drTStingray

A lot of this comes down to paying for exclusivity and craftsmanship. Whether you like it or not or want to suggest a tea chest with a piece of string attached to it is as good as an exclusive piece of hand crafted instrument construction is immaterial (and most of us know who's barking mad in that discussion), that's what it comes down to. Its the same in any area of consumer product more or less. (Musical instruments are generally considered luxury goods - so their popularity or otherwise is often a pointer to general economic well being - the fact sales have been generally depressed for so long should tell you something)!

This is only surpassed by the ones who knock over the singer's in set order lyrics folder!!!! 😂

These threads never work for the reasons mentioned. The same is true of cars - I've recently watched a programme about Aston Martin cars and can see from the quality of materials and how much handmade content, by skilled labour along with the minute volumes produced compared with mass manufacturers all add up to huge price tags. Of course there'll always be people who don't accept the result is worth the money and are perfectly happy with their bog standard Ford Fiesta!! Now on a Bass forum you're also up against that group of people who claim you only need a Squier Precision to do anything you'll ever require in a bass guitar and nothing will persuade such people otherwise (I'd wager most of such owners haven't played anything else) - apparently, according to a recent thread that's all you need to be a crack sessions musician as well......... Of course, such people have overlooked the standard and type of Persian rug required to be stood on for the best studio vibe and sound - or the Motown interface or Alembic or whatever preamp used in combination on many of these recordings with rudimentary instruments. Where does this leave us with the £8k instrument - well with not very many people buying them and a great crowd of other people who can't afford to (usually) and not being able to distinguish absolute mass production from hand made craftsmanship and everything in between. On another subject (but the discussion has verged on capitalism/N Korea) If ever there was a totalitarian (communist) state bass guitar (ie enforced choice) it must surely be the Precision bass according to quite a few recent threads!!

Yeah agreed - sounded especially good on the Buble standards.

It's a keyboard on the original - I thought he did a good job of it as it did have that fat but focussed sound to it - the opposite of Le Freak.

Really not sure but it sounded great - very fat sound during Junior - Mama Used to Say. His EUB sounded good as well. As did the Laklands from the guy in the George Ezra band. Jerry Barnes' sound is really too thin for Chic and apart from the occassional Marcus Miller/ Abe Laboriel esque fill was not audible or fat enough sounding - that instrumental break in Le Freak relies on the bass part to support it and it didn't (on my tele) - in fact I could barely hear it other than said fizzy fills. In some ways I was disappointed Dave Swift didn't play on it as his sound was far more appropriate. The guy playing with Rudimental used what looked like a version of a 50s P without pick guard on the Anita Baker song - that was also indistinct and not very audible. However the several Rudimental collaborations were great. The whole show was extremely enjoyable I thought. I'm also fully aware that liking one of Jools' programmes is far too contentious for Basschat........ Here's another - there were some wicked brass arrangements.... Unless I was seeing things, Dave Swift appeared to be using a reasonably well concealed music stand (Buble big band standards).

I've been enjoying it - great idea to have Jess Glynne and George Ezra on - decent up to date pop music along with Buble singing with the big band. Some great bass playing from Dave Swift. Great to see the bass player playing a Fretless Lakland 55/94? on the George Ezra single (rather than the fretted Precision mimed I've seen previously). I caught a bit of Madness just before the fireworks - Jools is a million times better!!

He was famous throughout the 80s and later for Fretless playing, largely with his 79 Stingray, long before the P bass period. In his own words, he was in demand to use that sound on lots of albums and songs after the Paul Young Wherever I Lay My Hat single. A good example of the live sound can be heard on Live Aid - compare with Marcus Miller's sound on Bryan Ferry's set. Back in those days it seems producers and sound engineers had no problem dealing with other types of basses (my own experience has been they still don't). I guess it all depends what you're playing and who for.

I didn't realise they were team-built - so the just over £2k for a Stingray Special doesn't sound expensive in comparison. I guess there's a mark-up for the Pino name then. How much do they ask for a master-built one? Oh and worrying regarding the truss rods. Let's hope they fixed the basses.

