1977 Stingray Gold hardware!!

[fatbass]

HI all i am mew to this Fourm,
I have been looking around for some info on the originality of my stingray. It is listed in the serial number colum sn; B004313. My bass dose have all gold hardware, a red body black pick guard maple neck fretted. It must of been the previous owner who must of done some reserch before me. So has anyone else got or seen heard of a stingray the same? All the parts are orignal and all gold. The only alteration is straplocks. I do have many images but can't get them on this site! Will work on it.

Any information welcome!

 

[Rod Trussbroken]

There are a few Pre-EB gold hardwares that are factory originals. Others were an after market thing done by a company in Florida.

If your's is the one I'm thinking of, then it's one of the formers. I'll check my files when I get home.

If you want to show pics, you're welcome to send them to me an I'll put them on my photo host.

My email is HERE

 

[Colin]

Looking forward to seeing these pics...

 

[Rod Trussbroken]

Red B004313 from my files. It was on Ebay in April 2004. The seller believed the Red was a
refin but couldn't vouch for the originality of the gold hardware.

1980 Walnut "Aerosmith" and currently belongs to forum member Dave.

 

[fatbass]

Thanks for all your help!! The bass in the pick you have is indeed my bass!!! I have taken a load of picks so will get them on hear as soon as i get back home, (at work)!!
I swapped a 1980,s blue stingray (was a nice bass but never got much level out of the "G" string!) for this bass in a local music shop about 2 years ago. The guy in the shop said it was a re-fin and the hardware was non orignal.... If that is true then the fin is very good and must of been done not long after the bass was made?? It has aged with the bass. The colour is the same in all the areas you can't see on the body. Also the hardware if was plated after was done very well!! I changed the E tuner for a hipshot D-tuner (for the band im with at the moment). I took the E tuner apart to see if it was all gold plated and it all is. (may not prove alot but thaught it may help!!)
The other thing is the pre-amp. It isn't coverd with that tar stuff! Looks all orignal from your picks you have though.

Thanks again, will get the picks posted soon

James.

 

[Bill]

That Tom Hamilton bass is one hot-looking bass!

 

[Rod Trussbroken]

....The colour is the same in all the areas you can't see on the body.

Do you have a pic of the body pocket cavity? That will reveal if it's a refin or not.

 

[fatbass]

I will take the neck off and get a pick of the neck pocket when i get home.

Thanks again for the help!!

James

 

[fatbass]

So my last post was back in 2006 Good grief.
So I'm basically posting up more information on this Red Stingray i have in an effort to find out any more information on it.
It has been used very little over the years. In fact i haven't played it in 4 years. Mainly down to a split in the fingerboard just under the Nut. I had it repaired a long time ago but the glue has failed and it split again. I then went and purchased a Status Graphite neck for the bass and used that for a while but i wanted the wood neck back so took of the status neck and made a project bass with that. After that the bass as it is now went in it's box and i am ashamed to admit forgot about it.
So now it's time to restore it.
I have been taking it apart and inspecting it closely. It looks like it was 2 colors before the Red!!
The original Color Seems to be Walnut or something called Root Beer??
Then it was sprayed a Pale Blue.
Then the Red.
Here are some photos of it now.




Here i scraped away some of the paint in the pickup cavity and found the base paint layer the Brown, then Blue

And Here is the damaged neck witch i have been told by a few repairers it will be difficult to fix. Great. It will need a re-fret too the frets are almost flat!!


So if anyone on here has any suggestions or can help with its history as Gold Hardware on a 77 must be an unusual thing?

 

[BrockLee]

I am by no means "official", but the info I have on this bass is as follows.

B004313 was a walnut finished bass completed 7/26/1977. It was part of a production schedule order, not a one off. No special notes. It had not come back to CLF Research for any repairs prior to at least January 1979.

My guess is the hardware was re-plated and the refins are all aftermarket.

The preamp is later..but still not too late. It still has the CLFR period tantalum caps. After CLFR they are almost always electrolytic's.

 

[pacop]

I am by no means "official", but the info I have on this bass is as follows.

B004313 was a walnut finished bass completed 7/26/1977. It was part of a production schedule order, not a one off. No special notes. It had not come back to CLF Research for any repairs prior to at least January 1979.

My guess is the hardware was re-plated and the refins are all aftermarket.

The preamp is later..but still not too late. It still has the CLFR period tantalum caps. After CLFR they are, almost always electrolytic's.

also the input jack is later, my 1977 has the same preamp and input jack, great bass

 

[BrockLee]

Yeah, if your bass went back for just about any reason after the unpotted ones came in September 1978, they likely changed it. I am sure it is a good preamp. No difference at all between a B3 potted preamp and a B3 non-potted preamp made in the CLFR era.

I also got to thinking about the gold on this bass. I have all the plating invoices. I have to see if any hardware was even gold plated by CLFR.

 

[Rod Trussbroken]

IMO the jack used would not have been the type used by Music Man during the early period. The only black plasic jack I'm aware of is a switchable unit with 4 soldering lugs and introduced by MM circa late 1979. The one here is a 2 lug non-switchable version. Non switchable jacks were used at that time but not the type depicted.

 

[Rod Trussbroken]

...I have all the plating invoices.,,,

Are you sure about that? There were 3 or 4 lots of Pre-EB records sold on ebay. You bought them all?

 

[BrockLee]

The CLFR invoice sheets created 3 sets of documents. A white original which was submitted with payment or requesting payment, a pink carbon, and a green carbon. The pink and greens were filed at CLFR in different ways. One went into a file for, in this case a Marnor or Santa Ana folder for plating, the other into a numerical file. I have the numerical files up to January 1979, plus most of the others up to the end of CLFR. So even if some of the loose filing is not here, the numerical files have it. Is it a pain to sort through so many invoices? Yes.

 

[fatbass]

So after a few moths I finally finished the restoration. Re fret, stripped off red paint and did a light walnut finish, polished up all the hardware. Only replacement parts were 3 new gold knobs. It's not a perfect restoration but im pleased with it! I can now play it at last!!

 

[fatbass]

After the restoration!

 

[Edmang]

Wow! That came out great!

 

[jlepre]

That's gorgeous! What did you do about that crack?

 

[strummer]

Wow that is spectacular!
So, close ups of the neck/fb repair?