Having just bought a second hand 1990 SR5, I am now the proud owner of two 5 string Stingrays. I purchased the other one new in 1991 and has had a wonderful life, one owner, looked after meticulously, and like most MM basses it has been appreciated for the beautiful instrument that it is.
The 1990 bass I recently acquired has had a much more “interesting” life.
It popped out of the MM factory in California in 1990 with an Ash body, clear finish, and maple neck. It was one of the last SR5’s made with a 2 coil humbucker featuring Alnico magnets. Not long after it was built, the SR5’s changed to a 3 coil ceramic pickup, which is what my other SR5 has. So despite being built only months apart, both my basses are in fact different.
So as I waited for delivery of the used 1990 SR5, I wasn’t expecting it to sound the same as my existing 1991 model. However, I did expect them to sound at least similar. I have after all heard what a 4 string Stingray in action many times, and these also have a 2 coil Alnico pickup, so I had a good idea of what to expect. Unfortunately when I plugged it in and had a listen, I new straight away that this poor 1990 SR5 had a problem. The tone was not even close to being in the Stingray ballpark.
The advisement I answered mentioned that this bass had genuine MM electronics, but the seller offered to throw in come Seymour Duncan electronics/ pickup which had been on the bass previously. So my initial reaction was to contact the seller and ask if he might be mistaken about which electronics were on the bass and that perhaps it still had the Seymour Duncan pickups installed? He assured me this wasn’t the case and even supplied me with several emails which revealed everything this bass had been through…….
It seems the original owner replaced the original pickup and preamp. We’re not quite sure what electronics he used but we do know he modified the bass to house an additional humbucker pickup not unlike the current H/H models. Bearing in mind MM were not offering H/H models at the time. In what turned out to be a massive mistake, he threw the original pickups and pre in the bin. I’m guessing he wasn’t aware of MM’s policy on replacement electronics. It’s not known if he even tried to get the old electronics back, but we do know this poor bass no longer resembled the bass that left the MM factory.
Eventually the original owner sold the bass to the bloke that I bought it from. He wasn’t digging the DIY H/H electronics, but you all probably know what happened when he tried to get MM original replacements. That’s right, MM asked for the old ones back before they would supply new ones. Owner No 2 persisted for many years but got no-where, so he eventually gave up and bought a Seymour Duncan pickup and preamp.
He arranged for the new SD electronics to be installed on the bass. Assuming a positive outcome, he also organized for the extra rout for the second pickup to be filled in, effectively returning the bass to a single H pickup configuration. He also organized a much needed new paint job, picking a blue colour from the BMW car catalogue, and organized for some extra work to be done to the neck which included a fret dressing.
Despite all this work, the bass was still not blowing Owner No 2 away. He couldn’t shake the feeling that the absence of the genuine MM electronics and pickup were to blame. Until one day he managed to convince a local MM dealer to take up his case with MM on his behalf. MM made this particular dealer jump through hoops, but their persistence paid off and MM eventually sold Owner No 2, after many years of trying, an original 2 coil MM humbucker and a MM preamp for this bass.
Owner 2 clearly had the best of intentions for this bass, and he enthusiastically awaited the genuine MM parts to be installed…….. which unfortunately was yet another disappointment. Try as he might, Owner No 2 wasn’t digging this bass at all, even after spending considerable monies trying to restore it to its full potential. With no obvious avenue for improvement left, he decided to cut his losses and offload the bass at a bargain price to yours truly. He’d decided the Stingray sound was not for him.
I however LOVE the Stingray sound and was pretty pleased about scoring a “spare” for my 1991 model…. Until I plugged it in. As mentioned previously, it didn’t sound anything like I expected it to.
Having been satisfied that the electronics are indeed genuine MM, I figured the discrepancy in the tone must have something to do with the wiring. So I enlisted the help of Matt Bullus, the repair and setup genius who works at Bass People here in Sydney. Matt needed a bit of help from Jeff Mallia, another Sydney luthier extraordinaire, and between the two of them they sorted it out. It appears the problem occurred because MM supplied a 2 coil pickup, but a preamp designed for the 3 coil pickup. Whoever had installed the electronics must have had to use 2 different wiring diagrams and basically guessed what to do with the absence of the wires from the 3rd coil. They guessed wrong.
Jeff and Matt dissected the preamp circuit and worked out a way to make the 2 coil pickup work with the 3 coil preamp.
This poor neglected MM Stingray 5, having been to hell and back, is now everything this bass was designed to be, and I’m elated!!!!! This is remarkable considering how close this bass came to being firewood. In fact I maintain that it would never have been resuscitated unless it landed in the lap of someone who is familiar with the Stingray tone. It probably would have just been on-sold over and over again by people who were deciding the Stingray tone wasn’t their cup of tea who didn’t realise what they were hearing isn’t in fact the Stingray tone.
Which bring me back to owner No 2. He’s been curious to see how this all panned out. He’s happy that the bass is now living up to its potential, but he’s also sad that he never got to hear it in all its glory. I’ve given him an open invitation to come and visit the bass if he’s ever in Sydney, but I’ve made it pretty clear I’m keeping the bass
I'll get some pics of the bass up ASAP..
