drTStingray

I also think the P on Sir Duke has flat wound strings and the J on I Wish has roundwounds - sounds accentuated by the preamp and hard playing. These are some of my favourite bass lines and songs of all time - there are probably a dozen Stevie Wonder songs in the same category for me 😏

Hi @pobrien_ie as I stated before, I Wish is on a Jazz, Sir Duke is on a Precision - both through the studio Alembic preamp. In the same interview (published years ago I think in Bass Player) Nate stated he was called in the early hours of the morning by an excited Stevie Wonder who had created what he thought was a stunning bass pattern and asked Nate to come in immediately to record - the result being I Wish and the extra aggression, especially in the slides resulting from him feeling possibly a little peeved (I can't remember the exact words he used but it basically was along those lines)!! That said Nate certainly used to and probably still does pluck the strings very hard. That F in Sir Duke is actually part of an F minor - the fill notes each time all being additional notes from that scale - eg F, G#, C, D#, C, G# and variants on that theme throughout the song. It enables that part of the song to have a decending bass line in semi tones (with fills and extensions) - B to F, E, D# then F# C# B into the unison section all in B maj. These are great songs and brilliant to play on the bass 👍 there are others on Songs in the Key of Life

Very interesting isolated bass track - from an interview published with Nate Watts years ago, this was recorded on a Precision via an external Alembic pre amp (I Wish on a Jazz through the same Alembic studio pre amp). Ive always had problems playing that unison riff cleanly - interesting Nate doesnt either according to that isolated track!! Mind you Ive been trying to for years - he probably only had a few days to nail it!!

I think the diamond blue may have a light metal flake in it - not certain though. There is also sky blue - which has more blue

The MM version of Sonic Blue was called Powder Blue and used on Stingray Classics in 2010, and was an option on regular Stingrays for a while a few years back. Not sure if the diamond blue is the same buy I would doubt it. The prototype Stingray Classics were issued with the same colour name as the original Fender custom colours - including sonic blue. They were renamed for the production basses - although the pastel colours were only available for a year or less.

Wot no Agnetha Faltshog 😧

Another simple idea - lower the pick ups a little (the bridge one is usually too low on a Musicman to be a problem but the bridge can be an issue) - I think that's how I've normally got around the clicking issue - this is another option if you can't (owing to being glued on) or don't want to change the covers. My experience has been you only have to lower the pick up marginally to make a difference. Have you decided what colour yet? Sunburst perhaps?

Some people do have this problem and I've seen insulating tape over pole pieces on Stingrays as a result. I once got recorded via a DI on a live gig and was mortified to hear the clicking - however it never happened again as I started using the floating thumb technique of muting rather than planting it on a pick up cover - and also not plucking hard directly over the pick up - seemingly it works 👍

Interesting he's clearly displaying floating thumb technique of muting the E and A in that still on the link. Something which many accustomed to resting their thumb on a pick up cover have to learn when using 5 string to stop the open B from ringing.

Very nice - love the white one especially 👍

Congratulations - that looks fabulous 😎 it looks like it is fitted with EB Cobalt flats as well 👍 Ive had mine around 10 yrs and its definitely a keeper even though I don't play it that often. I'm glad you've got that - I now know that it's not just Pino Palladino, me and whoever now has Pino's back up fretless Stingray that has one 😂 (Only joking but they are pretty rare, but sublime basses)

Yes agreed on the Stingray and finger style - there are countless examples of them sounding mellow - another example is Paul Denman on Sade's songs. But there are so many - and I can certainly make mine sound as mellow as any other bass - but also very aggressive when desired. If you want to hear a 2 band Stingray played extremely aggressively have a listen to Stevie Wonder's Do I Do - I remember an interview with Nate Watts in which he said he still uses the Stingray for recording, and on that track he played very hard and there's a lot of fret noise as well as natural over drive - you can really hear it on the solo bits (but in the band mix in the rest of the song, it also sounds great). I also recall him saying he bought it on recommendation from Bernard Edwards. Even Bernard Edwards played aggressively (as did most R and B players) - he played between the pick up and the bridge (this view is based on watching live performances). Ive never owned a Wal but played one or two. One of my desired basses really.

