Stingray HT Feedback (I haven’t seen any!?!)

[Chetsaber]

Does anyone have any feedback on the new Stingray HT guitars with the tunomatic bridge and the new HT pickups? There is one terrible “review” of the guitar on YouTube and other than that all I’ve seen are the marketing ads from EB. Does anyone have one? What do you think? I have a regular Stingray RS and a Kensrue Stingray and am curious if I should add the hardtail bridge to my life. Help!!!

Thanks

 

[racerx]

I have one, the BFR persuasion, from Mr. @PeteDuBaldo and I enjoy it. My only knock on it is the finished neck and binding isn't as comfortable as the oil/wax RS/HT models, but it isn't a dealbreaker. However the standard issue HT shouldn't have to worry about this. I imagine playability will be the same and tuning stability should theoretically be the same/better as your current RS.

The HT pickups are nice, they are very articulate and a bit hotter than the RS issues in my opinion. The boost option is nice because I like that for saturated single-note lead/solo runs without having to fuss with anything else.

edit/P.S.: If you want any specific demo of it, let me know and I'm happy to plug it into an amp sim and try to approximate your setup to get you a rough demo of what to expect

 

[Chetsaber]

I have one, the BFR persuasion, from Mr. @PeteDuBaldo and I enjoy it. My only knock on it is the finished neck and binding isn't as comfortable as the oil/wax RS/HT models, but it isn't a dealbreaker. However the standard issue HT shouldn't have to worry about this. I imagine playability will be the same and tuning stability should theoretically be the same/better as your current RS.

The HT pickups are nice, they are very articulate and a bit hotter than the RS issues in my opinion. The boost option is nice because I like that for saturated single-note lead/solo runs without having to fuss with anything else.

edit/P.S.: If you want any specific demo of it, let me know and I'm happy to plug it into an amp sim and try to approximate your setup to get you a rough demo of what to expect

This is good feedback. I do love the oil/wax neck feel but really like the look of the plum crazy BFR. I was concerned the finished neck and binding, as pretty as it is, would be less comfortable than what I’m used to with the RS. I’m currently playing out of a Badcat 30r and an Orange rockerverb 50 (this one is probably easier to SIM). Thanks!

 

[Chetsaber]

Ok, so….. I was really really really expecting to absolutely love the HT Stingray. The tune o matic bridge was a huge draw for me as well as the great finishes. In my opinion, the pickups were a step down from the regular stingray pickups. I also disagree with the sentiment that lowering the volume knob cleans the pickups up. It does not.

If you want to play high gain or 100 percent distorted pickups these pickups would be great. If you want to cover ground on them then you should stay away.

Also, the HT technology touted better bass response. The bass response on my regular stingray SMOKED the HT out of my Badcat 30R. Same goes for the bass response of my Kensrue Stingray. To me, the HT was thin. Distortion in a pickup. Oh well. I tried.

 

[Cable_Clamp]

I just got a Stingray HT Brulee recently. I also have a Stingray RS Sunburst. The HT is a real monster but it doesn't replace the RS for me. The guitar itself is top notch. I was lucky to find one of the crazy flamed maple necks for a reasonable price (here in Europe). Overall the HT feels more stable and vibrates a lot. Has more sustain and is quite a bit louder unplugged. This could be because of the wood or the tune-o-matic who knows but noteworthy for me.

Now, the HT pickups. I'm in line with some previous posts here. On one hand the HT sounds a lot bigger and more aggressive than my RS. It can do clean quite well but overall the sound can become "too much" for a lag of better words. The cleans are smooth but present, mids are a bit scooped and the bass is massive. Contrarily to the advertisements, to my ears the bass response is not that tight. It's spongy but big. The RS pickups sound notably more "vintage" and "honest". With a dialed in amp they can surpass the HT pickups for clean, blues and rock stuff. But anything which needs higher gain and some serious weight the HT delivers in any situation.

One note for the high gain fraction: What I noticed is that when palm muting the HT pickups pronounce the overtone register. So there is less focus on the root note. Quite similar to those typical high output passive pickups. Warpigs, Alpha-Omega, Nazgul-Sentient or the Titants.

However, I fell in love with the HT. The overall package is absolutely great and I don't regret the purchase at all. But a set of new pickups will come for sure.

 

[Sweat]

I have one, love it, though I prefer hard tails. Mine is a BFR and has an oil/wax roasted neck and maple fretboard.

Glad I pulled the trigger on it!

 

[skelt101]

I have one, love it, though I prefer hard tails. Mine is a BFR and has an oil/wax roasted neck and maple fretboard.

Glad I pulled the trigger on it!

Something must be wrong with my internet connection. The pictures aren't loading...

 

[Sweat]

OK here you go

 

[jlf599]

I got a Plum Crazy Stingray and I would put it at a very solid guitar but couldn't/wouldn't be my only guitar by a longshot. I do prefer the wax/oil finish so that did knock it down one step to me. The pickups are definitely hot but they pair well with my SLO30. My favorite humbucker is the Axis, so it's really not even close to a dealbreaker to have a hot pickup.

