drTStingray

34 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

Apparently Brian Johnson was there in the audience. 

I initially thought you meant the cricket commentator 😲🥴😀 but then realised he’s been gone a long time. 

2 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

 

75% of the people at Glastonbury are middle aged and middle class. They're the only ones who can afford a ticket. 

Judging by the audiences shown for the bands/acts I’ve just mentioned and for Billy Eilish, and also from the dance type stuff, this isn’t true at all - mostly late teens to thirty somethings. In fact I recall when my daughter and her friends went (several times) they were late teens/early 20s - they seem to have spent a lot of their time in the dance tent watching what would now be ‘heritage’ acts and superstar DJs from the 90s/early 2000s.
 

I saw The Libertines were on yesterday and I thought of them as a ‘heritage’ act - anyone who was 20 when they were famous will be pushing or beyond 40 now. 
 

I guess tonight’s ‘heritage’ act will draw an older demographic, as well as youngsters. 

24 minutes ago, stingrayPete1977 said:

What about the video footage of thousands and thousands of people singing along to every song? 

Indeed - the two bands I mentioned back up the thread (Blossoms and Sigrid) had people singing along - but that’s because they've had fairly recent hit singles - I thought they were both very good as well (Blossoms sound quite 80s to me). I watched Sam Fender, was ok (I didn’t overly like it) but again, mass singalong - a bit too indie rock for me and the sound error which had the (very good) sax player sounding like a cazoo for the first couple of minutes was quite bizarre. 
 

The only performance (I didn’t see many) I saw lacking singalong was Alison Krause/Robert Plant - I only caught the last song - I’m afraid I ended up feeling glad I didn’t have to endure the rest of their set - I really didn’t like it very much at all and the sound seemed a bit odd. I also caught part of the set of a hip hop artist which was ok. 

Is there a possibility that the ‘general Basschat collective’ is somewhat removed, demographic wise from the current mainstream music scene, be the genre dance, pop, rock?!! Heaven forbid 😂😂😀

Of what I saw, Blossoms were a stand out - bass player used a Rickenbacker most of the time. Fender Jazz when they did the Spice Girls song with Mel C and Charlemagne at the end (and it wasn’t as audible as the Rick which had sounded really good). 
 

Sigrid was really good as well. 

1 hour ago, LeftyJ said:

That would be 1966, on the Mustang Bass

On the first Jazz Basses of 1960-1962 was a predecessor of that system, but not yet adjustable: they just bend into place - and I suppose you could twist them away when you don't want to use them but that wasn't easy when you kept that huge bridge cover in place 

 

1966 saw the introduction of this system on the Mustang Bass, which is adjustable with the set screws and works well:

Yeah I was aware the Mustang had a similar design to the 1976 Musicman version - however I wasn’t sure whether the Mustang was under CBS and Leo had already gone - in which case it was reprised on the Stingray. Cue lots of debate……. you also need a screwdriver to activate them on a Mustang (thumb screw for easy application on a Stingray). I’ve even activated them between songs, live it’s that easy!! 
 

Whatever the answer, it’s a great system as you can vary the pressure of each individual mute - they sound great recorded on a Stingray - very very thumpy!! 

2 hours ago, jimmyb625 said:

I think a lot of the perceptions around Fender/Gibson being the best you can get, dates back to the 60's, where the quality of instruments available wasn't great on the whole. 

If you look at interviews of people like The Shadows, Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones etc, they always talk with reverance about getting their first Fender. If you also look at what the big groups were using, so many of them were using Fender or Gibson, there was an association that they were the best.

To an extent, I think this is true (and we shouldn’t forget the impact Jet Harris and the Shadows had on 60s musicians). However Rickenbacker was also there in the mix. But the 60s blues guitarists were also strongly influenced by blues musicians like Buddy Guy and rock and rollers like Chuck Berry - hence the number of players of 335s - the Gibson/Marshall combination was a v popular choice. 
 

