Your first hit

[syciprider]

No not that kind of hit.

Do you remember how The Addiction started for you?

Me: One day in the summer of '05 in a Guitar Center in San Marcos. I never paid MMs any attention before. I thought that the egg shaped PGs looked funny and the single pup didn't promise any aural flexibility. Anyway, on that summer day I shrugged and said "WTH" as I pulled this black/maple/black SR4 from the wall. I plugged it in and it was love at first sting. The characteristic MM punch and trebly growl was the sound I have been looking for. I went home with that SR.

It's been a very expensive ride ever since.

 

[drTStingray]

Yeah I do.

Going to local gigs in the 70s I'd see countless bands using the usual P and J basses and they all sounded - well eclipsed by the guitar sounds and the drummers. Then I saw a band with a guy with a Stingray - good lord the bass sound was excellent and actually cut through the mix - you could hear and feel every note - so i went and tried one out, a sunburst, in the local music shop - and fell in love with the tone, and it was great to play, and looked very nice - it was incredibly shiny - so I bought it!

I took it straight on a gig - a soul/disco band - the tone was great and popping the strings took on a whole new dimension - absolute nightmare to change a broken string between songs with the string through bridge though!! I saw loads of bands like Brothers Johnson, Chic and Average White Band using these basses, all of which had great bass sounds (the players were pretty good also) - so I figured I'd got the right instrument for the job - within a couple of years all the local players (I'm in England) were using MM basses.

I use an SR5 and an SR4HH now - they're more versatile, but they still have that same wow factor which hooked me all those years ago.

(PS I've heard you're not allowed to say 'growl' around here any more - for the record, my SR5 growls more than my SR4HH - which has a smoother, and warmer sound! )

 

[Dr Stankface]

I remember as well.

I was GASsin' HARD for a Warwick FNA Jazzman 5. Would do absolutely anything to have one. Spent night and day thinking about it. Then I went to our LMS and saw a trans red StingRay 5 hanging on the wall. Figured i'd give it a go. Played her for about 30 seconds and completely forgot about the Warwick. That was my new dream bass. Well, my mom surprised me for Christmas and ordered me a blue pearl SR5 for Christmas. She placed the order on October 1st. It was Feb 15th and I still had no bass. That day my mom came to pick me up from the house to go to church (I was 15 at the time) . She got out of the car and pulled out a case. I had no idea what was going on. I open it up and there it was, the very first MusicMan I had ever seen in person and first I had ever played. She still to this day hangs on my wall. That bass will follow me to the grave.

 

[bdgotoh]

It started slow for me. I found a nice red Sabre many years ago and that was my only MM for a long time. Then one day this guy was selling an orange stingray and I liked it so much I got another, and then a Sterling.

From that point on it just snowballed!

 

[Jodizzle]

This thread title had me a little worried lol!!
Stanky .. your story is touching
My addiction started when I had just moved out of my folks house after highschool and needed a "real" job. Spent a year or so working for a coffee chain I had been playing guitar for a couple years and used good ol' EB's. Decided to apply. Besides a little (out of state) hiatus, I haven't looked back. My addiction started a little backwards .. but I'm still just as thankful for where I'm at!

 

[strummer]

I knew of Stingrays of course, but I never considered the SR5 to be for me. Then early January 2005 I beheld a Desert Gold Bongo 5 HH at Bass Central, and that was it!
Didn't even play it, didn't even touch it in the shop, I just bought it, ran to the hotel and messed up my work as I had a real hard time putting the Bongo down at all.

 

[the unrepentant]

For me it started a few years ago when i had just started playing bass and i had a couple of cheap MM copies, as you do when you're a kid, but i wanted to know what a real MM was like, went to my local gear shop, tried out a sub and it was ace, pretty cheap too! But alas, i still couldn't afford it. Then last christmas i tried out a stingray and loved it, although it seemed that there wasn't much difference between that and the sub, not £700 difference anyways. So the sub was my dream bass (realistically anyway), as it had that classic stingray sound, it was a looker and any decent musician would use an SR.... but i couldn't afford it.

