Time for a new bass?

[Chilcutt]

Hello, just found this forum. Glad to see a place for us.

I have a 1990 Stingray bass with a maple neck that I bought new and have loved it ever since. I have found the maple neck a bit noisy at times but overall I really love this instrument. I bought a '76 Rick a few years back and as much as I love the sound of the Rick, its never felt a right as the Musicman did.

Today I was over a friends house playing. He has a Musicman that he thought was from the '70's. I started playing this thing and was blown away by the sound and feel of it. It just felt like a much more solid instrument, easier to play and it had a bit more of deeper growl to it than mine does. I'm thinking about going and finding one of these things but I was wondering if anyone has opinions on the older vintage Musicman's vs the newer ones. My friend said his bass was made by Fender, not Ernie Ball.

Any thoughts?

 

[oli@bass]

That title should be "Time for an old bass?"....

Did you ever try to compare your bass to a brand new 2008 StingRay? IMO, the quality and setup of today's EBMM's is considerably better than it was in the early '90s. The maple necks maybe are not as nicely figured anymore, as back then, but that's about the only thing I can think of as a downside on the newer ones. (oh, and the lack of string mutes, but that's a whole different topic )