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Fender vs Stingray vs G&L

Fender Deluxe, MusicMan, or G&L??

  • Fender Deluxe Jazz/Precision

    Votes: 49 27.1%
  • MusicMan Stingray/Sterling

    Votes: 84 46.4%
  • G&L

    Votes: 48 26.5%

  • Total voters
    181
Dunno Jack. Maybe with his brain and hands he got that growl from a P. My brain and hands needed 2 pickups. Wetton's sound isn't exactly what I wanted but was closer to it than say Steve Harris.

Really it was a hybrid of the growl of Wetton, Geddy, Chris Squire crossed with John Macvie and Steve Harris and a little Blue Oyster Cult from Fire of Unknown Origin, is the best I can describe what I was after and the G&L gave me what I wanted.

Jim
 
+1 on the Lakland.

Next would be the G&L then Stingray.

If you are not trying to make 1 bass sound like 3 and just want a rock solid tone....go with a P-Bass. But the slap tone stinks to my ears.

I have a Lakland 55-02 and a 78 P-bass that go to every one of my gigs. I have owned all of the basses in your post, and I think you would be happy with all of them.
 
I suggest you get out there and try them yourself, instead of opening multiple threads on the same subject. It really is a waste of time because (1) you'll get a hundred different answers and all of them are based on personal preference (2) tone is mainly in your hands, not the bass. Any one of the basses mentioned can get Tim Commerford's tone...if Tim Commerford is playing it. Might or might not work that way for you. (3) Emulating a big-name player is futile...have you ever considered that this person may NOT have played all the basses available to him, and just went with something easy or found his tone with the very first one? (4) Utterly discount anyone who says "Brand X...end of story", especially when asking about instruments as similar as the three above. They are unrealistically biased for some reason that may not hold water for anyone but them.
 
It seems most of us are forgetting you can get any musicman with dual humbuckers or a single coil in the neck position. then with its little selector switch you essentially get a Pish tone, 2 jazzy tones, the classic MM tone and a full on tonal assault with both pickups. It might be just me but I dont even realize why theres a question of what to get :confused:
 
mchildree said:
tone is mainly in your hands

I really agree with Mike. I used to think that the bass supplied most of the tonal differences and it's definitely a very big part.

The really strange thing is I've had 5-6 different people over in the past year who all played through the same basses and amps/cabs. I have an F bass that I love the tone of (in my hands). In Joel's hands it sounded even better and fit his style perfectly. Dave tried it and it just sounded blah, no matter how we adjusted the controls. He then tried a Lakland Jazz that had been underwhelming me and it sounded amazing!

So I vote a big +1 for getting out there and trying stuff. See if any of the folks here are local to you and have the gear you're interested in, and stores are an obvious option too.
 
In order of my personal preference:
1.Musicman
2.G&L
3.Fender
I own all three and love them all for different reasons. That being said Fender comes in a distant 3rd place. Also I've never agreed with the tired "L2000 can sound like a Jazz, P, or a Stingray" statement. The L2000 is very much its own animal and to me doesn't sound like a 'Ray or a Jazz any more than any other 2 pickup bass.
 
mchildree said:
I suggest you get out there and try them yourself, instead of opening multiple threads on the same subject. It really is a waste of time because (1) you'll get a hundred different answers and all of them are based on personal preference (2) tone is mainly in your hands, not the bass. Any one of the basses mentioned can get Tim Commerford's tone...if Tim Commerford is playing it. Might or might not work that way for you. (3) Emulating a big-name player is futile...have you ever considered that this person may NOT have played all the basses available to him, and just went with something easy or found his tone with the very first one? (4) Utterly discount anyone who says "Brand X...end of story", especially when asking about instruments as similar as the three above. They are unrealistically biased for some reason that may not hold water for anyone but them.

There you go being logical and making sense Mike. You know you can't do that on the web. :p :p :p I think there is a rule somewhere.

Jim
 
I largely agree with mchildree, but since I like Commerford's tone with Audioslave, I'll play along. To me, that tone means maximum growl, which in turn means Fender Jazz or G&L L-1500. The latter is an aggressive, growly take on the String Ray's "sweet spot" humbucker approach, and might be better than the 'Ray for the hard-hitting tone I suspect you're after. In passive mode especially, it's closer to Fender territory than the 'Ray. But if I were playing a set of Audioslave covers, I'd be just as likely to grab my P-bass, which I think rules with power trios, so who knows?