« Music Man StingRay Fretless »

I paid about $800 for a clean used
bass at Parkway in Clifton Park, NY.

I saw it and it said "Play me".
I played it and it said "Take me home."

It's very solid, comfortable, and
has a very fretless sound to it.
I keep the action pretty low, which
increases the amount of whine and
also makes it so comfy to play. It
speaks well of the quality of the
bass that I can set the action that
low and not turn the whine into a
ruinous rattling buzz.

The controls are very simple. It
also *looks* very simple. Mine is
a plain clear finish and unlined
fretless board. I think the funk-
oriented "StingRay Sound" emphasises
the same frequencies that support
the whine of a fretless. I'm not a
slapper-popper and don't think that
I'd want a fretted version of this
same bass.

Our guitar-and-fiddle player heard
this bass and declared that if he had
one, he'd give up guitar, fiddle, and
mandolin and just play all bass. BTW,
I don't do special tricky sounds and
I'm no virtuoso. This bass just sings.

Like many great-sounding well-built
basses, it's not light. Be aware that
it's not a "24 fret" neck [ok fretless].
This bothers me less than on a fretted
because my intonation skill up there is
not very good, but I wish it were the
longer scale so I could learn to work
on my higher intonation.

I wish it had a second pick-up, just to
make it more versatile even though it's
already got a beautiful singing voice.

This is a solid a bass as you
will ever encounter. The neck
is not laminated, so only time
will tell about its stability