peteb

I always took the view that Led Zep were just continuing the fine old blues tradition of taking an existing song, changing it a bit, then claiming authorship! I mean, who actually wrote 'Dust My Broom'??

I'm afraid that I'm one of these people and I don't think that I'm alone. I know that EBMM have brought out many different versions over the past twenty or so years, but I just wanted a pretty standard Ray because it's a great bass with a classic / unique sound. I don't really need a variant of that model, even though they may well be decent basses. Let's just say that you can get a really nice 90s 3eq Stingray 4H for a pretty good price if you do a bit of searching. This represents great value for what is a well made, great sounding, iconic bass that can cover just about any gig.

Keep looking on Facebook selling pages & eBay - they do come up from time to time (although £800 is probably more realistic on those sites).

All I am saying is , based on having bought and sold a few over the past 10 years, the market price for a private sale, full fat American 3 eq 4H 90s Stingray is between £750 and £900. A 5H made in the noughties (IME and based on private sales again) seems to go for about £1k, give or take £50 or so. If you want one that is relatively new, has different p/ups or a roasted neck or whatever, then the price may well be different. Similarly, pre EBMMs will be considerably more expensive. I'm not sure of your point here. For most people, a Ray is what it is (American built 4H / 5H, 2 or 3 eq). If you want something a bit different then you will pay extra. The build quality over the years has always been pretty consistent, so its not like Fenders where those built in certain eras are thought to be better than others. A used Wal is a completely different market. For a start they are comparatively rare, were hand built and have a reputation based on their exclusivity and a few iconic users from many years ago. The beauty of the Stingray is that there are plenty of the classic 4H models around, the QC has always been consistent over the years and they have a unique sound that has been used by many top players in a number of different genres. My point is that now is a great time to buy a s/h Stingray, while they are relatively such good value.

I think that you and a few others are over estimating the value of s/h Stingrays. About nine months or so ago, I picked up a very nice Ray (without a case) for the equivalent of £750 . I have seen people advertise them for much more, but they seem to hang around for ever at the prices they ask. In the past year, I tried to sell a 5H for £1,050 on FB / Reverb, etc but people kept offering me bids in the region of £900 (I ended up selling it on commission at Bass Direct). I don't know why more people aren't going for 4H Stingrays secondhand - biggest bargain out there at the moment!

The best way to get better is to play with musicians who are better than you. If you play with guys vastly more experienced than you, then it’s going to be a steep learning curve on a lot of things – be it playing, writing, gear (hence your recent thread about buying a new bass) and performance, etc. One of the big advantages that you have if you have only been playing for four years is that you haven’t really learnt how to do things wrong yet! If you are in a band with guys who know what they’re doing then hopefully you will just get used to doing things properly, which will make you a far better player.

Unfortunately, this was getting on for 15 years ago! The trouble is what is heavy for one person isn't an issue for someone else - I have no problems with my 10lbs P bass (although I did once have a Jazz that was over 12lbs, which was a bit too much for me). The Sterling was certainly considerably lighter than the Precision, although I never actually weighed it. I've just gone and weighed my current Ray, which is supposedly fractionally over 8lbs. I never thought of it as a particularly heavy bass, but it might just mean that I need some new luggage scales!

I used to have one for a brief period. Personally I prefer both the Stingray neck & sound, so I moved it on pretty quickly. However, it was a very nicely made bass and I can't remember it being at all heavy.

Good to hear from you buddy

Certainly not any of the bands that I play with...! But you can always learn something or maybe cop a lick or two...

I'm not sure that I necessarily agree with that. We can always learn from those who push the boundaries, even if we have no intention of emulating them.

The combination of jazz fusion, a six string fretless bass and ex members of Megadeth is probably not something you are going to come across generally at the Dog & Duck on a Saturday night...!

