drTStingray

I watched the BBC highlights compilation programme and I must say I found the whole thing pretty entertaining and enjoyable. Some great bits in there. I particularly liked Lizzo singing Juice - and ironically thanking the costume designer for putting her out in that outfit!! As for Liam, like many artists his voice has changed so his newer stuff is fine, just had to sing the earlier stuff differently - as I say, it happens to most (and John Lennon wasn't immune - sang with effects mostly later owing to his own dissatisfaction with his voice).

Are you sure - I was led to believe Stingrays shipped with flats originally (GHS) but changed around 1978 - BE's Stingray is a '77 (fairly early '77 judging by the serial number John Taylor quoted in an interview). The other reason for querying, wherever BE popped the strings on 70s recordings (think We Are Family choruses) he got a certain sound - which I've never been able to replicate with a Stingray with rounds - until I tried it with a Classic 2 band with flats - hey presto, the exact sound. The rest of what you said is fine with me - but the electronics package and the rest (including the player and playing style) all contribute. In regards to the original post, McNach has covered it - note also Agullar do a good version of the pick up and 2 band pre amp. If you use a 3 band MM preamp (pre 2018 version) note that the 4 string version of the bass needs the mid range rolled off a lot to get towards the 2 band sound - depending on your playing style you should get in the right ball park.

I agree with most of what's been said here - however the mid range control on the pre 2018 Stingray 4 is not the equivalent of a 2 band when on centre detent - you need to cut it significantly to get towards that - the other advantage with the 3 band is giving you more control in a room with difficult acoustics, or to remain audible in a saturated mix (either live or recorded). Pity you're not down south as you could borrow my USA Sub 5. Sound wise, I think you'd be immediately smitten - it really does sound great. The white textured paint job and checker plate pickguard I absolutely love (probably because they're different from my regular Stingrays) - the neck with its painted finish, feels a little like my Bongo 5 (less a few frets!!)

Musicman have brought out an updated version of it (and the SR5) which have been very successful (whilst still producing the Classic models). I've got a couple of them and they're great. However like most other companies, they are only a fraction of the production of Fender. Youve got to wonder just how saturated the mass market Fender aims at actually is. Guitar shops are incredibly busy at weekends but these places have walls full of their guitars (less so basses). Presumably these mild product refreshes are designed to stimulate the market - I must admit I've bought a new bass in the past based on a new colour becoming available. The name change seems a bit extreme though .......

Good evening - my stage name from the Basschat approved generator is:- Shanklin Pumpkin....

That looks like Donald J Trump in his earlier days, prior to 21st Century anvil shaped hair style. Stage name - Lytham Caffe-Nero Is the chap in the picture a Basschatter, who perhaps enjoys a pint of beer in his avatar?

Louis Johnson Andy Fraser Jack Bruce I would have agreed entirely until yesterday - saw a TOTP performance of You Really Got Me - with brass section and Steinberger headless bass (🤔😬) - sounded a little un-Brunel like, whether he was miming with a studio prop or not!!

I can see how the sad face would help with this - and although the impact of body and fretboard wood on tone is an oft discussed impact with much disagreement - although many luthiers think they do which is good enough for me - yes from personal experience I think a rosewood v maple fretboard does darken the sound (especially a Stingray with ash body - I would imagine it would be similar with other basses).

Yep agreed. According to Joe Dart and Jack Stratton that cheapo Robelli was the inspiration for the signature bass - they got them to make a top quality version of it, basically.

My 2003 SR5 ash/maple sounds great recorded, in a live band - has that balance between a warm vintage sound and more modern focus, so it's great for most genres including Motown and Stax - as I say I'd go ceramic. This is mine - really my favourite bass. Of course, they've now gone neodymium/18 volt - still a great bass. In this case, ebony!

