Discoloration on stingrays?

[ajb603]

I have had my stingray for almost five years now. It is white with matching headstock. The headstock is pure bright white. The body is discolored and looks like more of an off white/cream color.


Has this happened to anyone else? What's the deal?

 

[Aussie Mark]

The "deal" is mojo. Older nitrocellulose finishes were prone to yellowing, and the process was accelerated by spending a lot of time in places full of cigarette smoke. Here's my "white" StingRay .....

Modern acrylic finishes are not as quick to yellow, but they will still change color over time.

 

[bovinehost]

And white is particularly weird.

You should be posting photos of this bass so that all the regulars will be jealous.

 

[LowDownDave]

And what's with the small white patch on the bass body Mark? Is that where you used your arm to protect your bass from lung cancer? Nice!

 

[strummer]

The "deal" is mojo. Older nitrocellulose finishes were prone to yellowing, and the process was accelerated by spending a lot of time in places full of cigarette smoke. Here's my "white" StingRay .....

Modern acrylic finishes are not as quick to yellow, but they will still change color over time.

A lick of that nicotine stain and you're all set

 

[Aussie Mark]

And what's with the small white patch on the bass body Mark? Is that where you used your arm to protect your bass from lung cancer? Nice!

The white areas (also on the back) are where the "yellow smoke" finish has been worn off to reveal some of the original un-smokestained white finish.

 

[LowDownDave]

The white areas (also on the back) are where the "yellow smoke" finish has been worn off to reveal some of the original un-smokestained white finish.

Well at least this suggests your bass COULD be brought back to its original white lustre with a little elbow grease. Not that you'd want to do that, perhaps the bass is now a useful indicator of the condition of your lungs. Then again you DO play more than one bass.

Or maybe sell it for use in a teeth whitening infomercial!

 

[Aussie Mark]

Well at least this suggests your bass COULD be brought back to its original white lustre with a little elbow grease. Not that you'd want to do that, perhaps the bass is now a useful indicator of the condition of your lungs. Then again you DO play more than one bass.

There's not much white left under the yellow layer of the finish. In some places the finish is worn to bare timber.

Fortunately, I've never been a smoker (save for half a packet of Winfields smoked behind the cricket nets at school over the course of one week when I was 13 - that was enough for me), so this bass has acquired its nicotine passively, although I can't speak for the original owner (Todd Hunter) who gigged with it 5 or 6 nights a week for a decade.

 

[West of House]

I have a 6 year old white Stingray that I've had in storage for the last year or so after my band stop playing together. I just took it out today while moving to give it a look-see, and I found that it was totally discolored. It's not really white at all anymore, much more of a cream color. Is this normal? Granted, I probably should have cleaned it up a little during its storage, but that's life.

Just wondering if that sort of rapid discoloration is common or not.

 

[BobKos]

I have had two white SR4's with matching headstocks. The first was 12 years old (1996 DOB) when I bought it. I didn't really notice it till I took pictures, but the HS was really much brighter white. I attributed it to age. I just bought a new GC clearance bass this month. Same deal. This bass can't be more than a year or two old and looks no better or worse than my old 1996 model. The headstock is brilliant white and the body is a more sedate white. I have come to accept that this is standard color setup on these white basses. The same can be observed on the white / white SR4 listed @ Basscentral.