Vanheusen77

Love my Stingray Special, and I agree that can Stingrays have a somewhat divisive sound. I compared it to a Sandberg TT jazz bass in this thread: 

I think they are worth it. A lot of people compare prices with prices 10 years ago and think everything is overpriced. Stingrays for example cost about 50% more than Fender US, at least here in Sweden. Sure there are always chinese or indonesian brands that are cheaper (Harley benton etc.).

I love the jazz bass sound but with a band I often find myself reaching for a P, Ray or Yamaha BB. It’s hard to put my finger on why exactly. 

11 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

Was the berg on a 50/50 pickup setting?

Yes!

Hi, I made one of these with a new Sandberg California TT4 and new strings on both!

Just got a California TT4. It’s wonderful. Perfectly set up and it seems very well built. It sounds amazing passive, haven’t really tried it much in active mode yet.

Maybe it’s just the pickup type and position? MM type pickups in that position are usually not what I would consider “warm” sounding. 

I have a Sandberg TT passive on order that should arrive within a month or so, I will post a short review. I had an Electra that was great for the price. The bridge was very practical for me at least.

Also the ‘Ray had higher action in this video which might contribute to it sounding less growly than it normally does.

12 hours ago, Stingray64 said:

Are the strings the same model and age on both? The Sandberg I like much more than I was expecting, especially considering the stingray special is my favourite bass of all time (and my most played) and I generally don't get on with jazz bass tone!

Maybe you use a different setting on the preamp? The Ray had bass on 7-8/10 and treble on about 6/10.

They both have pretty old nickel roundwounds. Ernie ball on the Stingray and D’addario on the Sandberg. Usually those strings sound very alike in my experience. 

2 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

That Electra sounds fantastic. Especially as there's about over £1000 price difference.

 

What is your signal chain for recording? You always get a great sound.

Thanks! It’s straight into my Apogee duet interface with some compression from Logic’s “vintage FET” model compressor. No other processing.

Another short comparison, with a poll of course!

I played almost exclusively P basses for about 15 years, last 10 years I change basses daily…

I thought it was very easy to identify the two P basses and the G&L even on the first pass.

I just bought a second hand electra and I played it on a gig the same night. Probably one of the best jazz basses I’ve played. The neck and fretwork is amazing. Super even sounding and I can get a very low action.  I have ordered a German TT that will be ready sometime this fall and I can’t wait!

The new BB’s are a bit smoother sounding I would say. Haven’t tried the PH model but it’s also a reverse P which makes it sound quite different.

I think I’m going to make an unscientific test and record one pass with eq flat, one maxed out, one bass and treble maxed and one mids cut to see how they compare level matched.

41 minutes ago, BassAdder27 said:

Surprisingly the output from my Ray34 is no more than my passive bass 

 

If I don’t boost the eq on my special it has the same output as a Fender. With the bass fully boosted it’s a lot hotter though.

9 hours ago, garyt said:

My preference on my Stingray 3-band EQ is everything maxxed.   I’ve tried tweaking, but the max setting is almost like a magnet. 

The mids too? Isn’t that just a bit like the “middle” setting on everything but louder?

I’m new to Stingrays so I’m still trying different settings. So far mostly with mids centred, bass 3/4 up and treble between centre to 3/4 up. It seems a lot of high profile players actually max out the bass which to me seems a bit extreme but I’m trying that next… 

On 12/04/2022 at 18:21, fretmeister said:

'd love to get a 4 string Stingray (I had a 5 string) but the specials have wider nuts than the previous version and they are too wide for me, and the chances of finding one with an SLO neck that is under 7.5lb appear to be non-existent. So I will just have to put up with that.

The special necks are on the thin side, between a P and a J I would guess. 

There is now a second video at the top with the Stingray preamp set to 70% on bass and treble for comparison! Someone pointed out that it would be useful to hear more of the boosted preamp sound since that is how many use the Stingray. There are of course millions of combinations but I settled for this.

10 hours ago, Bunion said:

What strings are on both basses too? 

They both have Ernie Ball slinky 45-105.

I will make a part 2 of this soon with a slight bass boost on the preamp as well, which I think is the way most people use it.