Just got to check another item off
my GAS list. I'll write a review
"after we get to know each other":

EBMM SR5-FL ... with PIEZO bridge.

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All that needs review is the pair
of less common options, the piezo
and the FL neck. The basics of the
SR5 have been reviewed 1000X over,
with a *fortunately* very tiresome
consistency [ie "If you're without
one, get one ... or three!"].

------------------------

Anyways I'm stoked. I play a piezo
SR4-FL and sometimes I wish it had
the ceramic PU and coil switching
of the Sterling. This ax has those
touches. Any pre-2008 SR5 is not a
5-string version of an SR4, but is
really a 5-string Sterling. After
the recent intro of properly named
5-string Sterlings, the SR5 models
became REAL StingRays, with alnico
PUs and StingRay tone.

Without the changes to the SR5, the
intro of the Sterling-5 would have
left EBMM with two nearly identical
5-stringers with different names.

I've actually always wondered at the differences between Sterlings and Stingrays. I could have sworn for a long time that so many of the features were just interchangeable and models were practically arbitrarily named. Thanks for clearing some of that up, Golem. I still think Ernie Ball needs to solidify which model is which, though, so I know what I'm looking at before I pick it up. It's just confusing!

As a matter of fact, the only one that I could always tell differently was the Bongo, simply because of the body type and pickguard.

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Farz I cantell ... there's nothing in common
between the Boingo line and the Ray/Sterling
line, except the bridges and tuning machines.

Everyone knows that the Ray/Sterling tone is
... well ... NOTORIOUS ! OTOH Boingo tone is
very generic. It's a weird design goal, but
a "generic electric bass tone", rendered to
PERFECTION, is the Boingo's agenda. Acoarst
you can option your way outa that, like with
my piezo-FL Boingo, but such exceptions are
few and far between. But the idea of perfect
yet generic electric bass tone is a worthy
goal. I'm no session player, but I've heard
from at least one studio gnome that Boingos
are well loved there, not just for tone but
also for their noiselessness.

If the Boingo had not split off from EBMM's
traditional Fender-esque styling, I'm sure
it would've earned a huge market share. Why
is that sort of tone delivered in a wacked
out looking ax ? Go figger.

Anywayz my SR5-FL piezo arrived here at my
workplace today and I plugged in for my 40
min lunch break. I've never had any SR-5's
before, and barely touched them in shops. I
woulda been just as happy with an FL piezo
4-string Sterling, but I'm not sure there's
more than 3 of those on the planet. Also, I
run my 4-strings at low tension [DGCF] and
my 5-strings at high tension [CFBbEbAb], so
it's always cool to add another 5'er every
now and then. The feel and tone of my 5er's
is VERY different from my 4's. So, it's not
just just an extra string.

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You've heard about "watching paint dry" ?

Well, I sanded the FB and applied Tru Oil
a coupla days ago ... uh huh. Borrrr-ing !
That stuff takes 4-everrrrr to dry. Partly
it's that the Tru Oil was a bit old, and
partly it's the pau ferro FB. Pau ferro is
almost like teflon ... very non-absorbent.
I prolly shoulda just waxed it. I've oiled
PF before .... shoulda learned my lesson.

Back to watching paint dry .....

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This is such a low traffic board ....

I will pretend that someone is on the edge
of their seat about this project and issue a
progress report:

This morning I found the Tru Oil was cured
enuf and scrubbed it down with a non-metal
pot scrubbing pad ... so the pores in the FB
are sealed, but there's no actual coating on
it ... I'll be playing on bare wood.

Since it's a lined FL, the edge dots are not
where I want them, so I painted over them
with "walnut" nail polish [cuz they were all
out of "pau ferro" at The Dollar Store], and
painted on new ones with white nail polish.
Nail polish is quite durable, especially when
you add the clear overcoat !

I've lowered the MM PU as far as it will go,
and selected a set of partly broken-in semi
roundwounds for it, nickel alloy D'Adarrios
from my used parts bin. They will be tuned
CFBbEbAb as is normal for all my 5-strings.

Tonight I plan to bolt it together, string it
up, and check it out.

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Ooooohh-kaaayyy ! ! ! [At last .... ]

This ax is up and running. A review
is posted to MusicGearReview in the
Bass Guitars section under the Ernie
Ball brand name.

Summary: A keeper, megabigtime !

`

That sounds fantastic dude. I've been looking into fretlesses ever since I rediscovered my 5-string. It's really the only kind of axe I'm missing. I have a Fender 4, a 5-er, an electric upright, a full upright, and a straight rock MM style bass.

Now I just need a fretless. I'll have to check those out dude.

I'm having my OLP Tony Levin Sting Ray converted to lined fretless right now. A friend does great work. He resurrected a Gibson explorer that he bough on EBay -- someone had converted it to a lamp. I probably could have done it myself but he can use the extra money and he's a great guy. Haven't used fretless much but there are a few tunes it will work well on. The OLP sounds great but I didn't like the low end as much as the Laklands I own. Since I'll play fretless mostly up high, I can live without the B string if necessary.