This thread has made me think of something that happened many years ago. Back in the mid 90s, I was part of a new band playing hard rock covers. A couple of us had been in well known local bands and everyone involved was known to some degree to local punters who were into that genre. We rehearsed a set up, booked a gig in a big pub and promoted the hell out of it. So, the first gig comes along and the place is packed. The guitar player turns up with one guitar. I asked him where his spare was. He said he didn’t need one, he didn’t break strings on stage (this was a guitar with a Floyd Rose) but he had a spare set just in case. Sure enough, halfway through the first number the guitar breaks down and we stop the show. We spent a desperate 15 minutes trying to fix it before a mate of mine in the audience who lives down the road says he has a Les Paul we can use. So, taxi to his house, pick the guitar, taxi back, straight on stage. Except, of course, nearly half of the audience had left and we had completely lost momentum with those who stayed. The rest of the show went great, but the damage was done. Despite a lot of interest, the band never recovered and only played a few more gigs locally before splitting up. Me and the guitar player never got on after that (to be fair, there were issues before) and he disappeared from the local muso scene soon after the band split. Fast forward 25 years and a singer who I play with in a tribute band is putting together a side project to knock out covers in pubs. He rings me up to ask if I know this guitar player who they have been put in touch with (yep, it’s the guy from the old band). I tell him that I know him and although he’s a reasonable player, personally I would refuse to play with him. I tell him the reasons why, including the fiasco when he didn’t bring a spare guitar. They ask somebody else to play guitar for them…

Basses never fail until they do! It's only happened to me about four times in 40 years gigging, but on three of those occasions it was pretty big (one very big) gigs. Do you want to risk blowing an important gig and getting kicked out of a band because you didn't chuck an extra bass in a gigbag in the back of the car?? Of course we all evaluate risk in all parts of everyday life. How much gear we take to a gig depends in the gig and the likely risk / consequences of a f*** up. There are gigs where I only take one bass and the bare minimum of gear (generally those where there are going to be travel / logistical issues, or those that are simply not that important to me), but there are others that I take spares for nearly everything! Not having spare leads / strings / batteries in your gigbag is simply amateurish and on certain occasions, so is not having a spare bass. If I was to turn up with only one bass to most of the gigs I do for the rock bands I'm in, then there would be raised eyebrows (to put it mildly - again, depends on the gig), whereas only having one bass on some of the dep gigs I've done was accepted as the done thing.

And a lot of time he doesn't...! As someone who has always played in a lot of three piece bands, I would say that it is knowing when to fill space or when to embrace it, let notes ring out more, when to play more or lay back. You just learn how to feel what will work!

Funnily enough, I'm the complete opposite with Stingrays. I've had three and every time I sell one, I find myself buying another. The first I got as part of a trade and didn't really intend to keep it. I used it for a year or so (mainly as a spare), then sold it on. As soon as I did I missed it and looked for another. The second one came in a swap for a Fender Jazz and I meant to keep it, but I needed a 35" five string for a project and didn't have the cash at the time, so I sold it to fund the new fiver. The one I have now was bought from a mate in the northeast, after I admired it at a gig and asked him to give me first refusal if he ever were to sell it. Eventually, he decided to move it on and let me have it for a great price. I have every intention of keeping it! In some ways a Stingray is a bit like a Precision, in that no other bass sounds like remotely like it.

This is another one of those threads (like using a compressor) that turn up regularly on BC. The responses pretty much show where the poster is on the evolutionary ladder of bass players – not whether they take a spare or not, but their reasons for doing (or not doing) so! Whether I take a spare depends (as ever) on the gig. I take a spare bass to the vast majority of gigs, especially if it is: a) a big show, and; b) where I am travelling in my own car or a shared van, etc. If there are likely to be difficulties with getting to or from the gig, if it is a multi-band affair where there are more chances of gear going astray and easier to borrow a bass in an emergency, or if it isn’t a particularly important show then I am more likely to risk it and just take the one. In over 40 years of gigging, I have only needed a spare bass four times. But in accordance with Murphy’s Law, they were all pretty big gigs, including the biggest audience (of about 3,000) that I have played to in the last 15 or 20 years.

Surely that would make it a good time to buy? To be honest, I have been buying and selling quite a bit over lockdown and secondhand prices have been pretty much what I would expect. I suspect that things are about balancing themselves out; some people are on restricted incomes / lost their job / worrying about having gear that they can't gig; whilst others are living on the same income and have spare cash as they can't go out and spend like they usually would or can't go on holiday, etc...

Thanks for that. I've just read up on the new EU Vat regs and the new ‘Import One-Stop-Shop’ (IOSS) arrangements that are being introduced from 1st July and I think that you are probably correct.

The point is that Thomann have already said that they will "shortly be introducing door-to-door pricing whereby the price on our website will be inclusive of VAT and the additional handling fees". My question is does anyone here know when they intend to start doing this?

Does anyone know when Thomann are going to start doing this?

Generally not quite that bad, but I have known a guitarist BL to call a tune in a key that it is impossible to sing it in...!

I used to dep for a blues guitar player who used to ask you to listen to a few songs for the gig, which he would almost always never play but just call out a completely different set to the one he had asked you to learn...!

Blues gig then?? 😉