Stingray sound on G&L

[petzhopoy]

Hi there. I'm asking you guys if you like the classic Stingray slap tone. I think a lot of people find it very aggressive and punchy, which you couldn't mimic by just any other basses.....

or you would say G&L l2000...

Ok, before I got my l2000 USA I was always dreaming tp own a Stingway. Then I came across this nice L2000 in amber. The deal is a stealth, so I brought it home. Here is a video of me playing it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIeBD7UBLew

The bass has a lot of sounds, most are very useful. But I simply can't dial in a stingray sound. I soloed the brifge pickup, in paraelle mode, with active treble boost on. But the sound just didn't come out.

After watching several demos of both basses on youtube I believe it is related to the preamp frequency. I think the G&L bass boost has a wider basis, combines more mid freq. I figured it out when I dialed in some bass, the sound get a bit muddy at the low end freq, in contrast to the 'scooped' sound of a Stingray.

Maybe it's just me. And the G&L surely sounds great. But we all want a lot of sounds on our gear right? Anyone in the same boat? Or any suggestion? Thanks!

[Billy Low]

The quest of finding a true Music Man stingray tone out of anything but a MM Stingray is one hell of a quest! I have yet to find an instrument that does it to my liking. There are some that get pretty close, but none that nail it.

I love the G&L L-2000 for what it is. Awesome instrument. It has it's own personality, yet can mimic others slightly to fairly well. I believe you may be closer to the Stingray tone w/an L-1500...but that too still doesn't get the Ray tone exactly. Again, just my opinion.

[T. Brookins]

The most of what you are looking for (the sonic signature) lies in the pickup aperture spacing and placement.

On almost any bass, if you get an MM style humbucker centered underneath the "B" harmonic on the "G" string, you will almost nail the MM tone.



ENJOY.

[petzhopoy]

Wow T.Brookins that's a very good insight

[bassbenj]

Originally Posted by T. Brookins

The most of what you are looking for (the sonic signature) lies in the pickup aperture spacing and placement.

On almost any bass, if you get an MM style humbucker centered underneath the "B" harmonic on the "G" string, you will almost nail the MM tone.

ENJOY.

Exactly. And even though my L-2500 certainly LOOKS like you should be able to nail the Stingray tone, it doesn't. Compared to my OLP stingray copy, the bridge pickup is in the wrong spot. And even worse, on a real stingray the preamp is very unique and aggressive. And also the unique design of the 'Ray allows you to blend between the two coils of the MM humbucker while a G&L only gives you a parallel connection (or single coil if modded like mine). It's just not the same.

I"m sure one could build a G&L with the bridge pickup moved to the stingray spot and that might be interesting. But there are probably limits as to just how versatile any single pickup arrangement can be.

[johnk_10]

Originally Posted by bassbenj

.................... And also the unique design of the 'Ray allows you to blend between the two coils of the MM humbucker.......................

that's news to me?
on my OLP, i can blend the coils (it has a volume control for each one), but it's a passive bass.

every ray that i've ever owned has just two wires from the double coils wired in parallel going straight into the preamp. AFAIK, no standard 'Ray allows blending of the coils.

[maxbass]

Different pickup, different pickup position, different electronics...

[Nedmundo]

Originally Posted by Billy Low

I believe you may be closer to the Stingray tone w/an L-1500...but that too still doesn't get the Ray tone exactly. Again, just my opinion.

That's true. I used an L-1500 as my main gigging bass for awhile, and in active mode with the pickup in parallel it sounds somewhat like a StingRay with treble boosted. But it's just in the general neighborhood of that tone, and doesn't nail it by any means. It's closer to the Sterling. You could probably get closer by installing a different on-board pre.

[lmfreeman9]

Also, from what I have heard the predecessor of the L-1500, the Climax Bass is more like a Sting Ray, really a Sterling since it is less beefy and had a jazz neck.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...ed=0CCUQ9QEwAQ

[lousybassplayer]

Frankly, I think oyu can acheive a pretty similar slap sound out of any bass with the right eq'ing and technique EXCEPT for a Stingray slap tone. I say this becasue I can sound like perfect garbage slapping any bass in the world, but with a Ray at least the tone sounds nice. I think it has to do with the fact that very few basses derive so much oftheir tonal characteristics from their pre as the 'Ray. Like someone said in another thread, a great deal of the pres out there are trying to stay transparent and only "color" the natural acoustics/timbre of the instrument. Ray's are not like that IMO.

[jasper383]

I have had several G&L basses, including the L-1500. I never was able to get the EBMM sound out of them that so many claim you can. Fender sounds? All day long. MM sounds, no.

The EBMM sound has so much to do with the pre amp.

[Billy Low]

Originally Posted by T. Brookins

The most of what you are looking for (the sonic signature) lies in the pickup aperture spacing and placement.

On almost any bass, if you get an MM style humbucker centered underneath the "B" harmonic on the "G" string, you will almost nail the MM tone.



ENJOY.

Hmm....