`


I think maybe I'll turn my nonplayable Palatino
EUB into a lamp. Good call. Thanks for the idea.
5 yards of white Xmas lights would do the trick.


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`

The SR-5 Review !!! Why didn't I include a link ?

Isn't that the reason they call all the the "web" ?

So, here it is:

http://www.musicgearreview.com/reviews.p...iezo%20Fretless

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So laznite, the orange ax came out to play.

When I'm packing OUT, Ms Diva caught me
just as I was bagging up the bass, and she
said "You're gonna bring THAT one tomorrow,
right ?" ... which always means the bass in
play that nite has become her new fave.

And for 3 hrs up til that moment I had been
so worried I was gonna hear "Golem where is
that OTHER bass ?" ... which always signals
that the bass in play that nite is unwelcome
for any future gigs.

Cuz with a bright orange bass, you can't do
the "Oh, this ol' thang ? Dontcha remember,
it was your fave a few months ago ?", which
works so well with all my anonymous-looking
blonde ash, black, or sunburst basses ;-)


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Love orange basses. I have two, including my Lakland 55-94, which has a killer quilted top. One day I brought it to the gig and the soundman says, "Oh, you brought the BROWN bass again." I was hurt.

Still waiting to get a Candy Apple Red bass -- been wanting one for 45 years but for some reason never got one. If the new 50th Anniversary Jazz wasn't $2000, I might like that.

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This makes three orange 5-strings on hand.

Two have piezos ... two are EBMM but only
one of those is piezo. The other piezo is
an Ibnez EDA.

I might have four orange basses, dependent
on whether the Lava Pearl EBMM 4-string is
considered to be orange. It's 'red-orange'.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

BTW, "Brown" is a version of "Orange". It's
a low intensity orange, created by blending
a complementary hue [cyan] into the orange.
Acoarst, if brown were orange in the common
use of language, I'd have a zillion orange
basses, as would many other players !

`

`

BTW this SR5 FL piezo is getting us
quite a few compliments about bass
in our duo. Not about the color but
about the sound. Their remarks are
about the *playing*, but it wasn't
happening to this degree before, so
I bleeb its voice is actually making
people listen more ... we're in an
Italian restaurant, not a club or a
concert hall. Who'd a thunk tables
full of people loudly yakking with
their mouths full of food were also
really listening ? I spoze Italians
love to indulge multiple pleasures
all at once ... moreso than ordinary
run-of-the-mill homosapiens.

There are numerous partitions and
vision-blocking scrims in the dining
room, so its orangeness is not what
earns it any attention. It's all about
what they hear. This place is about
30 yards long, with a high vaulted
arched cieling, all hard surfaces.

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I just got back my OLP neck, made fretless. The guy did a superb job. IT now has a very Rickenbackerish lacquer on it. I have to get a set of standard length flats for it -- all my old flats are 35" scale and probably won't work too well on the 34" OLP. Can't wait to try it.

`

You go to a REAL hardware store and
get some tubular aluminum spacers,
which are used for various purposes
but I bleeb were originally made to
stack up printed circuits inside an
electronics chassis [back when SS
circuits were larger than a postage
stamp !].

Anyways they're about 75 cents each
and you put them on the 'E' and 'A'
strings down by the ball. Use the 1"
length to compensate for the 35" FWs
on a 34" bass.

Obviously some bridges won't allow
this, but most will, incl MusicMan.
You don't hafta adapt the 'D' or 'G'
string cuz the wrap is skinny, and is
single layered, so it can easily wrap
up on the tuner peg. But you can put
spacers on all 4 strings if you want.

`

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OK, the orange SR5P FL has been
steadily logging 3 or 4 nites/week
and Ms Diva still loves the tone.

In a way it's kinda odd, almost a
sacrilege, to have a StingRay play
night after night at modest volume
or sometimes down to "a whisper".
But y'know what ? It's a credit to
the MM tone that it CAN play that
quietly and yet still has a rich and
flexible voice.

I actually forgot that yesterday was
thursday and left home without the
orange SR5. Whooaaaa ! ... Ms Diva
was NOT at all happy with the tone
of the bass that I grabbed at work
and brought to cover the gig. It's a
cool bass in its own right, but NOT
when played a very low volume. It
hasta pass a lot more electrons to
get the right tone !

I think active basses are better
than passive for low volume, cuz
they "pass enuf electrons" within
the onboard pre-amp, even if you
then "choke off" their output in
order to play the dinner scene.
A passive ax seems to not "pass
enuf electrons" unless the final
output all the way to the speaker
is loud enuf to demand it.

I know thaz some pretty sketchy
imagery there but it does describe
the feeling I get when I'm trying
to get a passive ax to do an active
ax's job at low volume.


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