Misdee

I remember going to The Bass Centre at Wapping back in the 1980's and they invariably had a a selection of used pre-EBMM Stingrays. They were always £495, and if you went back to the shop a fortnight later they were all sold and different ones had replaced them. I've no idea where they all came from. Back in those days I had a sunburst/maple 1983 Stingray that was very lightweight. What I remember clearly about that bass was that it sounded distinctly different to the new EBMM basses that were in the shops at the time. It was much more "scooped" than the newer bass, lots of bass and slicing treble with not much in-between. I actually thought the EBMM basses were much better. I preferred the tone and they were much better made. Nowadays I've got a Stingray Special and it's a great bass in it's own right, but it's definitely an evolution of the Stingray sound. It's unmistakably a Stingray tone, but with a new twist. A subtle but tangible difference, and it seems like they've nailed perceived weakness on the G string with the new neodymium pickup. The ergonomics are so much better than before. The only thing I miss from the older Stingray basses is the big bridge with mutes. I never used the mutes, but it looked great and was a characteristic feature of those basses.

Lovely bass. EBMM make such good instruments. Quality American-made guitars. May you get much pleasure from owning it. Personally, I prefer the original knurled chrome knobs; it's part of the Music Man livery and they match the chrome hardware.

I've been looking at these '66 reissues since they came out but I've never found one that's a reasonable weight. They tend to be the wrong side of 9 pounds, and I can't abide a heavy Jazz Bass. Probably because of the offset body shape, to me a weighty J Bass feels particularly ungainly, more so than some other styles of bass. It's a shame because I really fancy the green one, albeit that I would have to swap the tort scratch plate for an off-white one. Fender are in a bit of a cleft stick when it comes to reissues (and all their other American-made guitars and basses) because they don't want to make them so appealing that they are taking business away from their own Custom Shop. So when Fender seemingly detract from what could be a much more attractive design it's usually a deliberate decision to do with stratifying their range of instruments.

The only difference is the colour choices.

We've all got our own preoccupations, and some folks get hung up on dead spots, particularly on Fender basses. (Quiet G strings on MM Stingray basses is another pit some people fall into.) I've got plenty of neurotic obsessions of my own regarding basses, many of which have tormented me for decades, but dead spots haven't been one of them, except on my old Status Empathy. Got rid and bought a Zon. The Zon didn't have dead spots, but it did have bad karma so I sold it. And so it goes on...

A reverse P pickup would have made all the difference for me. I like everything else about it apart from the colour. A Spector rock bass with that overall styling has great potential, but, for my taste, they needed to do something to give it some uniquely-Spector DNA.

The worst problem I ever had with dead spots was on a Status Graphite bass, which theoretically is immune to such problems. With Fender basses I've never had deadspot a problem either, and I've had loads. Maybe with Fenders it's just part of the sound. If everything was even and consistent, it wouldn't sound like a Fender.

There is a school of thought that vintage Fenders were never intended to have neck pockets with a super- tight precision-engineered fit like a lot of modern basses have nowadays. That's because at the time it wasn't consider a priority; that's a much more recent preoccupation. Also, Fender thought that some space was necessary for the neck to be easily removed for truss rod adjustment and repair ect. They thought that if the neck pockets were too snug that the shoulders of the neck pocket would be prone to cracking or even breaking due to bumps in transit, expansion and contraction of the wood and general wear and tear over the years. As others have alluded to, at the time no one anticipated Fenders becoming holy relics with people agonizing over the fine details. They just wanted to make something that worked okay. They were pragmatic. I've had boutique Fender- style basses that had neck pockets so tight that it was a struggle to detach the neck when all the bolts were removed. I've also experienced cracking in the paint finish on the sides of the neck pocket on one of those basses exactly because it had such a tight-fitting neck join, just like Fender sought to avoid, so maybe they had a point.

What kind of shop plays Killing Joke(in dub)? What are you selling, methadone? Bondage equipment?

I know what you mean about the neck pickup position on some MM basses that have the bridge pickup in the Stingray position, and I totally agree about the Sabre being an overlooked classic. I would point out though, that the Bongo HH sounds great on the neck pickup and with both pickups on full. Obviously, the bridge pickup being closer to the bridge probably helps change the sound of them combined. That's bass is an an integral design, just like the Sabre was. Also, I've got Reflex HH and yes, the combination of both pickups on full in parallel is pretty scooped, but it's a very usable tone for me. And the neck pickup being in the mudbucker position gives access to some very good tones if you use it in passive mode combined with the tone control, or active in series mode, which makes the mids a bit more prominent.

Lovely bass Geoff, sounds great. I really fancy one of these myself.

Is there even much of a market for vintage PA gear? Unlike guitar and bass amps, general consensus of opinion would be that modern PA equipment sounds much better and is much more practical to use. To be fair to the seller, he appears to have been open and transparent about the amount of renovation to these cabinets, and you can't blame him for testing the waters regarding potential buyers. I'd be surprised if someone bought them at that price, though.