What’s really weird is the very best bass sounds coming out of that era included the likes of Jack Bruce, Andy Fraser and Glenn Cornick - all of whom played Gibson basses - they were heroes of mine. However I have personally never had any great desire to play a Gibson bass and until I played one, my heart’s desire was actually a Fender Precision - the only people I actually liked at that time that played them (that I knew about) were Larry Taylor and Alan Spenner, and the latter changed up to a Wal by the later 70s (and immediately sounded even better and certainly more audible and articulate than before). I really can’t explain the lack of desire for a Gibson (and the desire for a Precision) - maybe I was seduced by the marketing/advertising!!! 

I use these when available - these are based on when Leo and co finally got it right on mutes!!

When not available I use left and right hand muting and v occasionally one of these 😀
 

The basses are shipped in their cases currently - packed in a cardboard guitar packing case. The Mono bag is presumably strong enough to ship basses (and guitars) in a similar way. 
 

Re the SR5 shape and scratch plate, I’ve grown to like all the variants over the years - the 35th Anniversary bass certainly looks very nice indeed - the necks look sublime.
 

Unlike some types of basses which will remain nameless, the Stingray 5 was designed as a completely new instrument rather than adding a string to an existing 4 string design - I think it benefitted from that engineering process. Like @rodney72a I like the standard design of SR5 (with the big pickguard) as much as any other version - judging by how scuffed those pickguards get on working basses I wonder how the finish would stand up to extensive gigging for a bass without a pickguard? 
 

The hard cases have increased in size since the mid 201x period - when you have a number of them they take up a lot of space and like others I tend to take basses out in gig bags and have done for years rather than hard cases, which take up much more space in a car. A mono case would be reasonable to take out I guess and have more protection than a gig bag when carried with other equipment. 

12 hours ago, chris_b said:

Gear is just stuff.

 

I listen to the player. If he's a good I don't care what he's playing.

👍

I suppose all this brand snobbery and inverted snobbery relating to basses is only like the brand snobbery around fashion and clothes which some people (ranging from children upwards in age) seem to be partially or totally obsessed with. 
 

2 hours ago, 40hz said:

I'm going to go against the grain here and agree with the OP. I don't think they should water the brand down or introduce an import line, they don't need to. But, IMO, they do need to scale up production a bit more. I don't think this would affect quality or devalue the brand at all. I'm stuck in this limbo of wanting to order one, but then not being wanting to wait 4-5 years to actually receive it.

Me too - they’re not taking orders but I’m on their list ‘should something become available’ or a production slot I guess. But to reiterate, the thought of the long wait after ordering is a bit daunting. 
 

I’ve also seriously thought about ordering a Jaydee - they really are fabulous value. One of the reasons for liking the Wal particularly is Alan Spenner is a favourite bass player of mine - and I saw him use one live and he really got a fabulous sound - plus he used the Wal with Roxy etc. Also Percy Jones - to me it’s all on a par with Pino/Bernard Edwards with Stingrays and Mark King with Jaydees (not that I could ever approach his level of competence with slap bass 😀) - but the finger style sound is great as well. 

On 31/10/2021 at 11:05, Skinnyman said:

Rick Wakeman tells the story of working with Chas Cronk on the Six Wives album. Forty-odd years later he worked with Chas again;

 

RW: “Is that the same bass, Chas?”
 

CC: “Yep. Same strings too”.

I bet he’d have got told what’s what if he’d asked Chris Squire the same question when in a band with him!

Seriously, there is nothing like a new set of roundwounds on a bass - flatwounds are a bit of a 60s throw back which have become popular again in recent years - but many players use muting technique to get a similar effect (can be dull thudiness) - but having the appropriate zing for other styles of music post dating the 50s/60s, but pre dating the modern trend for them. 
 

Flat wounds on a bass with extended treble sound like a Stingray can be cool (Bernard Edwards type thing), but too often, flatwounds simply sound dull to me (as do worn roundwounds) - just my view though. I think they stifle some of the flexibility of some basses (would you put them on an Alembic…..)

