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No The Dimension has many good sounds but not a StingRay. A Warwick $$ has a humbucker in the right place but doesn’t sound much like one to me. A G&L L2000 does have a similar tone. I’ve not played any basses that sound just like a StingRay TBH - except a StingRay.

I think the USA bolt on had the code MW, possibly there were other USA bolt on models as well. The Burner range was made in Japan.

Over the last couple months I’ve been experiencing 2 issues: 1. Pages take a few seconds to load, even on a super fast connection. If you dare to start scrolling before the page has finished the rest of the page is blank, the page appear to hang and the only way out is to close the tab and start again. In this instance the blue page loading bar has finished so you’ve no idea whether the page has fully loaded or not. 2. Pages sometimes hang part way through loading. In this instance the blur page loading bar sticks part-way; again, closing the tab and loading the page again is the only way out. I’m on iOS15.5, I think it was also happening on 15.4.1. I don’t block cookies or popups and have nothing special installed. Clearing cache/cookies, restarting the app or the device have no effect and I don’t get it with any other websites.

Not sure about the codes as there seem to have been many variations, usually related to the number of laminations on body and/or neck, but the tiger name refers to the wood enclosing the core - either black tiger (which looks identical to flamed maple to me), but there’s also a white tiger version which I believe has flamed walnut facings. Links: http://www.kensmithbasses.com/tiger-elite-series/ and http://www.kensmithbasses.com/bsr-bt-elite-g/ for the Elite G (serial contains EG).

Excellent, thank you. Victor was an underrated bass player - his solo album “Low Blow” also has some fantastic playing.

Strings Direct?

If you want to slap then a relatively low end 5 string would not be my starting point. That low B is unlikely to sound very good, especially slapped, and will rumble on and on in sympathy whilst you’re playing other strings, making your playing messy, until you learn to dampen it. As an exclusively 5- and 6-string player for over 25 years, I’d really recommend a 4-string. It’s so much easier. There is also no mandate that requires you to play a 5-string for any style of music. You can happily play 99.9999% of all recorded music on a 4 and transpose a few notes on much of the rest. Play a 5 only because you really want to play a 5. You’ll also have plenty more choices

It’s common practice in jazz lead sheets where a song has lots of key changes and no very strong pull to one key, to write it in C with lots of sharps and flats. It just makes it easier to read as otherwise the piece is full of natural signs as well as flats and sharps as inevitably there will be chromatic elements. Even in a tune that has a key signature (E.g. Autumn Leaves), there are usually key changes that take both melody and harmony outside the home key, so inevitably there will be either/or sharps and flats present. One piece of advice I would give is to write the note based on the harmony. On too many charts I’ve seen the transcriber put the line down without the chord against which it is played, and it tends to make the chart much harder to read and to understand. For example, if in the key of G, and the chord is D7, and the bar consists of 4 quarter notes D, E and then a chromatic to walk up from F to the next bar (G), then write the notes D, E, F, F# and not D, E, F, Gb. Conversely, in the same key, if the bar was two beats of D7 and two beats of Ab7, then a possible bass line could be D, F#, Ab, Gb - seems very odd to write the same pitch (F#/Gb) two different ways, but it’s serving the underlying harmony and makes a lot more sense than an F# note over an Ab7 chord! Written correctly, the first two beats are root and major 3rd of D7, the second two beats are root and minor 7th of Ab7. If you learn scales and arpeggios, then this will make more sense as well as it will fit like a glove with your knowledge. Written this way, it’ll also help educate learning players (or at the very least raise questions whose answers will provoke new knowledge). This is the main reason why learning the harmony of a tune and not just the notes gives you a wider and more complete view - and it makes for better transcriptions that also serve as deeper study pieces. It also makes it very straightforward when deciding to write a note as a sharp or its enharmonic equivalent as a flat (or even whether Fb or E, or B# or C, is the better choice). The trade off is time - learning and transcribing the chords as well as notes for a reasonably complex piece can take weeks if you’re not a natural keyboard player (which I am very much not and don’t even own a keyboard so have to do it all by ear)

I love Stingrays. I haven’t played 4 strings for a long time but had a 3EQ model when I did, as well as a US Sterling. I’ve never understood why people think a Stingray can’t fit in with any style of music. The EQ is about he most usable of any bass I’ve played and can make some quite dramatic changes in tone. It is an active only bass, however, so people for whom it must be passive may not get along with it. This thread is probably more about people who are comfortable with things being just so on a bass and can’t/don’t want to adapt to something different. Nothing wrong with that of course - but also nothing wrong with a Stingray

