It's ignorance like this that really upsets me... :-(

[Smallmouth_Bass]

The Sterling 5 (and Big Al 5) is slightly narrower than SR5. The spacing may even be the same, the neck is just smaller.

 

[Movielife]

Spacing is the same I believe but I had been playing 4s for a few weeks.

 

[jlepre]

When I bought my 2 ST5's I was told by EBMM CS that they were the same.

 

[BigOldHarry]

But I don't want a different brand of truck silly goose. I've found that after I got used to less leg room it has made me a better driver by putting me close to the steering wheel. It felt weird at first but now I'm totally used to it and being in trucks with more legroom seems.....well kinda funny.

Well, to continue the metaphor...

So, you are happy to a buy a truck to buy a truck that doesn't quite fit you, but *you* adapt to *it*, despite the face that there are a several trucks out on the market?

Since I know that you're answer will be "yes, that's exactly what I'd do...", I presume you believe that EVERYONE should think that way?

So, returning to the subject of basses - I think it'd be great if EBMM made a 19mm spaced 5 string bass - I'd at least give it serious consideration... but as they don't...

Oh - and I currently own a Bongo HS 5; I've owned a SR 5 too.

 

[husky123]

No not at all. I really just like my Dodge for some reason. Never really been a Ford or Chevy guy. I'm glad others buy them though because if everyone had a Dodge like mine it would suck.

Your Bongo didn't sell yet?

 

[Big Poppa]

OK Let me first off explain and apologize...I was not calling the op on tb a pasty faced dweeb (I have never been to tb.....seriously) I was talking about some experts....even on this forum and my smoking forums...so Im sorry that it came off like I was assailing him. I wasnt. Please accept my apology...It was a dry humorous characterization of a keyboard warrior.

Let me try to explain our reasoning...We make guitars in a very nice little town in central california...it is a college town and we used to make strings and everything there. It is the third most expensive place to live when you compare median income vs housing affordability...What does this have to do with the subject? As it is we make over 120,000 combinations. Between all of the other models of everything we just never put the 19mm or 35" scale length of a 5er on the priority list. Right now we are introducing the Luke 3 and working on new stuff for other artists. We cannot grow where we are and just try to keep making enough to keep the dealers and customers happy and us relevant.

On the guitar side we have many that want a gibson scale...the want a set neck..they want floyds on more and stainless frets....If we dont offer something that you want it isnt that what you want is not valid...someday you may see a 19mm spaced fiver...it will probably be driven by an artist...thats how most comes from the guitar side....once we do it for the artist then it is pretty easy to get into production

On this forum I ask that people dont pm me and that they dont ask strangers for technical advise. It falls on deaf ears. I get pmmed and people give advice without seeing the guitar and we end up having to fix a bigger problem...We have those experts here....I like cheetos too but my diet doesnt

 

[BigOldHarry]

OK Let me first off explain and apologize...I was not calling the op on tb a pasty faced dweeb (I have never been to tb.....seriously) I was talking about some experts....even on this forum and my smoking forums...so Im sorry that it came off like I was assailing him. I wasnt. Please accept my apology...It was a dry humorous characterization of a keyboard warrior.

Let me try to explain our reasoning...We make guitars in a very nice little town in central california...it is a college town and we used to make strings and everything there. It is the third most expensive place to live when you compare median income vs housing affordability...What does this have to do with the subject? As it is we make over 120,000 combinations. Between all of the other models of everything we just never put the 19mm or 35" scale length of a 5er on the priority list. Right now we are introducing the Luke 3 and working on new stuff for other artists. We cannot grow where we are and just try to keep making enough to keep the dealers and customers happy and us relevant.

On the guitar side we have many that want a gibson scale...the want a set neck..they want floyds on more and stainless frets....If we dont offer something that you want it isnt that what you want is not valid...someday you may see a 19mm spaced fiver...it will probably be driven by an artist...thats how most comes from the guitar side....once we do it for the artist then it is pretty easy to get into production

On this forum I ask that people dont pm me and that they dont ask strangers for technical advise. It falls on deaf ears. I get pmmed and people give advice without seeing the guitar and we end up having to fix a bigger problem...We have those experts here....I like cheetos too but my diet doesnt

Fair enough.

