So I got a Brand Spanking New Hot Honey Stingray Special from GC in Raleigh yesterday. The setup was terrible but I KNOW it did not ship from the factory this way. She is a real beauty and the weight and balance is perfect. I bought a set of Pino Signature Flats a couple of weeks ago but could not decide what bass to put them on. Decided in the store that this bass needed them and bought 2 more packs. (I asked the sales guy if they had them and he said not yet...lo and behold 20 minutes later I see an open box labeled BASS STRINGS on a cart that is sitting in front of the Ernie Ball String display but no one around it...I make my way over and what do my eyes see but 2 boxes of Pino Signature Flats...one for each Guaged set. I grabbed 2 packs of the MEDIUM gauge and took them to the counter. Took a few minutes to even get a price) Got home and ate a bit of dinner and then the OCD kicked in and started the new bass day process. Clean her up, tune her up, check her out through my own gear...WOW is all I can say. Fantastic in every way BUT I NEED to get the setup a lot better than it is so I commit to putting on the Pino Flats and getting her setup properly. I have done this literally thousands of times on thousands of instruments in my life. I have been doing my own setups since I was about 13 years old or so. My family owned a Music Store and I eventually became the default gear Guru and did most of the minor repair and setup work for about 8 years or so starting at 13. This process is FAR from new to me in my now 59 years on this Earth.
I get to the point of installing the strings and I get them all on and for some reason the A just will NOT stay in tune. It keeps going flat after a minute or 2. I had properly installed the string and had more than sufficient wraps because I am that guy believes wraps matter and I try and use the entire tuning knob shaft. Now I have to admit the shaft on this bass is FAR trickier than normal. I had to use my finger to actually hold the string UP so that it winds correctly on the shaft as I turned the key so it was a SLOW process. Usually I can use a winder but for this I had to manually do it so it took some time and was a bit more tedious than usual. I go back and check and make sure that the string has wound on the shaft correctly. I though OK maybe the string is just stretching a bit. Retune and start to play a little bit. Retune a couple of minutes later and play a bit. Retune a couple of minutes later and retune. I went through this for about 20 minutes or so and just about the time I was thinking OK something is definitely wrong I heard POP and the winding felts went everywhere. Now mind you I was NOT tuning the string at the time so I am assuming that something just let go in the string itself. I unwind it and look at it and the felt is all gone to naked wire about an inch or so of the end of the string. SEE PIC BELOW...
As you can see in the Pic below all the felt is just gone off the string. I can not find a piece of string anywhere like you would expect to find if a string breaks. I have had a string pop and break a few times over the years but I have always found the piece where it broke. Anyone got any ideas about what might be at play here? Anyway, I had 3 sets of the strings so I just opened another pack and installed another A as before and it works like a charm. Apparently it was something unique to that string. Once that was all finally sorted I got to actually give her a really good setup and play a while. WOW...perfect feel, perfect tension, and PERFECT TONE! Exactly what I expected. BUTTERY smooth and Stingray all the way. SOOOOO good! Damn I missed this! I retired from Music in 2019 (I was on the road for 42 years) and haven't really played since. The guys from my second band all the way back in 1988 or so called me to fill in New Year's eve after their then bassist had a Heart Attack on stage AT a gig. Poor guy. Anyway he decided it was time for him to retire and they asked me to stay. I agreed and have been playing my 2 Foderas since. It has been a blast BUT I really missed having my Stingrays...soooo I packed up my Yin Yang Standard 4 (YYS49 from the first 100 standards made) and my Emperor Standard Special 5 (E5SS009) and made the trip to the Raleigh GC. Spent ALL day but finally made a deal to trade my Yin Yang for this Hot Honey and some other stuff (including a Mint Green Stirling by Music Man that was a blemished item) and never looked back. I thought I would be buried with the Yin Yang to be honest but I don't miss it at all.
However, I kept my Emperor 5. but I have to say this Stingray Special has me REALLY thinking about selling my Emperor 5 and going the Music Man Experience route and get a Stingray 5 H in Natural or Sterling Silver (or Hot Honey to match this one or maybe even Ice Blue if I could convince them to make me one). Anyone here gone that route? Anyway suffice it to say that I am very happy to be playing with my old friends again but I am ecstatic to be playing a Ray again. It has definitely been far too long since I have had the pleasure! Happy to be back and looking forward to a bright future as a lifetime Baller.
So the big question left is does anyone know if there is any way to get a single A string from EB?
Peace,
T
I get to the point of installing the strings and I get them all on and for some reason the A just will NOT stay in tune. It keeps going flat after a minute or 2. I had properly installed the string and had more than sufficient wraps because I am that guy believes wraps matter and I try and use the entire tuning knob shaft. Now I have to admit the shaft on this bass is FAR trickier than normal. I had to use my finger to actually hold the string UP so that it winds correctly on the shaft as I turned the key so it was a SLOW process. Usually I can use a winder but for this I had to manually do it so it took some time and was a bit more tedious than usual. I go back and check and make sure that the string has wound on the shaft correctly. I though OK maybe the string is just stretching a bit. Retune and start to play a little bit. Retune a couple of minutes later and play a bit. Retune a couple of minutes later and retune. I went through this for about 20 minutes or so and just about the time I was thinking OK something is definitely wrong I heard POP and the winding felts went everywhere. Now mind you I was NOT tuning the string at the time so I am assuming that something just let go in the string itself. I unwind it and look at it and the felt is all gone to naked wire about an inch or so of the end of the string. SEE PIC BELOW...
As you can see in the Pic below all the felt is just gone off the string. I can not find a piece of string anywhere like you would expect to find if a string breaks. I have had a string pop and break a few times over the years but I have always found the piece where it broke. Anyone got any ideas about what might be at play here? Anyway, I had 3 sets of the strings so I just opened another pack and installed another A as before and it works like a charm. Apparently it was something unique to that string. Once that was all finally sorted I got to actually give her a really good setup and play a while. WOW...perfect feel, perfect tension, and PERFECT TONE! Exactly what I expected. BUTTERY smooth and Stingray all the way. SOOOOO good! Damn I missed this! I retired from Music in 2019 (I was on the road for 42 years) and haven't really played since. The guys from my second band all the way back in 1988 or so called me to fill in New Year's eve after their then bassist had a Heart Attack on stage AT a gig. Poor guy. Anyway he decided it was time for him to retire and they asked me to stay. I agreed and have been playing my 2 Foderas since. It has been a blast BUT I really missed having my Stingrays...soooo I packed up my Yin Yang Standard 4 (YYS49 from the first 100 standards made) and my Emperor Standard Special 5 (E5SS009) and made the trip to the Raleigh GC. Spent ALL day but finally made a deal to trade my Yin Yang for this Hot Honey and some other stuff (including a Mint Green Stirling by Music Man that was a blemished item) and never looked back. I thought I would be buried with the Yin Yang to be honest but I don't miss it at all.
However, I kept my Emperor 5. but I have to say this Stingray Special has me REALLY thinking about selling my Emperor 5 and going the Music Man Experience route and get a Stingray 5 H in Natural or Sterling Silver (or Hot Honey to match this one or maybe even Ice Blue if I could convince them to make me one). Anyone here gone that route? Anyway suffice it to say that I am very happy to be playing with my old friends again but I am ecstatic to be playing a Ray again. It has definitely been far too long since I have had the pleasure! Happy to be back and looking forward to a bright future as a lifetime Baller.
So the big question left is does anyone know if there is any way to get a single A string from EB?
Peace,
T
