peteb

I know that I really should know this but please help me out - if I change the pick up but want to keep the stingray eq/curcuit do I buy an active pickup but not use the curcuit or do I just put a passive pickup in??

[quote name='Johnston' post='938374' date='Aug 27 2010, 07:29 PM']Oh I could do with one of them then !!! I just thought they were a big thumb rest[/quote] That's their other purpose!

[quote name='Bilbo' post='919247' date='Aug 9 2010, 07:39 AM']I couldn't commission a boutique bass as I would have no idea what factors influence the ultimate sound. My only 'must haves' are fretless and an ebony board. After that, I have no idea what works and what doesn't other than the aesthetics. Off the peg works for me. The day I find a bass lets me down, I will consider it but, after 30 years of playing, I'm not holding my breath.[/quote] But you do have to consider that the instrument that you bought many years ago was considered to be a 'boutique bass' at the time...!

[quote name='Faithless' post='938211' date='Aug 27 2010, 03:56 PM']You'll have to bring your bass to luthier.. Martin in Bass Gallery does this kind of thing, as other luthiers.. BTW, ramp in my ACG is 'screwed', does it make the bass sacred? [/quote] Does anyone know anyone know of any suitable luthiers or whoever in the north of England?

[quote name='Grand Wazoo' post='938112' date='Aug 27 2010, 02:24 PM']double-sided tape is an easy "undoable" option, some people screw them onto the body, depends how sacred is your bass to you.[/quote] Dunno about sacred but would prefer to get it done professionally...

I am tentatively thinking of getting a ramp fitted to a couple of my basses Has anyone here done this to a bass? What is the process of fitting them, can anyone recommend someone to carry out the work and of course, how much is it likely to cost??

Re. the Sting / Jaco comparisons I'm sure that Sting would be the first to be embarrassed to be compared to Jaco as a bass player – different stratosphere mate! Jaco composed some nice pieces of music (Portrait of Tracy, etc) but there is no doubt that Sting is a far better pop/rock songwriter – the Police were one of THE great singles bands……

If anyone is passing by Bradford in the next couple of weeks, I have a promotional Trace Elliot biker style leather jacket (size XL), complete with embossed logo on the back & green lining free to a good home! I got it from a mate in the trade a fair few years ago and it's pretty decent quality leather & in good nick but could probably do with a bit of a sponge down - I used to wear it at outdoor gigs as I could wear a thick fleece under it but in these days of micro fleeces it's a bit too big for me and as the missus says, I have too many other leather jackets that actually fit me! If anyone fancies it, please drop me a PM

What are these things like for balance? Will it be safe to balance quite a heavy rack on a 610 cab (12" deep)??

[quote name='silddx' post='926390' date='Aug 16 2010, 01:04 PM'][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bksTWhelw0Y&feature=player_embedded"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bksTWhelw0Y...player_embedded[/url] He just seems to speak his mind and won't tolerate liars. He does seem a bit odd though.[/quote] Still a good player thru! Cheers for the link dude......

Hi Nige Do you have a link for this - I'm having problems on this computer seeing embedded videos for some reason! I always thought that Thunes seemed to be a bit of a d1ck as a person, but still a great bassist in a truly great band......

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='926066' date='Aug 16 2010, 03:08 AM']I gave it a bash but my hands are huge and if I rest my thumb between the screws then my fingers fall midway between the pup and the bridge. When playing a 'ray I normally rest my thumb at the furthest forward point of the pup (which brings my fingertips closer in). Trying what you suggested I noticed that I don't really tend to go under the string all that much, I sort of rake acutely from on top. To force myself to accidentally hit a pole piece I have to come around a bit and go at it pretty rapid to the point where my technique starts to collapse but I do see what you mean[/quote] I think that it's a pretty fair assumption that my fingers will be longer & thinner and will therefore tend to 'fall down the gaps' between the strings more than yours, together with the fact that I’m used to having the pickup cover up higher so if you do dig in too far your finger will bounce up from the smooth p/up cover without you even being aware Try raking ascending thirds and seconds up a scale on the ‘g’ & ‘d’ strings in this way, so in E for example it might be ‘D’,’B’; ‘E’, ‘D’; ‘G’, ‘E’, ‘A’, ‘#F’ then descending back again and when you get it up to speed you can get some really fast & fluid runs going that sound pretty impressive but are really quite easy to pull off! But not if you have pickup pole pieces standing 3mm proud of the casing & getting in your way!!

[quote name='mep' post='925924' date='Aug 15 2010, 10:17 PM']Have you tried pushing the pole pieces in yet? They will end up flush with the pup as your thumb is larger than them. They will go in, even though at first you may not be sure. You can then adjust the height for the G string. Job done. It worked a treat for me and has given my 92 Ray a completely new lease of life![/quote] When I have tried to push the poles down they just spring back up! Will take the pickguard off and have a proper attempt (any advice welcome) when I get back and before I shell out for a new pickup! Cheers.....

