Delberthot

Incredible - in the space of about 48 hours Meatloaf collapses, Rick Parfitt has a heart attack & Ian Paice has a mini stroke. At least they're all still alive, that's the main thing

[quote name='Wonky2' timestamp='1466105106' post='3073440'] MM usa Sterling is even more versatile'er'er ....?!? Amongst a few changes from the stingray, The pick up toggle gives absolute versatility. [url="http://www.music-man.com/instruments/basses/sterling"]http://www.music-man...basses/sterling[/url] Strung with flats, i just cannot rate this bass highly enough.... Same scale length but shorter end to end, jazz profile neck, very light, transparent clear tone or deep gut punch, it does it all. Personally, id never have a ray over a sterling. Can be picked up for silly money too £600-950 (Get back in ye pram! I said personally! Hahaha) [/quote] I use my Sterling in a wedding/function/corporate band and could be playing Etta James one minute and Justin Timberlake the next so I need something that can do it all. MIght sound cheesy and it has been said before but the sound really is in the fingers or rather where you position your right hand, how hard you hit the strings, if you pluck with your thumb or use your other fingers and so on. I get a wide variety of sounds just by doing this. I don't use effects and I don't touch the EQ after the sound check. I've always disagreed that you need a multitude of basses to get the job done, certainly when playing live - in my type of work changing basses mid set isn't an option so I have had to learn to adjust my sound in another way as explained above

Lordy lordy what a lot of fun this is. I have mine tuned to drop to D then down to B. Got it on Saturday morning and gigged with it on Saturday night. Took maybe 90 minutes to get it 100% but worth it as I didn't have to adjust anything during the gig except give the bass a tune up as normal I sold the 5 string at the end of last year and have been using an OC-2 since to add something to the sound for stuff that I was used to playing on the B string but couldn't get a good sound out of it so sold it and bought this. Quick run over the songs I'd be using it on during the day then off to the gig. Treated myself to single Chromes rather than a made up set so I could get what I wanted. I've got 45, 60, 80, 110. Sounds like it would be a bit uneven but pretty close as far as tension goes and the heavy E means that I can drop the E to B without it turning into a piece of spaghetti and flopping all over the place. Buying singles actually wound up £1 cheaper than buying a set from Strings Direct. Tuning to B is more straight forward to me than going for C as I'm used to a 5 string. I've used drop D on and off for years so that wasn't such a shock either. If you have a detuner or are thinking about it it is well worth going for the double stop purely for the show off value of dropping down during a song, never mind the convenience of being able to play lower notes on a 4 string.

I believe John Wetton uses one.

The first thing I'd do is get a pair of suitable pliers and while pushing down on the pickup, try to turn the screws to remove them then replace them so that you can try dropping the pickups first. Might need someone to push down on the them while you turn the pliers. If it's still not what you want then I'd try something else

I find that my gas is worst when the band isn't busy and I have a lot of time on my hands. I think it's because I forget how good everything sounds. I never play in the house unless it's to learn something new which is every week at the moment during the busy wedding season but from the end of October, excluding the Christmas run, until April I very rarely get my bass out to play. I actually find that if I don't play for a long time, when I do play I can play better than I did. Occasionally there are times that I change gear out of necessity like when I was finding my SR5 too heavy so sold it and bought a Sterling which is a lot lighter. Back in 2006-7 when I first joined Talkbs and Basschat it was always about trying out new stuff. I always say that I've had everything from A-Z apart from an Alembic and a Zon Some basses I've sold and later bought other identical ones because I wanted them to sound good so gave them another try. One thing I know is that I'm 100% sure I'll never buy another fretless.

The bass sounds fine to me. Jeff Lynne isn't known as just a bass player, he plays dozens of musical instruments. Watch the documentary about him if you can find it, it's incredible how many instruments he plays and plays well

I find the bass clef to be a bit cheesy - how about the original musicman stripey trousers logo?

[quote name='Chiliwailer' timestamp='1464167749' post='3057037'] Just caught up on this thread, here's some more Flea using Fenders action for you with Atoms For Peace, nice to see him on a P Bass again too... [media]http://youtu.be/9CjzVdZcnh0[/media] [/quote] Yeah it's been a while since Flea used a precision live. I think this will grow on me but I have to agree that BSSM was their best album. One Hot Minute which I consider their lost album as a lot of people forgot about it was fantastic as well with some great tunes - "Stretch" which missed out on being on the album is a great track. I sometimes use "Transcending" as my soundcheck thing. For me it was Under The Bridge that did it. A fairly funky rock balad but unfortunately they became more and more prevalent on the albums until the funk was almost gone. Stadium Arcadium could easily have been a single album My 3 favourite Chilis tunes never made it onto the albums - Felas Cock, Sikamikanico & Stretch I think I must've missed the Stones threads but to throw my tuppence in the ring - in the 60s they were trounced by the Beatles and in the 70s they were trounced by Led Zeppelin. They are so popular because they are still alive despite being bloody awful live. Bland corporate rock for rich people.

