drTStingray

I'd very much like to try one of those new fangled neck through Stingrays. Other than that I'm going through a disturbed time of thinking I want an old P or J bass off and on - until I hear them played - that white one above is gorgeous. So I have reverted to lusting for a pre EB Stingray in natural or sunburst (or a new EBMM Classic Ray in natural). But I don't need another bass either .............. doh!!! Also a Stingray in peach!!

[quote name='fretmeister' timestamp='1423951436' post='2690898'] I can hear the "other forum" exploding already! [/quote] You mean Talkbass?! I can't see the EBMM forum having much of a view although no doubt some may think you have taken leave of your senses and should sell the Ray and buy a bass you actually like?? It's your bass, your choice though.

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1424012472' post='2691499'] Mine is the kind in the pic too - from Thomann [/quote] Yep - and mine!! Ordered it via my local music shop. You'll all be very pleased that I didn't use one for my New Years eve gig.......... Only a couple of bum changes mostly in one song but I did use a sheet for one song - it was perched on the floor. There was simply not enough room for my music stand!! The singer had one for the words and the keyboard player had one.

There's much to be said for attempting an authentic Andy Fraser TOTP approach to this IMO. He rocked backwards and forwards in a very gentle manner looking vaguely towards the ceiling with a facial expression as if contemplating the meaning of life with his arms crossed against the upper bout of his EB3 - if he had been smoking a pipe it would not have looked out of place - the perfect counter to Simon Kirk blowing his hair away from his face on beats 1 and 3, Paul Kossoff's guitar faces and Paul Rogers front man singing. It has to be said they looked a little out of place surrounded by teenage girls on that show - in stark contrast to their normal audiences of mainly long haired make musos at that time. The one thing you must not do (and I must say I've transgressed once or twice or more over the years) is to come in on the wrong note owing to daydreaming in the verses and worse still to have a mental aberration and actually forget how to play the high G and D pattern correctly - it sounds quite bizarre backwards. Worse still trying to improvise as in the version off Free's live version and getting those G and D chords in the wrong order after the guitar solo. Classic song which suffers from terminal over exposure unfortunately - as will any song which got to number 1 or thereabouts and includes a classic guitar solo. I can think of several others ....

Each to his own I guess but you guys must be Bonkers IMHO!!!! I got my 2003 SR5 out the other day - that bass has such a fast neck and it's simply aged in colour beautifully - even has a nice flame starting to show through - I would never varnish it - the only thing better is my Classic Sabre with oil and wax finish roasted flamed maple - that is also ridiculously fast to play. I did a gig on Saturday night and used my coral red Classic Ray - it was v nice and had a perfect Bernard Edwards sound with TI flats and Mark Bass - EBMM make a great bass and the necks are especially good, especially the classic Ray lacquered ones - they're certainly the least sticky to play laquered necks I've come across - totally different from say a Fender AV but even so they are still not as quick as the oil/wax ones.

[quote name='police squad' timestamp='1422442738' post='2672621'] just done a quick google, John Gold used to run the shop. Works for Fender Europe now (So it says on the forum I've just found this info) [/quote] I believe it was him! One of the members here put him in the frame last time this subject was discussed.

An interesting thread and as I recently qualified to participate in this thread thought I would contribute. My experience is it gets better as you get older - I'm happy to just lay back in the groove and play a couple of fills and bass hooks here and there. Great fun!! I find it far easier to relax playing these days - not sure if it's an age or experience thing or a bit of both. The one thing I find a bigger and bigger irritation is carrying the equipment in and out - despite having invested in lightweight cabs and amp it's still a pain!!! And taking two basses to a gig - well that's an exception rather than a rule these days. I have played in bands in recent times with plenty of mid 70 year olds so am v hopeful I'll still be doing it then. Oh and Blue, we also had the Singing Nun back in the 60s on our radios - as well as all the beat groups - others I recall were A Windmill in Old Amsterdam and plenty of Val Doonican songs!! It wasn't until 1967 that we had a specific national radio station for pop music!!

Fascinating - thought it was great.

