drTStingray

I bought/downloaded the iReal Pro app. Has transformed my ability to play jazz standards to chord sheets and other stuff. Has tons of other stuff as well for those moments when you get asked to play Stand By Your Man or Black Velvet and you can’t remember it. Highly recommended.

I think you’re right there aren’t many passive Subs - IIRC there was very little, if any difference in price - I recall one of the Denmark St shops having bought up most of the stock of Subs after they were discontinued, from the distributor - they were selling them at £420 each (probably 2007 or so). At around the same time, the store under the Virgin Superstore in Oxford St had a whole display of Musicman Sub guitars - the only time I’ve ever seen one. I have a long scale Tim Commerford signature passive - whilst slightly different electrically (neodymium pick up; series/parallel/single coil selector) I suspect it’s fairly similar in parallel mode to the passive Sub. Anyway it’s a very usable sound in a band setting although I do tend to favour the series setting as it’s a bit fatter sounding. The parallel gives a nice slap sound as well.

I loved his playing both with Canned Heat but especially John Mayall. I hadn’t realised until reading it recently that he had worked on some of the Wrecking Crew recordings - I believe Max Bennett also did.

Jerry Scheff Max Bennett Larry Taylor Robert (Pops) Popwell John Rostill Max Bennett is on loads of famous songs including (on DB) Fever, Peggy Lee; electric on work by the Crusaders and Gumbo Variations (Frank Zappa) - one of the first truly funky bass parts I ever heard. After the Shadows John Rostill played in the Tom Jones band, including in Las Vegas, contemporary with Elvis (who considered Tom Jones’s band to be the best). Some accolade when you hear Elvis’s band of the time - Scheff on bass is fabulous.

I watched your ‘50 years later video’ and I’m sure I heard some slappity slappity on that upright 🤔😀🤣

If you’re talking the B string resonating, I’ve found that raising my thumb on the back of the fretboard so that it just touches the top of the B string works, as does leaning the back of my right hand against the B string. Slightly less easy than slapping on a 4 string though!

Before I saw that explanation I’d thought of it as a Bernard Edwards Stingray sound - it seems the sample is based on that sort of sound. Something similar on quite a few tracks in the last couple of years including the latest single from Calvin Harris plus various others including Pharell - also Justin Timberlake. That sound works well on dance orientated music.

Yeah they are my favourite too - I like all the variants and have found ways of working with the pre Special 3 band to get really nice sounds from them.

The gold tops continued to be made through a lot of 1958 so there were comparatively few bursts made in the latter part of 1958 - they have a more chunky neck profile. 1959 is the only full year of bursts - they have a slimmer neck profile. Bursts are the only guitars with the top joint down the middle - stripped gold tops do not have the joint down the middle. The likelihood is the original now famous people who bought these bursts bought them as a nice looking Les Paul as a relatively cheap used guitar (it is thought the model was introduced to combat the sunburst Strat). Lasted till 1960 when replaced by the SG. There are plenty of articles available on the subject (on line and in print).

Interesting comparison at a recent jam session - 2010 Classic Stingray (TI flats, mutes on); 1960 Precision. Vast difference in current value - however I know which one sounded and arguably looked better…. the Ray has a stunning neck (birds eye and flamed). I don’t know the answer to the OP question but I do know I wouldn’t pay the going rate for the P bass!!

Those look very nice @Old Horse Murphy - love the sparkle Special. I’ve been using my Classic (which weighs in at 9.75 lbs) with TI flats also but with the mutes engaged. It makes some very nice sounds like that and would recommend giving it a try. I’ve used it quite a lot lately and am loving the sound. Having seen this thread I had a look at the Bass Bros site and noticed they have a rather nice late 80s/early 90s 2 band Stingray in white - must resist……..have too many Rays already!!

They tend to make a few one offs of Stingray Specials (over the last couple of years, left handed in both HH and H formats, SLO Special neck versions, and occasional BFR model Stingray Specials in fretless format - all have been available in the vault for international shipping). That seems to be the business model these days - standard models available (Stingray Specials with a decent range of colours) and anything slightly different is done in limited runs.

Considering it’s not long ago Fender was saying their sales were at record levels, one wonders what’s happening here - that will make a huge dent in production. That said, when I went to a branch of Guitar Guitar a couple of weeks back there were lots of Fender guitars and some basses parked in the shop, it was noticeable many were Player series and Vintera (and thus not Fender USA), and looking very nice too with some of the nice colours they offer. Perhaps the US range has hit a dip in sales? Interestingly there were a few Sterling by Musicman basses but no full fat US basses.

Correction on this - the Tim C signature was four models, two with active electronics (a long and a short scale) and two with passive electronics, series/parallel/single coil selection, passive tone control and cut/boost (a long and a short scale) - all the models have the retractable ramp and through body stringing with mute assembly. There were fifty of each made. I have a passive long scale from the series (that variant sold out within two or three days) it is natural ash with an ebony board - it’s sufficiently different from any other Stingray available, and also sounds great - it’s also very light (8 lbs). I quite like the original Joe Dart signature bass - which is a stripped down Sterling with select woods (conceived by Vulfpeck as a posh version of the cheap Robelli copy Musicman which Joe Dart used on a couple of recordings).

The reason for the Flea departure, I believe is his ‘advisers/lawyers’ wanted the bass (Stingray) renamed Flea. Although I’ve also heard it was because he wanted a graphite neck version - (which Musicman have only done once since the 80s - the NAMM 100 bass (100 made) - I’m still waiting patiently to get one of those - nearly happened once or twice but not yet 😀)

I believe select swamp ash body (they do virtually no basses in this material as it’s now a scarce wood); Select flamed maple neck with matched fretboard.