I worked in music instrument retail for a number of years. When I left the industry after working my way up to assistant manager, I was earning £14Kpa. Salaries are pretty much the same different 25 years later. You’ll get more money in pretty much any other profession. Despite the potential high price of instruments, the profit margins are generally tiny, which is why what few shops are left tend to do commission sales as other than the necessary business insurance (which the shop should have anyway) there’s nothing for them to buy and the margins are way better than new instrument sales. I don’t have current figures but after discounting I recall a US standard P bass in the early 2000s returned less than £100 profit, and to stock certain brands you’ll be in the hole for a couple of hundred grand in business loans to cover everything you are mandated to buy in. This, the waning interest in musical instruments among kids and the move to online has pretty much done for MI bricks and mortars shops in the UK. Hence the old cliché about the quickest way to make a small amount of money in the MI retail industry is to start with a large amount of money Where there’s no money you just won’t attract good service staff - people prepared to accept low salaries (or have no choice) have so many other options - so what remains is a mixed bag of wannabe/failed musicians and a fair amount of people who are probably unemployable elsewhere. Many of the remaining shops are run by one person with zero to a few helpers - so you’re very much at the mercy of the way the owner runs the shop. Modern management, training and service principles just don’t apply to the MI industry in the UK and never really have. Now compare this to a shop like Thomann - huge, turning over nearly €1B pa and run like any other professional business. They’ve been able to tap into a global marketplace and aside from one or two br**it niggles the service I’ve had from them has been stellar. UK shops just cannot compete and I seriously doubt they’d ever be able to establish something similar in the UK as the market really is tiny in comparison. None of the above is intended to excuse poor service, just to illustrate the reality of MI retail in the UK. IMHO there is a place for a small number of boutique shops - but these will succeed or fail on good customer service because places like Thomann are more often than not better at communicating, have a much wider range, are cheaper and only marginally slower with delivery - and their webshop actually works!

I love the jazz bass shape and the tone. I prefer active incarnations like a Sadowsky - never played a passive Fender J I liked, even 60s and 70s vintage, although I wouldn’t mind a 70s in the Antigua finish. I do find the J a bit uncomfortable playing seated due to the offset body - it really exacerbates neck dive. I’ve never been able to play with the bass on my left leg - feels totally unnatural to me and throws the first fret miles away unless you have the neck pointed almost vertical - but a 0.5Kg ankle weight wrapped around the strap next to the bottom strap button works wonders. My Jazz is well under 4Kg anyway and I don’t set the strap to pull on my shoulder so it doesn’t make the bass feel any heavier and balances perfectly seated. I didn’t think it would work as well as it does, but it does!

I’ve got the pickups on the way anyway. As I have a Sadowsky Jazz 5 to compare (it’s bridge pickups is totally quiet with similar shieding). Plus the fact that Warwick changed them, so clearly felt the original pickups weren’t the most optimal. I suspect it’s probably a combination of both. Yes, it is a 5. If the TIs don’t suit I’ll try out the LaBellas - thanks!

As I mentioned - the bass is dead quiet when panned to the neck pickup so it’s not a shielding issue. The Jazz I bought has identical shielding (except the metal bell plate). However, as I’m going to need to remember the pickguard and unsolder the pickups to swap them out, I will shield the whole of the cavity pickguard and pickup cavity with copper foil just to ensure consistent shielding across the board. It doesn’t really need it but the HPJ5 is such a wonderful instrument it’s worth it. It will also get some TI flats - my first foray into flatwounds

And to be more on topic - I thought I was posting on the can you only have one bass thread (fat fingers) - I have don’t think I’ve ever sold a bass, regretted it, bought it back (or bought one like it) and kept it long - even if the reason for selling the original bass was because I needed the money.