I would have to greatly disagree. Many of the pickup offerings are in no ways matched to the EBMM pickup. Seymour Duncan is more aggressive; Bartolini, warmer and more compressed. Being one that has done exactly as you say regarding humbucker placement (with bodies shaped similarly and of the same wood types, I cannot say that this is the key to the MM tone.

Even with pickups that are more closely matched to the EBMM I have found that the key is the preamp.

[johnk_10]

my duncan alnico 2 coil smb4-a sounds exactly like a stock ray pickup. the ceramic ones do sound more aggressive though.
nordstrand's MM4.2 is also very close. (it's not hotter either).

[danomite64]

Originally Posted by lmfreeman9

Also, from what I have heard the predecessor of the L-1500, the Climax Bass is more like a Sting Ray.

I had one, and tonally, it was nothing like my Stingray. I had high hopes for that bass, and it was pretty as it could be, but it wasn't a good sounding bass at all. My L-2000 was a better sounding bass, but still couldn't cop the tone of my Stingray.

[jasper383]

Originally Posted by danomite64

I had one, and tonally, it was nothing like my Stingray. I had high hopes for that bass, and it was pretty as it could be, but it wasn't a good sounding bass at all. My L-2000 was a better sounding bass, but still couldn't cop the tone of my Stingray.

This was my experience with the L-1500, too. Beautiful bass, and I had high hopes, but I couldn't get a sound I liked out of it.

[JohnnyB53]

I think the "problem" with the L-1500 is that instead of the L2000's 3-way passive/active/active+treble boost, it's a 2-way switch that jumps from passive to active+treble boost. This treble boost makes the L1500 sound very aggressive, trebly, and snarly. I have an L-1505 with the same controls. I usually play with boost on to get the extra clarity, but then roll down the passive treble knob to about 1/4 up from 0 to get a less intrusive tonal balance. I wish it used the 3-way switch like the L-2000.

Still, I think some of these characterizations of the L-1500 are too broad. Although there is an underlying vibe to these G&L's, the combination of their passive/active, series/parallel, passive treble & bass controls, adjustable pickup pole pieces, and the dramatic tonal variations in response to different strings makes for an enormous range of tonal characteristics that defies simple categorization.

One thing's sure, you can get plenty of definition and treble overtones even with flatwounds. I can't see ever needing stainless roundwounds on my L-1505.

[ezstep]

Originally Posted by Billy Low

The quest of finding a true Music Man stingray tone out of anything but a MM Stingray is one hell of a quest!

+1

I wonder why people purchase a particular bass in hopes of getting the sound of a different particular bass. A P won't sound like a Stingray. A Stingray won't sound like a P. Nor a Jazz. The L2000 will do things the Stingray cannot. The Stingray will do things the L2000 cannot.

Nothing wrong with any of them, just the character(s) of the beast(s). I haven't found a bass yet (not even Leo Fender's other creations) that will copy the same sound as a different bass. I don't really think Leo wanted to copy the same sound with a different bass.

[GBassNorth]

Originally Posted by Billy Low

Hmm....

I would have to greatly disagree. Many of the pickup offerings are in no ways matched to the EBMM pickup. Seymour Duncan is more aggressive; Bartolini, warmer and more compressed. Being one that has done exactly as you say regarding humbucker placement (with bodies shaped similarly and of the same wood types, I cannot say that this is the key to the MM tone.

Even with pickups that are more closely matched to the EBMM I have found that the key is the preamp.

+1000
I've built what I had hoped would be a Stingray sound alike using Bart, Delano and other brand MM type pickups and found it was impossible to get even close to the original pre EB stingray sound. Swapped out several different preamps to a 2 band MM style preamp and had no problem getting the EB sound. So, in my experience a MM style pickup (that's marketed as a MM sound pup) in a similar bridge position to the vintage stingray (which is different than the new stingrays) with a MM style preamp will get you very very close if not exactly where you need to be.
FWIW I did have a G&L 2500 that looked and felt beautiful but didn't have the sound I wanted (pickups way too hot). So I traded it on a new sight unseen Stingray 5 single pu 3 band bass thinking it would be alot like my vintage stingray which I could then put in safe storage. Found out the hard way that the 3 band stingray does NOT sound anything like my vintage pre EB 2 band stingray (which I like a lot more). So now I have a really cool new 5 string single buck stingray that sounds great but doesn't take the place of my vintage stingray. They do make a vintage reissue 2 band stingray that might sound like the originals but I haven't tried one yet.
Good luck.

[Dub56]

I get a very Stingray tone on my mid-90's Ibanez ATK300.

I've owned 2 Stingrays, one with a single humbucker and one H/S. They both cost around or a bit over $1000.

I get a tone VERY similar from the ATK, and I paid $100-$150 bucks for it. It does the job for me, I'm not a huge fan of the 'Ray tone most of the time though.

[jgroh]

Ok are we talking about "Im not in a band, this is just for fooling around by myself at home and all I have for reference is youtube clips" MM tone? Or are you trying to get a certain tone in the mix of your band and the G&L isnt cutting it? Like someone else said, if you bought the G&L only because you thought it could cop a MM tone, you should have saved your money for when you could afford a real MM.