You've heard of Old Smoothie, now get ready for Old Scratchy

You've heard of Old Smoothie, now get ready for Old Scratchy

I want to apologize to all the purists... Leo Fender got a lot of things right before G&L, but the MFD pickup was his crowning achievement, and I will settle for nothing less. MFDs in EVERYTHING. Even in this Musicman Stingray HH.

I got the five string MFDs after G&L shut down on a whim, because mighty mite has some old stock. Figured I'd like to try 5 string pickups on a 4 string bass. The Musicman Old Smoothie is supposed to tame the Stingray by moving the pole pieces out from directly beneath the strings. If MFDs work like they're claimed to, I don't think the pole pieces make much difference. This thing is a BEAST. The sounds this thing can produce... It's magic. With the volume pot wide open, this thing is NOT an Old Smoothie.

u/BenzoClaymore — 6 days ago

Any advice for removing wheels and repacking the bearings while set up?

So we've driven our 40' 5th wheel across the country and back, basically twice, since purchased in 3 or 4 years ago... And we're just now learning that we need to repack the wheel bearings. I guess we've gotten lucky so far. We're staying on a flat gravel site and I hope to take one wheel off at a time to bring into a trailer shop, one at a time. I think he said $50 each... I was hoping to use my hydraulic bottle jack under the spindles maybe? And I was hoping to do it while the slides are out... However, I have no confidence in this plan, so I was hoping to get some advice here. Is this possible? Is it crazy? Should I extend all the stabilizers to raise the whole rig while remaining level? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Any advice about the whole repacking process would be appreciated as well.

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u/BenzoClaymore — 8 days ago

Does anyone know exactly what the three wires from the pickups on a stingray HH are?

I'm trying to replace the humbuckers on a stingray HH that only have three wires - black, red, and green. The green from each are soldered to the back of the tone pots, so I guess they're negative? Then I'm thinking the red and the black are both positive? How they maintain the ability to split each coil in the humbucker individually with only the 3 wires is beyond me though... I honestly searched the Internet all day for some sort of wiring diagram, but I can't for the life of me find anything helpful. Everything I've seen shows 4 wires and a different schematic.

So, I'm thinking all I really need to do is understand how the stingray HH pickup itself is wired, then I can adjust the 4 wire replacement humbuckers accordingly. Furthermore, I'm thinking it might be as simple as soldering 2 of the 4 wires to the same spot on the stingray... I just don't know which ones. The closest I could find was a schematic for the sterling stingray, which is completely different from the Ernie Ball for some reason.

Can anyone help me out? Or point me in the right direction? I feel like it's as simple as both the negatives joined into one wire, but I wouldn't be posting of I was confident about that. I figure this is even too simple for pictures, but I can get them if need be. Also, does anyone else have an Ernie Ball stingray HH? Do your pickups have 3 or 4 wires? I'm starting to think they might already be aftermarket pickups...

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u/BenzoClaymore — 12 days ago

How to wire MFD humbucker for parallel only?

I'm trying to replace the humbuckers on a stingray HH that only have three wires - black, red, and green. The green from each are soldered to the back of the tone pots, so I guess they're negative? Then I'm thinking the red and the black are both positive? How they maintain the ability to split each coil in the humbucker individually with only the 3 wires is beyond me though... I honestly searched the Internet all day for some sort of wiring diagram, but I can't for the life of me find anything helpful. Everything I've seen shows 4 wires and a different schematic.

So, I'm thinking all I really need to do is understand how the stingray HH pickup itself is wired, then I can adjust the familiar 4 wire MFD humbuckers accordingly. Furthermore, I'm thinking it might be as simple as soldering two of the MFD wires to the same spot on the stingray... I just don't know which ones. The closest I could find was a schematic for the sterling stingray, which is completely different from the Ernie Ball for some reason.

Can anyone help me out? Or point me in the right direction? I feel like it's as simple as both the negatives joined into one wire, but I wouldn't be posting of I was confident about that. I figure this is even too simple for pictures, but I can get them if need be. Also, does anyone else have an Ernie Ball stingray HH? Do your pickups have 3 or 4 wires? I'm starting to think they might already be aftermarket pickups...

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u/BenzoClaymore — 12 days ago