Of course, in the 60s, flatwounds were all you could get - in the 70s/80s they were simply unavailable generally in shops (U.K.) - it’s only in recent years that people have become more interested in them - it was the same in the 60s for guitars but how often do you come across a guitarist who uses flatwound strings now - few and far between, if ever in my experience. 

There’s no rule with all this - do what suits you and your playing style, many styles do not suit dead strings. As I first said, there’s nothing like the sound of new bass strings and especially roundwounds - poor John Entwhistle must be turning in his grave, all this talk of flatwounds!!! 😂

As an unashamed Bernard Edwards fan, a Stingray - probably natural with maple board - possibly a 5 string 🥰 I don’t have a natural 2 band 4 string…. 

18 hours ago, molan said:

I’ve gigged this one three times in the last week 😎

I used my brilliant white and gold job on an outdoor party - Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, Sunday also 😉 it sounded huge!! 

6 hours ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

I always struggled with the G as well. It just got totally lost in the band, no matter what I tried. 

I’ve heard people say this as well - if you try a Stingray Special you find this doesn’t happen - but they have neodymium pick ups and an 18 volt pre amp so are more powerful.

Its interesting, I tried out a couple of 70s Precisions a couple of weeks back and was expecting them to sound very different from Stingrays, especially as far as the G string was concerned - curiously they didn’t at all. 
 

Having played a couple of deps recently with bands with rock sets, and crunchy guitars, and using a Stingray I found I needed to be in certain parts of the octave and on certain strings to avoid being in identical frequencies to the guitars at times (and to turn up) - to avoid disappearing into the bottom end morass - the guitarists tended to play with lots of bass sound and bar chords favouring the bottom strings - the only other time I’ve experienced this type of problem has been with keyboard players with heavy left hands (and possibly they hadn’t noticed they’re playing in ensemble so don’t need to play absolutely everything). 
 

Im afraid that certain parts of bass guitar are going to disappear into the mix when playing in those sort of situations - however a Stingray can most definitely be made to cut through a mix, or alternatively form a part of it by playing technique and EQ - however it should always be judged by the sound coming out of FoH rather than a poor stage mix!! 
 

If it causes a problem, best bet is to move on to something else (exactly what I did with Fender P and J type basses way back!!). 

I first found the joy of them when I bought a new one at the beginning of the 80s - fat sound, perfect neck shape (for me), plenty of highs when required, sound great recorded or live. 
 

The latest Stingray Specials have sublime feeling/playing necks. I have a number of Stingrays ranging from fretless (with flats) to fretted (with flats and rounds), to 5 strings, to a Tim Commerford long scale signature which is passive with series/parallel/single coil selection. 

Ive concluded that I prefer them with rounds (slap sound is brighter), and prefer to mute the strings through playing technique if I want a thumpier sound. But make no mistake, if you want thumpy, then a Ray will do it - especially with flats and using the individual string mutes (if the version you have had them). 
 

Basically a great all round bass that can give a range sounds from fat, warm and thumpy to zingy, to searing slap, to mid heavy fingerstyle burpiness. 

Currently mine is a Musicman Sabre (2 band EQ) - but has been a Stingray HH and a Stingray Special HH also. Of course, they’re all blue 😀

I have used an SR5H or SR5HH also at times and would do again where a 5 string is appropriate or required. 

35 minutes ago, Passinwind said:

I grew up listening to that stuff on a tiny transistor radio under my pillow late at night, never heard a hint of bass content ever. Same with my Mom's car radio back then. Exciting? Nah. Maybe once boom boxes came on the scene around the time the Jackson Five became the big thing, but IMO the production aesthetic started changing in a pretty big way around that time too. 

I think this is true of a lot of people from the 60s - the bass was not very audible at that time through the sort of record players and radios people listened to the music on - it wasn’t until the end of the 60s when multi track recording using a lot of tracks became the norm, and in the U.K. at least, people started to seek out ‘hi fi’ stereo systems to play the new stereo records on (prior to that most output was mono). Who listened to it on the hissing coming and going Radio Luxembourg as well - I know I did!! 
 

