a tale of two Stingrays

[Elad_E]

about a month ago I ordered two used SR4s over the internet, both with 2 band EQ and maple necks - one a '00 EB and the other an '80 pre-EB.

the '00 arrived three weeks ago and today I finally got the pre-EB.

the good:
the finish is clear and not yellowed at all, the hardware is as shiny as the circa '00 'Ray I have and the sound is in Louis Johnson's ballpark (I wonder if the difference lends to the fact the EB has Electrolytic caps and the pre-EB has Tantalums).

the bad:
the neck sides shows a few spots where the finish became foggy a bit.
the truss rod seems to be almost maxed out and that may be bad news as the action is slightly high compared to my EB SR which has the lowest action I have yet to play without fret noise.

the ugly:
theres a large area on the back of the neck behind the 9th fret where a piece of the finish fell off and it's down to bare wood (though the wood itself is intact).
I may try to apply some nail polish after I'll do some web research on the effect with poly (it worked perfectly with the nitro finish on my old '62 RI Precision).


now, on which of them should I put flats?

 

[Aussie Mark]

now, on which of them should I put flats?

All of them.

 

[StevieBoy]

None of them....

 

[Jimmyb]

That one, but not the other one.

 

[Duarte]

Nice basses. Nice sleeping cat.

Put flats on the sleeping cat!

 

[Dr Stankface]

None of them....

+1

 

[jasper383]

That one, but not the other one.

Don't you have it backwards?

 

[Sonnyonbass]

Sweet basses......! Got to get me an old musicman someday. Because that's what got me into musicmans in the first place. (and Louis Jonhnson's slap video of course hehe )

 

[rhythmCity944]

+1

another vote my way...u want flats, go upright bass where they belong

unless you are into IRON MAIDEN, then go flats on what ever you want

in the end, your bass, do what you want and have fun at the same time...why we all play our instruments is to have fun!!!

 

[armybass]

Put flats on the SB, Natural Rays are for slapping!

 

[Caca de Kick]

I'm in love with those two 2-band'ers...

 

[johnfrazier]

That natural pre-EB is nice!

I have natural '77 with the same finish problems you describe. A lot of the finish has flaked off the back of it. I just ignore it, and it doesn't bother me unless I'm particularly OCD on any given day.

 

[bob atherton]

If the rod is maxed out on the pre EB then maybe try TI flats on that. They have really low tension, but still feel good when you adgust to that. This should bring your action down a bit.

 

[Elad_E]

I tried TI flats on the natural Ray - it sounded like Bernard Edwards' tone for about 2 minutes and then I kind of thought it sounded very much like a P with flats.
since I already have a very nice P strung with flats I decided to put the rounds back on and adjusted the neck and it now plays beautifully!

I almost finished the restoration of the giant ding in the neck finish behind the 9th fret.


to top it all, I recorded some bass tracks for a song at a friend's home studio with the '00 'Ray today and it sounded so fat I just couldnt be happier with the tone I got!

I'm a true convert, EBMM really knows their stuff and the 2000 SR4 seems to be taking place as my go-to bass.