Pre EB vs Post EB Stingray body

[Crazykiwi]

Howdy y'all, I'm new and this is my first post. If any of you have visited www.bassworld.co.uk, you'll know I'm fairly active there.

Recently I have come into owning the following:

78-ish Stingray with a godawful mutilated and refinished body but otherwise nicely played in. (serial B007978).

Post EB 6 bolt unfinished body (with "TRANS" [red?] and "110" stamped in neck pocket) which EB are supplying a new set of hardware for, via Stringsandthings.

'Flea' bridge (serial 48473)

Stingray neck of to-be-confirmed date with lovely flame maple, ebony fingerboard and graphite neck reinforcing​

I would like to carry out a 100% authentic restoration of the pre-EB bass for obvious reasons - that includes transferring over all the bolt anchors and getting the control cavity routing right.

What I'd like to know is what should I be telling a luthier that I want? How do the pre EB and post EB bodies differ? I know the pre EB body is slab ash/alder but
1) Is a slab appropriate for a 78 Ray?
2) What consitutes a slab body? Complete lack of chamfering? Or only the body chamfer?
3) Did the pre EB's have a nitro finish?
4) Has anyone got a pre-EB scratchplate (ie. one without the truss rod allowance)


Cheers
Steve

 

[Rod Trussbroken]

Hi Steve. Welcome.

To answer your questions:

1) Is a slab appropriate for a 78 Ray?

Yes

2) What consitutes a slab body? Complete lack of chamfering? Or only the body chamfer?

The edging is rounded but there is no waist contour on any Pre-EB Sting Ray bodies (only the Sabre has that feature).

3) Did the pre EB's have a nitro finish?

1976 is nitro. Not too sure about 1977. Pretty sure (but not 100%) that 1978 is laquer. 1979 is definitely laquer.

4) Has anyone got a pre-EB scratchplate (ie. one without the truss rod allowance)

If you cant get a spare, Bryan Boots makes them:

[email protected]

.

 

[Crazykiwi]

Hi Gav,

Thanks for the help. Do the slab bodies lack a forearm chamfer as well? It seems from some of the pics posted that they do.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Rod Trussbroken]

>>>>Do the slab bodies lack a forearm chamfer as well?

Yes....I overlooked that.

The slab only has the rounding off of the edging. Nothing else. The other features were only introduced on the Sting Ray when Ernie Ball took over in 1985.

.

 

[Crazykiwi]

Gav, one more question in light of your earlier responses. Do you know what the best way is to tell between nitro and lacquer finishes?

Cheers
Steve

 

[fire]

are the lack of contours on pre EB bodies uncomfortable in any way? i've never played a bass without contours, so i'm just wondering if there is a noticeable difference when playing it.

 

[word]

are the lack of contours on pre EB bodies uncomfortable in any way? i've never played a bass without contours, so i'm just wondering if there is a noticeable difference when playing it.

you will definately notice they are not there if you play one but i don't find that they are uncomfortable. i rest my forearm on the body so i thought that could be an issue for me but it wasn't.

 

[Mobay45]

you will definately notice they are not there if you play one but i don't find that they are uncomfortable. i rest my forearm on the body so i thought that could be an issue for me but it wasn't.

As a counterpoint to Word, I found the slab body on the SUB 5 that I had for a while to be very uncomfortable compared to my 'Rays. The top edge dug into my forearm and made it painful to play.

 

[Rod Trussbroken]

>>>Gav, one more question in light of your earlier responses. Do you know what the best way is to tell between nitro and lacquer finishes?

Not really. I do know that nitro finishes wont stand up to too many knocks.

This guy does a full discussion on finishes though:

Vintage Guitar Info Guy

.

 

[teonigil]

Howdy y'all, I'm new and this is my first post. If any of you have visited www.bassworld.co.uk, you'll know I'm fairly active there.

Recently I have come into owning the following:

78-ish Stingray with a godawful mutilated and refinished body but otherwise nicely played in. (serial B007978).

...[/list]​

I got B007977...​

 

[todd4ta]

>>>>Do the slab bodies lack a forearm chamfer as well?

Yes....I overlooked that.

The slab only has the rounding off of the edging. Nothing else. The other features were only introduced on the Sting Ray when Ernie Ball took over in 1985.

.

There have been a few pre-EB Stingrays with contours that were advertised as "artist" basses. I have at least one of those (a '77), but there is no way to know if it is really that way from the factory or if the contours were added later by an owner (I have a '79 like that).

What's interesting is that the Sabres (which started in '79) have body contours, so it's just the Stingray that didn't have them until the EB transition in '85.

 

[Crazykiwi]

I got B007977...

Bloody hell, what are the chances of that happening?!

I have no idea what colour mine originally was, the body had been mutilated into some kind of Warwick shape. When I scraped back the paint under the mid blue I found orange and yellow.

(Above) This is it with the 93 replacement body fitted. The original body is upper right. Those ain't my shoes BTW

(Above) This is what it looks like with the 6 bolt body refinished. Now someone please tell me that isn't a labour of love and respect.

 

[teonigil]

There have been a few pre-EB Stingrays with contours that were advertised as "artist" basses. I have at least one of those (a '77), but there is no way to know if it is really that way from the factory or if the contours were added later by an owner (I have a '79 like that)....

Hi Todd,
If it's not a factory job it will be possible to check a partial refin on the contoured area with black light unless it was completely refinished of course...

 

[teonigil]

Bloody hell, what are the chances of that happening?!

I have no idea what colour mine originally was, the body had been mutilated into some kind of Warwick shape. When I scraped back the paint under the mid blue I found orange and yellow.

Nice job. How does it play?
Here's a shot of the *older* twin sister...

hehe...

 

[Crazykiwi]

Waaaaaah schaweeet!

B007978 is one of my fave 4 strings. Just screams ol' skool when I plug it in and play. I'm using it in my band for some of the disco-influenced numbers and its just the mutts nutts.

Actually all of my basses are my favourites for one reason or another. Can't help but get enthusiastic.

 

[teonigil]

B007977 is my best sounding fretted pre-eb. It must have been a good day at the factory

 

[Crazykiwi]

The mojo must have been flowing some