Question about Stingray guitar

[AdagioNH]

This year i have become a convert to Music Man. I now have 3 of them and no other guitars. Great stuff.

#3 is a Stingray i bought off Reverb. It is from 2017 i think. It has a maple neck and poly finish on the back. It is not a figured roasted neck and looks like a more traditional strat neck type of finish. It is quite a bit slower than the other two MM guitars I have with the oil wax finish. Not sticky, but definitely slower. I also have a Stingray HT and an Axis SS and they are pretty slick.

So the questions….

1) what is the difference between “Stingray“ from 2017 and the “Stingray RS”? Is it the roasted neck?is that what the RS stands for?

2) were all stingrays before a certain time poly finished necks?

3) this guitar with the MM trem, which is solidly decked, is quite a bit harder to do bends on than the other two guitars or most other guitars i have had. I don’t quite understand why…. Different bridges, but setup is basically identical, same neck relief, 1.5mm string height at 12. Same strings. Same radius. ??

Despite these things this is the one i find myself playing all the time, the pickups have a great classic sound, just curious

 

[jmmp]

The “first generation” cutlass and stingray guitars had an “Ultra-light satin polyurethane finish.” They had some different body finishes available as well. The “second generation” cutlass and stingray added the RS moniker and swapped to roasted maple, oil and wax finished necks.

I believe that swap occurred in 2018.

I just bought a first gen cutlass, and find the neck just as fast as my RS cutlass. In some ways, I prefer the satin finish feel over the raw RS.

 

[AdagioNH]

Thanks!