So, this year i've put all my christmas money and birthday money together and found that elusive sub on ebay after a good month of searching ebay UK and ebay.com for £350, and it shall be mine on christmas day! (although i've already test driven her )

 

[AnthonyD]

Early 2004... Guitar Center... Totowa...

I had been searching for "the" bass forever while playing an Ibanez that did the job but I had absolutely no love for.

I passed on a Bongo at that time on looks alone, but picked-up almost every bass in the store. Once I had the Sterling in my hands I knew I found what I was looking for.

Almost went home with a Stingray because they had one in the options I liked, but decided the Sterling was "the" perfect fit and worth waiting for. I ordered one "custom made" for me and the rest is history...

 

[Joey SQUID]

In 1996 with a stingray 5 maple board/white w/ white pickguard. Loved that one. Seeing Eric Wilson play that Sabre in the early 90's really did it for me though

 

[fly]

in "02....our house was robbed.........they got all my gear other than the 2 drumkits and my PA...


so........to replace the P.........i found the Sterling i have now.........got it from a buddy,who to this day is still tryin' to buy it back from me........

i don't freakin' think so..............

and as soon as summer rolls around again............i'll be getting myself an HS Sterling......

so it begins.

 

[KennethB]

Hehe, I quote my own TB-post, (in "First major gas"-thread) or maybe I'm just lazy.

First MAJOR GAS: EBMM Stingray.

This was "waayyy back" in 1996. I was 18. I had a Ibanez Soundgear 1500 (my third bass) at the time and was not happy with my tone, and I even considered giving up the bass because of it.:eyebrow:
Listening to lots of record I noticed that many of my favorite tones came from a Stingray. I had some money that I was gonna spend wisely (i.e not on a bass.)
My local musicshop loaned me a spanking new Stingray to try out at home (a very nice shop). I took it home and as soon as I plugged it in was very much a revelation. It was everything I wanted in a bass at the time. It was beautifully constructed, all white with a rosewood fretboard. And the TONE. I was in love. My bandmates loved it too, gaping over the powerful sound the bass produced. But being "a sensible young man" I returned it, because it cost a lot of money for me back then. (I live in Norway, where American made instruments did cost way more than twice than in the U.S back then.) However the next week without the bass was hell!! It was all I could think about. The wonderful feeling of playing that bass. I couldn't stand it! I had to have one no matter what!
I looked at photos of several Stingrays and found trans. teal w/rosewood to be my favorite. Lucky for me the norwegian importer had one in stock and a couple of days later I had the bass in my hands.:hyper:

I've had this bass for 11 years now and I love it as much today as the day I got it. We've been very happy together.
It will always have a special place in my heart.

 

[Joey SQUID]

That color aged real nice. Nice and dark

 

[hankSRay]

Back in high school when I first started playing I used to hang out with a bunch of kids who were in the local punk scene. We were at my house one day watching some music videos and there was a video of a band called Rufio. The bass player was rocking out on a StingRay when one of the guys said "that's a StingRay, if you get one of those, you'll never need another bass."

Oh how he had no clue about GAS. 5 years later and 6 EBMM basses have come and gone. My Dargie SR4 and 07LE Bongo are here to stay.

 

[saxnbass]

She was really pretty. I had met her a few days earlier and she asked if she could come to my...... wrong hit? Geez, be more specific with your thread title then.


I was really stressed and my mate gave me a cigarette. I took a lighter and.... oh wait, wrong hit again.



I was browsing TB for used basses and there was a Sterling for cheap. I PMed the guy and that was the deal. I had played a mate's Sterling about a year or so earlier (at the time, my main bass was a 6-string) and I thought the neck was oddly sized and shaped. I bought the bass anyways. It came in the mail, I was in love. Within 5 months, I had purchased my 2 Bongos too. And the Markbass rig.

 

[sloshep]

I had played my bother in law's 89 Stingray years ago and liked it. At the time the cost of one so out of my league that it was an "Oh well" moment. Then last year it hit with a vengeance. I played a Sterling , then a Stingray at the Bakersfield Guitar Center. Once I played the Stingray it was all over. Had to have one. I first bought a SUB5 (month later in San Jose). Then less than a year later a 30th Ann. Stingray. I have been a very happy bass player since the 30th Stingray.

