green

well, should have thought about it myself: the funk unlimited / sonic hammer (which is its predecessor, right ?) could be the right choice... so, jaydees are not so good on the high end ? i mean, personal taste is different...

ok then, alembic, jaydee, parker fly, sadowsky. i don't like rickenbackers. they have a huge body, and the neck pickup is right where i would slap. will make the amp clip all the time...

is it a BO or NT thumb ? my NT thumb sounds quite.... dull. it has really nice low end, and slapping is good, too. but on my stingray, when i pluck the strings hard enough fingerstyle, it can sound like slap. on my thumb, it's different.

alembic sounds nice. it's just hard to buy one. i don't have the money for a new one, and you can't find them used that often... kramer basses are cool, but i heard that sometimes, the neck warps. plus, the neck pickup is directly near the neck. that's an ugly thing for slapping.... like i said: i don't really like fenders... don't really know why. the neck of the ATK is too big. the whole bass is. it feels like something that's not finished yet. it might sound good, but it feels like the production has been stopped 2 days before the bass was finished, then painted and delivered... don't you think ? EMG pickups sounds good. like i said: i don't need a bass that can boost the treble. i want one that has lots of high end with the EQ set flat. there is a HUGE difference between my stingray set flat, and a warwick with the treble boostet. boosting treble gives you a narrow frequency range, while the stingray has a broad range of high frequencies boosted even when set flat. so, until now, alembic and sadowsky are on my list. and some ESPs with EMG pickups, and also the parker fly. too bad that alembic and sadowsky cost multiple times as much as my car... ;-)

funny you talk about the vigier basses... i had one myself, passion III (maple neck with carbon bars). it was quite the opposite of the stingray: it had quite little high end, and quite little low end. but loads of mids... but it was very light weight and comfortable, i got to admit... the parker fly may be nice, but hard to test or buy one.... aren't there some more "normal" basses, perhaps ESPs with emg pickups or something like that ?

well, since i play with fingers, i want really a lot of high end. i guess, the stingray would be treble heaven played with a pick.... rich, thanks for your tips ! another musicman... that sounds nice, haha. i played a warwick corvette $$ neck-through with a bubinga body and maple neck. that one was really nice. but the bolt-on $$ isn't that nice sounding if you like stingray-like sounds... i also had a lakland, made of ash, with maple/maple neck. it didn't sound like a stingray at all, althouth it had a humbucker. and it was not the bartolini version, but the one with the lakland pickups. just to make sure you get me right: it's not just the very high end that i'm looking for. the musicmen have also lots of high mids or low highs (don't know how to call it). dead strings never sound really dead, like they would on a warwick thumb or something... and i'm not talking about boosting the high end, i'm talking about leaving the preamp flat !

hi. since i bought my stingray, i know that there actually are basses out there, that have lots of high end without EQing... which is what i like. now, i'm looking for a second bass, that can do that, but didn't find one yet. i like active electronics... warwicks are fine basses, but they are better on the low end than they are on the high end. fenders are not my cup of tea... but i'd play a fender copy, like sandberg, sadowsky, etc... (if it has the sound i'm looking for). the thing about the stingray is, that it sounds bright enough, even with dead strings. i had basses before, that were made of the same woods as my stingray, that didn't sound as bright with new strings, as my stingray does with old strings... it's really a myth to me... so, what would you recommend ?

to me, it sounds like you have very old roundwound strings on your bass... do you have an unusual high string height ? if you have other basses, that have pickups that would fit in the routings of your custom bass, just swap the pickups and see if it's better. if you don't have another bass, maybe you can find one... ?

in my opinion, a bass should shound just right, with the preamp set flat. i think, the preamp has to be used to get an extreme sound, or to accommodate the sound to the given acoustics of the room or stuff like that. (but like i said, it's just me) i have a sterling, which has just one MM humbucker, which can be switched to parallel / serial / single coil. now let me tell you: it's wrong that serial wiring has less high end. parallel wiring is sort of mid scooped. serial wiring has lots of mids, but still has the same amount of high end to my ears. they just don't pop out that much like on a scooped setting, but they are still there. single coil seems to sound a bit thin, compared to serial, and has less mids, so it's a bit more even. but still it doesn't have more or less high end. but i had basses, where the wiring had more effect. what woods is your bass made of ?

maybe you'll install a single MM pickup in the sweetspot, in that second beat up pedulla.... that was a really good idea.

i like high end sizzle in my tone, and for that, i found out that EMG single coils are very good. there just is one thing, that not everybody likes: the pickups are very close to the strings. it's a matter of weather you like the feel/touch of it or not. plus, there must be enough room for the wooden covers. does anybody know about the EMG-Z series ? they are passive, right ? do they really sound like EMGs ?

