For most middle age music lovers, there should be at least one or 2 instrument that you happened to tried/played but did not ended up owning back in the day ..     This Stingray is one of those for me ….  and I feel grateful to find one almost 2 decades later ….  And can’t be thankful enough to say this is my all time favourite Stingray after having my hands on over 200 instruments ..   

 Background

This is the instrument that brings me back to almost 20yrs ago (2007/08) ..  I was in the early 20s playing in an all original hard rock band while working at a print shop during the day ..     I owned my Ampeg AMB1 and the Yamaha TRB6II (that was my John Myung era) at the time ..  both fine Japanese crafted instrument but I was  realizing the short scale passive Ampeg was lack of punch and the TRB6II got too many strings and overall too gentle ….     With a limited day time income, and the passion on doing original music ..   I started to look in the market of a new bass ….   And as the opposite of the vintage sounding Fender style instrument, Music Man at the time seemed to be fit every aspect of what I was looking for ..  and further more ..  it was the time when they first introduce the Bongo …    4 String US made hard rock bass with active electronic ..       It was at Cosmo music’s old store on Yonge and 16th in Richmond Hill ..  I probably visit the store like 3 times within a week (I live about 10miles /16km from the store) ..    I ended up went with the gold Bongo 4sh because of the cutting edge look, the lightweight basswood body and the crazy powerful 4 band active preamp ….   It was just a bit more cutting edge back then ..   but this all red Stingray was something I couldn’t stop thinking ever since ..    until end of 2023, I was able to find one on Ebay, happened to be played but in excellent condition and at a cost that I can afford ..      It’s one of those dream come true again moment when I had my hands on the bass ..  especially after playing 40+ Musicman basses and happened to understand what bass tone is compare to my early 20s .   

Specs

• Mahogany body 
• Birdeye maple neck painted in clear red, matching head stock with specialty logo
• Single H pickup with Ceramic magnet, no switch, no bs
• 3 band EQ, cut and boost
• 34” Scale length, 21 frets
• String thru body Bridge
• 19mm string spacing 
• 9.6lbs

Playbility

Classic EBMM quality ..   top notch hands-on feel and very easy to play.    Can archive mid-low action easily depends on the string.    Mine started with nickel round, and currently got labella low tension flat(just happened to have a set in my parts drawer), they all sounded great .      only slight down side is its glossy painted neck, I  like the unfinished wax/oiled neck better ..  the glossy neck adds a tad of vintage vibe and luckily I don’t have sweaty hand so it doesn’t bother me much ..   and the painted clear red neck over birdeye maple neck is unbeatable …. 

Sound

I believe EBMM perfected the Stingray in the 90s ….   They switch from alnico to ceramic was 1992, and back to alnico in 2008 ..   In my opinion, ceramic pickups are a bit hotter, a lot more aggressive and just happened to have lots of ball ..     and the 3 band cut/boost preamp just make perfect sense when it comes to tone control ..     It was the era of heavy ash body for that chunky /aggressive / punchy / in-your-face tone ..    The mahogany body on this anniversary model has similar body density (near 10lbs) ,it has that chunky-ness from the mass , but a tad more smoother and ‘older’ sounding to my ear, really dig that deeper lower mid than most rays out there..      it’s that perfect Stingray sound right out of the box and a bit more refine …    I can clearly say this is my favourite Stingray of all time after trying many many of them .. 

Thoughts

According to this: 

http://www.rexbass.com/2010/04/2006-ernie-ball-musicman-30th.html

EBMM made near 783 of them, some fretless, with a few multi pickup ones .. 

It was a really crazy era of EBMM back in early-mid 2000 ….  They’ve had the Bongo, this 30th Anniversary SR4 , the 20th Anniversary SR5, and very soon the 25th Anniversary model with Axis body later on into the Big Al and / Reflex and the Gamechanger , 18v circuit, tone block, button PU switching ..     Some model stands there better than the others over time ….    And I’m quite thankful that my music/bass adventure started here ..    The Bongo 4hs was my first US made bass, then quickly the Bongo 5HH BFR with all rosewood neck, then the rest is history …    

Gallery

Video

w/ Labella Low tension flat