Model after a bassist?

[Dusty89]

I've been buying/selling and trading all sorts of equipment and never seem to be satisfied with my final setup. I finally decided to mimic the same setup of one of my favorite bassist's, FLEA! I got the the same amp and speaker cabinet he uses currently (GK) and am now looking to acquire a stingray. Is this a practical solution?

[skidrawk]

Focus on practicing/rehearsing. It's the single most important thing that will help you sound better. Equipment comes secondary to technique.

[TBAR Shane]

I agree with the above. Gear is important, but it pales in comparison to the player. The only issues I've ever ran into with gear, is output power, and portability. Otherwise, I find that no matter what I play through, I tend to sound like myself regardless.

I don't that to be a practical solution. It's not hard to sound like Flea without the gear that he uses, his sound is very stripped down. It's really a matter of getting to know your instrument. If you want to be able to sound like Flea, than listen to him intently, experiment, and figure out how he is getting the sound he does. Because with Flea especially, his tone comes from his fingers, his amps are nearly irrelevant.

[Righteous Thunderer]

I won't echo what others have said before me, I'll offer the silver lining in the clouds: At least you know that if you get the same stuff that he uses you'll have some good gear to work on your technique with

[skidrawk]

but allow me to say that equipment does inspire me to play/rehearse. Take care of your instrument, keep it set up to your liking, fresh set of strings if so you desire...

Find an instrument that inspires you to play. All my basses have something different that I like that when I pick up I enjoy it. I write mostly on an Ibanez acoustic (Maria) because I can pick it up at any inspirational moment, hit record on a local recorder and go. And it booms! I get my funk on a Squire Jazz Deluxe (Annie)... but my main squeeze/workhorse is a MM Stingray (Betty.) When I am playing live I can do some freaky accidental <how did he do that were you watching> licks on Betty that make her my main bass.

[Dusty89]

It's not a matter of technique. It's a matter of having the exact tone available for you're liking. I used to have a precision bass with a fender all pro 300 amp (Fender's finest). I thought this would be great, but guess what, the tone was incredibly low in frequency and I could never get a precise/punchy tone (no matter how I tried to adjust it.) I'm done with Fender. The best of their amps is mediocre compared to the GK 800RB I bought for a fraction of the price. I am starting to feel that fender is just for newbies and I made the mistake of going all the way up their line of products.

Fender guitars are great, but their amps are very dull. In my humble opinion.

[Savage_Dreams]

fender may have not have been what you were looking for, but but they are nowhere near mediocre or 'just for newbies'.

[Dusty89]

Very true. I love fender instruments, but not their amps. The right person may find that fender amps suit their situation. For me, it simply doesn't, I would prefer a much more punchy response from a solid state workhorse. An 80lb tubed all pro 300 was as warm as you can imagine but didn't have the punch I was looking for.

I made the mistake of buying a product that didn't suit me. Two years ago, I thought I knew Exactly what I needed (I was wrong). I can still sell my amp and cut my losses though .

[DeliriumTremens]

Flea doesn't use GK anymore anyway