I think the 3 band StingRays from all eras can sound very aggressive - I have a 93, 03 and 07 - I tend to play them with the mid range cut to make them more mellow. That said my ceramic SR5 can sound warmer but also more aggressive dependent on how you play and the settings. Wal, Thumb and StingRay all have fat sounds IMHO.

Yes, good shout. However this is quite inaccurate. The main problem is if you Google Grand Central Station youll find ..... a railway station in the US (or if you're very unlucky the shopping centre at Birmingham New Street 😀 The band is Graham Central Station - a play on the station name using Larry's surname - I'm a bit surprised Scott got that wrong - twice in the first two or three mins 😁 In terms of the analysis, I do like Scott and he's right this is a clever groove. I loved his recent stuff on Jaco and found his analysis on parts of Havona very useful. However Juliaplaysgroove does Hair far more accurately including those slides being octaves on the E string - they sound much better. The slid 7th fills are really very important as well and the arrangement works around the bass part and vice versa - a very clever track indeed!!!

Threads do evolve - AND I've tended to agree with the view you've stated regarding slap generally - however I have seen Level 42 live 4 times so you can tell I also like 80s pop and jazz funk (with plenty of slap bass) - I also like it with plenty of keyboard bass - I think we've got to the point that many bass players on Basschat dislike it (many of whom can't play it anyway) but Basschat is clearly, as has been shown umpteen times before not representative of the general bass playing or music loving populace. If it was most people would believe music which doesn't contain playing on an old single pick up bass with a mute under the strings, often inaudibly (as NOT) used in at least three decades of popular music history was the only bass relevant. Thankfully modern pop music is dragging itself out of those recent doldrums. As for Mr Clutterbuck, that was a famous comedy surname IIRC in - you guessed it - the 60s!! Certain drum fills of the 60s and 70s were often referred to as the drummer dropping several drums down the stairs - never bass players in the 60s - because you usually couldn't hear them properly (unlike drummers).

But surely anyone clicking on a bass cover of Hair will know it's a slap fest? It most definitely is and having heard it, the bass playing on the original is hilariously OTT but brilliant all at once - I mean whoever would play a middle 8 in power chords on the bass with fills comprising a full tone bend on the top D (yes fret 19 D string). It's rarely worth arguing over individual tastes in music (although I well remember being forced in my youth to defend my taste in blues rock against people who thought Emerson, Lake and Palmer was somehow, more highbrow and relevant), and good and renowned as Bobby Vega is (I like his playing) it can also be boring as hell (as can relentless 80s slap bass or anything else for that matter).

some more examples here - note the one I posted earlier but couldn't embed (Brandy) got 80k in one day 😧 However there may be a point here as her bass cover of Hair by Grahan Central Station (which incidentally prompted me to learn it for the first time in 40 yrs) has 150k views - a Vulfpeck one 99k whereas covers of modern pop get far more views, and the more popular the song the more views - maybe that should tell us far more people are interested in hearing bass covers of modern pop songs!!!

I also recall seeing Keith Richards despatch a stage invader with his trusty guitar - I think it was a Telecaster!!

