Dating a Stingray

[porsche]

Dating a Stingray Help required!

Hi,
I would like to know if you can help me? I have just purchased a stingray bass (rosewood neck) natural body it was sold to me as a pre E-Ball 1979 and has sept 1979 and a signature pencilled in the body under the neck.
The SN is BO22910 it does not have string through body and is a 4 bolt neck.

Would you be kind enough to let me know your thoughts as to the date?

Regards
Lee Marks

PS I paid $1,250 for it was this a fair deal and it is in about 9 out of 10 condition with what was said to be original case (brown leather each end with a white vynal piping covering the rest?

 

[Rod Trussbroken]

Where have I seen that serial before.... .....you have mail.

It's definitely a pre EB Bass. (I take it that there's no mention of Ernie Ball on the headstock logo). Ernie Ball didn't buy Music Man till 1984.

The 4 bolt neck, along with non-stringthrough bridge, was officially introduced in 1980. However there may be some 1979 examples around. To contrast the situation, the Sterling Bass was officially introduced in 1994 but I know of a 1993 Sterling which has been confirmed as such through my correspondence with Ernie Ball.

There is some confusion as to when fretted rosewood necks were introduced. They were definitely available in 1980. They may have been available before this. Most definitely, ebony (and possibly rosewood) was/were available for fretless necks prior to 1980.

Headstock truss rod adjustment was available in 79/80.

Pre EB serial numbers are not necessarily chronological...most of them are, but once in a while several crop up that are not. In the general scheme of things, B022910 is consistent to being a 1980 serial number but I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be a 1979 serial.

It's not unusual to have the body and neck dates months apart for a particular Bass. I know of one Bass with a 1976 neck and a 1977 body. On another Bass, the neck and body dates are a year apart. In your case, there would be nothing unusual to have a 1979 body with a 1980 neck.

Pencil marking in the body pocket is not unusual although it would seem that ink is the norm. My 79 'Ray has no body date...only the initials of the maker (?) written in pencil. I've heard of others being dated with pencil.

To date your Bass, all the above factors would have to be taken into account. The most important question is the date on the heel of the neck ! In my opinion, that would be the most decissive factor. If the neck is undated and the only date is the body date then, in light of the above, I suppose one could claim it to be a 79 Bass.

Another way a Bass can be dated is to look at the date codes on the back of the Vol, Treble and Bass pots. However, MM purchased a stack of them earlier on and it's not unusual to have pots dated 1976 in a Bass made two or three years latter. My 79 'Ray has 1976 pots. However, if your pots are dated 1980, then that's a different story.

Pot coding is as follows eg:

137-7620......'137' defines the type of pot ( in this case a single pot as opposed to a stacked pot which would be prefixed by '304' ). '76' defines the year of manufacture ( in this example 1976 ). '20' defines the week it was made during the year 1976.

Cheers.