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drTStingray

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Everything posted by drTStingray

  1. drTStingray
    I play in a ska band - 3 band HH Stingray works great.
  2. drTStingray
    If you're muting with your fretting hand, you won't be fretting an open string so will need to move your hand additionally to do it - also easily possible to introduce a harmonic unintentionally dependent whereabouts your fretting hand is. You can overcome this by palm muting the whole part but this is not always practical and might produce a different sound anyway. For me, muting techniques are a necessary and complex part of playing bass.
  3. drTStingray
    47 for me plus 18 unpaid (one monthly jam session; charity gigs)
  4. drTStingray
    I don't actively avoid using them and for some songs they're essential - however for those of us who've developed a playing style which automatically incorporates fretting hand muting, it's certainly more difficult to mute an open string than a fretted one for me. As has previously been mentioned double bass players often use open strings, and particularly to link from one note to another from different areas of the fretboard - having observed double bass players doing this I nicked the technique years ago and use it regularly. Jamerson used the effect regularly - and was of course, also a double bass player - a particular example is the bass break in I Was Made To Love Her - goes from F second octave to open A chromatically to C. As for use open strings as a part of bass parts - I guess if you're aiming to avoid going above fret 5 then you would have to - I personally find this approach a little confusing - so I Want You Back played in frets 1 to 5 using open strings is entirely possible - but much easier and far more intuitive for me played slightly higher up the fretboard. As for playing rock songs - they are often in E or A - those in E almost always require open strings (although I'd prefer to play A at 5th fret to have more control) - Superstition played in the wrong key does require open E (although on a normally tuned 4 string it can't include the lead in D note which happens every so often).
  5. drTStingray
    My 93 fretless Stingray with bird eye maple neck - with its fretted 93 sibling (flamed maple neck)
  6. drTStingray
    That's a very nice bass, a USA built Musicman Sterling. Has a ceramic pick up and series/parallel/single coil switch. The neck is narrower than a Stingray and the body slightly smaller. If you join the EBMM bass forum and post the serial number detail here, they will give you the exact date of birth, specifications and where it was shipped to from the factory. http://forums.ernieball.com/ernie-ball-music-man-basses/1254-music-serial-database-872.html Conversely you could email their Customer Services for the same information. Be careful to align the neck correctly when you put it back on. To correct the bridge info above, the Sterling bass started to be offered from 1993 with the same bridge as the Stingray (called the Flea bridge at the time as it incorporated modifications from the previous version) with mute assembly allowing damping of each individual string. From around 1995 the bridges provided on both models were the same but without the mute assembly, the mountings for it covered. The first bass with the shortened bridge, like the Stingray 5 bridge was the 1996 20th Anniversary Stingray and this bridge started production on Sterlings and Stingrays from sometime in 1996 after that. It generally coincided with EBMM's production from a new (current) factory. This Sterling must be an early example with that bridge from the new factory. Good luck with the sale - it may be worth you showing a picture of the rear of the neck as many basses from that period have highly figured necks so are quite sought after.
  7. drTStingray
    Well you may think this but the question asked by the OP does not have any specific answer and from my experience, dynamics and especially the lack of from guitarists/keyboardists and even saxophonists can seriously contribute to the problem - I've had several experiences where the guitarist won't play a solo for fear of stopping playing the riff - as a dynamic I went over and rocked with the guitarist - he was so loud in front of his gear that it's no wonder it would sound thin to him as he could not really hear anything else (until he stopped). If you intend to have more harmonic content (like Yes for instance) add keyboards. If you want to have continuous rhythm guitar or guitar riffs add another guitar - however the bass will not be able to achieve this if this is the soundscape you want. In a band environment techniques like the drummer playing ride cymbal, the bass player playing a higher and more intense part, and the solo player creating more dynamics can raise the intensity of a solo. However if your idea of filling the sound out is to sound like Status Quo then the bass will never achieve this and you'll need more musicians or backing tracks.
  8. drTStingray
    Compact set up for small venues with fretted and Fretless Stingrays
  9. drTStingray
    Rose Royce - Birmingham Odeon circa 1978 - close second - The Brothers Johnson - same year same venue.
  10. drTStingray
    The thing to remember is a small change on bass goes a long way - simply doubling up the notes or changing the intensity of the line you're playing goes a long, long way in terms of dynamics - or introducing a root note an octave higher. However if you're already playing flat out there's nowhere to go - so you (and especially the guitarist) need to organise the song dynamics to account for this. A good lesson can be learned from Free - these tricks were used to great effect. Finally fat bass sound (without effects to create it) will generally come from your fingers, a bass guitar and amp set up with those characteristics - eg Free - Andy Fraser using an EB3 with a valve stack (Orange?). I find basses like Warwicks, Wals and Musicman create a fatter sound (to the extent you sometimes have to thin it out a little or play softer) - there's a good reason why Flea stopped using the Fender Jazz live - it was simply a thinner sound and wouldn't get that raunchy fat slightly driven sound so effective in a lot of RHCPs music.
