Question What's this plastic cover on the SR4's back, vis-à-vis the bridge?

[Soulkeeper]

I saw this bass on ebay, and now I'm curious about the "extra" plastic cover on the back.

The saddles are round, so they're not piezo saddles, right?

And the bass seems to be a top loader. So I'm out of ideas. But I'm sure that the good people on this forum knows exactly what it is, and I hope someone will clear up my confusion.

 

[mmbassplayer]

Looks like a factory piezo bass from the back. No sign of any piezo from the front. Recommend getting the serial number and getting the folks at EBMM to tell you how it left the factory.

 

[DirtyHippie]

I would bet money, that the pic with the cover is not the same bass as the front view. That "extra" cover is for a piezo, and that would mean an extra(5th) knob as well.

 

[keko]

Another Franken-Stingray?

Check the background of that bass with S/N at official sticky Thread.

 

[Holdsg]

someone's got some 'splanin' to do

 

[Stingraymund]

Maybe it's a 2EQ model and one of the knobs is for the piezo?

 

[Rod Trussbroken]

Check the background of that bass with S/N at official sticky Thread.

Good advice!

Maybe it's a 2EQ model and one of the knobs is for the piezo?

Piezo was only an option for 3EQ.

 

[mmbassplayer]

Maybe it's a 2EQ model and one of the knobs is for the piezo?

Piezo not available on a 2eq.

 

[Soulkeeper]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I'm just going to stay away from that bass.

 

[pete bass]

Strange, found this SR5 on net with similar symptoms, a 4 knob with Piezo like cover on back and a standard type bridge....He wants 1500 USD for it....??

 

[Soulkeeper]

Strange indeed. Right now I can only think of two explanations:

1) MM made more piezo-routed bodies than they needed, and decided to produce some non-pizo basses using piezo-routed bodies.

2) A third party is skilfully converting piezo-equipped MM basses to non-piezo instruments, using original MM non-piezo bridges, and original control plates/pickguards (or copies indistinguishable from the real thing at least on pictures), and possibly non-piezo preamps too.

Option 2 seems quite crazy, unless someone wants to use the MM piezo bridges for other projects ... but still kind of strange. Is there a 3rd option that I haven't thought of?

 

[pete bass]

Summer 2005 seems to be the build date of this bass, Perhaps Rod or BP may have an explanation, can´t imagine why anyone would strip out the piezo to create a lower spec bass ! Option 3 ? Unless there was a problem with the piezo bridge and or the electronics which may have been too expensive to repair ?? ....Just a thought....