However, I don't think that thread on TB was a shrill mandate landing on your door; I think it was a bassist expressing a desire, nothing more.

I find it interesting that EBMM has released some *very* creative designs - some might say extremely so - so releasing a design that included 19mm hardly seems like a zany proposition. If you believed that doing so would generate more business, it would have either been done by now or would be in the plans. I would be *fascinated* to see the marketing research that led to the Big Al and the Bongo (no, I'm not asking - I am doing what guys who have worked in marketing do - we "muse"...)

Anyway, apology accepted (at least on my part). You may not spend time on the TB forums, but EBMM gets pretty crazy love there, for what it's worth.

 

[MudvilleStomper]

For the record, nothing gets me hotter than a Reflex HSS... Except for maybe one in sapphire black or candy red with a non matching headstock... But I digress. I love the leaps and bounds EBMM has taken for themselves and for us the bass playing community.

 

[syciprider]

Pfft TB. Where Sterling is the debil and guys who have done nothing for the bass industry but ASSEMBLE Fender clones from outsourced parts are viewed as gods.

 

[Big Poppa]

Big Harry...What is the very creative part? Was that a dig or a compliment? I bought this Music Man out of bankruptcy and with Dudley we created instruments with a shared vision....Now there is another generation of engineers that we mentor. If you want to know about the Bongo Jack has the history. The Big Al is something I have always wanted to do....a 3 single coil bass...again there is history there you can search. The Sterling was going to be that in 1993 but the pickup technology and electronics were not up to snuff at this time. If you are questioning the validity of the Bongo or Big Al...because you feel the 19mm is more valid you are certainly entitled to that opinion...I am very proud of both those designs....Almost thirty years ago I invested my money, time and blood trying to create tools for artists...

As I said already said that the probability of a 19mm spaced bass would have its origins with an artists request...so far none has asked. I never referred to a 19mm spaced bass as zany.

Im sure that there are many that believe they could have done a better job with Music Man and probably they are out there....I would love to see more young companies making unique instruments.

 

[Big Poppa]

Other than being challenged for what I havent done lets try to not make this about me...or TB Hopefully Ive answered the question.

 

[kamakazee]

On that day, the endless quest for exact string spacing and the perfect pedal and the ideal neck profile and the unequaled combination of pickup and preamp ends... and you conclude that if it sounds/plays/feels good, it is good and the piece parts don't matter, not even a little bit.

The day I decided to buy a Bongo was that day for me. I lost all interest in talking about strings and preamps and pickups and wood and scale length and....

This! And it doesn't have to be a Bongo, but you'll know it when you've found it.

 

[DTG]

I must be crazy ( yeah, I know the answer there) but I have never stopped to think about the spacing on any bass. Ofcourse when I pick up a sterling or a jazz they feel a bit skinny but it doesn't stop me playing them.
I love my sr5 for its tone and it is my favorite neck for feel, I just don't get why someone would be so fixed on the size of the neck.

Again things like this make me think maybe I am a really bad bassist that is just a bit of a lucky chancer and I should spend more time worrying about this stuff but I gig 5 days a week and fit in some studio time too if I can so soon as get the time I will start to worry.

 

[Smallmouth_Bass]

I guess everybody has their preferences and for some, they are not negotiable. I have a 19mm spaced 5-string and 17.5mm spaced EBMMs (and others). If I had to choose, I would say I prefer 18mm spacing at the bridge on a 5-string, but I'm not all that picky.

Those types of threads on TB don't upset me. In any social situation, you have to wade your way through lots of BS and that's just the way it is. For those that are "ignorant"; all you can do is try and point them in the right direction and hope for the best (not to say that the original talked about thread is actually ignorant).