The 1990 bass I recently acquired has had a much more “interesting” life.
It popped out of the MM factory in California in 1990 with an Ash body, clear finish, and maple neck. It was one of the last SR5’s made with a 2 coil humbucker featuring Alnico magnets. Not long after it was built, the SR5’s changed to a 3 coil ceramic pickup, which is what my other SR5 has. So despite being built only months apart, both my basses are in fact different.
So as I waited for delivery of the used 1990 SR5, I wasn’t expecting it to sound the same as my existing 1991 model. However, I did expect them to sound at least similar. I have after all heard what a 4 string Stingray in action many times, and these also have a 2 coil Alnico pickup, so I had a good idea of what to expect. Unfortunately when I plugged it in and had a listen, I new straight away that this poor 1990 SR5 had a problem. The tone was not even close to being in the Stingray ballpark.
The advisement I answered mentioned that this bass had genuine MM electronics, but the seller offered to throw in come Seymour Duncan electronics/ pickup which had been on the bass previously. So my initial reaction was to contact the seller and ask if he might be mistaken about which electronics were on the bass and that perhaps it still had the Seymour Duncan pickups installed? He assured me this wasn’t the case and even supplied me with several emails which revealed everything this bass had been through…….
It seems the original owner replaced the original pickup and preamp. We’re not quite sure what electronics he used but we do know he modified the bass to house an additional humbucker pickup not unlike the current H/H models. Bearing in mind MM were not offering H/H models at the time. In what turned out to be a massive mistake, he threw the original pickups and pre in the bin. I’m guessing he wasn’t aware of MM’s policy on replacement electronics. It’s not known if he even tried to get the old electronics back, but we do know this poor bass no longer resembled the bass that left the MM factory.
Eventually the original owner sold the bass to the bloke that I bought it from. He wasn’t digging the DIY H/H electronics, but you all probably know what happened when he tried to get MM original replacements. That’s right, MM asked for the old ones back before they would supply new ones. Owner No 2 persisted for many years but got no-where, so he eventually gave up and bought a Seymour Duncan pickup and preamp.
He arranged for the new SD electronics to be installed on the bass. Assuming a positive outcome, he also organized for the extra rout for the second pickup to be filled in, effectively returning the bass to a single H pickup configuration. He also organized a much needed new paint job, picking a blue colour from the BMW car catalogue, and organized for some extra work to be done to the neck which included a fret dressing.
Despite all this work, the bass was still not blowing Owner No 2 away. He couldn’t shake the feeling that the absence of the genuine MM electronics and pickup were to blame. Until one day he managed to convince a local MM dealer to take up his case with MM on his behalf. MM made this particular dealer jump through hoops, but their persistence paid off and MM eventually sold Owner No 2, after many years of trying, an original 2 coil MM humbucker and a MM preamp for this bass.
Owner 2 clearly had the best of intentions for this bass, and he enthusiastically awaited the genuine MM parts to be installed…….. which unfortunately was yet another disappointment. Try as he might, Owner No 2 wasn’t digging this bass at all, even after spending considerable monies trying to restore it to its full potential. With no obvious avenue for improvement left, he decided to cut his losses and offload the bass at a bargain price to yours truly. He’d decided the Stingray sound was not for him.
I however LOVE the Stingray sound and was pretty pleased about scoring a “spare” for my 1991 model…. Until I plugged it in. As mentioned previously, it didn’t sound anything like I expected it to.
Having been satisfied that the electronics are indeed genuine MM, I figured the discrepancy in the tone must have something to do with the wiring. So I enlisted the help of Matt Bullus, the repair and setup genius who works at Bass People here in Sydney. Matt needed a bit of help from Jeff Mallia, another Sydney luthier extraordinaire, and between the two of them they sorted it out. It appears the problem occurred because MM supplied a 2 coil pickup, but a preamp designed for the 3 coil pickup. Whoever had installed the electronics must have had to use 2 different wiring diagrams and basically guessed what to do with the absence of the wires from the 3rd coil. They guessed wrong.
Jeff and Matt dissected the preamp circuit and worked out a way to make the 2 coil pickup work with the 3 coil preamp.
This poor neglected MM Stingray 5, having been to hell and back, is now everything this bass was designed to be, and I’m elated!!!!! This is remarkable considering how close this bass came to being firewood. In fact I maintain that it would never have been resuscitated unless it landed in the lap of someone who is familiar with the Stingray tone. It probably would have just been on-sold over and over again by people who were deciding the Stingray tone wasn’t their cup of tea who didn’t realise what they were hearing isn’t in fact the Stingray tone.
Which bring me back to owner No 2. He’s been curious to see how this all panned out. He’s happy that the bass is now living up to its potential, but he’s also sad that he never got to hear it in all its glory. I’ve given him an open invitation to come and visit the bass if he’s ever in Sydney, but I’ve made it pretty clear I’m keeping the bass
I'll get some pics of the bass up ASAP..
