My last time buying a new bass from local music store was around 12 years ago, and in the past 10+ years, I’ve never decided to buy a new bass on the spot, on the first sight, unless it’s a crazy deal on something used. For a very long time, I think I’m somehow logical on making a purchase. Until this past weekend ....
Background:
Wife was not available to join daughter’s dance class on Saturday morning, we went for a little date at cosmo music after the class. Went to the bass corner and saw a few new ebmm basses including the special, and the fancy limited fretless stingray, and all in sudden. Hey, what’s that little baby there?
That can be the perfect bass for my girl when she grew up! But meanwhile, let me bring it home and have some fun first!
Specs:
- Ash body
- Maple neck / fingerboard
- 30” scale length
- 22 stainless Steele frets
- Neodymium magnet pickup
- PASSIVE electronics, 3 knobs are volume, pickup wiring switch, and TONE
- Weights close to nothing
Playability:
Boutique build quality, the body seemed a bit small/funny but easy to adapt to. It doesn’t seemed to cause any inconvenience or discomfort compare to a full size body.
30” neck is short, but the profile is not equally small/thin, feels perfect on hand. its extremely easy to play; I believe the string spacing is 18mm and this thing is wild. Soon after I pick one up and when my girl has lost interest with it, I had to feed her YouTube immediately so I can continue with my test drive. I don’t normally do that .
Sound:
Sounds just like a good stingray should sound; I’ve played a lot and I know. With Passive electronic!!! Plus a tone control!! I’m not sure how they figure the recipe by blending a high output pickup with passive electronic to archive their trademark sound. Round, big, and balanced. I got to try both wood combinations. The rosewood one is rounder, more smooth and more sweet sounding while the maple one is more chunky and aggressive.
They did a brilliant job, the passive electronic with tone control actually blew up my mind the most, more than the scale length . The volume knob is also a push/push knob with volume boost. This bass sound, feel and plays totally professional. There’s no corner cut, no marketing gimmicks. It’s a serious instrument.
Thoughts:
I’m a sucker for a short scale bass, my first bass was a short scale ampeg AMB1 from 2000era . I have never had a impulse like this for a long time until this time, and will be happy for the next long while.
Only odd thing I noticed is the minor ground noice coming out from the bass. Might need to do a custom shielding job to get rid of that.
Stingray was never my top bass, but they just kept blowing me away throughout the years. And I realized once in a while, you do need a ray to get some music to sounded right.
There are many people who knows Fender instruments better than Leo Fender himself, but when it comes to Stingray, no one does it better than musicman. And they are still improving.
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