There is a distinct difference in tone on a DB and EUB. However, the EUB comes EXTREMELY close. Just make sure you get a good one (IE: do your research).
It’s not only half (or more) the size and weight, it’s a fraction of the cost.
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Yes, you’re right - I made a beginners mistake when I got mine as I didn’t research it enough and have ended up with a crappy one that’s been setup “as best as it can be”. To step up to get something half decent would cost far too much. But even saying all that, I still love to play mine - I just play things differently and introduce more slides to move around as there’s physically no way I can run up and down like I can on an electric. I quite like it, because when I look at it, I think, “Yes, I’m in mood for that kind of sound at the moment” and use it, or select an electric bass if I want to do something else.
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Yeah, there is a thread for you big huge upright Basses, quit ganging up on us here. No Loitering DBrs,. Locals only. Lol. 
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I’ve made the decision to move to five string basses.
This means downsizing.
My SUB 4 string doesn’t get any real love from me, so I’ve been looking to exchange it for a SUB 5.
I discovered one in perfect condition, with a heap of extras for an excellent price, but it was in Adelaide.
The guy gives me all the details, but then says that he doesn’t feel that comfortable giving it to a courier.
I tell him that it’s not his issue to worry about once he hands it to them.
A while later, he messages me back saying that he’s got a guy coming to look at it.
I tell him not to bargain as I’m willing to pay full price, and actually another 20 bucks to cover his extra effort with tape.
He tells me the next day that it’s been sold.
I tell him that I’ll keep my eyes open, but his deal was sweet.
He sends me a kiss off with “Good luck with that”. I don’t know why, but that’s a little bit annoying. I’m likely taking it the wrong way because I missed out.
Bummer.
Later that day, I note that the gumtree ad for it is still active.
Hmm.
I get suspicious about this.
I ask my friend Richard, who is in Adelaide, if he can shoot this guy a message and ask if it’s still available.
Richard sends a picture back, of him replying that it still is.
Oh. Now I’m pissed.
All he had to do was just say that he wanted to sell by pick up only, regardless of Covid risks and all.
I HATE being lied to.
I tell Richard what happens and he offers to go pick it up. It’s only 20-25k’s away.
Richard’s wife has friends nearby, so she goes to get it and turns it into a social call.
My new Sub 5 will be on it’s way tomorrow, by courier.
I’m stunned the people that want me to message this guy again, telling him thanks for his bass…
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Hi @admacdo,
I would message him as well, but only when I have the bass in my hands, (and I’d include a pic)
A shot of the bass showing my hands on it, one pointed in the bird position:joy:
I hope your friend was able to get a cheaper price for you.
Cheers Brian
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Yeah, @admacdo, people selling things suck sometimes.
I have had this happen to me 3 times now.
One I set up to go get a Sterling SUB 4 ray, the night before he said message him at 9am the next morning. I did, and no reply. I did again at 10am, nothing, 12pm, nothing, 3pm, nothing.
I did see he kept reading the messages, so I asked him about another add he had thru the different thread and he answered back about the other product, so I message again on the Bass ad and he blocks me. WTF, Weirdo
One lady was selling a package deal. Schecter Bass, Ampeg amp, I forget the model, but it was a 15” combo about 200w, plus another small practice amp, gig bag, cable and stand.
First listed for $1000, but when I first saw the add, the $1000 was slashed with new price of $750.
I message asking if they will sell the bass only, cuz I did not want the rest.
First she says no, then later aske how much I will pay for it.
I tell her IDK, I have to see it to know its condition, but probably between $250 and $350. Never hear back.
I Koop watching the add, it drops to $600, then $500, and 2 weeks go by and it goes to $400.
I message her and say I want it, I will come get it now.
She messages back, I am only selling the package deal, not just the bass. (The thread is still alive from when I asked to just read the bass).
I tell here, yes, I want it all, I will bring $400 right now.
She doesn’t get back rest of the day, and middle of next day, after sending a message, one every 4 hours or so, I have a friend message her about the package, is it for sale. She answers him, and says. Yes. So he says, yes, he will come get it.