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='925845' date='Aug 15 2010, 09:05 PM']This is what I'd do. However I have 4 MM pups spanning the decades from '78 to '06 and none of them seem to display this problem. I can't even imagine how you can be hitting your fingers off the pole pieces seeing as they are directly below the strings. [/quote] Ou7shined - for your information: Try anchoring your thumb between the screws at the top of your MM style pick up and playing the 'g' string with alternative fingers (index & middle), which will be directly above the rear pole pieces. As you pluck thru the 'g' string your finger will come to rest on or actually below the 'd' (this is the same with the 'd' & 'a' strings but not so apparent with 'a' to 'e' due to the position of your hand on these strings). My middle finger is longer than my index and tends to catch on the back pole piece, especially when raking from string to string I usually have epoxy covered pickups set quite close to the strings and the idea is that your fingers glide just above the top of the pickup cover – this is quite a common technique and is used by Billy Sheehan (he talks about it in one of his instructional DVDs) & I’m sure many others (but probably not by those playing bleedin’ stingrays)!!

Would be a great idea if you could calibrate it for the preamp in your particular bass and if it worked on 18v!

[quote name='ahpook' post='925762' date='Aug 15 2010, 07:07 PM']have you thought of talking to wizard pickups ? i believe they do a 'covered' MM pickup that's not as costly as a bart, and if their p-bass pickups are anything to go by they're damn fine replacements.[/quote] Cheers for that suggestion - I will look into that Does anyone know how the various options (EMG, bartolini, wizzard) compare?

[quote name='mcnach' post='925631' date='Aug 15 2010, 03:22 PM']You could always ask in the Ernie Ball MusicMan forum... JOKING! No! Don't even think about it!!! I don't wish the response you might get on my worst enemy I've played MM-style pickup equipped basses for a while and neevr encountered your problem. I'd have imagined that lowering the pickups would sort that issue, but if it hasn't... I'd just suggest using a pickup without the exposed polepieces, like you suggested. But it does strike me as a little odd. I wonder if the polepieces in yours are unusually high. Can you post a picture? None of my MM-type pickups (Five. Including a Stingray) have polepieces flush with the cover.[/quote] I have been reading the other thread on the EBMM forum and believe me, I am sorely tested, just to see exactly how bad the response would be!! I do think that the pole pieces on my 'Ray may be unusually high - I didn't have this problem with the sterling that I owned and I haven't noticed it to be so bad when ever I have picked up one belonging to someone else, thru to be fair I have never really played one for a long time either! Will have to consider looking for a bartolini on ebay or getting an EMG from thomman when I get back off holiday (or does anyone know of anywhere else you can get bartolinis cheap??)

The other 'Ray issues to which I allude are mainly that even if you have it set up well with a nice low action, if I put it down and pick up my Warwick Stage 1, the difference in build quality is immediately apparent! BTW – the first thing I did was to lower the pick up on the stingray as much as possible as soon as I got it The ‘g’ string issue is annoying and leads to you trying to play harder on that string, which is less than ideal and is a design fault that should have been sorted out a long time ago! I can understand why lots of people like ‘Rays – they do have a distinctive sound, etc but there are obvious faults that just shouldn’t be there on a bass that is by no means cheap if you buy one new……

It appears that I just don't have the technique to play a stingray! TBH - I always thought that my right hand technique was reasonably strong, but I have a low action, play over the pickup and tend to rake a lot (a la Sheehan in that respect at least) and the pole pieces do tend to get in the way more than somewhat! I might just drop a EMG in it if I decide that it's worth the effort / cash - a very frustrating bass, a great unique sound but several annoying flaws.......