I don’t wish this to come out the wrong way but after a long working career earning not very much, in the last few years I’ve more than trebled my salary. I’ve now settled on 4 basses. The cheapest was £1.5K and the most expensive £2.5K and I’m genuinely happy with all of them (save a replacement pickup in the Sadowsky that actually is humcancelling, grrr). I did this year go through 8 other basses to find these, however, but all in they’ve cost me under £8K with trade ins. It sounds like a lot of money but my motorbike cost £13K and I probably get more use day to day out of my basses. I don’t have room for any more basses and no financial need to sell any of them for perhaps the first time in my life. I have something that does a P bass tone, Jazz bass tone, a Stingray tone and a 6 string Dingwall for (awful) Anthony Jackson impersonations. I could possibly add a fretless but I’ve always been crap at it and when I did have one I rarely used it. I have no problem adjusting to different string spacings and scale lengths. I’m genuinely happy for the first time in a very very long time. Maybe I’m a snob but I never found a budget bass I really liked, for me part of the joy of owning a bass is in appreciating high quality fit and finish. Doesn’t stop me randomly lusting after a MM DarkRay 5 (I have no need for distortion), a Fender Victor Bailey 5 (I love Koa as a top), a G&L L2500 or a Modulus Quantum. But in reality I wouldn’t buy them I could never own just one bass. I’d get bored because one bass just cannot do all the sounds I want to hear, nor will it have 4, 5, or 6 strings depending on my mood

I don’t think you’re his target market.

YT is free - aside from annoying and poorly-timed ads (yes I know you can block from a computer but I’m on an iPad 90% of the time). The fact that channels like Rick Beato exist and cost nothing is IMHO fantastic. If you don’t like it - jog on, as I do with also the aforementioned reaction and unboxing videos

I first encountered the problem with a room many years ago. A local gig in a bar that was a stretched rectangle shape. So parallel walls with shiny surfaces, a pair of very short walls and a pair of long walls, with a relatively low ceiling. All surfaces were reflective with no curtains etc. Try as I might I couldn’t hear a thing on that gig - bass, PA, singer, drums - all a massive mush, and we’d limited the volume especially as in problem rooms the louder you go, the worse it gets. These kind of spaces just don’t work for live music unless there is something to absorb all the bouncing sound waves and the frequencies of standing waves are identified. Over my gigging career of just over 20 years probably < 10% of the sound engineers I encountered had any clue what they were doing. Even in some pretty decent professional venues with expensive PA systems. As has been said, soundchecks were almost always bottom up instead of top down. This, and dealing with musicians and promoters were the main reasons I gave up playing live. I don’t miss it one bit.

Rick Beato is a pretty nifty musician with a nice big studio, a huge amount of experience and a ton of contacts in the music industry. He doesn’t react but analyse and in some videos goes into quite a lot of depth. I’ve got a lot of time for him because he really does care about music and especially musicians. The same applies to many other similar channels. What was the quote from Billy Connolly about Big Brother? Sitting on your sofa at home, chatting, watching people sitting on a sofa in a house somewhere else chatting? I’m showing my age but grew up with “entertainment”, for better or worse. The whole reality TV nonsense befuddles me - it’s cheap lazy TV that is popular because anyone can be “famous” and “person reacting to something” videos are a natural extension of that. There are so many better ways to waste what limited time we have

Something I discovered by accident about the German Sadowsky Metroline basses: These were first produced in 2020. Many shops that stock them will still mostly contain these early models (serial number on the back of the headstock ends with the year). I bought a nice hybrid PJ5. Fit and finish is incredible and it plays beautifully. However, as soon as you pan to the centre or especially to the bridge pickup there’s a ton of noise and hum. The pickguard had no shielding (Warwick/Sadowsky sent me a FOC replacement with some shielding paint sprayed on), grounding wire for the pots wasn’t soldered but loose in the cavity, which I fixed, but none of that should have caused hum and when panned to the P pickup, the bass is dead quiet - so clearly not a shielding issue. I just assumed there is limited humcancelling available (although I don’t recall the NYC air Japanese Metros having this issue). Fast forward to a couple of months ago, and I fancied a Jazz bass, so bought a vintage JJ5-21 from Thomann (fantastic service by the way!) This arrived with a 2022 serial. Plugged in, no hum, no noise on any pan setting - dead quiet. Hmmm… After some correspondence with Warwick it turns out the original pickups are side by side humbuckers and apparently aren’t very effective at noise cancelling. They changed to stacked humbuckers in mid 2021. The way to tell is that the Sadowsky logo on the original pickups is white and in the bottom right corner of the pickup; the newer improved pickups have a black logo in the bottom middle of the pickup. No chance of getting a free replacement so I’ve had to swallow the cost of buying a newer bridge pickup. I appreciate hum and buzz doesn’t bother some people but thought I’d mention it for any prospective buyers for whom it could be a problem.

It’s not just the people of Barnet 🤢