Now she doesn’t answer either of us for a day
The next day she messages both of us and says she is pulling the add.
A day goes buy and she has 2 adds up, one for the Bass, the small amp, stand, gig bag, selling for $400
One for the Ampeg amp, selling for $200.
Now, I want the bass, and it is a good one, worth at least $325, but I am not going for it.
Time goes by
The bass drops to $375, then $350 to $325 to $300 - SOLD, somebody bought it at $300
The amp is still for sale, it started at $200 to $175 to $150 to $125 to $100.
I offered her $400 for all of it about 6 weeks ago
So even if she sells the amp, now listed at $100 and having sold the bass package for $300, she waited 6 weeks to get $400, just to try to get $200 over what I said I would pay for it.
Severs her right.
I messaged her about the amp, and set up a time to go, and didn’t show, just cuz I was pissed at the whole ordeal
And
There is some other Joker that has a Sterling Stingray 34, just like the one I bought, but with a dark fretboard instead of the maple one I have.
I saw this one before getting mine, and I messaged the guy to buy it. No questions, no haggling, he had it for $400, slashed to $300, I was going to pay full price with out question. (The bass is worth quite a bit more then $300, or even $400 if it is in good shape)
I message “is it still for sale”
“Yes”
“Ok, when are you free so I can come get it”
“Maybe tomorrow”
I wait til tomorrow and he messages
‘I am free today’
I message back immediately.
“Please send me an address, or point where you want to meet.”
No reply all day
Next day I message, “are you free today”
No reply for 3 days then I get
“I am free today”
So I ask for an address again
Nothing
Nothing for days
I keep messaging one time each morning
“Will you be free today”
After about 10 days total, I ask my friend to message this guy about it, ask if it is still for sale.
He tells my friend it is still for sale, so my friend asks for an address and the guy never replies to him or me again.
What a weirdo. He looks like a dick on his profile picture, he has a face you just want to punch.
He lives about 5 miles from me, if I ran into him ever, I would really want to slug him one.
Yeah, people are weird. I think some don’t know how to use the App OFFER UP and LET GO.
I have had people list an item like 12 hours ago, I send a message saying I want to buy it, and I don’t hear anything back, sometimes ever, sometimes like 3 weeks later I get a message saying it is still for sale.
People, i don’t hate them, but I prefer when many of them are not around. Lol
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I’m in Canberra at this point in my life.
I was happy to pay what the guy was asking and also didn’t want to put my friend in a position to bargain if he didn’t want to do it. Mind you, I transferred more than the asking price to him to cover this time and effort going to pick it up.
However, Richard was entirely at leisure to offer the guy what he felt like, knowing that I wouldn’t know the status of the negotiation.
So for all I know, he may have screwed the guy down heaps, and pocketed the difference, plus the extra, acting like a true pirate in this opportune time.
In fact, I hope he did. 
I just sent him a message explaining that I’ve worked out what he might possibly have done and I never want him to tell me that he didn’t do this.
It would be the best possible ending to this story and I want to be able to tell it this way.
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Yeah, that is great. I don’t get why people lie instead of just be honest.
If I am not comfortable with a person that wants to buy something from my add, I just tell them I don’t want to deal with them or ship it, sorry,I am not going to lie about it, it makes me feel like an ass when I can just tell them what is going on, and feel good about myself.
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The Sub 5 turned up today. It is immaculate AND I’ve been able to lower the action to incredible depths. !
I will admit to bonding with it immediately after plugging it in and hitting the B string.
It has a different quality to it, compared to my other Fivers.
I still don’t know if my agent has told him that I now have it.
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That’s a very nice looking 5er ! Certainly worth the hassle you had
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Welcome to the WONDERFUL world of Stingray’s.
I Love them.
I missed out by about 1 hour last weekend on a Sub 5, brand new with gig bag for $200.
the add only lasted 2 hours, and I saw it and messaged it 20 min before it got sold.
It was a black on black like that one.
