernie Ball stingray and put new strings on it and wah la. That is the real ray tone. The first one I bought cost $465.

When was that? In the early 90s I guess they were out of favor because one local store had about a half dozen used Stingrays on the wall, a few were OG MM, the others were EB. $350!!! I went for a used G&L L2500 instead for $600

 

[five7]

Sounds like I paid too much.