  11. drTStingray
    My two band EQ Musicman basses - Neptune blue really pops in bright light. The Classic Sabre has a mahogany body.
  12. drTStingray
    I based the nomdeplume on this whilst whilst watching it at home and noodling on a Stingray - slightly less or more cool dependent on your viewpoint - back on topic - Marcus must have been very young in 1975? its worth listening to Jaco's predecessor Alphobso Johnson - although more funk than Jaco I think you can hear a sort of embryonic Jaco sound at times. The number of influential bass players from the late 70s era is really mind boggling - including the Philly players, Rocco, Abraham Laboriel. Good as Jaco was I think he's only one part of the jigsaw - Percy Jones is also a very good call and a Wal Fretless player also.
  13. drTStingray
    As you well know, the Bongo is the bass with which to impress women - though the Ray does pretty well - especially in Fretless form.....eye popping carpet here as well.
  14. drTStingray
    Ha ha - I think you're doing yourself a dis-service there, Bass Tractor! It's worth thinking about who was influential when Jaco was really popular - this was probably from 1976-80 as far as Weather Report are concerned. During that time period, Stanley Clarke (with Return to Forever and solo), Bernard Edwards, Louis Johnson, Anthony Jackson, and a steam of others produced memorable bass work. The point is that whole era of music contained bass playing which influenced bass players who followed like Mark King, Pino Palladino and others - would Norman Watt-Roy have played that line on Hit Me With Your Rythmn Stick without having seen Jaco live - probably not but he would still have done a myriad of others without (eg What A Waste). I think his direct influence is grossly overstated but he may have popularised Fretless bass and maybe increased use of techniques like harmonics incorporated into bass lines. So having top ten singles involving The Crusaders (a very prolific jazz/R and B band), free form sax solos (Ian Dury) or vocoder and jazz funk from a jazz act (Herbie Hancock) was the norm for a few years. Jaco is only a relatively small part.
  15. drTStingray
    The thing with Jaco is if you don't like jazz and R and B, you're unlikely to like his music. I think it's great - always have done - but there were plenty of other jazz influenced R and B players around at the time, and plenty of jazz upright players doing something similar - I always though Nils Henning--Pedersen, who played with Oscar Peterson, was absolutely a stand out player. I have taken the time and trouble to learn a number of Jaco's bass parts - some are pretty challenging - it has helped my overall playing and understanding of music greatly. However I am heavily slanted towards an R and B/ funk influence - jazz, rock, rock and roll and other genres influence me but not as much. There is no doubt Jaco was a superb bass player and musician whether you like him or not. Marcus Miller was a session player on R and B pop records (eg Somebody Else's Guy - Jocelyn Brown) - I first came across him knowingly (as opposed to having heard him on records not realising it was him) in Miles Davis's band in the early 80s - where he came across as a funk/R and B player with jazz influences - another fine player with totally his own style and musician-wise, way beyond just a bass player. I don't have a problem with people not liking Jaco - I suspect if you dislike jazz it's likely you won't like Jaco - similarly I dislike a lot of Paul Weller and Morrisey which is probably anathema to many people - just personal taste I guess.
  16. drTStingray
    There's a picture somewhere on the net of him playing a Stingray in the studio. I'm guessing he's used lots of types of basses considering how long U2 have been around.
  17. drTStingray
    Take great care - this could simply be caused by the resonance of the room you're playing it in combined with your amp and bass guitar EQ settings. Boomy rooms can cause major problems. I played with a keyboard player on Sunday whose EQ choice along with the resonance of the room caused his left hand chords to cancel entirely the sound of his right hand - this was resolved by him cutting both the bassiest and adjacent low mid fader on his amp EQ considerably - this completely resolved the problem - had to cut the bass slightly on my amp EQ also - similarly on the PA for the bass drum. Prior to this the boominess on the band's sound was awful.