[quote name='spectoremg' timestamp='1422305605' post='2671010'] Had to grin when I saw an Eb - Stevie loves them black notes! [/quote] Yes - amongst several Stevie tunes which I have found consistently switched to E by guitar based groups. Another is I Wish. I think the flat keys maybe to fit his vocal range or are keys which suit horns better. I think you are right with the horn part - I play this song in a group and play that as root, b7, 6, 5, 6, root. You can probably use a b3 and 4 over the 5, 6 of the riff to harmonise. It seems to fit what our brass section plays anyway!! I also use the pattern as the format of a bass part over a couple of solos which follow particularly as the clavinet part is played on a guitar. It can be quite effective with some slap interspersed with finger style. Needless to say we play the song in E!!! None of the other players can possibly have played their parts along to the original as they would immediately be clashing by a semi tone!! I think it classes as a 'standard' which people sometimes play from memory rather than anything else.

I'd be frightened to take a museum piece of this nature out of the house to use. I find these old basses very pretty - full of nostalgia.

It was called You Bet and I think the host I'm told was Matthew Kelly (though I thought it was Brucie also). The guy bet he could tell a number of basses blind fold as he worked in a music shop where people were forever trying out basses. I remember Herbie Flowers' played a bit of fingerstyle and then a bit of pop and slap (with his fingers). Poor chap thought every one was a Steinburger - I recall I hadn't heard of any of the makes used either and didn't really blame him for getting them wrong - the playing was also ...... well a little strange. Altogether quite bizarre but then again so were quite a lot of the challenges. I recall the guy doing a different challenge he was pitted against got all of his guesses R ight so the bass guesser was defeated after two or three efforts! Shame as Herbie had about ten basses to play!! I mentioned this matter on here once before and someone named the guy and the shop he worked in!!!

I think a lot of people decide they want a certain type of bass and adapt to that bass - even if that bass or its design have aspects which don't appeal to some people. As long as those issues are not sufficient to alter their playing in a negative way that would be enough for most people. For me, my SR5 has a great neck and just makes me want to play - perhaps that's because I developed a lot as a player on that bass and then went to various 4 strings (all 19 mm spacing) as a broadening of instruments available to me. That said, swapping between 5 and 4 and vice versa in gigs has been a breeze. There's a group of people who seem to flit from bass to bass searching for a 'holy grail' - all instrument design involves compromises to one level or another - maybe there are some people who will never be satisfied with their instruments and others who are enthusiastic about all basses so will buy examples of lots of different makes.

[quote name='fretmeister' timestamp='1422019037' post='2667800'] IS the body on the classic 5 a slab without belly / forearm cuts? [/quote] Indeed it is, in contrast to the regular SR5 which also has chamfered body edges - looks cool (dependent on your viewpoint), but no doubt drops some weight also.

[quote name='drTStingray' timestamp='1422015839' post='2667747'] The ceramic can produce a beautiful warm tone as well as cutting through. The resonance of a regular Stingray 5 seriously has to be felt and heard to be believed. I first had a Musicman back in about 1980. It was the best bass of its type by a long chalk back then unless you were prepared to buy an Alembic for about half the price of a terraced house back then - you could go to a halfway house of an Ibanez Musician - fabulous bass but still expensive. Anyway I stopped playing in the late 80s and sold the Ray and everything else. Forward to 2003 and I'd decided to restart and wanted a five string. I tried myriads of them but eventually bought an SR5 having tried one about 6 months before - more playable than a Warwick - preferred the sound to anything else I played - Lakland and Yamaha came a close second but didn't nail THAT sound. Now this will sound anathema to most of you but for me, the Fender sound is the archetypal vanilla bass sound - I find a Precision to be so boring as to induce me, in my advancing years, to sleep. I have tried to love these things many times but as they were in my youth, they rarely capture their recorded sound live and in some instances can positively detract in a live setting (Shadows tribute bands are an excellent case - if you use authentic bass gear live you do not sound like the recordings, even if you can play them as the originals). The Jazz is somewhat more refined but even so, when I play one I get appalling blisters from a combination of trying to hear myself and trying to get the sound I want - people like Jameson used to play their Fenders quite hard to get their sound as did Duck Dunn, Leo Lyons, John McVie etc - take a look at those old videos I know I'm not alone in this view. I have heard people describe a P bass variously as an improved starter bass which is over priced, to a bass for plodding bass lines. Now I know there have been great exponents on these basses in the past, but the volume of vanilla plodding recorded with these probably exceeds most other in the history of recorded popular music. Modern amps help a lot and i suppose actually make these basses more usable live these days - curious that some people who use them use 60s/70s style amps which probably highlighted their limitations back then - I attended many a gig in the 70s with poor or inaudible bass sound. I have concluded if I eventually buy a Fender bass it will be largely for reasons of nostalgia - those pale blue early 60s Jazzes with matching headstocks get me every time I see one!!!!! You can readily see why a bass designed in 1957 or 1960 with a fifth string grafted on is not going to appeal to me. On my quest for a fiver an enthusiastic retailer really tried to get me to love a P5 - I'm afraid it didn't do it for me. The SR5 is the daddy of production 5 strings and I'd still great today. It is of course not just a Stingray with a fifth string - it has s new EQ designed for it, has series/parallel/single coil capability and a neck that is superb (for most people). [/quote]

