Post by DrKev on Mar 20, 2023 16:17:23 GMT -5
For my 50th birthday (last week) I wanted something affordable to mark the occasion. The result was this lovely SBMM s
hort scale StingRay. She plays SO beautifully, action, neck relief and nut were practically prefect out of the box. It is truly one of the best playing instruments I have ever had the pleasure to play. And she sounds wonderful! I am particularly loving the parallel and singe coil modes. Just awesome, awesome tones!
Sadly, there are some fit and finish issues. The frets never got their last fine sand and polish. There are tool marks/dent in the back of the neck behind the nut, and some fine scratches in the finish in a few places. These are issues easily fixed by me but not acceptable out of the box on an instrument of this price, IMO. (I got it marked down 15% to 800€ but it was sold as a new instrument).
As I can take care of them myself I'm hoping the store I bought from can give me a partial refund. But that's not a regularly done thing in France. Usually the only option is warranty repair but this is one of the very last few in stock in France right now and if it had to go back it will be 12+ weeks for new stock. But today I said to hell with it. The plastic came off the tuners and pickguard, and I redrilled mounting holes for one of the tuners, which was a little wonky. It's mine now.
I've also ordered a nice moonstone pickguard from Pickguard Planet.
tl;dr: I LOVE IT. It plays SO well and sounds SO good. The electronics are passive, just like the US made short scale StingRay. Neodymium magnet humbucker, standard passive tone control, series/single coil/parallel switch, and a push-push volume pot that has a passive cut built in, (only they wire it the other way and call it a "passive boost").
Sadly, there are some fit and finish issues. The frets never got their last fine sand and polish. There are tool marks/dent in the back of the neck behind the nut, and some fine scratches in the finish in a few places. These are issues easily fixed by me but not acceptable out of the box on an instrument of this price, IMO. (I got it marked down 15% to 800€ but it was sold as a new instrument).
As I can take care of them myself I'm hoping the store I bought from can give me a partial refund. But that's not a regularly done thing in France. Usually the only option is warranty repair but this is one of the very last few in stock in France right now and if it had to go back it will be 12+ weeks for new stock. But today I said to hell with it. The plastic came off the tuners and pickguard, and I redrilled mounting holes for one of the tuners, which was a little wonky. It's mine now.
I've also ordered a nice moonstone pickguard from Pickguard Planet.tl;dr: I LOVE IT. It plays SO well and sounds SO good. The electronics are passive, just like the US made short scale StingRay. Neodymium magnet humbucker, standard passive tone control, series/single coil/parallel switch, and a push-push volume pot that has a passive cut built in, (only they wire it the other way and call it a "passive boost").