For bright flats I always use Chromes, for smooth rounds I use D'addario EXL - anything else feels like razor wire to me

MIchael Anthony has used one form time to time but for some reason everyone wants a Stingray. I love the smaller body, the thinner neck and the overall light weight of them. Plus the sound is incredible. I could never get a Stingray to sound like the Stingray you hear on records or live but I can get the Sterling pretty close

I used to laugh over at the Rickresource. Could've been playing anything but they were so anal retentive and could've been playing a Spector for all we know

Doug appeared very humble to Billy being there. I've always loved Doug's pedal and the fact that he never uses bass specific ones. I need to check out some of these Eventide pedals

If Dracula was a bass player he'd be all over this like a tramp on cold chips

For reference my SR5 without a case was £999 when I bought it new in 2000 so I would've guessed the Sterling to be maybe £800ish(?) street price

[quote name='indiegrungesound' timestamp='1462006346' post='3039462'] I tried one of the 2x10" combos for research purposes a few weeks back. I thought it sounded good. Decently loud and I liked the Drive's distortion. Being an owner of a PF-350 and a LH500, as well as a former owner of an Ashdown MAG300 combo, I say it's better than the Ampeg and Ashdown heads by dint of having more power. It's got different features to the Hartke. The Rumble 500 has a more varied EQ; Amp Voicing and A Drive/Distortion feature. The LH500 has a tube preamp, simpler EQ and Limiter and "BRITE" buttons. It's a coin toss IMHO! I would also say that Paul Duffy from The Coral used the Rumble 500 combo when they recently appeared on Later... with Jools Holland and the bass sounded good. Check it out on the iPlayer if you want to hear for yourself. [/quote] I found Ashdown ABM & MAG and Ampeg PF-500 to be a bit muffled sounding and not bright and punchy enough for me. The Hartke LH1000 through Laney NX 4x10 & 1x15" cabs was mighty but so was the weight. For a rock gig I think it was hard to beat. The Fender is light enough for me, plus I like a punchy sound and lots of mids. For a loud band with no PA support you'd need an extension cab but that's a given, it's only a wee combo. Loud for it's size but still only a 2x10" and actually more power than I need so I never have to drive it hard.

[quote name='warwickhunt' timestamp='1462003657' post='3039420'] Unsure of the original price back in 93 when they were first produced but £1200-1300 new now. A quick search will reveal them selling on Basschat for £600-800 but folks have asked for up to £1000... they tend not to sell! [/quote] They're [url="http://www.gak.co.uk/en/music-man-sterling-black-black-rosewood-pick-guard/78487"]£1500[/url] now and £1600 for the natural ones. Very underrated basses

[quote name='2elliot' timestamp='1461966200' post='3039284'] As interesting as ever. Living Colour are on tour in the UK at the end of this year. I've just bought tickets for Newcastle so I'll be checking out the set up first hand if I can get close enough. [/quote] With Glenn Hughes Trying to get someone to go to this gig with so I'm not a Norman no mates

In the last couple of years it's been a case of:[list] [*]Dreamers - all talk and at least a year away from a gig if at all [*]The singer kept tried to tell me how to play songs that I was already playing as per the originals despite not actually playing herself [*]Great guys but I felt that I wasn't being challenged enough [*]The drummer had some kind of psychotic event that he still to this day isn't aware that he has had and still believes that this is real life despite falling out with almost every friend he ever had [/list]

[quote name='MrBump' timestamp='1461758938' post='3037361'] Hi - thought I'd post this, my Fender Rumble 500 arrived the other day and it's brilliant!!! I know I'm new to bass stuff, and probably couldn't distinguish between good stuff and chaff as easily as you guys, but to my ears it offers so much! It's really brought my Yamaha BB425 alive, particularly the low B string. Anyway, this is a clip of me testing it out, along with some guitar stuff. Mark. [url="https://youtu.be/P5QZ7OdsPdE"]https://youtu.be/P5QZ7OdsPdE[/url] [/quote] They do sound good with Yamaha BBs. I'm 4 months into the second year with mine and still love it. You can get a surprising amount of bottom end for such a small cab - handles the Sterling through a Boss OC-2 very well. I don't think they feel flimsy at all (maybe the badge ) but overall, pretty solid. I've been looking for an excuse to get a matching 2x10" but I haven't been in a situation that's called for it.

I was a member there before |I joined BC. I have found some useful info there but there is a lot of stupidity and snobbery and just plain silliness, hence why I always refer to the site as Talkbs

Decided to learn this today. What a fantastic bass line.