The ceramic can produce a beautiful warm tone as well as cutting through. The resonance of a regular Stingray 5 seriously has to be felt and heard to be believed. I first had a Musicman back in about 1980. It was the best bass of its type by a long chalk back then unless you were prepared to buy an Alembic for about half the price of a terraced house back then - you could go to a halfway house of an Ibanez Musician - fabulous bass but still expensive. Anyway I stopped playing in the late 80s and sold the Ray and everything else. Forward to 2003 and I'd decided to restart and wanted a five string. I tried myriads of them but eventually bought an SR5 having tried one about 6 months before - more playable than a Warwick - preferred the sound to anything else I played - Lakland and Yamaha came a close second but didn't nail THAT sound. Now this will sound anathema to most of you but for me, the Fender sound is the archetypal vanilla bass sound - I find a Precision to be so boring as to induce me, in my advancing years, to sleep. I have tried to love these things many times but as they were in my youth, they rarely capture their recorded sound live and in some instances can positively detract in a live setting (Shadows tribute bands are an excellent case - if you use authentic bass gear live you do not sound like the recordings, even if you can play them as the originals). The Jazz is somewhat more refined but even so, when I play one I get appalling blisters from a combination of trying to hear myself and trying to get the sound I want - people like Jameson used to play their Fenders quite hard to get their sound as did Duck Dunn, Leo Lyons, John McVie etc - take a look at those old videos I know I'm not alone in this view. I have heard people describe a P bass variously as an improved starter bass which is over priced, to a bass for plodding bass lines. Now I know there have been great exponents on these basses in the past, but the volume of vanilla plodding recorded with these probably exceeds most other in the history of recorded popular music. Modern amps help a lot and i suppose actually make these basses more usable live these days - curious that some people who use them use 60s/70s style amps which probably highlighted their limitations back then - I attended many a gig in the 70s with poor or inaudible bass sound. I have concluded if I eventually buy a Fender bass it will be largely for reasons of nostalgia - those pale blue early 60s Jazzes with matching headstocks get me every time I see one!!!!!

Take a look at this - there are several more - new for NAMM 2015 it seems. http://youtu.be/YTbr6T4q3qg

[quote name='patrikmarky' timestamp='1421507608' post='2662079'] Now finished complete with new pickguard ..which was great product of ebay ... [/quote] Very nice. Looks great. Has the air of a Musicman Cutlass 1 about it from a distance!

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1421487587' post='2661765'] I wish I had grabbed a powder blue 5 at the time but I like my Tobacco which is quite rare I presume, how long did it last? and as we worked out mine is one of the very first 5s in the UK by the looks of it ( I forget march or may 2010 I think?), I could do with getting the original preamp checked as I pulled it for a John East as it felt a bit naff to me, any idea who could inspect it and let me know if it is normal or needs repairing DrT? [/quote] The retro burst started the same time as natural and replaced tobacco burst so I'd say it lasted 18 months/2 yrs. it's definitely a very early one (March 2010?) - I think it looks great and would say it may have been bought in from a U.S. seller. I may be wrong but the reason I say this is the first batch which came to the UK were dealer stock and 4 strings in colours such as white, tobacco burst and black etc - I know this because I was expecting mine to be in the shipment as I'd ordered as soon as they were available - it didn't turn up until the shipment in June of 2010 and was delayed by volcanic ash disrupting air flights!!! The EQ should be a standard MM 2 band - you can compare with the pics of pre amps on Musicman.org. However having the mid sweep is a great option with the East. The MM 2 band is a great pre amp also - most good techs would be able to check it out for you but the Bass Gallery is a good bet (I've heard!). S and T might assist also (with a replacement 2 band EQ). Fyi There's a powder blue 5 in the for sale thread on the EBMM forum right now if you fancy a second one!!

