drTStingray

V nice - congrats and enjoy - I have a Classic Sabre in that spec - get the bass in very bright light and the colour really pops. They also have a mahogany body.

V nice

This has some nice walking bass - nice Precision tone as well http://youtu.be/NWfx1hSeM-c

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1437842058' post='2829487'] I thank you, but I may stay traditional since I clapped eyes on this 1963 Daytona Red P-Bss... [/quote] Good lord - that is gorgeous

You can easily change from the Musicman sound to a 'generic Fender sound' by altering the position you pluck the strings and the intensity you play. Have you tried the 3 way switch - makes quite a difference - parallel (closest to bridge) is typical Stingray sound - serial (closest to neck) really beefs the sound up - centre position (single coil - without hum) gives a thinner sound. Anyway glad you found a usable sound!

Worth trying Larry Taylor on the John Mayall album Jazz Blues Fusion; Leo Lyons with Ten Years After - various tracks off the live album Undead; Woman Trouble off the album Stonedhenge. Anything by Blood Sweat and Tears. These are all electric bass players but some very inspiring stuff. Charles Mingus on upright also.

Forgive me if I'm asking a silly question but didn't G and L invent one of those back in 1980 (L1000)? Nice looking bass though - black and tort is always nice.

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1437511931' post='2826740'] Miles Davis - 'Nobody knows what the bass does but they miss it if it isn't there'. [/quote] Neat - but is that quote pre 1969? You certainly can't say that of Marcus Miler's playing with Miles. I suspect even Paul Chambers would have dabbled with, if not more, electric bass had he lived long enough.

I'm willing to bet a number of our six stringed friends (guitarists) have made similar mistakes - no doubt the locals all sang with one finger in one ear - hmmm perhaps I'm stereotyping too much here!!

[quote name='Leonard Smalls' timestamp='1437494223' post='2826529'] Excellent! I hope you're also taking a pedalboard with a full array of distortion, wah and envelope follower pedals! [/quote] 😄

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1437491489' post='2826484'] In the real world, double bass playing Jazz is the normal default for a 'standards' gig, to the point where MDs will book a bad double bass player before they book a decent electric player! It is not a question of whether the bass player believes it to be authentic or acceptable, it is whether the MD believes it. My argument is simply that mostly that is exactly what they think. [/quote] Yes I don't doubt this. Thankfully I don't have to deal with such people!! I had particularly noticed Michael Buble's band had moved more to double bass - interesting and no doubt because of the standards they do - but I prefer it personally with electric.

Many of the comments in this thread about 'authentic jazz' remind me of the days of old in folk music when Dylan went electric and caused a near riot at a concert in Manchester - similar apeplexy when Fairport Convention used electric instruments and these days seen as a bunch of narrow minded people looking and sounding daft. I personally prefer Jazz on electric bass and I'm sure lots of people do. I also like upright (but please not in Miles Davis later music). What are these 'calls' which people keep saying electric players won't get? Firstly probably id wager a majority of people posting here are not professional musicians looking for a jazz session call (are there that many jazz sessions)? And secondly what is wrong with learning a range of music on your instrument - be it authentic or not? The idea is to grow musically not fit to some preconceived idea someone else has. I've learned quite a lot of music I'd never remotely expect to play in a group or even want to. But I can say it has helped me technically and theory wise to be a better player in what I do play. These people with the 'it's not a 62 precision with la bella flats through a Kustom so it's not authentic Jamerson' make me smile - they never notice it ain't Jamerson playing either. All has little relevance IMO - a bit like 'disgusted from Tunbridge Wells' in the Times letters page. They miss the point entirely.

Excellent - what is especially noticeable is the way the individual parts complement each other, leaving space - even the drumming does this. No individual part is overly complex or plays many notes - but together it sounds fabulous.

