Most aggressive: Thumb vs Stingray vs Wal

[Misdee]

On 14/01/2022 at 08:23, horrorshowbass said:

This is true, a Yamaha 2024 can growl with the best of them  when set up low.

Yamaha BB 2024 is a great call! That bass is a beast. Seems like it was designed to rock, but still has great subtleties to the tone. A unique sounding bass, for sure.I don't play mine very often, but I would never part with it. It has a something in common with a Wal in so much as it has its own unique tone with a very consistent midrange that makes it present in the mix. 

[40hz]

14 minutes ago, Misdee said:

I think the wood combination in Warwick basses really does emphasize an aggressive, up-front sound. Wenge is so dense that it gives crystalline high end as well as midrange punch.The bubinga  body on a Thumb accentuates that even more.

 

Even the Streamers with a maple body and wenge fretboards can sound pretty nasty in the right hands. I loved Stuart Zender's tone on the first Jamiroquoi album, for example. Low action and light gauge strings for plenty of grit and grind.

 

 

Agreed. My Stage One was the grindiest, grittiest bass I think I've owned!

[Misdee]

Regarding the weight of Wal basses, I remember reading that Pete Stevens had a stock of particularly dense mahogany that he kept for the  body core of fretless basses because he thought it improved the tone. This made them a bit heavier. 

 

For my taste a fretless needs a bit of an edge to the tone to make itself heard , probably because you lose the top end you take for granted from a steel string on metal frets.

Edited January 20, 2022 by Misdee

[4000]

2 minutes ago, 40hz said:

Agreed. My Stage One was the grindiest, grittiest bass I think I've owned!

I wish mine had been! It was a bit ‘meh’, a bit nasal. 

[NickA]

13 minutes ago, 4000 said:

I never use a back pickup only sound as It’s not something I’m keen on

Me neither!  Usually have the dolphin set as a jazz ( balanced bridge and neck, eq knob out) 🙂

Edited January 20, 2022 by NickA

[4000]

10 minutes ago, NickA said:

Me neither!  Usually have the dolphin set as a jazz ( balanced bridge and neck, eq knob out)

 

Need to try more Wals!  Since the days of trying them out in Denmark St ( a place of much lost time) I've only played my own.  Maybe a Wal bash 🙂

Yes, if anyone wants to lend me several to compare, maybe over the course of 6 months, just let me know. 😂

Edited January 20, 2022 by 4000

[Greg Edwards69]

2 hours ago, NickA said:

My Warwick beats it hands down for some things ( ergonomics for one).  Aggressive sound needed? I'd probably use the dolphin with both bridge pickups in.

It strikes me that the Dolphin is a redesigned Thumb in some ways, that fixes all the ergonomic issues that the Thumb has, but retains the classic tone it's known for.

[NickA]

6 minutes ago, Greg Edwards69 said:

retains the classic tone it's known for.

Not really.  I've only played a thumb ( an NT five) a few times and it goes from dolphin on bridge only to somewhere beyond that.  Sure, they overlap a bit, but the dolphin ( my 2001 one anyway) is much more "polite" / "refined" sounding.

[CookPassBabtridge]

1 hour ago, 4000 said:

I wish mine had been! It was a bit ‘meh’, a bit nasal. 

I found that too. I’d wanted a SS1 pretty much my whole life. Played one, bought it and then in the coming weeks discovered that I just couldn’t get on with that nasal tone. I was gutted. 

[4000]

1 hour ago, NickA said:

Not really.  I've only played a thumb ( an NT five) a few times and it goes from dolphin on bridge only to somewhere beyond that.  Sure, they overlap a bit, but the dolphin ( my 2001 one anyway) is much more "polite" / "refined" sounding.

Very different necks too, certainly on the earlier ones. I think my 1st Dolphin was a ‘91, but I’d have to check. It had the brushed aluminium (?) hardware. Both my Pro 1s had big (if surprisingly comfortable) necks, by my standards. Whereas the earlier Thumbs have necks like pencils. 

Edited January 20, 2022 by 4000

[Misdee]

I love a bit of nasal, but I might be alone in that. Providing it's not thin and nasal.

 

One of the things I love about Wal basses is the way you can set the filters to sound distinctly nasal. Bruce Thomas' tone on Every Day I Write The Book by Elvis Costello springs to mind as a fine example. Or the way you can make a Wal sound like an old Gibson bass ( but better) by setting the neck pickup filter to 7 and the bridge pickup to 3.

 

To my ears that nasty edge to the tone is what gets you heard when other instruments are playing over you. It gives some personality, for want of a better term, to the sound.

[4000]

I think that as with all things, it means different things to different people. My Stage 1 - at least with me playing it - fell into the ‘thin and nasal’ category. Some people might class Chris Squire’s tone  or Lemmy’s tone as nasal, whereas to me neither are anything like nasal. I was hoping for something more towards Zender’s sound (which I loved) from my S1, but it really wasn’t like that at all. Could just have been my bass though, or more likely a combination of the bass and me. 

[Misdee]

3 minutes ago, 4000 said:

I think that as with all things, it means different things to different people. My Stage 1 - at least with me playing it - fell into the ‘thin and nasal’ category. Some people might class Chris Squire’s tone  or Lemmy’s tone as nasal, whereas to me neither are anything like nasal. I was hoping for something more towards Zender’s sound (which I loved) from my S1, but it really wasn’t like that at all. Could just have been my bass though, or more likely a combination of the bass and me. 

You are quite right. I suppose it's right up there with 'growl" and "punch" in that respect.

[4000]

For me, this is a pretty nasal tone, although not necessarily in a bad way. I’m not the biggest Jaco fan but this is easily my favourite thing of his with Weather Report, I love the drive and propulsion of it. 
 

