Sterling5 vs Stingray5 preamp?

[Samoht]

Fellow EBMM players,
Never having owned an EBMM Sterling bass but having a couple of Stingray5s, I’m curious if a Stingray5 H with a ceramic pickup would sound the same as a stock Sterling5 H.

I would think it comes down to the preamp and whether there’s a difference in the Sterling 3-band and Stingray5 3-band. Both have the 3 way blade series/filter/parallel.

To be clear I’m not referring to the Stingray5 Special or any special editions. Thanks frens

 

[Daniel]

Fellow EBMM players,
Never having owned an EBMM Sterling bass but having a couple of Stingray5s, I’m curious if a Stingray5 H with a ceramic pickup would sound the same as a stock Sterling5 H.

I would think it comes down to the preamp and whether there’s a difference in the Sterling 3-band and Stingray5 3-band. Both have the 3 way blade series/filter/parallel.

To be clear I’m not referring to the Stingray5 Special or any special editions. Thanks frens

The Stringray 5 had ceramic pickups between 1991 and 2006. In 2007 it was switched back to alnico magnets. If you have an alnico pickup in your bass, this and the number of windings the pickup has would make a very big difference in the tone. The two basses actually sound very different.

 

[Samoht]

But I have a ceramic music man pickup that I’m contemplating putting in an SR5 that currently has alnico...I may not have been clear. I wonder if my SR5 with the Ceramic would be tonally similar to a stock Sterling5.

EDIT: I think the fact that EBMM switched back to Alnico with the SR5 at the introduction of the Sterling5 may answer my question in itself.

 

[tbonesullivan]

It's my understanding that the electronics on a Sterling 5 are identical to those on a Stingray 5 with ceramic pickups. The Stingray 5, when it first came out, actually took more design cues from the Silhouette guitar than the original Stingray4. It had Alnico pickups, but those were changed to Ceramic in 1991, and stayed that way until 2008, when they were changed back to Alnico, and the Sterling 5 was released.

When the Sterling 4 originally came out, it was in some ways a 4 string version of the Stingray 5. Both had ceramic pickups, and possibly the same preamp. They had a more aggressive sound, and the standard single pickup had the parallel, single, series options.

Things stayed that way I think for around 15 years. In that time, the HH and HS models came out, with lots of other innovations. It was then probably decided that moving the Stingray 5 back to Alnico and having a new Sterling 5 take that place made more sense. This way people could now once again get the smoother Alnico sound in a 5 string platform.

 

[Samoht]

Wow, thanks for the info! That agrees with everything I’ve seen and it makes a lot of sense.