 

[TTG]

HI, I'm chuck and I have been hooked on EDMM basses for a few years now...I played for over 20 years before finding this addiction (I must have been High to not do it sooner...(just tying in the hit scenario):

First I was stupid and when a friend of mine needed a car, he offered me his early 80's stingray but instead I sold him the car for $300. Anyway, a few years ago I was at a local shop looking around when I saw a bass I had to put in my hands - a Black Onyx. Man did that bass play and sound perfect! Unfortunately, I did not have the money at the time. Time passed but I still wanted a 'ray So I started keeping an eye out for one cheap. I finally found one ('96 trans teal) then within 30 days of that, I also got a SUB Sterling (white with black). Both of these basses quickly became my favorites and when I had to sell off my gear for medical bills, I sold all my F***** stuff first. Some of those I had since I started playing but the EBMM just played and sounded so much nicer. Then the dreaded day came when I had to dig deeper and sell the remaining gear I had. Both basses gone and it left me to heal on my own (from the medical issues). Been back to work for a few months and aside from 1 event putting me back out for a month, I have been saving and now I'm putting the wife back to work so I can get a Bongo 4hh and start collecting all over again. I would like to find a Black Onyx again except this time, bringing it home with me!

 

[thunder]

first bass

my first bass was a 94' sunburst ray (not the tobbacco burst). my mother offerend to buy me a used car. i decide i rather the bass. i played many gigs with this bass. lots of good times. i feel i made a great choice............ and thanks mom.

 

[johnfrazier]

first hit

I'm more of a lurker than a poster, but here goes...

In 1984 my college roommate played a '79 Stingray while I played my '66 Jazz. I could never hear myself when we played together so I went looking for a something with a little more punch. I found a badly beaten up '77 fretless at Music Gallery in Highland Park, Illinois. The bass (B006310) had been traded in by its original owner, Dan Lakin, so I did a deal with Frank, the owner, that included a round of golf at Kemper Lakes, a nice course outside Chicago. That's where I worked summers during school. That was my first Stingray.

I checked around and concluded B006310 may have been a prototype (it had a maple fretboard). I had it refinished in Daphne Blue by Chip Jurkovac at Hamer Guitars. In 1992 I traded it back to Dan Lakin for a 1988 SR5 in trans red. See, way back then, if a "vintage" guitar wasn't original, it wasn't thought to have much collector value...and I'd refinished it and didn't have the original case...so I figured it was a novelty piece at best. Earlier this year I saw a similar '77 (finished in white with a fretless fretboard) on ebay with an asking price that brought tears to my eyes...

I did track down Dan Lakin this year and asked if he still had the '77, and it took him a few minutes to remember me and orient himself, but eventually he recalled he'd sold it, he couldn't remember to whom. So that's the end of that, unless someone on the site knows where B006310 is now.

 

[MK Bass Weed]

In the late 70's, when I was but a bass pup, I saw Chuck Mangione in concert, and his bass player Charles Meeks, played an all natural Sting Ray. He took this solo in a song called 11th Commandment, I think it was the first time I EVER heard slapping on a bass....I was blown away and never forgot that sound. In 1987, when I was looking for a 5 string that was actually playable AND had a great tone, this very very cool dealer named Charlie from Long Island NY actually had a Sting Ray 5 in his store and told me to check it out. The neck, the sound, everything about it was perfect right there in the store. Charlie also said, 'you can order it in this custom peach color', which of course I did, because you can't have enough peach colored basses. When it came, it had a white pick up cover and pick guard, and I immediately called EB and requested a black cover and black guard. Knowing the guys in my band, they would have called it the "Creamsicle" at first site and would never hear the end of it. This now is the Tony Levin signature color, I believe he likes Creamsicles. I've moved on, back to a MM Ray, with just 4 old strings and the HH configuration. But that Ray 5 had the best damn neck I ever wrapped my hand around.

MJK

 

[MrMusashi]

cool to hear all these stories.. sure makes me understand why we are so passionate about our instruments

i got one word for y'all: Sledgehammer

MrM