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I’m curious, what’s so wonderful about Stingrays? I’ve never met one in person, so obviously I’ve never heard one or played one. I’m just wondering what makes them so special.
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I don’t know how to put it in words, so I can only speak to what it is like.
It is like P Bass, or Jazz Bass. It is one of the three Leo Fender Bass creations.
He designed it after he sold Fender and started Music Man.
He sold Fender because he thought he was dying, but since he was not he started Music Man.
But that is not it, it is not just because it is a Fender. I am not sure if that is the same for P Basses and Jazz Basses, because people who are true P bass and Jazz bass people tend to gravitate towards the original Fender brand ones. The P and Jazz are copied by almost all bass manufacturers (except Music Man and Sterling because they have the Stingray and Sterling and Bongo, and for a time the Big Al), and there are many great bass makers that make great P and Jazz basses. I have seen Marcello, The Bass Wiz do a video about a GREAT Affordable P bass that was made by Schecter. G&L, Sandberg, ESP LTD and countless other high quality top notch builders all make versions of the P and Jazz. some would argue that those builders make versions as good and even better then Fender, while others will ONLY stick with Fender.
The Stingray on the other hand, it is not copied quite as much, and not many are officialy licensed to make them, they are very very unique, from the headstock, to the shape, to the bridge and pick up asthetically as well as functional.
For me it is mostly, and I would say mostly as in 50%, FEEL / PLAYABILITY
it is something like this
50% - FEEL / PLAYABILITY
25% - LOOKS
25% - SOUND
I just have not had a bass feel and play better in my hands. I love the looks. the sound, but playing it just feels right to me.
When I first started, I loved the Ibanez necks, thin and fast, but as I started playing more, loosening my grip on the neck, playing with less pressure fretting, this fuller (thicker, not much wider) neck really felt good in my hand, and I just started playing it more and more in my rotation with it, the ESP LTD, Ibanez SR300 and SR400.
At first I split time between the two Ibanez’s most, then the ESP, then the Stingray, but within a couple weeks it flipped around, full 180 degrees.
I ended up returning the SR300 to GC, and ordering another Stingray, the HH, double pick up model.
Actually, I had a cheaper SUB model (I don’t know where to even get the cheap model I had, it was way more cheesy made then the current cheapest stingrays that are$299) first, and I played it in that rotation I just said.
I played the $299 one at GC, and that was when I started to fall for it.
I had just made $200 flipping a bass, so I sold the Cheap SUBray for $100. I sold it in less then 12 hours becase I listed it for $125 and got $110 for it.
That was just enough to go to GC and get my current Stingray Ray 4.
After getting it home, it was within a week that it was my main bass.
I didn’t really plan it that way either, I brought it home to be #3, but it was not happy with that, and rose to the top quick.
So that’s what is with Stingray’s IME
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I’d say it’s a good Fender design (bolt on maple neck, front-mounted electronic …), with a great ergonomic. but what makes a Stringray special IMHO is the pickup configuration. this huge humbucker sounds very unique. it’s a very full midrange-focused tone. one day @PamPurrs you’ll have to try a Stingray to figure out how it sounds, because it’s very hard to describe.
I personnaly don’t like at all this big humbucker, but it’s a matter of taste.
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Thats the biggest factor, if you love em you love em, if you don’t, you don’t
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Yeah, hard to describe the sound. Bright and punchy maybe?
Lower quality ones also sound pretty thin to me, but the real 'rays generally sound good to me.
I prefer pickup placement to be closer to the neck for the tones I like. But I do think Stingrays sound pretty cool.
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I never tried other 'rays than MIA, Custom Shop or vintage ones 
(the best was the Custom Shop, the worse was the vintage)
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As a confirmed MM guy I concur with the above. They’re just different - they look different, they sound different, they play different. But they still have a ton of history, still a classic. And as an old punk rock kid I just love being contrarian. As I said elsewhere yes I get it, legacy, history, blah blah. Respect. But damn I’m tired of p and j basses.
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I like the big fat humbucker myself. I’d just want to move it, or get a double-buck.
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