Bob Lord

I bought one about a week ago. A 2009 Musicman Stingray. 3 band EQ, single pickup. Candy red, rosewood fretboard I've only really had Fenders before, so I can only describe it relative to those... Build quality is great. Components seem excellent quality, and the fit and finish is great. If you've played fenders before, you'll find the neck is very much like a Precision. It's quite heavy, but not too heavy. Nice and solid. Sounds nice acoustically. The G string was a bit quieter than the others. I'm convinced it's because the pickup polepiece doesn't line up properly with the G string. This is apparently a common issue with Stingrays. I fixed it by raising the pickup at the treble side, and managed to get the string volumes balanced enough to where it isn't an issue. You'd think in an otherwise very well designed bass they would have fixed this years ago. But no. Apparently the new ones DO have the polepieces in the right place... but 2 grand's a lot to pay imo for that My takeaway from the G string polepiece issue is that it's pretty sensitive to how you have your pickup height set - so be aware of that Re the sound and having a single pickup. The most noticable thing is that the kinds of warm, vocal mids you might get from a precision are totally absent. And the second thing is that the low end is deep and tight. I heard the preamp has a high pass filter, and it sounds like it. There's loads of thick, punchy bass, but it somehow has a tightness to it. As if it rolls off quickly below 40hz. My main bass is/was a precision, and I use an SVT. So my go-to sound is that classic grindy rock tone (with a plectrum) with the SVT deep switch in, and a bit of mid scoop. Loads of low end, but it's more of a fat and woolly low end, and those precisiony, expressive mids. You can't get anything close to that with the Stingray. With a plectrum, you get LOADS of zingy top end, and that tight bass, with no real Fendery mids no matter what you do. It's very scooped, even when you goose the mids on the EQ For a punk or rock gig I would leave the Stingray at home and take the Precision, unless it was something modern like RATM or RHCP etc For a pop/funk/disco type gigs, the Stingray would be perfect. It seems to have been primarily intended for fingerstyle players. The frequencies that the pickup and preamp accentuate are ideal for a nice tight, modern fingerstyle sound. Lovely for fingerstyle The 3 band EQ is interesting. I tend to leave everything centered. Sounds best to me that way. The treble and bass tend to either let you take far too much off, or add far too much on. The middle isn't really a traditional mid frequency knob like on a fender amp, it's more like a knob that lets you make the sound go from fairly scooped to very scooped... whatever you do, there isn't much mids I heard someone say (and I agree) that a fender jazz (both pickups on) is more scooped than a precision, with deeper lows and higher mids. And that the Stingray is even more scooped - deeper lows and has even higher frequency mids. I think that's a good way of putting it. If there's a path from P to J, then the Stingray is the next step along I think no matter what you do it'll sound like a Stingray. But I think it has enough to make it a fantastic bass in the right context. It's certainly not a swiss army knife, and almost certainly the wrong bass for certain things I really do like mine. Got it off eBay for £900, and I'm glad I got it. Not sure I'd buy a new one for the prices they're asking now

Slightly eggheadish observation on modes, since we're going down that rabbit hole: note that for each mode you can relate it to a mode either side of it, with one note flattened or sharpened. i.e. C mixolydian is the same as C Ionian but with the 7th flattened. C dorian is the same as C mixolydian but with the 3rd flattened. C aeolian is the same as C dorian but with the 6th flattened. C phrygian mode is the same as C aeolian but with the 2nd flattened.. and so on Two things to note: you can think of the modes as increasingly 'flattened' versions of themselves (or sharpened, if you go the other way), where they can almost be subjectively ranked in terms of how light or dark they are. And also note that the notes that get flattened follow a specific pattern. Above, we flattened the notes of a major scale, in this order: major 7th, Major 3rd, Major 6th, Major 2nd. Notice that they follow the cycle of fifths (up a 4th/down a 5th). Next you'd flatten the Perfect 5th to get locrian. If you followed this to its conclusion you'd end up flattening the root to get B lydian. So there's an argument to be made that lydian is actually the most 'major' mode, as it seems to be at the top of this chain

I think owning and playing different basses and amps is probably the best way to get an ear for what a particular instrument or amp sounds like. It's very cool when you plug a notable bass through a notable amp and go "Ah!! THAT'S the sound" - you spend years trying to get close to a specific sound, and usually it's as simple that. Some sounds are so distinctive, you must surely be able to tell them apart - i.e. Jaco's middly bridge pickup fender jazz bass sound could never be mistaken for a Precision played through an SVT with a pick

never had a custom shop bass, but I had a fender custom shop strat, and have a gibson custom shop 1958 les paul The fender was nice, looked old, played nicely and sounded good. But did none of those things any better than the American standard strat I had. The custom gibson is better than a normal les paul standard, but that's only because Gibson's QC on their normal stuff is not so great. Modern standard US Fenders are built impeccably IMO, and I personally wouldn't pay the extra to get Fender custom shop Having said that, I was astounded by how good the 2018 Mexican precision I just got is. Mexican Fenders seem have gone from being total crap to being fantastic. I had to do nothing to it - no truss rod adjustment, no saddle height adjustments, no intonation tweaking, no pickup height adjustment. It was perfect. Makes me seriously consider whether getting a standard USA fender (let alone a custom shop one) is really worth it right now

One of the most practical and basic uses of modes for a bass player is quickly identifying which scale tones are diatonic (and therefore likely to be appropriate) when playing over diatonic chords within a particular key i.e. if you know what an octave of lydian looks like under your left hand (major with a sharp 4), and you're playing over a 'C major' chord in the key of G major, you can probably whip out some notes of C lydian, according to your taste. Knowing that you have to sharpen that 4th in order to stay consistent with the key of the song will at least stop you dropping clangers. Whenever I get to a D minor chord in the key of C major, I know I can grab for that major 6th and do something with it (because we're momentarily in the realm of D dorian). It just gives you some options. So, knowing how modes are formed can help even if you're not playing modal music

Have worn earplugs for 20 years now. Wouldn't rehearse or gig (or see a band, or spray wash the backyard) without them. I've had tinnitus for years (and most musicians I know seem to have it), and I don't want it getting any worse. Your doctor is right. Wear them or stop gigging, unless you're not bothered about it getting worse.

Cheers! I can reach, it's lifting the bleedin thing up there that's the killer

Hiya guys. I bought some cabs from a chap on here not so long since, so thought I'd sign up and join in properly I'm a 47 year old (bloody hell, that sounds old when you say it) bloke from Colne, Lancashire. Been playing bass for 31 years. I seem to get roped into punk or indie covers bands, although my real favourite musician is Frank Zappa. No Zappa covers bands round here, funnily enough. My favourite bass players are Scott Thunes, Andy Rourke, Bruce Foxton, Graham Maby, Colin Moulding, Bruce Thomas, Norman Watt-Roy, Horace Panter, Stephen Hanley. Mostly guys who play plenty of notes with a plectrum on a Precison with a clanky sound usually Here's the obligatory pic of my stuff only just got the SVT, but am rather happy with it