I experience this phenomena and have done/do with guitarists as well. With the drumming the issue for ears is with the high frequencies particularly (as far as ear safety goes). I have watched this situation with interest over periods of time and have developed several theories:- 1) too loud anything is usually caused by people whose hearing is suspect 2) people whose hearing is suspect don't hear higher frequencies properly so complain the bass is too loud and/or compensate by having an excruciatingly raucous tone or volume or both. 3) different instrumentalists/singers hear music in their own way - I will give you an example - the band I play in sometimes provides music by iPod in between sets - through the PA and generally at normal PA volume - when returning to play it's not unusual for the band to play along with the last bit of the final track of the interlude - all is well and beautifully mixed until the guitarist joins in who summarily drowns the entire band and the music track - does he hear music that way - ie it is only the guitar?? The problem is that is the volume he will play at so the entire band ratchets up to match it - meaning the band is excruciatingly loud at the start. 4) I was sat talking in the audience between sets during a gig of the band at 3) when the guitarist played a few notes having changed a string - it was truly ear shatteringly uncomfortable - if I'd been a punter I would not have stayed 5) I once played in a band with an elderly guitar player whose hearing really was shattered through a lifetime of gigs and I believe one incident with a PA contributed greatly - anyway he regularly moaned that the bass was too loud - he was so concerned about this he bought a radio device so he could stand at the back of the room at sound check and be assured the mix was ok - he was stunned that the sound in the audience area was well balanced - however the root cause - that he heard no treble and a heightened version frequencies at the bass end was not resolved - that band had a seemingly raucous guitar sound which led to people leaving gigs - it was also compounded by a singer who's idea of 50s Echo was to submerge his voice in slap back echo and reverb. So two issues there - hearing problems and perception problems - they are extremely audible on recordings made. So what's the answer to all this - and to the OPs problem - well comments about people's volumes generally creates defensiveness and denial and bad feeling - unless you entrust the job to someone independent - eg a sound engineer. My own problem is not being able to hear myself if people play too loud - and if I can't I'm pretty damned sure other band members can't as well. However the bass sound carries and the result is being too loud at the back of the room. Our (sometimes loud) drummer moaned at our guitarist at a recent band meeting - to paraphrase - for having an unmixed sound the direction from which it originated being obvious to the audience. The drummer was asked about his volume at times (he is very good at lowering his volume to create dynamics but tends to drum louder when the band get louder) - his response was he's not s jazz drummer! Which is a lie because he can play jazz admirably. A complex issue involving personalities, perceptions and even physical issues (hearing). Sometimes it's good for someone to say - we re too bloody loud - turn down!!

[quote name='Old Horse Murphy' timestamp='1436627059' post='2819643'] I've taken the neck off to look closer but unfortunately it's just as illegible as the photo By all accounts and speaking to a few people on the Ernie Ball forum, "red" was a colour option at the time and it certainly is that [/quote] Indeed - if you follow the link below (independent database - probably the best info you can get on pre EB instruments) you'll see there are quite a few basses listed with B027xxx serials in 1988 even though EBMM had used serials without the B0 prefix before and continued to use them after - perhaps they used up a batch of pre EB bridges? Anyway there are several listed as red and they certainly made other basses in the late pre EB period in that same colour (I've seen Stingrays and Cutlass basses) - as has been said on the EBMM forum the first Stingray EB made was in that solid red colour also. It looks a very nice bass. http://www.musicmanbass.org/mycustompage0028.htm

[quote name='LayDownThaFunk' timestamp='1436515714' post='2818691'] Tell me Royal Blood isn't helping newbies pick up the bass for the first time, [/quote] Agreed - I had Muse with Chris Wolstenholm in that category as well. But they are exceptions - kids starting to play will generally get the 'sit in the background with a smiley face EQ and play a Precision with flats' mentality - as if it's 1960 again. A far cry from Royal Blood and guaranteed to put them off!

[quote name='neilp' timestamp='1436510964' post='2818658'] I'd rather listen to John Paul Jones playing The Lemon Song or Ramble On than any of this sort of stuff. Yes, technically incredible, but what purpose does it serve? Technique, for me at least, is a background process. It's what you use to make a non-musician want to get up and dance, without necessarily knowing why [/quote] I agree entirely - but JPJ on those songs is all about technique and feel. Interestingly, there's nothing like a bit of slap bass or fretless to liven up non musicians - I have found its generally some musicians who object. Bass and drum breakdowns in songs in the disco/funk days was an oft used trick, with each other instrument entering one at a time after - lots of Bernard Edwards/chic examples of this especially live. No one stopped dancing - in fact they probably focussed on what was making them dance even better - so bass solos are not all bad in my view!!