Bwahahahaha! I'm presuming the article explicitly excludes from its terms of reference any deity-like adulation of Precision basses on the basis its creator (the most holy) is no longer alive and the current curators are a non-descript corporation. Apparently, a study reported in Psychology Today discusses how a similar effect works in reverse - but serial detractors need to vent spleen on a specific living figurehead on whom to heap their scorn, whether relevant or not to any product available in the market place (hence vitriolic attacks on individuals associated with, well every major manufacturer except Fender!!). Occurred in early days of the industrial revolution with people having claimed to have been insulted or ignored by the likes of James Watt, and counter claiming their inventions simply didn't work. Thankfully common sense prevailed and the steam engine became that wonderful thing that was still in daily use at the time of invention of the Precision bass. 😂😂😂😁

I'm sorry if I've upset anyone - I wasn't intending to slag off any pro musicians in this and in my youth I was interested broadly in any recorded or performed bass parts - including those on Nana Mouskouri or even the Singing Nun records - still do I guess. However it was the Andy Fraser/Jack Bruce et al that inspired me to actually start playing in the first place - rock music - that was the point I was making. Interesting to hear session still exist - clearly nothing like the 60s or 70s (93 commercial studios in London down to less than 10 I believe - if that). Now if you focus on dance and pop music you'll find some stonking bass parts around even now - I'm sure they're not all played on Precisions - even bass guitars though!!

That's what you pay for hand selected parts, hand assembled etc in the US by master craftsmen. The team built CS stuff is cheaper and more or less manufactured in a similar way to EBMM stuff - EBMM's necks are hand finished which is where some of the magic occurs along with the woods and finishes. As I understand, many of the CS features are only available as master built. We will be getting 'my entry level Squier by Fender P bass is every bit as good as a US or US CS one' threads next - well no it obviously isn't but if the Squier suits your pocket and aspirations then it will no doubt do an adequate job. I do worry a little about the resilience of some of these reissue basses made by parts of Fender - didn't someone have a truss rod break on one recently here - not sure if they replaced the bass or not but I would have been pretty furious if they hadn't.

I guess if you were Jamerson you'd have been entitled to throw it at the wall afterwards and exclaim 'never give me this pile of s**t to play again'!! And let's hope frets 5 to 7 on the G string weren't huge dead spots requiring playing a C scale from fret 8 on the E string. Id love to understand what this concept of 'sessions' bass player is in 2018 - I was led to believe this was a 1960s concept along with sessions players playing on pop band's songs. All I can say is back in my day (when a lot of people played Precisions or Jazzes but a lot didn't) we had exciting players like John Deacon, Andy Fraser, Jack Bruce - whose playing truly inspired people - none of them were the 'mere bass player' whose role could be taken at a moment's notice by a hired hack with a 'generic' bass sound. If today's players are intended to aspire to being clones of Joe Osborne, the bass player out of the James Last Orchestra etc, then I think we have to worry for the state of music. As has been said, many pro players are in bands - others play in musical shows (where the Fender P bass is not ubiquitous). I certainly did not aspire to play on Nana Mouskouri records when I started playing bass - I really can't see kids today being inspired by these concepts of bass players or their skills having a lack of worth and being worthless unless transferred to the lowest common denominator of instruments to allow people in the control room to cop off for a smoke after they spent 3 hrs getting the drum sound right. Trevor Horn said they spent days if not weeks getting the bass sound (including the sequencing) to what they wanted on Two Tribes. That sort of suggests the concept of the bass being a mere plug and play is a bit of an oversimplification. Now if you aspire to playing on Grandad by Clive Dunn then fine (but even Herbie Flowers played a Jazz)! The idea of enforced choice doesnt sit well - smacks of totalitarianism!!

One can but hope - I suspect he might be one of old scorned guys 😏

As a company with an enviable customer service reputation and also one which has just relaunched an updated Stingray bass, which seems to be universally applauded and liked, the CURRENT reality is clearly not the one presented by one or two posters on here.

I doubt they're too worried about getting your business. What a stupid thing to say!!! I have no idea regarding the Rickenbacker forum but comments about the EBMM forum really are about 10-15 yrs out of date. It was quite tetchy at one time - HOWEVER there were also people who behaved like utter anusses on there as well and eventually got banned as a result - and still crop up every now and then on other forums causing trouble or trolling - or even under different names on the EBMM forum. Rather like scorned women...... Ive always thought Scott Ball's posts on Talkbass are extremely helpful and far from the stuff you're describing - as I say I think you're probably somewhere 10 yrs in the past on that subject.