The Tesla video, if not the other one have been around since before the Musicman signature. It all sounds great to me - and oh for a drummer like this who knows how to play funk - without a whacking great fill which removes all the space and clashes with the other instruments every fourth bar (a la many 1968 rock bands - ok though it was back then). Rock drummers should study Steve Gadd 😏

I think factors to get a ballsy dark sound:- A pick up at the neck (possibly a humbucker); a rosewood fretboard; preferably not an ash body; a bridge pick up to add the bite and definition. It's not coincidence that people are talking EB2 and Hofner. You could add EB3 and a lot of more modern basses to that list also (eg a Stingray HH). Intereting to read the Motown comment!! And yes that DI is available these days commercially - I wonder if any of the Jamerson/62 P bass devotees use one for authenticity (Mr Devine as an example)!!

So if you're going on aesthetics you have a problem as they're both fabulous. Id go with the ceramic - I think they can produce a more punchy sound. Although mine is way over 10 lbs in weight I won't be selling it - it sounds absolutely great and although I have a 8.5 lb Stingray 5 Special i still love the ceramic one. Regarding rolled edges, I think these were introduced in the mid/late 90s - my maple board 2003 has them - I have a 1993 SR4 which doesn't.

The output (of the ceramic SR5) can be relatively low compared with some basses - might be worth changing the battery and strings as you say. Also the output changes as EQ is boosted. I always refuse to use those DI boxes which bypass everything at gigs - I use the amp DI out with post EQ and on a Markbass you get a volume control for the DI output so can adjust if necessary as required by the sound engineer. That way the sound engineer gets the sound you want amplified to start with and can do whatever adjustments they think are needed to deliver FOI. Interesting you should say this - I did an outdoor gig through a house PA recently and the sound guy came and asked if I'd turned up the bass volume after a particular song - the answer was no I hadn't but I played it harder as it had a driving bass part... Just goes to show they need to mix the bass in the same way as any other instrument!!

It does make you wonder how hands on this role would be as opposed to management. Such as transporting and setting up equipment for video shoots, organising interviews, transport etc. Rather like a PA (personal assistant as opposed to public address) cum roadie etc. Who knows!! Or maybe the D Ops manages the people who do that? It sounds like the CEO comes up with the strategy and the D Ops sorts out the implementation. A bit like John Hall and his senior management team.

Yeah I thought so as well - I don't know but wondered if it mightn't be referenced to founder member Boon, who passed away in April. Anyway I thought it was a really nice cover - lovely rythmn guitar and sound on the Les Paul and the whole thing sounded really good. Like others, I've followed this band since they first appeared, seeing them live for the first time at a University Union bar in 1983. I last saw them a couple of years ago at Hammersmith - they seriously get better as a live act every time I see them.

Would you be talking the COmmander in Chief (COC) here? If so this is most definitely fake news - a terrible, that's a terrible travesty. Perhaps the COC is planning to buy and set up another resort - and JH is the warm up act? 🤔

This is right on the nail. And we are lamenting the days when it was obligatory for our Eurovision entry to either be written or change somewhere into 3/4 - presumably to appeal to certain country's judges, and to contain copious amounts of onomatopoeia (Boom Bang A Bang - Boom Boom Boom Boom etc)

You've clearly been coaching the drummer in one of the bands I play in!!

They must have ruled out the two royals (Birkdale and Liverpool (Hoylake)) as unsuitable then.

Did he still use that very unique hand technique he had for darts for scooping up the breakfast components? I seem to recall he was from the era when darts players were relatively large chaps who wore bespoke smocks - often with large national flags as part of the design - not to be barged at the buffet I'd say 😏 Perhaps JH will be wearing something similar for the golf club event - btw are women permitted at the golf club?!!

I'm sure all that is possible. Sounds a bit like the World Darts Championships. Perhaps the BC massive can be provided with sponge pointy hands to hold aloft and the like 😁👍😀 Seriously though - this is surely for Rickenbacker fans rather than the 'oh shock horror the bridge screws are 0.003" too short' types, or my Rockinfaker illegal copy has been rendered unsalable on bass forums single-handedly by this CEO - people? Ultimately it's probably their lawyers who are responsible anyway!! Do you not think the retailer was chosen by Rickenbacker to work with - the only big shop on that area I can think of is Promenade Music but I may have it completely wrong!!

