EBMM StingRay Special Club

[Wood and Wire]

The original pre EB basses shipped with GHS strings (flats till early 78) - if you really want to get to Bernard Edwards authentic - however you have to play exactly like him as well!!

I remember seeing an interview with John Taylor, who ended up with Bernard's bass.

He recounted with great sadness, an accidental act of art-vandalism, when his roadie - thinking he was doing John a favour - cut off Bernard's strings, and put a fresh set on.


The thing is, if you go and watch Bernard's final show, on the night he died, in Tokyo (it's on YouTube, in full), he's playing his Stingray through a Trace Elliot Series 6 stack of 4x10 & 1x18, and clearly has a nice fresh set of strings on the bass.

Not surprisingly, he still sounds exactly like classic Bernard Edwards (so it's not really the end of the world that John's roadie killed the strings, or vital to Bernard's sound, to have old, dead, flatwound strings).

The video clearly shows both of his amp settings : his rig has a slight, broad mid scoop - and the head feeding the duplicate stack behind Nile Rodgers (so, no doubt not affecting the recoded audio) has the low end rolled of, and a high mid bump).

 

[Stranger Danger]

Black looks good on these. I have a black guard for my 4HH copper (but currently have it fitted with tortoiseshell).

Do you already have the bass or is it in the mail?

I just ordered a balck copper sparkle from Mike Quick. He doesn't have the template so I am sending him my original pick guard. Should be here in about 3 weeks. Cant wait to show y'all. I guess i got jealous of all the sparkly basses!

 

[LadyLoveStingRay5]

I just ordered a balck copper sparkle from Mike Quick. He doesn't have the template so I am sending him my original pick guard. Should be here in about 3 weeks. Cant wait to show y'all. I guess i got jealous of all the sparkly basses!

Sparkle

 

[bumble yeti]

Well as of 10 minutes ago I can be a member of this club. I just purchased a Dropped Copper 4H 8.8lbs at a smoking deal. The only question I have is where can I find a black pickguard to match the special. I'm not crazy about the white and want to swap it out for black.

Image please!!! Rules are rules.

drool

 

[drTSTingray]

One last inquiry . Do you remember what gear you were in on that James Brown type tune? Where you in Pbass or J bass territory?

Neither - it was 1 or 3 - I can't remember - probably 1 to get slightly more bite as the bass part is quite driving and important - with quite a lot of left hand muting. The song is Something For Fred.

I did use 5 (on Stir It Up) - I boosted the bass as well believe it or not - it was very dub sounding - a bit EB0 in timbre but with more focus (not boomy). I used 4 on that song on Friday night on the SR4HHS - I think 5 was better.

I used 4 and 2 on one or two songs as well. It was mostly 1 and 3 though.

As far as Bernard Edwards's sound is concerned the only way I've ever been able to replicate the popping sound on We Are Family is flat wound strings on a Stingray - I discovered this by accident!! Yes the 96 performance may well use roundwound strings.

 

[drTSTingray]

I use Markbass with my Special too. I have the CMD 121P and NY121. What are you using?

I use a Markbass LM3 with either a 2 X 10 deep (yesterday's rig) or with an additional 2 X 10 Traveller.

The CMD 121 is a great piece of kit - the studio we rehearse in has one and I've never heard such a good sound with my SR5. The guy who used to own it gigged with it and for small venues - he said it was plenty loud and really suited his 55/94.

 

[Iofflight]

Image please!!! Rules are rules.

drool

Well here is the purchase picture, it should be here in about 8-10 days. I'll post again when I get it in and swap out the pickguard. I live closer to EB so hopefully it will get here before the bass does.

I usually prefer rosewood but when I played this last month the roasted maple fingerboard looked and felt fantastic.

 

[Stranger Danger]

I use a Markbass LM3 with either a 2 X 10 deep (yesterday's rig) or with an additional 2 X 10 Traveller.

The CMD 121 is a great piece of kit - the studio we rehearse in has one and I've never heard such a good sound with my SR5. The guy who used to own it gigged with it and for small venues - he said it was plenty loud and really suited his 55/94.

With the extension cab it really can be used for any gig I’m likely to ever play. I really like DI on these too. Having a separate level control so you can control the amp and DI signal volumes separately is a huge plus. It allowed me to dump the DI pedal from my board.