 

[CookPassBabtridge]

28 minutes ago, 4000 said:

I think that as with all things, it means different things to different people. My Stage 1 - at least with me playing it - fell into the ‘thin and nasal’ category. Some people might class Chris Squire’s tone  or Lemmy’s tone as nasal, whereas to me neither are anything like nasal. I was hoping for something more towards Zender’s sound (which I loved) from my S1, but it really wasn’t like that at all. Could just have been my bass though, or more likely a combination of the bass and me. 

 

Yep, again, same experience as me - part of the problem was I wanted to sound like Zender but didn't manage it. Not all down to the bass of course, but I couldn't get anywhere near.

[Greg Edwards69]

1 hour ago, 4000 said:

Very different necks too, certainly on the earlier ones. I think my 1st Dolphin was a ‘91, but I’d have to check. It had the brushed aluminium (?) hardware. Both my Pro 1s had big (if surprisingly comfortable) necks, by my standards. Whereas the earlier Thumbs have necks like pencils. 

Wasn't that the case over the entire Warwick line? My 2000 Thumb had a monster neck - even bigger than my Yamaha Attitude LTD2 (my 2001 Corvette was relatively chunky too).  Comments regarding neck dive with Thumb basses are quite common over the years, and I seem to recall someone mentioning that the older models had smaller necks and balanced a lot better but the necks over the entire line up were reprofiled to be bigger c2000, and back to a slimmer profile c2010 (IIRC).

[4000]

1 hour ago, Greg Edwards69 said:

Wasn't that the case over the entire Warwick line? My 2000 Thumb had a monster neck - even bigger than my Yamaha Attitude LTD2 (my 2001 Corvette was relatively chunky too).  Comments regarding neck dive with Thumb basses are quite common over the years, and I seem to recall someone mentioning that the older models had smaller necks and balanced a lot better but the necks over the entire line up were reprofiled to be bigger c2000, and back to a slimmer profile c2010 (IIRC).

That’s true, but what I was meaning is that even in roughly comparable eras they were different. My ‘91 SS1 had a slim neck, the Thumbs from around that time were very slim IME, but the Dolphins were big (by my standards) even then. Nowhere near as big as some of the later baseball bat-necked Warwicks, but a lot bigger than the Streamers and Thumbs of the time. The late ‘80s Thumbs have some of the slimmest necks I’ve ever come across (which I love). Some of the Warwick experts on here may be able to give more details. 

Edited January 20, 2022 by 4000

[horrorshowbass]

Maybe the early 90s thumbs were aggressive but this one for example just sounds bright and trebley to my ears  🤷‍♀️ . Just my opinion of course

 

https://youtu.be/CTInbiAPieU

Edited January 23, 2022 by horrorshowbass

[4000]

3 hours ago, horrorshowbass said:

Maybe the early 90s thumbs were aggressive but this one for example just sounds bright and trebley to my ears  🤷‍♀️ . Just my opinion of course

 

https://youtu.be/CTInbiAPieU

I’ve seldom heard a bass on the Andertons videos that doesn’t sound pants IMO (to honest I can say that about 90% of YouTube store demos). Whatever it is they're trying to do with the sound, it’s generally the opposite of what I aim for. 

[horrorshowbass]

1 hour ago, 4000 said:

I’ve seldom heard a bass on the Andertons videos that doesn’t sound pants IMO (to honest I can say that about 90% of YouTube store demos). Whatever it is they're trying to do with the sound, it’s generally the opposite of what I aim for. 

This is 1000% true. Same links in E. Guitarist playing bass

[Cosmo Valdemar]

9 hours ago, horrorshowbass said:

Maybe the early 90s thumbs were aggressive but this one for example just sounds bright and trebley to my ears  🤷‍♀️ . Just my opinion of course

 

https://youtu.be/CTInbiAPieU

He's tickling it. You need to give it a bit of welly.

[horrorshowbass]

1 hour ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

He's tickling it. You need to give it a bit of welly.

😁

[funkgod]

I have all 3 and for me its this

1, the wal iv been using for 30 odd years and if you want it to spit fart grunt and pin people to the back wall looking like they have all just had their face smacked and kicked in spuds, then this is it.

i have witnesses 🙂 ...well... them that can still string a sentence together without dribbling that is 🙂

2, Reg the G&L, its the only thing that came close to giving me that power and grunt after retiring my wal and i tried nearly everything, (still have most of them ) the g&L L2000 E now is my main bass when i want to create all out seismic disruption, and... it can do it easy.

3, the stingray in terms of power does not come anywhere near the two above, you can get it to break up easy, just play harder, but that weak G string makes me hate playing it live, all the stingrays i have and tried are the same.

and the sound width is no where near the wal or the G&L, and in fairness its not going to be as the others have the x2 bucks

4, the thumb bass is a great bass and no doubt can grunt like the best of them, again has not got the sound width as the first two,

if this is what your after, but yea a great sound, so much so i have the same active pickups in a jazz bass,with a tailored john east pre and iv just got another one from a guy on here to add to the bridge one to create a 2x mec single coil to create humbucker at the bridge,

the g&L and the wal with the right amp and speaker can punch you in the chest the others at the same vol wont give you that.

I think the G&L is prob one of, if not the most powerfull production bass on the market today, one of the best basses but unfortunately with the worst back up in the world. once you have the bass they dont give a sh!t, ( be luck if they get back to you at all ! ) .  thats been my experience using them.

 

Now.... if i can just pry that nice 2000E from "geddys nose"

 

Edited February 27, 2022 by funkgod