  18. drTStingray
    What a nice bass you have there - the white pick guard looks great with black as well. If this is a metallic sound of string on fret it sounds like it could be a set up issue to me. When the weather turns cold I find that any bass with lowish action needs a tweak on the truss rod - we have recently had a cold spell - I played a gig at a club a week or so back and all of the guitars went out of tune between sound check and start of gig - someone left a door open via the stage to the car park and the back of the stage was freezing cold (around 0 degrees outside) compared with a warm room full of people in front of it. A tweak of the truss rod on a Stingray is a very simple task. The other thing, if you're not used to a Stingray - you don't necessarily have to play the bass as hard as some other makes - and if you do, you would need to have a higher action to avoid rattling the frets when digging in - similarly too trebly an EQ setting on amp or bass would also highlight this. Finally, as Pete said, the saddle heights need to compensate for the fretboard radius and difference in string guages - whilst EBMM have, in my experience always shipped basses with nigh in perfect set up, some dealer staff do like to fiddle with them. As has been said many times before, poor after market set up often causes grief.
  19. drTStingray
    I'm sure there were other 60s/early 70s players who used these (John McVie, Larry Taylor and others) so they could make the same basic instrument and put a range of different names on......... oh hang on ?
  20. drTStingray
    I get that some signature basses are quite different versions of stock basses. However there seems an increasing tendency of one manufacturer, having dropped the 'non standard' signature instruments, to issue an ever more bewildering stream of 'parts bin' signature instruments based on designs they've been producing for years but in a different colour. I guess it's a marketing strategy but being cynical, it smacks a bit of desperation to me. It also makes that manufacturer's range even more bewildering than ever.
  21. drTStingray
    A generally true and rather telling advertisement for highly priced and prized vintage gear as I've ever seen I think. i always thought Andy Fraser got a reasonably focussed and generally good sound with Free (I saw them live three times - all at the same venue). I think the biggest impediment to 'your' sound is the room dynamics and particularly if you can hear yourself properly (so monitoring) - it also depends whose amps you're stood next to and how/what they play. Followed by playing a bass with a decent flexibility to get a supportive and (if you want the notes to be heard) focussed bass sound. I hear far to much indistinct mush sound these days (probably caused by people trying to get that vintage 60s vibe described by Chris_b)!!
  22. drTStingray
    I watched it - if you can overlook the fact that at least some of them are rather old (even more than me) I thought they sounded excellent and definitely evocative of 1969/70 (with the exception of Gillan's voice) - but even he sounded good but different. The mix was excellent and on my tele the keyboards and the bass were as prominent as the guitar where required - unlike the Gilmore concert a couple of nights ago where I was hard pressed to hear any of the detail of what Guy Pratt was playing. If you're into Deep Purple circa 1970 this is pretty good.
  23. drTStingray
    To be honest, weak G string sound has no place in this thread as the OP has already decided they want a Stingray. Why try to talk him out of it? I own lots of Stingrays and don't experience the problem - I have never heard any sound sample which replicates this effect in hearing Stingrays recorded since 1976. Therefore I'm inclined to believe it's a user issue - there are so many variables in play that something as simple as slightly compromised hearing could create this effect (to a listener stood a couple of feet in front of speakers pointing sound out past their knees).
  24. drTStingray
    By far the most versatile, whilst still retaining the standard H Stingray ability would be an HH. Coming from a Corvette you may find this the best - really the only downside, if there is one is its not quite so easy to slap with the neck pick up there. The dargie delight, amongst a number of other finishes, is really a collector's bass, hence commanding higher prices - and some of the colours available in the past have been fabulous - there are lots of different examples. Natural with maple or sunburst with maple are really classic colours on these basses - followed by black and also white. However some of the EBMM colours like blueburst, blue dawn, and trans red are equally classic these days. A rosewood board would give a slightly darker sound. As for 2 EQ or 3 EQ, the latter gives a lot more flexibility especially live in boomy sounding rooms - it can also get quite close to a 2 EQ by cutting the mid a decent amount. The Classic series give you highly figured neck wood, 2 EQ and adjustable mutes on the bridge amongst a range of cool features. Id go with that natural HH if it was me (in fact I nearly bought one recently - but I already have an HH in one of the limited edition colours so didn't in the end). Other EBMM models like the 25th Anni, Reflex, Bongo are as it says on the tin, different models - they are unlikely to give you the exact Stingray sound although they are excellent in their own right.
  25. drTStingray
    [quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1510150213' post='3404302'] Louis Johnson and Bernard Edwards did some of their best work on Stingray's with tapewounds so it's all down to what you like. [/quote] Stingrays shipped with GHS flat's until mid 78 when they appear to have changed to GHS rounds. Nard's will most likely have had GHS flat's, pointed to by various recorded sounds (especially popping strings) - it's highly unlikely that Louis Johnson's had flats based on the recorded sound and videos of him soloed. That said none are tape wounds - and I've never tried them on a Stingray in 35 odd years - must give it a go sometime.
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