Jazz vs. Stingray
 

Most of the time, I go for the aggressive yet thick sound with my jazz with the bridge pickup favored and bass dialed up. I really dig the Stingray sound for this reason and I'm thinking about getting one, but then there's those few times I want that neck pickup sound on my jazz.

My question is, do you think that a fender jazz with single coils can mimick a stingray pretty closely with some eq'ing? I can get close to that sound at home, but I'm not sure how it would compare with a stingray (single h) in a band situation.

Apples and oranges IMO. They don't sound anything alike. You can make both sound great, just not like each other.

Pretty hard to mimic a Stingray without getting into actives. They both sound good in their own rights.

The simple answer is: own both!

Stingray, any day of the week.

There's always a stingray with a neck pickup if you want. Every one I've played has sounded great with several useable but different tones IMO.

It really is an apples and oranges thing though, as others have said.

do you guys think a jazz with a nice tube amp can get close to queen's "another bites the dust" tone (clip below) or is a stingray/sterling the only way to get near that kind of tone? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeMrttj8Ucg

my guess is that a jazz can come 75% close, but it's more of a high-mid growl rather than the stingray's low-mid growl, making the stingray's growl thicker sounding. i'm trying to avoid having to buy a stingray/sterling if i can get at least 75-80% of it's sound with a jazz, what a dilemma :). what do you guys think?

As a long time Fender guy (Jazz and PBass) and recent Stingray (SR5) owner would say not really. I've spent some time trying to EQ my SR5 to sound more like a PBass when needed and it can come close but playing them side by side there's no comparison. Close in the same way that if you roll off the bridge pickup on a Jazz it sounds more like a PBass but again once you do the direct comparison, it's over.

That said, it depends of course on what you're trying to achieve. Are you trying to cop this sound live for a cover band or doing some recording and want a Stingray like sound? For cover bands, I've always found that playing the part close to the way it was recorded is more important than trying to cop the exact tone. Of course you can tweak eq controls, pedals, etc live but too many other variables even under the best of circumstances. However for recording, if you want that tone, you'll need to buy/rent/borrow a Stingray. No amount of tweaking or tube amps/preamps is gonna give you that sound.

The SR is also available w/ H-bridge J-neck.

Its single coil musicman pickup so it will get you closer to the sound of a jazz when using with single coil of bridge humbucker but IMO doesn't really sound like a jazz bass.

Boost mids, roll off the neck pup, play at the bridge pup.

No it doesn't. A Stingray is it's own animal. Nothing is like it and nothing really sounds like it. You either love it or you don't.

Point is if you want the stingray sound you get a stingray. If you want a Jazz bass sound you get a jazz bass. There is no making one sound like the other. And since this is TB that is why I own both.

Rule: you can never own too many basses.

I played a stingray with a birdseye maple neck--the finish looked like it was made of honey. Do you know the one? The most beautiful neck I ever put my dirty mitts on. The end.

A dual buck StingRay will get closer to a jazz sound than a jazz will to a StingRay sound. That said, they'll still sound nothing alike.

A Jazz mimicking a ray?
I doubt that this will be very successful.

Does it look like this one?



That's my bass, a PDN 2012 Stingray 5. Diggin it!

I think I broke one of my eyeballs trying to squint at that pic. ;)

I love my Jazz. It is versatile, it records & works well for just about any type of music, and it has a very comfortable neck.
My Stingray, however, is an absolute monster for slap or metal.

If I could only own one?
The Jazz, for sure.

Sorry - here's a larger one but doesn't show neck as well.



Just got back from a funk jam where I played a couple tunes on this bass.