Girthbrooks
New member
Hello everyone,
My Stingray Special 5H in Butane Blue arrived today. This bass was manufactured in February 2025 per the serial number lookup tool.
I bought it from Musician’s Friend and I have a couple of questions to help me verify this was a brand new instrument and not a return that got sold as new. I have bought stuff from MF that arrived clearly used and returned albeit nothing on the higher end so my guard is up.
Couple things I’m curious about.
In this unboxing video the bass has a bubble wrap protection around the headstock and body:
Kiwi Green unboxing
Mine did not have that. The bass was bare in the Mono case. I understand this Kiwi Green model is from a couple years back so perhaps they no longer ship newer production models with the bubble wrap. I watched other unboxing videos and there always seems to be some type of protection in the case. A forum member on another site mentioned that his bass did not have anything, so who knows?
This is how the case and contents looked upon arrival:
Bass + Case Photo
In addition, I bought a Sterling Ray34 a while back and the tuning pegs had plastic wrap to protect them, etc. No such thing on the Stingray Special 5H. Just struck me as odd their lower end Indonesian models had this while this bass did not have that.
Most new instruments I have purchased have had some type of protection on them either on the tuning pegs, plastic around the controls, etc. so I got a bit concerned there was nothing like that with this bass.
Final thing is the pick guard does appear to have a very small gouge underneath the B string. I have not removed the wrap off the guard yet, but it feels deep enough to have penetrated the pick guard.
Pick Guard Gouge
Thanks everyone! If consensus is that this is a new bass I’ll bring it to my tech tomorrow for a professional setup.
My Stingray Special 5H in Butane Blue arrived today. This bass was manufactured in February 2025 per the serial number lookup tool.
I bought it from Musician’s Friend and I have a couple of questions to help me verify this was a brand new instrument and not a return that got sold as new. I have bought stuff from MF that arrived clearly used and returned albeit nothing on the higher end so my guard is up.
Couple things I’m curious about.
In this unboxing video the bass has a bubble wrap protection around the headstock and body:
Kiwi Green unboxing
Mine did not have that. The bass was bare in the Mono case. I understand this Kiwi Green model is from a couple years back so perhaps they no longer ship newer production models with the bubble wrap. I watched other unboxing videos and there always seems to be some type of protection in the case. A forum member on another site mentioned that his bass did not have anything, so who knows?
This is how the case and contents looked upon arrival:
Bass + Case Photo
In addition, I bought a Sterling Ray34 a while back and the tuning pegs had plastic wrap to protect them, etc. No such thing on the Stingray Special 5H. Just struck me as odd their lower end Indonesian models had this while this bass did not have that.
Most new instruments I have purchased have had some type of protection on them either on the tuning pegs, plastic around the controls, etc. so I got a bit concerned there was nothing like that with this bass.
Final thing is the pick guard does appear to have a very small gouge underneath the B string. I have not removed the wrap off the guard yet, but it feels deep enough to have penetrated the pick guard.
Pick Guard Gouge
Thanks everyone! If consensus is that this is a new bass I’ll bring it to my tech tomorrow for a professional setup.