 

[Stranger Danger]

Well here is the purchase picture, it should be here in about 8-10 days. I'll post again when I get it in and swap out the pickguard. I live closer to EB so hopefully it will get here before the bass does.

I usually prefer rosewood but when I played this last month the roasted maple fingerboard looked and felt fantastic.

View attachment 3335025

I have the Dropped Copper and I have to take it out in the sunlight every once in a while to really appreciate the color. It’s gorgeous! Congrats!

 

[Iofflight]

Thank you I'm really happy about it, I've wanted a StringRay for a long time and was convinced I was going to go with the more traditional 2band EQ sound. However when I played this I thought it sounded outstanding and in the ball park of a StringRay sound I wanted plus it wasn't as clunky.

 

[Stranger Danger]

Thank you I'm really happy about it, I've wanted a StringRay for a long time and was convinced I was going to go with the more traditional 2band EQ sound. However when I played this I thought it sounded outstanding and in the ball park of a StringRay sound I wanted plus it wasn't as clunky.

In a lot of ways it’s a hybrid to me of a Fender and a Stingray much like the early Lakland 44-94 basses were. The exceptional neck and lightweight are huge pluses. They made it completely new without changing the look too much and they made no compromises in quality. It’s really pretty damned impressive strictly from a design standpoint.

 

[bovinehost]

Is a rosewood board not generally available on Aqua Sparkle?

 

[gkella]

Well as of 10 minutes ago I can be a member of this club. I just purchased a Dropped Copper 4H 8.8lbs at a smoking deal. The only question I have is where can I find a black pickguard to match the special. I'm not crazy about the white and want to swap it out for black.

Waiting for my 4HH to arrive and am going to change out the white for black as well.
I am going to buy direct from Ernie Ball.

 

[drTSTingray]

Is a rosewood board not generally available on Aqua Sparkle?

Nope - comes only with ebony (to mere mortals) - however you may have a little more influence - that said, I think the ebony goes perfectly with the black hardware and pg (another gratuitous photo opportunity....)

As it does with Cruz teal (especially with non standard black pg)

Which colour shall you be getting? I think you said an SR5?

 

[drTSTingray]

With the extension cab it really can be used for any gig I’m likely to ever play. I really like DI on these too. Having a separate level control so you can control the amp and DI signal volumes separately is a huge plus. It allowed me to dump the DI pedal from my board.

Those amps are really powerful and the whole set up works well with MM basses.

I agree on the DI as well - very effective and having the signal strength control for the DI is excellent - it always gives a great sound through a PA. I'm always careful to keep the post EQ button depressed so they get sound sculpted by me, the bass and the amp!! One of the videos I posted in this thread was through a house DI, and an Orange set up - I struggled a bit with that as the amp voicing (a valve amp) was very different from my usual experience but they seem to have got a reasonable FOH sound. Incredibly fat low end sound on the stage.

 

[Stranger Danger]

Those amps are really powerful and the whole set up works well with MM basses.

I agree on the DI as well - very effective and having the signal strength control for the DI is excellent - it always gives a great sound through a PA. I'm always careful to keep the post EQ button depressed so they get sound sculpted by me, the bass and the amp!! One of the videos I posted in this thread was through a house DI, and an Orange set up - I struggled a bit with that as the amp voicing (a valve amp) was very different from my usual experience but they seem to have got a reasonable FOH sound. Incredibly fat low end sound on the stage.

Yeah I use the post eq unless I have an outboard preamp. I typically keep the amp flat with the filters off though.

 

[LadyLoveStingRay5]

In a lot of ways it’s a hybrid to me of a Fender and a Stingray much like the early Lakland 44-94 basses were. The exceptional neck and lightweight are huge pluses. They made it completely new without changing the look too much and they made no compromises in quality. It’s really pretty damned impressive strictly from a design standpoint.

I agree with your hybrid comparison .

 

[drTSTingray]

Yeah I use the post eq unless I have an outboard preamp. I typically keep the amp flat with the filters off though.

I rarely use the filters and keep the amp generally flat - a slight tweak sometimes for room dynamics.

 

[Stranger Danger]

I rarely use the filters and keep the amp generally flat - a slight tweak sometimes for room dynamics.

Same here. Or I will adjust on the Stingray. It's great having a clean palette like the Markbass to paint on.

 

[Stranger Danger]

So who is into pedals?