I thought Low End Lobster’s Joe Dart 11 had to be returned for rectification of the pick up output (I must say I haven’t followed this tbh so didn’t hear the outcome). In terms of the value of basses, I believe the Joe Dart signature basses have some level of higher quality materials and given the manner of Musicman production probably exceed the standard of a Fender team-built Custom Shop instrument - such as the Pino Precision - a very standard instrument with an upgraded neck which retails for significantly more than a JD signature. I hear all the wails of derision, Pino v JD but remember, as stated earlier in this thread, it all depends on the age group - and as this forum is reasonably heavily slanted in the direction of the geriatric, some of whom have never heard of JD. Many youngsters won’t have heard of Pino, Jack Bruce etc etc for that matter!! However some of us ‘getting towards geriatrics’ have heard of and admire all of them. I love Joe Dart’s playing - certainly aspire to the MSG concert tone, it’s superb (and entirely achievable I’ve found, using a passive Tim Commerford signature or standard 3 band Stingray).

You’d be surprised who young people have heard of - I was talking to a young guitarist after a jam session where I provided the bass gear (he also plays bass and played my standard, natural Stingray). I told him about my Bongo basses and he asked if those were the ones with half of the fretboard in rosewood and half maple (which the current John Myung signature has) - the band I play in also uses a dep drummer who loves Dream Theatre - when he plays I always use one of my Bongos - which he gets very enthusiastic about!! For those wanting a peach coloured Stingray 5 (as per Tony Levin), they are in the wild however very very rare - a member of this forum has several Musicman basses in the ‘custom’ colour, peach - including a hen’s teeth Sabre - the colour was available to order only for about 12 months, in 1988/9. It wouldn’t surprise me if EBMM doesn’t issue more ‘artist series’ basses in due course - after all there was the Cliff Williams Stingray also. I agree a Tony Levin one would be good - however the post 1992 ceramic pick up SR5 with phantom coil provides a better sound (and especially the single coil setting, which was a little noisy in the initial version with alnico pick up (though such issues don’t appear to have hurt Fender Jazz sales over the decades!!)

I managed to get the VU meter on an Ashdown ABM permanently at the top of red with my Stingray 5HH Special earlier in the week - with the EQ boosted and the active/passive button not engaged - don’t think I’ve ever had that happen before.

Id sincerely hope not - the shape control is incredibly scooped on an ABM. The last thing you need with a Stingray! (I think you press it in to engage it??!!) I’ve found with the 3 band Ray pictured further back in this thread, having bass and treble very slightly boosted and mid cut about 80% (amp EQ all flat - filters off) creates an excellent all round tone - when guitars get low and crunchy and I need to hear the higher notes better (eg G string), I bring back the mids more - works perfectly - the more scooped the sound the less audible (next to the amp) higher notes are. The same is true if you’re using a fretless or playing harmonics.

I had my current favourite out at an outdoor gig yesterday - shock, horror it’s a 2003 3 band (and I have three 2 band Musicman basses 😏). Cut mids, slightly boosted bass and treble - used the mid control to tighten the sound slightly when the guitars got low and muddy. My perfect Bernard Edwards sound when required - boost the treble a bit to get more into Mark King slap sound - much of the set was 60s pop and rock and roll so I played towards the neck joint for much of it - sounded excellent. Such a versatile bass (and it has standard EB slinky roundwounds). Did I say it was sunny??!!

Good - glad you made it work. Having attended quite a lot of jam sessions recently and played through lots of different amps/combos etc I’m reminded how much some equipment colours the sound - notably Ashdown and Fender Rumble can have horrendously cut mids (vast scoop) - I’ve found the trick is to turn off all the pre sets and boost the mids - the Fender Rumble is still too cut for me. The mid control on the bass is very useful to overcome the problem as well. My favourite tone is the Bernard Edwards sound - I can achieve that with a 3 band Musicman set as above and a Markbass Little Mark 3 and 2 x 10 (tweeter on) - even gets the right pop/slap sound. On a Stingray Special the mids are voiced differently - I start with them on centre with those basses for the same sound.

😂 then of course there’s the PJ. However I haven’t worn PJs for years 😀👍😂

Yeah I tend to use mine with the mids cut - gives a great sound and pretty close to a 2 band Musicman EQ sound. You can bring the mids back up if you need more clarity in the mix as well - depends what music you’re playing - the mid range gives the impression of loudness but it’s not really - it’s just enhancing certain frequencies which make the bass more audible (I find it helps me hear myself in a thick on stage mix where other instruments are playing in the same frequency range as me). Note that these controls actually cut below centre detent - I tend to boost my bass and sometimes treble a little (above centre) whilst having the mid range cut. I don’t subscribe to the view that there’s less bass than a P bass though - the 3 band does have a high pass filter which avoids some of the mushy and boomy low frequencies - not a bad thing, and tightens up the sound. However by boosting the bass there’s a ton more available. You’ve clearly got a lot more variation available also, and that’s before you consider the area you pluck the strings and the intensity you pluck them. If you want more thump you could think of changing to flatwound strings and/or use a piece of foam rubber under the strings (a piece of kitchen sponge cut to size works very well).

Along with a wire brush and some elbow grease - not sure about the pg screws though 😀 “Hello, Mr Maude. Have you tried keeping your bass inside rather than in a garden or shed 😲?”