As my mum used to say, you'll have someone's eye out with that 😧 as one or two singer/band leaders have almost found out - but fabulous for fending off burglers!!! 😂 NB no headstock chips - very unusual for a Bongo bass. Like a Precision instrument compared with that anti-diluvian instrument of the same name, which in weapon terms, is on a par with a blunderbuss in terms of finesse - or a 2003 BMW compared to a 1957 Ford Prefect. The Bongo is also good for a clout round the chops, particularly as it weighs about 10 lbs - the top edges are rather too well curved but the bottom ones most certainly aren't 😏 Only trouble is it's taken me about 10 mins to extract it from my bass store to photograph so any anti burglar activity would have to be given to my 10 lb ash bodied Stingray 5, which is always to hand!! 👍

Hopefully I haven't annoyed you by mentioning Neil - we all have our least favourite artists but it was really just a genre thing I was getting at - I'm a Jaco fan but if anyone suggests I listen to the whole of his first big band album whilst driving my car - I'm more likely to have road rage than any appearance on the radio of Morrisey, Neil Young or any other of my musical nadirs could achieve. Now give me a decent dance album to listen to whilst driving and I'm in driving heaven!! Thanks @Al Krow Now here's a nice slapped bass line - she has a nice new 5 string as well - this young lady plays with so much groove and whilst I can do slap triplets the couple she does after a couple of minutes into this track sound so much more funky than I do (mental note - must practice my slap/pop triplets 😬) https://youtu.be/QEmWhglxI-8 If someone can embed this please assist as it seems impossible when posting from a Smart Phone (in my case not so smart - or maybe it's the operator 😂)

Although I agree it is only usable as a technique relatively sparingly (though if you've ever been to a Level 42 concert, especially in recent years, you'll find possibly a larger proportion of females in the audience (than say the beard stroking male domination of some types of rock band audience). And slap is obviously de rigeur - although not everything is - perhaps a larger proportion than say a Marcus Miller show. This is also true of double bass slap on rockabilly - three songs and all but the most hardened fan will be bored (btw that was a heavily chorus-laden fretless Pino P that Alan P was air-bassing to in his caravan in leather underpants - Songs for Chameleons - Gary Numan). Where I disagree fundamentally is that audiences dislike slap bass - my own experience (and this goes for fretless as well) is that people come up and make very positive comments, including that it's refreshing to hear rather than the boring and inaudible plodding that is the stuff of bass sometimes - I tend to use slap bass as you've described, but have been known to play whole songs with it - for instance Albert Collins songs based on his 1980s/90s band and arrangements. Possibly the biggest critics are musicians, and notably other bass players on occasion (this thread suggests this as well). I'd agree the appalling din at a bass show caused by lots of people slapping is majorly irritating. But don't throw the baby out with the bath water!!!! 😏👍 Slap bass is really associated with soul and funk music, and modern (ish) rock music - having seen the Fatback Band at Ronnie Scott's last New Year's Eve (remember live gigs 😯) I sure felt the funk and groove in my chest - and there was some slap bass as well. In the same way I would be bored **itless at a Neil Young gig (in fact I fell asleep in a Pink Floyd gig pre Meddle in about 1970 much to the astonishment of some of my prog loving mates - whereas I loved Yes gigs to the extent I saw them at least 3 times), I wouldn't expect a Neil Young fan to be in the slightest moved by a funk or soul band and would no doubt be irritated by slap bass peeking out from the shadows of normal bassdom. So I think it's a genre issue as well as an issue for some musicians - I must confess to being mildly irritated by two handed tapping for more than, say 10 seconds - that might be partially because I don't get it and more importantly, have not learned how to do it beyond stringing a few notes together 😁 - brilliant though I accept Messrs Sheehan and Hamm are 👍

Stan Sergeant is just superb - check out his work with Keb Mo (the band I'm in actually covers one of those songs - however doing some of this technical stuff is way beyond me.

And also with the exception - Julian Crampton has actually played and recorded with Incognito IIRC. So hardly a busker!!! Whatever, it shows phenomenal skill and musicianship, some elements of which I can achieve - but mostly not st this level!!!

My Stingrays with strings through have more sustain but it's particularly noticeable when they're fitted with roundwounds. It's worth mentioning the Stingray Specials don't have the large bolts for the bridges - they're also lighter weight (aluminium) - it doesn't seem to affect the tone (though they have a revoiced EQ and 18 volt electronics as well).

I'm sure it'll be very usable and sound really good as well - love the colour btw 👍