I was driving whilst this was on Radio 2 and am thankful for it giving me quite a few major laughs and keeping me awake - not least the listener voting - that the Russians could receive 250 odd and the U.K. 3 says a great deal - and the Germans zero. Hilarious I thought!! I suspect some of this is caused as much by taste irregularities in some countries but also probably more by a feeling of certain countries having a parriah-like image - ours is probably fuelled by idiot politicians (or non politicians - well at least policy-less politicians like that that trouble maker whose name rhymes with garage (but only when pronounced poshly and unlike the music genre). FWIW I thought our entry was pretty good - certainly not out of place with the Dua Lipa/Calvin Harris style stuff on commercial radio - and it was heavily Bass orientated. The Iceland entry was hilarious - death metal vocals on Eurovision..... unbelievable. Long may the Eurovision Song Contest continue - it's really a quite hilarious mismatch of very diverse cultures with over production to the nth degree. I'm sure the anti Europe brigade politicians think it's a huge waste of money - well some of us would prefer to think they're a divisive huge waste of space. Someone pointed out to me the other day that if we come out of Europe we can still enter the song competition as even Australia and Israel take part....

Well it's great to hear he can be asked to come over and talk directly to people. I can only presume the location is dictated by a demographic of their instruments selling better in the north of the country - in fact their most famous musician users were from that very area IIRC (thus blowing a hole in the ludicrous Fender marketing blurb that their basses are the sound of pop music - yes if you presume US manufactured pop of the 60s and early 70s constitutes pop music - which of course ignores most of the output of the U.K. - arguably far more the 'sound of pop music' 😂😂 - accents are scouse not Seattle... ). The other possibility is the history of London shops offering truck loads of Rickenfakers in the early 2000s - I was in the market for a 5 (Musicman of course) and couldn't believe the number of basses with Reckinfarter and all other possible misspellings of Rickenbacker on their headstocks in the Denmark St shops. I think the question of why they don't offer cheapo Chinese imports is pretty straightforward. Just because that famous organisation beginning with the letter F chooses to offer basically the same instrument ranging in price from bargain basement to bespoke custom shop - and made all over the world - doesn't mean everyone should follow such a model - given the financial performance of that company you could argue such an approach would be plain stupid. The US is currently at a hiatus between cheap foreign imports and home made - more expensive goods. I'm sure Rickenbacker is unlikely to produce cheap foreign made versions of its instruments as it has a certain business model which doesn't fit this idea. Does Ferrari make cheapo versions of its cars - if you want one you have to save up for it - no different for Rickenbacker really (or any other goods which are positioned in the market in a certain way). I suspect anyone wishing for a change in this could be pi**ing in the wind.

It'll be on iplayer somewhere. I hope you guys realise that Flog It, Bargain Hunt and Dickinson's Real Deal are part of the pantheon of daytime tele and for those of a certain age and persuasion it's quite relaxing viewing (unlike that programme that's just been taken off the air - which I've only ever known young to Middle Aged women watch - good riddance to that one). I think you're doing Flog It a bit of a disservice - after all the auctions they use mostly have Internet and stuff in demand (like old Moorcroft vases or vintage Stratocasters) pop up in people's searches or even alerts. Some of the stuff sold is bought by retailers who would also have to make a profit and give the item parking space for however long it may take them to sell it. Also was it fully original and was the colour desirable - it all makes a difference (even with Moorcroft vases...). So I think you're treating Flog It a bit harshly - just don't start having a go at Countdown as well....... 😂😂😂 The price sounds a little low but when I first saw this thread I was thinking they'd sold a 59 Strat for £200 or something really daft!!