New Old Bass Day

[drTStingray]

I have a Neptune blue Sabre on order but have been on the look out for a used 3 band Stingray for a while when this cropped up. It's seen it's fair share of knocks and dings but is nonetheless lovely. 1993 blueburst Ray 3 band with alder or poplar body and lightly flamed finished maple neck. It sounds great - have done two gigs with it and this bass can be very mellow indeed whilst still having those classic tones and sounds. The other cool thing is it's 398 serials older than my 93 ash (original) sunburst fretless (yes I know they're not necessarily sequential but still cool as far as I'm concerned).

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[sanderhermans]

Nice one. Cant you check the serial here to see what wood its made of? I thought that mm never used anything but ash on trans finishes.... but this does seem pretty solid.
btw i would also throw on a black or pearl pg....

 

[liverbird]

Wasn't Blueburst usually shot over poplar? Whether exclusively, I don't know.

Great looking bass, a top EBMM colour!

 

[drTStingray]

Nice one. Cant you check the serial here to see what wood its made of? I thought that mm never used anything but ash on trans finishes.... but this does seem pretty solid.
btw i would also throw on a black or pearl pg....

It's a trans finish but definitely not ash. I checked out the serial number here - AJ stated the body wood would be alder or poplar but didn't have it recorded. The Steve Morse guitar has a poplar body and comes in this colour - that said the wood grain looks v similar to what I've seen on trans red which is usually over alder also, apart from the last few years when ash was used.

It came with a white pearl pg fitted which was nice but I prefer look with the clear one, which also came with the bass. They don't have a record of what it shipped with so possibly had a clear one from original. I'm also going to change the strap buttons from the non standard strap locks fitted to the standard EBMM type!

 

[drTStingray]

Wasn't Blueburst usually shot over poplar? Whether exclusively, I don't know.

Great looking bass, a top EBMM colour!

Thanks and indeed, top EBMM colour. Photos don't really do it justice - the colour changes dependent on light between blue, turquoise and teal.

 

[sanderhermans]

Clear pg where never original with ebmm as far as i know....

 

[OldManMusic]

That's a beauty!

 

[liverbird]

Clear pg where never original with ebmm as far as i know....

Interesting topic... There's a fair few clear pickguards listed on musicmanbass.org for late 80s/early 90s instruments. Unfortunately, a serial number enquiry with EBMM is unlikely to bring up pickguard information for those years, at least in my experience.

I used to own an 89 Blueburst that had a clear guard. I managed to track down the original owner who said he bought it like that.

On the other hand, someone from EBMM Customer Service advised me that a white pickguard would have been most likely on a Blueburst bass.

I'd go with white or clear!

 

[georgestrings]

Very nice - I'm diggin' it!!!


- georgestrings

 

[drTStingray]

Interesting topic... There's a fair few clear pickguards listed on musicmanbass.org for late 80s/early 90s instruments. Unfortunately, a serial number enquiry with EBMM is unlikely to bring up pickguard information for those years, at least in my experience.

I used to own an 89 Blueburst that had a clear guard. I managed to track down the original owner who said he bought it like that.

On the other hand, someone from EBMM Customer Service advised me that a white pickguard would have been most likely on a Blueburst bass.

I'd go with white or clear!

Thanks Oliver, good call. EBMM don't have the pickguard type listed but I've traced the bass back a few years to when it was listed for sale by a well known UK bass store and the pictures show it with a clear pickguard. I tend to agree that the only other option would be white (and matte white to be period correct) as it's near twin sibling pictured. However I prefer the clear so that's how it's staying!! You can't underestimate how cool this bass both looks and sounds - I'm sure it will find regular gig rotation with me!!

 

[Bert]

That's an blueburst (aka as smurf-blue) with an poplar body (softer wood), around 86-89 clear pickguard were available, mostly seen on trans-reds at this time with ash-bodies (trussrod nut at the head).
As far as I remember around 1989/90: Trans-Red went to Alder, Blueburst was Poplar with white matte pickguard, until around 1998: Trans-Red was Ash again and Blueburst not available anymore.