I would say 1973 going into 1974 was a watershed year for Fender basses, the last year that they were stylistically mostly similar to the heyday of the earlier basses. Fender revamped and "modernised" the production in 1974, and things went downhill from there. From the livery of the instruments they were turning out (black plastic pickguards ect) to poor fit and finish, pickups wound with whatever old wire that could be sourced cheaper, wood so heavy that the basses were practically useless, production quality nosedived.

I don't know anything about the Tonerider, but the EMG and the DiMarzio are both eminently suitable. I would also include the Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder as another out and out rocker worth listening to. The DiMarzio is the loudest and most aggressive and a classic in it's own right . I'm a big fan of that one. A bit of a left field choice maybe, but my favourite rock P Bass pickup is the Lakland NeoPunch. It's super hot, a bit dirty and compressed-sounding. I've also got a P Bass with the EMG Geezer pickup. It's a superb pickup, but not as aggressive-sounding as you might assume. I seem to remember that EMG actually tried to clone the pickup from Bobby Vega's 1964 Fender P Bass when they came up with the design. It's probably closer to the Fender CS 62 pickup than something like the DiMarzio. It's just a really good-sounding P pickup, but I wouldn't necessarily describe it as sounding modern. It'd be fine for any genre. Still plenty rock enough for most folks,though, I would expect.

Thanks chaps, yes, I've been watching exactly those YT demos. I've seen conflicting information about which model Gotohs to go for, that is partly why I was asking the question. I thought the GB640 might be the right one because it has four screw holes, not two like the GB528. I don't necessarily have absolute confidence in this Low End Lobster chap. He seems like a nice guy, but I wouldn't necessarily describe him as an expert in bass-related matters, let me put it that way. I will have to do some more research. Evidently the GB528 will definitely fit, so it's a safer bet. The last thing I need is to buy the wrong thing! There's nothing wrong with the tuning stability of the existing tuners, but I want to make the bass better balanced and lighter overall.

I recently bought a very nice Sire V5 bass that I want to upgrade by fitting lightweight tuners. I've been Googling and apparently the Gotoh GB640 Resolite Tuners are a direct retrofit. Is that really the case? If so, what I need to know is how difficult are they to fit, and what tools will I need ? I not very handy, but not completely useless either. Is it a fairly straightforward job to swap out the stock tuners for the Gotoh replacements, and what will I need to do it? Obviously , I know I'll need an appropriately sized screwdriver, but what about wrenches, pliers ect? For once I want to be well prepared for potential problems in advance. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I can't think of a question as such, but I would just like to say that Gail Ann Dorsey's first solo record, The Corporate World, that came out in 1988 was (and still is) one of the best bass albums of the 1980's. Her playing on that record is magnificent from start to finish. Inventive, clever, energetic and always tasteful. She's a gifted player, and a talented songwriter, too. I strongly recommend giving that album a listen if you haven't heard it yet. I'm a fan since I saw her on The Tube singing a Bobby Womack song and accompanying herself on the bass. I've always rated her, and it's not surprising she's gone on to have such an illustrious career.

I always thought the 5 string Sterling was a much more appealing shape than the Stingray 5, most notably the scratch plate. IIRC, the Sterling had different pickups,too. To me, a Stingray 4 with two pickups doesn't look right. A Sterling with two humbuckers is much better for my taste. I would definitely be interested in that. I wish I had bought a red one they had in Guitar Guitar a couple of years ago.

I remember reading something about the Sterling being revamped, presumably along the lines of Stingray Special. Seems like EBMM have put those plans on the back burner. I suspect that now they have introduced custom options for the Stingray Special, including a 38mm nut width, they might see that sufficient choice for their customers. Even so, it might be worth contacting EBMM customer services and asking them if anything is imminent for a reissued Sterling model. It was a very good bass with it's own appeal and it had some options that the Stingray Special still doesn't offer. A Sterling Special would be a very appealing prospect.

Felter Right Tw*t, overlooked and underrated bass player from the heyday of punk rock.

V1 or V2 are both fine. Some people prefer the V1. They crop up used fairly frequently because they have been so popular for a long time.

I put mine at the beginning, then a Diamond BC1 Bass Compressor. But I'm no expert with comes to pedals. I'm experimenting just like you. It might be worth contacting EBMM customer service and explaining your dilemma. The might have some recommendations on how to connect 18v bass to avoid overloading the input. It's probably going to involve some kind of a buffered input.

That's a difficult call to make. The Bongo seems a bit hotter, maybe because the mids are a bit more prominent than on a Stingray. The frequencies that tend to push the dial are there a bit more, maybe.

I totally get where you are coming from, but look at it this way; you could say the same thing about any amp and speaker cabinet you play through. The Bongo is such a good sounding bass that most preamps will compliment it well. I've got a Tech 21 BDDI V2 and it's one of the most coloured -sounding preamps on the market, but it's also one of the most useful in recreating the sound of a big amp and cabinet. It compliments most basses and styles of music pretty well if you take some time and experiment with it. It's also pretty reasonably priced. I mostly used to record my Bongo with a very old plugin of a vintage SVT combined with a studio compressor and it sounded terrific.