Bass building advice needed

[RU36]

Hey everyone.
Here is my situation. I am a guitar player, building a bass for my bass player who has a birthday coming up in late july.
Its a surprise so I can't ask him to many questions. So maybe you guys can help me out

He plays a music man, sting ray five string. He loves the tone and swears buy the bass.
It has a hard ash body, maple neck and rosewood finger board with two of the music man humbuckers.
http://www.music-man.com/instruments/basses/stingray-5.html

He says he likes the gibson SG bass for looks but that "they sound and play like sh!t"
And also he does not like that they neck dive.
He recently almost bought a ESP SG style bass.

So my plan is to build a warmoth SG that sounds like a music man and does not neck dive.

My first question is in regards to the "sweet spot" music man pick up placement thats available as an option.
He uses the bridge pick up on his music man all the time. By looking at it it seems like its not super close to the bridge and I am wondering what route to do.
Bridge or sweet spot.

Second question is that W seems to offer swamp ash as a body wood but I don't see hard ash as an option.
What would be a comparable tone wood??

Third question, anyone in here have experience with the SG bass body from W?
Does it neck dive? Is it possible to put a strap button on the top horn?

Thanks in advance for the feed back!
arty07:

 

[whyachi]

You can get the MM pickup in the sweet spot for sure, that's a popular place for it. I'd point you towards Seymour Duncan as I've had good luck with everything I've put Duncans in thus far and if he's a Ray fan he really doesn't need coil splitting.

Ash is all over the place. Swamp ash could be three pounds or six. Stingrays use swamp ash, which is why they're such tanks. True hard ash splinters like baseball bats famously do if banged hard.

As for the strap button, well the great bit about Warmoths is you can put it anywhere. I've seen them on the back of the top horn, on the back of the neck plate, heck you could screw it in behind the 12th fret if you want (no pics, please) since its all up to you.


I'm loving the idea - SGs look great but I'm not a fan of Gibsons mudbucker pickups. He'll be stoked. Have a paint job in mind? Black Cherry Burst looks fantastic on SGs and that is also a popular Stingray paint job.. he might dig it.

 

[RU36]

He actually has the black cherry burst sting ray and he likes it so that will most likely be what I go with.
Or I might do a flamed maple top with a red burst to one up the music man finish

 

[Patrick from Davis]

I have a Nordstrand MM5.4 pick up in the bass I built.  It is a dandy pick up.  I would not suggest it unless you are going to put the series, single, parallel switch into the wiring.  It is designed to be silent with that kind of shenanigans in mind.  It is also not the cheapest thing on the block, but it does sound real nice.
Patrick

 

[hachikid]

Yes, DO put the humbucker in the Musicman sweet spot! That is essential for the "musicman sound"! As far as pickups, I would actually go with Nordstrand for pickups. I was looking through, and I think the Musicman 4.4 would be best. It's completely hum canceling in all positions, and it has true Musicman bark. Also, it'd be neat to put another humbucker in it closer to the neck for more tonal possibilities. As far as pre-amps, I'm not sure there. You could probably talk to Nordstrand about that, or some members here may have advice to offer. Warmoth does offer hard ash as body wood, though. Just ask them about it. Not sure on the neckdive issue. One reason I stay away from the SG basses. Very neat idea, however. Put up a build thread an pics. I'd love to see this thing get built.

 

[SkuttleFunk]

I'm all for utilizing a Nordstrand MM pickup, but I'd recommend the MM4.2 if you want an even more authentic MM sound. The MM4.4 is really close, but a die-hard MM affectionato who's blindly head-over-heels for that vintage MM tone will catch the subtle difference between the MM4.2 and MM4.4. Whichever pickup you choose, definitely take the added cost to wire it with an on/on/on coil tap toggle configured as series / one coil tapped / parallel

For true vintage MM goodness spoken from the perspective of a vintage '76 StingRay player, I'd recommend not adding a second pickup to the configuration. You play a 'Ray for it tonal face slap and ability to put the lead guitarist to the back of the stage. Adding a second pickup portrays weakness, opens the door to sonic compromise, and invites the opportunity to allow others to emasculate your sound.


I'm a little torn on which preamp to recommend, and which one really depends on how far you want to go in catching that whole MM vibe ...

- If you want a killer preamp but not necessarily a vintage MM clone, I'd recommend the Nordstrand 2-band configured Vol (pull to bypass preamp) + passive Tone + Active Bass/Treble stack. IMO this is absolutely the most musical preamp on the market today bar none

- If you want a preamp that's a near clone of the original MM preamp Leo used in a StingRay, I'd give serious consideration to the John East MM Vol + Treble + Bass unit.

http://bestbassgear.com/mmsr-v-b-t-preamp.htm

Keeping in mind why the StingRay sound works and what it should sound like, I think I'd lean ever so slightly towards the John East pre with a bass configured like this:

- Maple/Maple neck
- Northern Ash body
- one Nordstrand MM4.2 pickup in the MM sweet spot
- John East 2-band MM preamp running either 9v or 18v
- 2-tone vintage burst or vintage tinted clear
- black pickguard
- Hipshot Vintage bent plate bridge with thru-body stringing
- Hipshot Ultralight tuners (to help reduce headstock dive)
- chrome hardware

all the best,

R

 

[hachikid]

^that works, too. it's just a personal thing with multiple pickups. since I'm not a fan of active basses, I like a couple different options as far as pickups and pickup placements.

 

[SkuttleFunk]

yep and prior to owning/playing a '76 'Ray, I probably would have offered very similar recommendations ... but then everything changed when I plugged my baby in and turned it up. I tell ya, I really had to reach deep to  hold onto my P-bass convictions if you know what I mean (nudge, nudge ... say no more  :sad: )

all the best,

R