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1421445157' post='2661464'] The natural and the black are still in the lineup, probably the only ones that have been available from the start. Ive just noticed they have dropped the wording single piece from the body wood specs and the natural one in the photo does have a join up the middle, which my pre EB did to be fair but it looks like single piece bodies are getting rare? [/quote] Natural appeared around 2011/12 in the Classic series - pastels lasted about a year from 2010. Tobacco burst was the original Classic burst colour, replaced by retro burst (based on Sterling Ball's pre EB - 28th Stingray built), and now replaced by classic burst. They said they'd rotate the colours and they have done - one of the nicest they've made is raspberry sorbet (limited for Guitar Centre) - I wouldn't mind one to go with my coral red Classic! That Sub looks great - they're all meant to have poplar bodies though - that looks v cool to me.

I'm sorry to say I've had to resurrect mine from the boot of the car - got a 50+ song New Years eve gig with a scratch (but very good) band with at least 50% songs I don't know - it's a dinner dance do so I rather doubt anyone will be walking out. But just in case I do forget Moon River or any other of the songs I should know but have long forgotten, and haven't commited to memory from the two rehearsals, my music stand will be in use - don't want any of the people dancing waltzes tripping up because I've forgotten its in 3/4 lol!!

[quote name='badboy1984' timestamp='1418303782' post='2628954'] I like their flats tho. Nice tension and brightness in my opinion. [/quote] Each to their own I guess - the problem I found with Roto flats (on an SR5) was the extreme tension - felt like you needed to be a champion arm wrestler to play it. To be fair I didn't re set the bass up, persevered for a month or two - just ditched the strings. I have EB Group 3 flats on my fretless Ray and they have similar tension to rounds, as do TI flats. Glad the OP has sorted his 25th Anniversary bass out - it should be full of usable sounds. Playing near the neck joint will get the thump and lose some treble if you're after that sort of sound at any time - yiu can also cut the treble on the EQ.

[quote name='mickster' timestamp='1418205574' post='2627868'] Heh-heh-heh..."they're attacking the precioussssss...must defend...MUST DEFEND...!!!" [/quote] No - not at all. What an inane assumption. However there are innocent young individuals who read this forum and may be influenced by such bo**ocks. Hence the response. Why don't you go and bomb a Fender thread instead?!! I find it ironic that the very thing in the past I've found irritating on the EBMM forum (in jokes with no empathy with anyone but a few individuals) occurs here. Sorry if I missed the joke - I must have led too sheltered a life 😁

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1418146605' post='2627377'] +1 This is my experience, too. Dodgy company. AVOID111!!!11!ONE [/quote] I see - so you approach a company which does not sell large parts like bodies and necks (except by exchange) and then wonder why you get no as a answer? You obviously don't know much about Musicman as they have recently produced a limited run with roasted maple necks available as 4, 5 or 6 string. It sounds like there's a level of delusion in these posts!! Are you sure they werent men in White coats?

IMHO it's all to do with mixing - and it's not just live - I've heard radio and TV shows with bass necessary songs like Good Times where the bass is mixed far too low. Seeing Jamiroquy and Level 42 fairly recently with badly mixed bass sound (just far too low and not prominent) I came to the conclusion it's just poor engineering. This view was confirmed when I had a couple of issues myself on gigs where the bass drum - in fact the whole kit, was mixed far too loud, and he bass guitar too low. The usual trick is to overlook the importance of mids and to overboost sub frequencies - but if the bass guitar is too low in the mix then the job it does (linking rhythm and harmony) is lost - in dance music it's even more important. I think things are improving as I've recently seen/heard decently mixed bass on Strictly Come Dancing (where it had all but disappeared in recent months), radio 2, Later with Jools Holland (where I've recently heard his band itself with a decent sound). Was in Cafe Rouge last night and I noticed how prominent the bass was in the background music - heard the whole bass line in Move on Up by the Isley Brothers for the first time in ages - and Hard to Handle (the proper one that no covers band play - Wilson Pickett?) - even Mrs drT noticed!!! Maybe people have read this thread!! Anyway I for one am hopeful that the days of attempting to make everything have 60s style inaudible or indistinct/inarticulate bass are over. Some of these guys teaching have a lot to answer for as do some popular producers of the last ten years or so........... with notable exceptions - Trevor Horn normally has great bass sound on his productions - I think we re talking the Ronsons of this world and others possibly...... the X factor stuff notably - anyone hear their version of Heroes - with inaudible bass and no riff. A bit like doing Sunshine of your Love without the riff - appalling!!

I went to a classical concert recently and the whole orchestra was reading from sheets............ and the lead singer - mind you he didn't sing once, just conducted using a baton!!!! Hmmmm bloody amateurs!!!