MattMann
Member
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2005
- Messages
- 6
Hello everyone. Matt here, and this is my first posting on the forum. Just wanted to introduce myself and say hello.
I found the forum yesterday and read some posts that helped answer my truss rod adjustment questions. When I got home last night, I easily made the adjustment to the neck, and it seems to have worked just fine.
I’ve been playing bass since around 1979 (played trombone from grade school through college jazz program), and joined my first rock band during my early college days. First bass was a Rickenbacker 4003. Still have it and play it from time to time. Also own one of the Fender 57 reissue P basses. Played it for years during my days of playing in a band in Salt Lake City during most of the 80s. Recently I picked up a decent Ibenez on E-bay (well, my guitarist actually bid it for me as I’m not familiar with purchasing things E-bay yet and I don’t have a paypal account set up). I also have a Sigma acoustic bass that I use for jamming on the front porch with friends. There have also been a few basses that I’ve had but sold over the years.
I’ve always admired the Music Man bass products, but never thought I’d own one myself however that recently changed. I had an older friend that owned a Stingray 5 string (he was one of my homebrewing buddies). He also owned a lot of other different instruments (wide variety of guitars, basses and even a keyboard or two). He really couldn’t play guitar or bass too well and we mainly hung out due to our common interest in homebrewing. I think he planned on spending more time working on his musical interests as he just recently retired from his career at Disney.
Well, my buddy passed away in April. His cousin came back to the U.S. (from Brazil) to act as the administrator of his estate, and a couple of weeks ago I asked him about the 5 string Stingray. It had not been sold yet, and he gave it to me for $400.00 (I assume I got it for a great price).
The thing is, I’ve never played a 5 string bass before. I’ve got a hip shot on my Rickenbacker and Ibanez so I can play drop d tuning (which occurs in around 1/3rd of the tunes I’m currently playing in my band). Plus, having that low B string in the way of the E string seems like something that will take some time to get used to. Don’t get me wrong; I’m happy to have the bass but I’m not sure how much actual use it will get right away.
I don’t think my buddy Steve ever played it (more than an occasional couple of minutes here and there or when he showed it to me). I’m not sure when it was manufactured, but this bass is factory fresh and does not have one single scratch on it. It has an orange(ish) sunburst finish. I’ll have go to the EB website and read the faq’s and other material on how to operate the switches and different nobs (again, I don’t know the first thing about this instrument at this time.. well except how to make that correction to the truss rod). It’s without a doubt the heaviest bass I’ve ever owned.
I noticed a 5 (or was it 6) digit number on the bridge piece. Is this the serial number for the bass, or the part number for the bridge (want to check out when it was made according to the site mentioned in one of the stickys).
Any good tips (in addition to practice, practice, practice) in making the adjustment from 4 string (with drop d) to 5 strings?
Do you who own both 5 string and 4 string basses find yourselves playing the 4 most often and just using the 5 when you need those lower notes?
Thanks for reading my long post, and I’m sure I’ll be back with more questions. By the way, I live in Pasadena CA., which I believe is not that far from SLO. What’s this meet up on Sept. 17th all about?
Matt
I found the forum yesterday and read some posts that helped answer my truss rod adjustment questions. When I got home last night, I easily made the adjustment to the neck, and it seems to have worked just fine.
I’ve been playing bass since around 1979 (played trombone from grade school through college jazz program), and joined my first rock band during my early college days. First bass was a Rickenbacker 4003. Still have it and play it from time to time. Also own one of the Fender 57 reissue P basses. Played it for years during my days of playing in a band in Salt Lake City during most of the 80s. Recently I picked up a decent Ibenez on E-bay (well, my guitarist actually bid it for me as I’m not familiar with purchasing things E-bay yet and I don’t have a paypal account set up). I also have a Sigma acoustic bass that I use for jamming on the front porch with friends. There have also been a few basses that I’ve had but sold over the years.
I’ve always admired the Music Man bass products, but never thought I’d own one myself however that recently changed. I had an older friend that owned a Stingray 5 string (he was one of my homebrewing buddies). He also owned a lot of other different instruments (wide variety of guitars, basses and even a keyboard or two). He really couldn’t play guitar or bass too well and we mainly hung out due to our common interest in homebrewing. I think he planned on spending more time working on his musical interests as he just recently retired from his career at Disney.
Well, my buddy passed away in April. His cousin came back to the U.S. (from Brazil) to act as the administrator of his estate, and a couple of weeks ago I asked him about the 5 string Stingray. It had not been sold yet, and he gave it to me for $400.00 (I assume I got it for a great price).
The thing is, I’ve never played a 5 string bass before. I’ve got a hip shot on my Rickenbacker and Ibanez so I can play drop d tuning (which occurs in around 1/3rd of the tunes I’m currently playing in my band). Plus, having that low B string in the way of the E string seems like something that will take some time to get used to. Don’t get me wrong; I’m happy to have the bass but I’m not sure how much actual use it will get right away.
I don’t think my buddy Steve ever played it (more than an occasional couple of minutes here and there or when he showed it to me). I’m not sure when it was manufactured, but this bass is factory fresh and does not have one single scratch on it. It has an orange(ish) sunburst finish. I’ll have go to the EB website and read the faq’s and other material on how to operate the switches and different nobs (again, I don’t know the first thing about this instrument at this time.. well except how to make that correction to the truss rod). It’s without a doubt the heaviest bass I’ve ever owned.
I noticed a 5 (or was it 6) digit number on the bridge piece. Is this the serial number for the bass, or the part number for the bridge (want to check out when it was made according to the site mentioned in one of the stickys).
Any good tips (in addition to practice, practice, practice) in making the adjustment from 4 string (with drop d) to 5 strings?
Do you who own both 5 string and 4 string basses find yourselves playing the 4 most often and just using the 5 when you need those lower notes?
Thanks for reading my long post, and I’m sure I’ll be back with more questions. By the way, I live in Pasadena CA., which I believe is not that far from SLO. What’s this meet up on Sept. 17th all about?
Matt