However there was enough bass for players to be influenced by the Motown style - I certainly was - and in the later 70s you encountered new musicians like Bernard Edwards and Pino Palladino displaying their advanced take on Motown style, on far better instruments through far better amplification and recorded far better also - and these guys showed us the way!!! 
 

The original Motown thing only became major for bass players more generally in the late 80s with the general unmasking of the hitherto unknown players and with transcriptions and playalongs from the ‘Standing on the Shadows of Motown’ book. Along with people insisting on playing it on sunburst elderly Precisions (but forgetting about the Motown interface they played them through and effectively turning the clock back to the 60s)!!! Rather a lot of rose tinted glasses and complete ignorance of the improved instruments and amps, and players who developed from that style in the altogether more bass focussed 70s and 80s!! 
 

I don’t have a problem with 60s stuff - I do with the insistence that this was the be all and end all of everything - it was characterised by pretty poor reproduction of generally mono recordings recorded on embryonic multi track systems - with pretty rudimentary amplification and many cases, instruments!! 

I’m surprised no one’s posted one of the classic earlier 60s ones.

or maybe a 70s one

On 25/05/2022 at 16:56, Ricky Rioli said:

Thanks for embedding @Ricky Rioli - Ill stand you all the likes achieved 😉 😂😂

This is very witty/funny as well

I couldn’t find the one where he pretends to be someone who never changes his strings - and plays normally, but it just sounds muffled - Charles does that a bit on this. 

4 hours ago, BigRedX said:

If I was a pop producer and wanted a baseline that simple I wouldn't't even bother hiring a bassist. I'd program it myself.

But did you notice he changed to a Fender style bass for that one - with one string 😂 

This guy is very talented (which will probably put some people on here off) - but it’s very witty and the observations are hilarious in some cases - Pop Producer is a classic!! 
 

(PS forum software seems to have stopped detecting video links……correction - now doing it!! 👍)

18 hours ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

 

I'm not sure which I hate the most.

 

Morris dancing, or Morissey dancing. 

Most definitely Morissey (Steve) singing as well - I’m afraid it’s regularly utter unadulterated shite and that includes the lyrics - when I first heard this I thought it was a stream of consciousness but it seems to have actually been published (watch out for the lyrics that don’t scan properly in some places eg chorus - but that possibly doesn’t affect the song or singer that much 😂😂) - sorry but I never got The Smiths even though their guitar player seems ok (the music is chronically tinny as well). Song credited to Stephen (Steve) Morissey and Johnny Marr….. 

That (to many) kids paper (The NME) seems to have taken Morissey to their hearts following his long running (and published) correspondence with them in the 70s!! 
 

Give me Jaco any day - played great for the song (when it was actually a song) rather than a Weather Report extended jazz piece!!! For the naysayers have a listen to the album Hejira by Joni Mitchell.

Now for Morissey’s classic composition……

12 hours ago, Chiliwailer said:

I’ve used these guys a few times,   https://www.pickguardplanet.com   they used to make the 90s matte MusicMan pickguards. 

Cost me about £40-50 inc. duty, depending on shape, they’ll give you a quote. Probably not the cheapest, but I really wanted that material. 

This is Musicman’s pickguard supplier - they do quite a range of alternatives as well (Musicman used to list many as options many years ago). 

5 hours ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

I struggle to see the point of these. They look nice, but if someone is enamoured of the Darkglass sound surely they'd have a pedal?

I get that but even with pedals you wouldn’t have a Stingray or Stingray 5 fitted with a 2 band Darkglass EQ, which has quite a different voicing from the normal Stingray Specials. The two distortion sounds seem excellent to me as well - I’m guessing there’s a little more immediate and easy (mid song adjustment) at hand rather than with a pedal. A bit like an onboard EQ rather than having to do adjustments remotely on an amp. 

I guess it’s a combination that’s likely to appeal to a particular demographic in terms of the genres they may play which probably doesn’t include the likes of HKH and me - although I could have done with one for a dep I’m doing with distinctly rocky material!!