Construction: 10/10 - Built like a brick s***house. Precise woodwork with excellent hardware.
Playability: 8.5/10 - A good 5-string for slapping
Electronics: 6.5/10 - The 3-way coil switch is cool. The treble boost is noisy & touchy.
Tone: 9.5/10 - The main sound is super potent & could serve one well on almost any type of gig.

The construction on my Ernie Ball Music Man Stingray 5 is very impressive. Everything on this bass inspires confidence. The body is nicely sculpted with clean, smooth bevels (they compare very favorably against the sloppy, uneven "tummy cut" bevels on my '70s Fenders). The pickguard is similarly smooth around the edges, and the "orange-burst" finish is immaculate. The neck is well-shaped and very firmly fitted to the body. The bridge is nice and solid. The tapered tuning pegs work great. I wish that all manufacturers would be like this and treat their lumber with the respect it deserves. Kudos to Ernie Ball for setting the bar for quality in a mass-produced instrument.

The neck (in this instance, made from a beautiful piece of birdseye maple) is substantial but comfortable, and it plays well. It's spaced fairly widely at the nut, which gives me even more room to slap comfortably. The 11/16" spacing at the bridge is also nice: not quite as spacious as the standard 3/4" 4-string spacing, but nowhere near as cramped as on the narrower 5s.

I was able to set up a nice, versatile playing action with ease. The truss rod is especially convenient to work with, thanks to the unique "spoke wheel" end. Unlike conventional truss rod nuts, this thing can never get stripped, and access is super easy. Bravo!

Growing up as I have on two-pickup instruments, I thought I might have a hard time adjusting to the Stingray with it's single bridge-bound humbucker. This turned out to be a relative non-issue. It may have only one "sound", but it's one really great sound that works for an amazingly wide variety of applications!

Play one note plugged in, and you can instantly tell that this is a serious instrument. It has a unique and undeniable presence that will not allow itself to be easily buried. This is the sound that has made the Stingray popular in all kinds of genres, from country to funk. It works great for fingerstyle, and for slapping, it is absolutely "the bomb"! The low B string speaks very well, by the way.

The electronics are interesting. On the Stingray 5, you get a 3-way switch that toggles the humbucking pickup between series, single-coil and parallel. Parallel mode (switch towards the bridge) sounds a bit "scooped", and can use a bit of active mid-boost for support, even for slapping. It has a sweet, juicy quality that makes slapping especially appealing. The single-coil setting (middle) activates a "dummy" coil for noise-free operation. This setting sounds somewhat thin compared to the others, but it still may come in handy from time to time. With it's thick and punchy sound, series mode has the most impact. I found myself pretty much sticking to this setting, onstage.

Also standard is an active 3-band boost/cut EQ (with center detents, of course). The bass control adds nice warmth. The midrange control adds a nice presence, but it's also good to be able to cut it, for a bit of "scoop". The treble control is pretty potent! Just a dab of boost sufficed for most situations; any more got me an excess of trebly "snap" (along with some very noisy electronic hiss). Cutting the treble yields a more passive, vintage sound.

Compared to a (single humbucker 5-string) G&L 1505, I find that the Stingray has a more assertive personality with a better low B string. With the wider neck, the Stingray is also much better for slapping.

All in all, there's not much not to like. If I must find fault, it would be in the asthetic design. I've never been very fond of the gaudy, oversized pickguard or the headstock shape. However, after playing the Stingray 5 and taking it onstage, I find I can overlook these eyesores much more easily.

With it's exceptionally robust construction and it's one-sound-fits-all tone, I now think of the Ernie Ball Music Man Stingray 5 as being a great workhorse, kind of like the Volkswagen Beetle of 5-strings. Other instruments may sport snazzier looks and greater sonic variation, but it's hard to beat the Stingray for sheer practicality.