[quote name='Bilbo' post='924011' date='Aug 13 2010, 03:19 PM']This isn't a response to your band, Jake, but I have a bit of an issue with the word 'entertainment' because it is often used as a justification for 'lowest common denominator' in terms content. Many musicians make decisions based on their [i]perception[/i] of 'what the people want' and fill their sets with old faithfuls like Midnight Hour, Lady Marmalade, Son Of A Preacher Man and so on. Jazz bands are no different and they fill their sets with the tried and true; Autumn Leaves, Fly Me To the M n, Bye Bye Blackbird, Fever, Moondance etc. What happens, whether it is rock or jazz, is that something vital is made bland and predictable and many of the people who want to be entertained are put off. When I look out at weddings, I see dozens of people dancing and hundreds of people not (the quality of the band has no real bearing on this). I did a recent wedding where my little Brazillian project had a field of people buzzing whilst a major London 12 piece with horns, backing vox etc doing 'those' tunes failed to ignite them (people kept coming up to us and saying, 'we wish you were playing, you were much better'. So what, says you? Well, the Brazillian band's set consisted entirely of tunes they didn't know sung in Brazillian Portuguese. The band always goes down really well wherever we play. It just escalates if there are any Brazillians in the audience People want to be entertained not bored. Don't just give them what they want, give them something to get excited about, something they have not heard 1,000 times before (your Charleston gig would be a new experience to most people, Jake). A regular jazz gig I did for 5 years used to mostly act as background noise to an ambivalent audience (the drummer insisted on keeping the material 'familiar'; 'those' tunes again) but the audience (mostly 18-24) only ever sat up and listened when we took it out and did something a bit heavier: Coltrane, Monk, Ornette Coleman; something with some energy and vitality. I have no problem entertaining people and, like everyone else, I like to see people dance but it is a much better feeling when what you are doing is also a bit different, edgy, fresh and engaging. So many of us are no better than cheesy cabaret bands in wolf's clothing. Live music in the UK sometimes feels like Sky TV; every channel is pretty much the same as every other and, with 800+ options, you still can't find anything you actually want to watch. Jazz bands are just as guilty of this as function bands. Its sucking the life out of it. Entertainment is like politics. Everyone heads for the middle gorund to get the most attention and, as a result, nobody gets what they want![/quote] Good post - pretty much hits the nail on the head and applies to any genre!

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='925096' date='Aug 14 2010, 07:10 PM']I think you can adjust them but I dont know how and if you screw it up you will need a new pup for sure,It should have the rounded edge pole pieces if its the original EB one of that vintage anyway? Do you have any pics?[/quote] Certainly not rounded edge pole pieces! The guy I got it from reckoned that it was one of the early EB ones but I really wouldn't know I'm hoping that someone here will be able to confirm that the pole pieces are adjustable and if so let me how you go about it - I would probably get a mate to do it as I would probably knack any pickup I tried to take apart! I did briely have a Sterling a few years ago - that didn't have the same problem i.e. the poles were flush on that one.....

I recently acquired a 90s MM stingray in a trade and it's not a bad bass - plays OK, sounds great, etc However, I do have a bit of a problem with the pickup (apart from the usual 'g' string not being loud enough) - the exposed pole pieces are nowhere near flush to the casing and as I anchor my thumb on the pickup and I keep catching my fingertips on the poles, which can get a bit annoying, not to mention painful after a while! Does anyone know if there is any way of adjusting the height of the pole pieces so that they are flush to the casing?

The top of the range Streamers, Thumbs, Dolphins, etc are superb basses - my Stage 1 is great in all depts (sound, feel, looks, construction) Some of the mid range & cheaper ones they produce are not that great thru.....

Bilbo, you think too much - you're obviously a musician!

[quote name='silddx' post='910421' date='Jul 30 2010, 04:49 PM'] It was reading his interview that prompted the post really, but it is something I've thought about for a long time and I have my own thoughts about it. I know plenty of "people who play instruments" to a high technical level but who are primarily songwriters/composers, often they are multi instrumentalists. I also know "people who play instruments" to a high technical level but who can't compose or write songs, or even improvise much. They need to be told what to play and they play it beautifully. To my mind these are two completely different types of people. Zappa's ex band members, some of them are very good at composition and make a living at it, some are pretty poor going by what I've heard. I really believe it's important to make the distinction, especially if you are auditioning band members. It is probably easier to have people who don't have compositional ambitions in your band if you are a control freak and QC all your music yourself. Sometimes you may want band members who can contribute compositionally or improvisationally. I have to be a mechanic in one of my bands, but that's fine because I can still control the dynamics and the tone choices and that's very important. The other band allows me to compose my lines and luckily they go down very well. I am very sensitive to the needs of the song, the singer and the writer. I think I have good compositional skills for pop music and I write pop rock songs and lyrics. I'd be crap at jazz or classical or R&B, Hip Hop, blah blah, though, so there is another distinction one can make. My OP was very poorly worded wasn't it [/quote] I think that you can over intellectualise what being a musician is about? You're role in a band is likely to change from gig to gig (as you say above). If you want to be successful at any level and you want to be the guy that people call for a gig then you need to: learn to play; know enough about music to understand how to put a bass part together; and be the sort of person who the rest of the band can stand being stuck in a van with on a 5 hour trip to Carlisle or wherever! This applies at any level (witness Scott Thunes and Zappa again)! Doesn’t matter how good a player is – if they can’t get on with other musicians, they won’t work! What most bands want is to work with someone who can play who they can have a beer with (but preferably not a raging alcoholic)!!