I'd put it at a solid 8/10. If it had a wax/oil finish neck, it'd be 9+/10.

I've not played a Stingray RS so nothing to compare to there for me.

I can't imagine I'll change the pickups out as having a little different beast is nice. Love the bridge. Love the color. Love the comfort of the guitar. If it had a roasted maple neck with the purple headstock, it might be 9.9/10.

 

[a0damasco]

Same goes for the bass response of my Kensrue Stingray.

Sorry if it's a stupid question. Are the Kensrue pickups like those of the RS models?

 

[Cable_Clamp]

The K

Sorry if it's a stupid question. Are the Kensrue pickups like those of the RS models?

The Kensrue model has a Stingray RS Humbucker. Not sure about the Single Coil though.

 

[Cable_Clamp]

I wanted to share a little update about my experiences with the Stingray HT Pickups. So as I mentioned above I wanted to change the pickups which I did in the meanwhile. In fact, I went through a lot of pickups and I came to the conclusion that the HT pickups are really really good and perfectly voiced for this Stingray model.
I tried the following pickups: Dimarzio 36th Anny PAF/Fortitude, SD SH2/SH4, Bare Knuckle Rebell Yell Set, SD Black Winter Set. All good pickups but I learned to love the response and extended dynamics of the HT pickups. It's quite amazing actually. They also have a certain crunch to them which I really like and which is also present in the RS pickups but a bit heavier/fuller with the HTs.

So, the HT pickups are back in and I couldn't be happier. These pickups really grew on me.

I found my sweet spot by adjusting the pickup height with the following specs:

E to e:
Neck: 4,5mm-4mm
Bridge: 4mm-3,5mm

With this setup I god rid of the sponginess in the bass response while keeping the fullness. Maybe this is helpful for someone.

 

[Cable_Clamp]

And to finish that up these are the babies I'm talking about

 

[joshriggs2]

I had a similar experience with @Cable_Clamp with my Midnight Rider HT.
tl:dr; I tried a bunch of pickups and came back to the original HTs. I also made some visual mods.

I bought mine used off Reverb in late '23. It came with a scratchy volume pot which the seller neglected to mention. When I was taking the volume / tone / preamp board out to inspect it, one of the pickup connections on the preamp board came off. Since I bought it used, EBMM's warranty didn't apply. I ordered a new one for $175 and had to send in the old broken one first. Thankfully I got $200 back from Reverb thanks to their buyer protection policies. I replaced the new one myself and finally got to spend some time playing it.

I came to the same conclusion about the HT pickups - super hot, nice low end on open chugs (I play in drop C), but if I dug in hard with palm mutes on anything other than open C, there was a compression and overtone that I didn't like. I decided to swap out the bridge HT pickup with a Duncan JB I had on hand, and the process, the same connection point on the new PCB board came off! So instead of paying for another PCB assembly, I just decided to remove it altogether and replace it with traditional hand-wired pots and capacitor. I wanted to try out the HT pickups again with the traditional pots and wiring, so I put the original bridge back in. It sounded much better without the buffer, but it still wasn't exactly what I was looking for. It still had that weird compression quality I didn't love.

So for the next year or so, I tried out a bunch of different pickup sets.

• Bare Knuckle True Grit: Had the mids the HT pickups were missing, but didn't have the beefy low end I wanted.
• Bare Knuckle Black Hawk: sounded great, but I had another guitar with Black Hawks, and I wanted something different. Also, the pickups were white, and after a while I didn't love the look with the all black guitar.
• Seymour Duncan Custom 5 + Jazz: another set I had on hand in my parts bin. Jazz sounded great as always, but the Custom 5 didn't. It was also lacking midrange growl and bite.
• Suhr Doug Aldrich: They basically sounded like a better version of the Custom 5 + Jazz combo. Beefy, but still lacking in mids and character. And really not that hot.

I finally got sick of messing with it, so I just put the stock HT pickups back in. They sounded great. In the meantime, I had been working a lot on my right hand picking technique, and wasn't picking as hard as I had been when I first got the guitar. I wasn't getting the weird compression and "active" sound that I did originally. I think the HTs are just really responsive to pick pressure, and I was originally just picking waaaay to hard.

I also made some visual mods. I really wish EBMM would have used some powder coated black parts instead of gloss black, or at least made the gold flake in the Midnight Rider finish a bit larger. Unless the guitar is in the perfect light, it kinda looks like a black hole with fingerprints. I was considering changing the pickup covers, but then decided to do some aging with a scotch brite pad instead. I lightly aged the bridge, tailpiece, and pickguard screws so they have more texture. I brushed the control plate so it looks more like the powder coated black plates they use on other some of the other BFR stingrays. And I brushed off all the black paint from the pickup covers, so they have a nice brushed nickel look. So, now I'm really happy with the sound and the look. I think it's my favorite guitar now.