Russ

[quote name='3V17C' post='54065' date='Sep 1 2007, 11:54 PM']woah! they were a cool band with some nice bass playing - saw em at reading and went and bought the album..still sounds quite good[/quote] I think the gig we did with them was at the Harlow Square, around 1996-ish. Yep, the bassist was also the co-lead singer, and played fretted and fretless 5-string Wals. Great player. We had a short bass-related conversation afterwards, if I recall. I wonder what became of them? They were pretty bloody good back in the day.

Saw some live Santana on TV recently, and, at least some of the time, he has two bassists (although one switches to guitar on some songs). The main bassist plays various Laklands in a more traditional manner, and the other guy plays a Modulus and does lots of high chording and so on.

[quote name='Brother Jones' post='91191' date='Nov 19 2007, 11:51 PM']I owned a couple of Rays about ten years ago and although they nailed one thing really well, I found them really limiting. Could never seem to get good harmonics out of them and they always seemed to end up sounding a bit treble-bass-nothing-in-between. Always liked Sterlings though - never played a bad one. Although I'm very much a Jazzer, might have to give a Sterling a try. Wish they made a 5 string Sterling....[/quote] The Stingray 5-string is more or less a 5-string Sterling, what with the coil-switching, the dummy humcancelling coil in the pickup, and the same 3-band EQ. Although I do hear that a proper Sterling 5 is on its way. Hopefully it doesn't have that huge, ugly expanse of scratchplate that the Stingray 5 has.

[quote name='birdy' post='94169' date='Nov 25 2007, 04:41 PM']From Wikipedia.... Flea's main basses have almost always been ones with active electronics. His signature live bass up until Californication was the Music Man StingRay, which he also used to record the albums The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Freaky Styley. In the studios for The Uplift Mofo Party Plan and Mother's Milk Flea used a Spector bass. Blood Sugar Sex Magik was recorded with a Wal Mach II, Stingray 5 string and One Hot Minute with an Alembic Epic. From Californication onwards, he received a signature model from Modulus Guitars, which is based on the StingRay. For Stadium Arcadium, he used a '61 Fender Jazz bass. The Jazz Bass was initially used during the subsequent Stadium Arcadium tour, but Flea later decided that he wasn't cutting through enough, and went back to using his Modulus Signature. Flea can be heard using several different effects pedals throughout his career; current pedals listed below. This was pretty much my understanding also before reading this after various threads on the subject on talkbass. Steve[/quote] This is more or less correct. I believe the bass he used on RHCP and Freaky Styley was, in fact, a Musicman Cutlass (basically a Stingray with a Modulus Graphite neck - this is the bass the Flea Bass was based on). Other than that, yep, it's all pretty much right, apart from the fact that Stadium Arcadium is roughly half-and-half the '61 Jazz and the Modulus. The '61 J was strung with flats and sounds very different to the Modulus Flea - you can seriously hear the difference between the two basses on the album tracks.

I know he has one of his Jazzes strung up in BEAD tuning, so that might be what you have to do...

I played that very same bass at the Bass Cellar a couple of months back. Sounded great, although I found the neck profile to be a bit on the chunky side for me. I also played a maple-fingerboard version in the US last year - felt and sounded quite a bit better to me. The neck profile wasn't as chunky for some reason, and the sound was quite a bit punchier with the maple fingerboard. I'll have to see if I can track one of those down.

I've worked out bass versions of Stairway To Heaven and Under The Bridge for guitar shop (and occasional bass solo) usage... usually elicits a surprised response from the staff, as they're not used to hearing them on bass! Other than that, nothing too unusual... Mr. Pink, A Certain Shade Of Green, Tom Sawyer, Mountain Song or Three Days, a few tunes by bands I've played in...

If you play an instrument, you are a musician. End of story. But I will say that, from experience, you improve as a musician much more quickly if you get to play with other people and gig on a regular basis, since you get to react not only to other musicians, but to an audience. And there's no feeling like the feeling you get on stage when you're all in "the zone" and have the audience in the palm of your hand - it's wonderful and addictive. I haven't played a gig in well over a year. I miss it like crazy.

[quote name='JoeS' post='65664' date='Sep 26 2007, 02:31 AM']Hmmm, the mind boggles. I've only ever seen him playing Fender or Godlyke. He was playing Fender at the [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC9Gl38qiGc"]VMAs[/url] as well, apparently.[/quote] Troy Sanders' brother Kyle, who plays in a band called Bloodsimple, plays leftie Warwicks. But I've never seen Troy play them - only ever the Fender/Heartfield basses and Godlyke basses. Neither is he on Warwick's site as an endorsee.

[quote name='rodl2005' post='64604' date='Sep 24 2007, 08:05 AM']I dunno why but this is MY experience of trying out a EB MM SUB 5 & a EB MM Stingray 5 in my local shop. Both theu SAME MARKBASS LMII amp & 4 x 10 cab, same settings on guitars & amp CHALK & CHEESE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The SUB was a nice bass. didn't make me think WOW or anything, but was a nice solid bass. The 'RAY was ....WOW!!!!! Blew me away- brite, powerful, thick, full. Was one of the only basses in MY 30+ yrs of playing that made me think WOW what a GREAT bass- straight away!!! I was informed B4 hand that there were same pup, bridge etc in both, But the difference was STAGGERING!!!!!!!!!! Probly the active elecs. have alot to do with it, possibly the Ash/ poplar of the SUB- I dunno really. BUT It was THAT different!! & I WANTED the SUB to sound as good-coz I didn't have the $$$$ for the 'Ray! But after that........... I HAD 2 have the 'ray![/quote] The SUB 5 and Stingray 5 have very different electronic setups, as well as quite different pickups. The SR5 has a 3-band cut/boost active EQ and a coil-tap switch, whereas the SUB 5 has a 2-band, boost-only circuit with no coil tap. The SR5 pickup has an extra phantom coil for humcancelling purposes, and uses ceramic magnets, as opposed to the alnico magnets used in the SUB 5 (4-string Stingrays also use alnico pickups). They do sound quite different. The SUB 5 sounds a lot more like an old, 2-band, 4-string Stingray (some say the classic MM sound), whereas the SR5 has its own distinctive sound. I'm another one who loves the sound of a Stingray 5, but, appearance-wise, just can't get over that enormous scratchplate... it's hideous! If I only had the £2500 I'd need for the scratchplate-less Anniversary model...

Another difference between the SUBs and the pricier Stingrays and Sterlings is that the SUB body is uncontoured - there's no forearm chamfer on the top bout or belly cut on the back. Depending on how you play, this might make the bass more uncomfortable. Also, the SUB 5 was a lot more like a proper 5-string version of the 4-string Stingray than the official Stingray 5 is. I actually preferred it in some ways to the official Stingray 5 - the SUB 5 has the same body shape as the SR4, the smaller, round scratchplate and the metal control plate, plus the original Stingray 2-band EQ. Plus, it actually sounds like a 4-string Stingray, just with an extra string. The Stingray 5 is more like a 5-string Sterling, with the switching options, different pickup configuration, etc, and doesn't sound all that much like the 4-string.

[quote name='bnt' post='64161' date='Sep 22 2007, 08:08 PM']For an idea of what JPJ can get up to with his Manson 10-string, have a look at [url="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=sGHWxLruLvA"]this[/url]. He's not exactly "the guy at the back of the stage" any more... PS: There is one other famous Manson endorser: Muse's Matt Bellamy. I think Matt tapped Manson because he grew up in Devon, where Manson is based.[/quote] Holy crap. That was impressive.... especially the whammy pedal solo part. I want a 10-string now. JPJ is a bass god. No question.