Oh Ernie Ball, it was right there the entire time. Why didn't you just do it yourself instead of being so sneaky?
So, I've been gigging Stingrays since 2000. I've owned about 20 Rays, 7 Sterlings, and a Big Al. I was never quite satisfied with the different tones available, mostly I needed a usable neck pickup. I can appreciate the "tone is in your fingers" guys, but I need dual pickup options. I LOVE the single H tone, but I missed the versatility of a neck pickup. Many HH, HS, and an HH Special later and I still wasn't happy. The HH neck pickup was too scooped and boomy to me. The Special was slightly better but the neck pickup really got in the way when slapping. The HS was nice but had drastic volume drops at different settings due to the "dummy" coil.
Well, I decided to open up my HS to find that this hidden pickup is no dummy at all.I removed the pickup and raised the new pickup to match the other 2. Wow. All setting sounded absolutely fantastic. Switch position 5 (neck pickup) was full with a nice midrange bite, unlike the woofy boom from the HH models. I'm guessing this is due to the 2 coils being further back and being slightly apart. Anyway, it's as close to a P bass as any Stingray I've owned. Position 2 (bridge coil of MM + middle pickup) sounds similar to a jazz, much closer than anything I could get out of an HH or regular HS. It sounded so good at rehearsal the last 2 weeks I decided to route my pickguard to make it an official HSS.
I'm curious why EB didn't just ship them from the factory like this. Such a better, more versatile instrument now (IMO). If you're lucky enough to own or find an HS model, take the guard off and give it a try!
So, I've been gigging Stingrays since 2000. I've owned about 20 Rays, 7 Sterlings, and a Big Al. I was never quite satisfied with the different tones available, mostly I needed a usable neck pickup. I can appreciate the "tone is in your fingers" guys, but I need dual pickup options. I LOVE the single H tone, but I missed the versatility of a neck pickup. Many HH, HS, and an HH Special later and I still wasn't happy. The HH neck pickup was too scooped and boomy to me. The Special was slightly better but the neck pickup really got in the way when slapping. The HS was nice but had drastic volume drops at different settings due to the "dummy" coil.
Well, I decided to open up my HS to find that this hidden pickup is no dummy at all.I removed the pickup and raised the new pickup to match the other 2. Wow. All setting sounded absolutely fantastic. Switch position 5 (neck pickup) was full with a nice midrange bite, unlike the woofy boom from the HH models. I'm guessing this is due to the 2 coils being further back and being slightly apart. Anyway, it's as close to a P bass as any Stingray I've owned. Position 2 (bridge coil of MM + middle pickup) sounds similar to a jazz, much closer than anything I could get out of an HH or regular HS. It sounded so good at rehearsal the last 2 weeks I decided to route my pickguard to make it an official HSS.
I'm curious why EB didn't just ship them from the factory like this. Such a better, more versatile instrument now (IMO). If you're lucky enough to own or find an HS model, take the guard off and give it a try!
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