Maple bodies on Stingray?

[albantromp]

Hi all,

recently, I got into an interesting conversation on FB about the body woods that are used on Stingrays.

To my knowledge, 90% of all Stingrays are ash, with some alder and poplar here and there. However, another Stingray owner insists that his 2001 Ray 5 is in fact a custom order maple body. Looking at the pic of his bass, I am pretty certain that it is “just” ash.
Was/is it possible to do a custom order for a full solid maple body at all at MMEB? Never seen one, and as stated before, it looks like ash to me. What do you think?

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[tbonesullivan]

Hi all,

recently, I got into an interesting conversation on FB about the body woods that are used on Stingrays.

To my knowledge, 90% of all Stingrays are ash, with some alder and poplar here and there. However, another Stingray owner insists that his 2001 Ray 5 is in fact a custom order maple body. Looking at the pic of his bass, I am pretty certain that it is “just” ash.
Was/is it possible to do a custom order for a full solid maple body at all at MMEB? Never seen one, and as stated before, it looks like ash to me. What do you think?

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That is 100% ash. Maple does not have that type of grain pattern. The open clearly defined grain is a hallmark of ash, particularly the type used for guitars.

 

[DrKev]

Agree 100%. That's Ash.

 

[Rod Trussbroken]

Another Agree here...Ash.

 

[Golem]

Maple looks nothing like ash. This is a solid maple body, looks the same both front and back. The pattern is quite strong on this example but almost all maple shows it to some degree . When this distinct its "tiger" maple. The other common pattern is "curly" maple.


Pattern here is much more distinct than usual as its from a limited run, but most maple instruments use somewhat patterned wood.

Heres maple without the colored finish and without any special or premium patterning.