[quote name='dougal' post='782389' date='Mar 22 2010, 10:36 AM']an awkward size to get replacements for.[/quote] well, i guess you could always get a set of smaller pickups plus wood housings that fit your routings. right ?

well, keeping in mind the routings, i wouldn't go with a stained finish. the finish may be cheaper, but when you resell it, you would get less for it, if it looks ugly because of the visible routings. plus, there is an gnot on the back of the body. so, i would go with a solid finish. i it was my bass, i'd go with gloss white. look at this guitar, don't you think gloss white with a little bit of black looks really good ? the other possibility would be grey primer, like on the truckster, but WITHOUT the relic job. and i'd add a few clear coats, to make it a glossy finish. be careful about matte finishes (like stealth): it may look good in the first week, but later on, the bass will be polished where you touch it often, and will be matte where you don't touch too much. it doesn't look that good in my opinion...

well, if the bass sounds good played unplugged, and it's not the preamp, i'd say it's the pickups. i see your pickups got wooden covers. i don't know, how much space there is between the strings and the actual pickup. but, being too much away from the strings, it could cause a dull sound. if your bass has little output, then that might be the case. if you have the chance to check the bass with different pickups, then i'd do it. maybe you have another bass with pickups that fit in there (soapbars, or jazz bass type single coils). then you could swap the pickups for a test.

i haven't seen the interior, but i don't think that it is possible. the switch can't shut down just one coil. it just switches between serial, single coil, and parallel. all of them are hum free (bogard) ;-) if there is hum, there is a coil that's grounded, the switch itself can't do that. am i right ?

AlanP, i'm glad to hear that you understand my problem. until now, nearly everyone just said i should bring it to a repair guy, that's all ;-) no, it's not the switch. i checked the soldering. plus, the switch can't just shut down one coil. it can only switch between presets that are given, and there is serial, single coil, and parallel.

it's not the amp, or the cell phone. paul, you mean i should resolder it ? how do i know if there is lead in the solder or not ?

ok, checked the wires between board and switch, and also the wires between pickup and board. everything was just fine. so, still didn't find what the problem is. what else could it be ? by the way: the previous owner says, he didn't have that problem. well, if he's not lying, that means that that must have happened during shipping. maybe that helps a bit...

well, i guess it's pure physics: if the g-string is just as close to the pickup as the e-string is, then the e-string would have a lot more output, because there is more metal vibrating over the pickup. so, the g-string may sound weak, because it is too far away from the pole piece. i don't think it has to do with the center of the pole piece. the g-string - being so thin - has the biggest amplitude, rigth ? so, it's necessary to pick it up somehow different sompared to the e-string for example.

i guess a few gentle taps are ok, but throwing your pickup against the wall or something like that will ruin it for sure. but heating with an soldering iron really isn't a good idea...

[quote name='funkgod' post='765538' date='Mar 5 2010, 08:47 PM']At first i tried to heat up the g string poles with a solder iron[/quote] OH NO !!! better don't do that again ! there are magnets inside your pickup. ferromagnetic materials have a so called curie-temperature. if you heat them above that, they lose their magnetic properties. for alnico magnets, this curie temperature is at about 860°C, but you shouldn't heat it above about 500°C or you will wreck it. folks, whatever you do: never heat or smash your pickup with a hammer ! you will ruin it !

mep, let us know if it worked. and if it did, could you please post a closeup photo of your bridge after your modification ?

it is normal to have radio playing through your amp, if it is not shielded good enough, or the bass. i don't know where it comes from. can be amp or bass. as long as there is a wire that functions as a radio antenna, it would play radio :-) in order to be a good radio antenna, the wire just has to have a certain length and to be not very good shielded. so, don't worry. there's nothing wrong. i used to hear foreign radio stations through my amp, even without banging the bass against the wall or something like that.

but if you get a push/pull pot you don't lose the beefy sound. you just add one more possibility. right ? i would do it if i had a splitable pickup... ;-) how much did the nordstrand cost by the way ?

artisan, why not an passive/serial push/pull pot ? i have the switch on my sterling, and it's very helpful. you could have the classic stingray sound everytime you need it (parallel), but also have the even more aggressive serial wiring if you want. and it still would look original. did you think of that ?