Mine is number 19 of the '94 production run. Which is a fairly early model but definately no prototype.
There were a few prototypes knocking around during the summer of 94 that Jason McRoy (God bless him) was testing that had longer travel due to a re-worked rocker arm arrangement and spring/oil shock. I don't recall any of them making it to production though?
The shop I worked in and rode for had close ties to Specialized UK. I never heard of any incorrectly sized/built frames at the time? That's not to say it didn't happen. Mine is still going strong on the original shock and bushes, although it only saw about a year of light action before I gave up riding. The back end was always smooth and the shock progressive, it was just a little too springy at the frontend of the frame.
Having a proper shock pump helps as you can really tweak the pressure by a couple of psi at a time. I used to run the shock with 2 zip ties round it. Firstly let all the air from the shock and fully compress the rear end. This pushes the zip ties to the top of the shock. Re-inflate the shock and slide the lower zip tie down to the seal of the cylinder. The top tie marks full travel, so when setting the bike up you can monitor how much travel you are getting by how close the seal pushes the lower tie towards the top one.
I reckon a shock should be set to bottom out fairly regularly (certainly on a DH set up) so you are getting 90%+ of the travel over medium-large bumps.
Specialized lent me a Stumperjumper FSR for a few months before I got the S Works frameset, and the ride was very similar. Maybe even a little less whippy? I always thought the Specialised forks on the Stumpy gave a better ride than the Rockshox Mag 21 on which they were based. Am I correct in thinking that the valves were altered for the FSX? Maybe it was the 2.5 weight oil I filled them with?
Why did I stop riding ? Doh!
Jon