[quote name='LayDownThaFunk' timestamp='1436468322' post='2818449'] But it's so boring! What is this obsession with the honky bridge sound? Give me a bass player who looks cool, has an aggressive sound and isn't obsessed with doing a thousand licks per song. JJ Burnell and Duff McKagan spring to mind... [/quote] I suppose it depends on your musical taste. I find JJB quite tiresome to be honest. The mid heavy sound is what makes the bass heard rather than consigned to an inaudible background hum and whine. My worry these days is who in pop music (other than players from 25 yrs ago with a few exceptions from 10-15 yrs ago) is going to inspire a new generation of bass players. Pop music seems to be populated these days often by barely audible bass with a sound focus on subs rather than mids, often played in a plodding style - in other words, unlike rock and roll, rock, 70s R and B or 80s pop, the bass appears to not have any importance. Part of this is caused by the appalling mixing which occurs often - the pinnacle of this for me was listening to a big band play Glenn Miller stuff on BBC recently and for the first time ever I could hear a rythmn guitar (it was electric) - more prominent than the bass mind - on a par with the horns. The bass drum was as loud as the bass - the cymbals were also loud - totally inaccurate and just about sums up how much music these days for me is ruined by daft mixing. I heard Mark Ronson's latest single - an 80s throwback with synth bass - the bass is ok in the mix but an analogy would be with the toned down reggae served up in this country in the 60s on the basis our ears couldn't take the bass levels in the authentic stuff - of course that changed over the years but it seems to be where we are in pop these days. I admire these guys with great technique - if it's linked to great feel and musical skill in terms of note choice and groove it can enhance music significantly - basically what many players have done over the years. Including JJB in my view. I'm afraid I don't share the current love for indistinct thin plodding bass parts - such as much of the stuff served up at Glsstonbury. It just suggests to me the players don't have much skill as musicians and little say in the crappy mixing which occurs - or maybe they're using the wrong instruments. Back to my original point - how will kids be inspired to take up the bass with the current state of affairs?

I can guarantee its not all dreamers in the for sale threads - I was in the market for a vintage sunburst late 80s/early 90s Stingray - one appeared and the first time I saw the ad (about 2 days later) it had already sold ......... Damn!!! Perhaps the thread could be split so that the most popular makes/models get their own subthreads - thus avoiding buyers having to trawl through pages and pages of xyzabc etc and sellers having to constantly bump their items.

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1436264483' post='2816470'] I had the guitar version of one of these. It was a nice player, though the novelty of that finish wore off rather quickly. [/quote] Is that finish faux leather or built in finish cracking? I also quite like Antigua as a finish. I'm guessing quite a few would have been refinished somewhere along the line to avoid scaring the kids - rather like all those sunburst strats in the early 60s in the UK when the distributors realised everyone wanted to be Hank B Marvin so wanted fiesta red Strats!! Another finish needing an acquired taste is the original USA Musicman Sub textured finish with checker plate pickguard. Strangely appealing now and if I was to be looking to buy a U.S. sub now I'd insist on it being all original and not pimped up to look like a regular Stingray. I can't work out how to post pictures on this site so I'll leave it to someone else to post a pic (presuming there's anyone left on the site with such a beastie - ah McNach has one I think!)

[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1436128470' post='2815247'] Worst ever.. Spalted or burled. Rotten wood on your bass Sir? [/quote] Does plain (even rotten) wood even count as a colour - I know Warwick basses are often uncoloured but they have made some choice coloured ones including aherm ............. black (about the least adventurous of all bass colours), and the even more whacky chrome and dirty blond!! That Musicman puke colour has surely to rank as one of the all time disasters of mixed pigment though! The pic shown is not too bad but I've seen others where it looks browny yellow - it's called trans green btw (for those who didn't know)

You could just tune it BEAD and get the best of both worlds. Stingray 4s sound great tuned down.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1436103766' post='2814942'] And then peed on it. [/quote] Excellent imagery!! I'm surprised no one quoted this colour - although to be fair it has taken on somewhat of a cult status so is quite sought after - like peach, it was a colour quickly dropped and is thus quite rare - variously referred to as a Heinz condiment colour or akin to used nappy colour!! https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=musicman+trans+green+heinz&client=safari&hl=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=XjuZVbnCGrOO7AbL3bq4Aw&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=320&bih=372#imgrc=JJ2JptI9uUbHQM%3A

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1435607506' post='2810587'] Fender Custom Shop Precision with two Gibson Thunderbird pickups and later added Gibson EB neck humbucker. [/quote] At Glastonbury that neck pick up had a white cover and resembled a Telecaster bass neck humbucker without the chrome cover.

Congratulations that's a v tasty looking Ray you have there - I'm quite envious! As you say there's something rather nice about the 2 band EQ - simpler to use IMO and always gets a cracking tone.