I've tried G and Ls and they're very nice basses - I probably haven't played them enough to form a proper view but I found the MFD pick ups very hot and the overall sound was quite Fenderish. I've heard other people sound great on them. I agree on active Fenders - I'm sure the latest are much better but back in the 80s I disliked the sound. My own personal gripe with Precisions (which were my holy grail basses as a late teen/early 20 yr old) was the playability - I remember my disappointment the first time I played one in a shop and literally the neck shape and size made it difficult to play. I hear you say, oh you should have tried one with an xyz pattern neck - wrong - you got what the shop had and even if you were super human (like some rock stars of the time) you got the one the distributor gave you. The days of ordering the one you wanted were way off!! And back then the P bass was designed for ex upright players. Ive played loads over years and find them much more playable these days (they must have altered the neck profile) - when I first played a Stingray in the late 70s the neck was perfect for my hands and playing and the sound was exactly what I wanted - so that's what hooked me. I still really like Precisions - and they are clearly an American icon. In terms of use in his videos, Scott Devine seems amazingly unaware of a whole range of iconic basses - Ibanez, Yamaha, Musicman, Warwick, Rickenbacker, Danelectro, Gibson, Alembic, Wal - there's a decent sized list! As an educator it seems to me as bad as someone teaching history and ignoring anything that doesn't match their own political or religious view. I think biased would be the description! If his focus is sixties Motown then fine but there is more to life!!

That's sacrilege - I have a VW Golf and most definitely think the Precision bass is the world's most overrated and boring instrument - the Stingray has completely overshadowed it since the 70s IMHO of course!! The Precision is more of your basic Ford with rubber mats in place of carpets - reliable but highly boring and many other makes will run rings around it. For those old enough to remember - a Ford from 1957 would have vacuum operated windscreen wipers which stopped when you went uphill - they still sold millions of them!!! Why do so many pros use them - they certainly seem to be flavour of the month but I also know that Fender spend a great deal of time and effort (and money) placing their instruments with people. They were probably the best you could get in the 60s but there again if you claimed a bass guitar was a real musical instrument in the 60s you would have been threatened with corporal punishment by serious musicians (upright players) It is quite interesting that the Precison being ubiquitous coincides with music with either inaudible or ill defined bass - not sure if that's down to the players, the producers or the instrument - probably a bit of all of them!! Otherwise they're great!

Nice basses Danny 79. The 3 band (certainly up to 2017 and probably beyond) does have a high pass filter which cuts the boomier frequencies.

You mean the troll post which just alleges shoddy design. That person clearly didn't read the responses in that thread which explain the situation. Once again you're making suggestions about consistency of production without any basis in fact - I don't believe you've even played one of these basses - basic trolling in my view!!

I do have a problem with your assertion that there is a problem on this. I have no problem with either of my Specials getting the action I want - and it's pretty low. Now if you want ultra low you may need to either shim or change the saddle screws on the central saddles for the shorter version (apparently EBMM has supplied these to one or two people who have asked). The point is, apparently, that it's not possible to have saddle screws protruding through the tops of the saddles for user safety reasons, which seems perfectly reasonable. As I said my basses have acceptably low action without shimming or changing the saddle screws. The weak G string phenomena has never been replicated to my knowledge in any recording despite vociferous people having been asked to do so. As far as I'm concerned I could certainly replicate it, six feet in front of my speaker cabinet if I wanted to, but that is true of any bass guitar and particularly those renowned for G string dead spots in certain areas. For me, Stingrays do not have this issue unless I misuse the bass and amp EQ and of the ten I currently own I don't have any issue at all with this - but there again maybe my playing style, string choices, amp and EQ settings play a part. Perhaps my hearing is less bass heavy - who knows - there are so many variables.

I have both - the Old Smoothie has a completely different circuit based on the 76 Bass it copies. If you've ever played a 76 Stingray you would recognise the sound difference between an Old Smoothie and a Classic Ray. They will both do very bassy if you want.

They're all rolled but as they're hand finished there may be variation. My 2018 SR5HHS with ebony board has comfortably rolled edges.

You could say exactly the opposite as it's usually the same people deriding Stingray basses and quoting issues 'they have'. Well it shows how long it's been since you've frequented such places - look on Talkbass - you'll find threads with hundreds if not thousands of responses and hundreds of pages on the 2018 Stingrays mostly positive - from vast numbers of different people. So unfortunately your statement is also wrong - what do they say about fake news and rumour? Glad to see you like Rickenbackers though - I really can't understand why you would ever buy a Stingray Classic if that's the sound you wanted!!

Indeed - I find it quite alarming that a bass that's been in production for over 40 yrs in lots of different variants draws these subjective opinions - as if all are exactly the same. Never let facts get in the way of biased conjecture.