The difficult part must be hearing the same complaints and debates over and over. "Mustang Sally" is a good song, but I just don't want to play it anymore!

 

[jlepre]

Other than being challenged for what I havent done lets try to not make this about me...or TB Hopefully Ive answered the question.

Good enough for me BP...now where's the party?

 

[BigOldHarry]

Big Harry...What is the very creative part? Was that a dig or a compliment? I bought this Music Man out of bankruptcy and with Dudley we created instruments with a shared vision....Now there is another generation of engineers that we mentor. If you want to know about the Bongo Jack has the history. The Big Al is something I have always wanted to do....a 3 single coil bass...again there is history there you can search. The Sterling was going to be that in 1993 but the pickup technology and electronics were not up to snuff at this time. If you are questioning the validity of the Bongo or Big Al...because you feel the 19mm is more valid you are certainly entitled to that opinion...I am very proud of both those designs....Almost thirty years ago I invested my money, time and blood trying to create tools for artists...

As I said already said that the probability of a 19mm spaced bass would have its origins with an artists request...so far none has asked. I never referred to a 19mm spaced bass as zany.

Im sure that there are many that believe they could have done a better job with Music Man and probably they are out there....I would love to see more young companies making unique instruments.

By "Very Creative" I am referring to designs like the Bongo and the Big Al which are polarizing - risk taking. I'm not being sarcastic at all - I think it takes guts to try new things that cut across the grain a bit. That these basses won't be for everyone is part of the appeal - THAT'S what I meant. I'm actually a really big fan of creative engineering - I bought an RX-7 when they first came out, and have owned Zon basses for a long time now - both of which I was interested in because they both tried new approaches to old problems. I love that. So I dig that you make stuff that's "outside".

So the notion of a 19mm bridge spacing, in contrast to the Bongo (as an example) seems... Well, it seems pretty tame as a design proposition. I'm looking at this from a design/engineering standpoint, not a bass fanboi standpoint. I guess you've decided that the work involved in creating a bass with this configuration would not result in a good ROI. Fair enough. I have read several threads and talked to many players that are looking for this arrangement (19mm / 34"), and one of the few companies that makes this is Carvin - and not everyone is ready to give them money... Perhaps it's telling that Carvin is one of the few - there just might not be much demand for this spacing. That I'm one dude who DOES want one means... Well, it means just that - it's something I want.

Anyway, thanks for engaging. Few front-office types will stoop to chatting with end-users. So good on ya.

 

[Big Poppa]

Harry....Thanks for the chat....Ill take a pic of our market research dept! Oh we don t have one we are actually a very small company...but I do have 9 full time engineers and we have some really fun stuff in the pipeline....very exciting. Maybe when Im dead they will become hip!

 

[bovinehost]

I think it would be helpful (on the intertubes) if the end-users didn't get quite so invested in maintaining the status quo. I personally don't want and would not buy a 19mm spaced SR5, but if the company built one, it wouldn't mean I'd have to give up my standard SR5s or Bongos or Big Als. It would be another option for "other people".

I understand - as I said before, I think - the group that desires the wider spacing and it could only be good if more people were brought into our savage, fearsome cult. Um, I mean, "our group".

I remember a few years back when we were all talking about sixers and the company wasn't going to build sixers. Only then it did. And I wasn't required to give up my fivers, either, which I thought was nice.

So you fellow cultists, don't let it get you wrapped around the axle too hard. We're just talking about basses and stuff.

xoxoxo

Jack

 

[Big Poppa]

thanks Jack and for the third time I will say that many options and models come due to artists that we endorse request it...the six string bongo was for John Myung and we then offered it....Ill put it in caps so people can hear me..>>IF AN ENDORSED ARTIST D WANTS A 19MM SPACED 5ER THEN YOU WILL PROBABLY SEE IT. there

 

[bovinehost]

IF AN ENDORSED ARTIST WANTS A 19MM SPACED 5ER THEN YOU WILL PROBABLY SEE IT.

Hey Sterling, can I have a 19mm Bongo?