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Love/ hate relationship

#41
two fingers said:
Have you tried a Sterling? Sounds like it will be right up your alley.

I have that kind of relationship with every great bass manufacturer that only makes narrow spaced basses for the tiny people like you. :spit: :D

G&L, MusicMan, Ric, etc. make great basses I would love to buy/own/try. But my big hotdogs would get bound up in the tiny gaps between those strings.
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Hmmm... I have a custom L2K and a 4003S, both are super comfy and with me being 6'2'' and about 240lbs with big meat hooks for hands, I dont have any issues with them...sorry you do, you are missing out on great instruments ;-)
 
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#43
LadyLoveStingRay5 said:
Some of my all time favorite bassist used Stingray basses. Louis Johnson, Bernard Edwards , Paul S Denman,Oscar Alston, Allen McGrier, Nate Watts , John Deacon. I just live to listen to their Stingray playing. I'm especially fond of the 2band Classic Ray tones.

But I can't stand the way these basses feel in my hands. I'm just not comfortable playing them. The pickup placement is too far back and I like to rest my hand on the pickup when I play if I'm not muting the strings with my palm. The necks are too chunky for my small hands , they seem to be heavy the majority of the time . And I find the bodies too cumbersome .

Since they are uncomfortable for me , I can't get good tone .
So I'm stuck just enjoying listening to others play them .

Do you have this kind of love/hate relationship with any bass?
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Try an Ibanez ATK...you can get some similar tones and they feel great to play..my other bass is a p bass btw
 
#46
My first bass was an american Jazz. I loved the tone, I still haven't found anything that sounds as nice to me. However, it got incredibly boomy as you went up the neck, much more so than other basses I've had since then. I had to adjust my right hand position closer to the bridge when I would go up high in order to not make my lower position notes sound thin by comparison. I eventually sold it.

But the tone . . . :crying:
 
#47
Definitely a Ric, LOVE the way they sound and they just look COOL. I've almost bought one twice. The first time I wound up with a J Bass because the Ric neck felt so alien to me. It was instant love the first J Bass I held. Big disappointment that something could look and sound so cool and be so odd in the hands. The second time was about a month ago. A 4004. I kept telling myself that I'd get used to it eventually, like so many here say, but nope, put it back up on the wall.
 
#48
Pumpkin said:
Right there with you. I love my HH, but it takes a bit more control to slap on it effectively. Once you get used to it, it is doable. How high do you have the front pickup set up?
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Don't have one yet. I've been eyeballing them and teetering on buying one. I'm not a downward thumb guy, more of a hitcher's thumb slapper. So my middle and ring fingers run into the hazards there on the G string. Index finger usually pops the other 3 strings and I don't run into issues there.

I'm sure I probably could adjust. Maybe I'm just talking myself out of spending the $ for one. IDK...
 
#50
When did bass players become whimps? :-). Next to the drummer we used to Hump the most and Shake Walls. Now we listen to Cats play Guitar on Bass and say wow they're great. Ask anyone from the Old School there's Tone in that weight. If you don't like it you don't have to play it. Every heavy Bass I've ever owned sounded really good. Peeps need to work out, hydrate and stretch LOL!!!!!
 
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#52
bass40hz said:
Right?!?! *** is that?? LOL...I have a VERY HEAVY right hand, do a lot of Iron Maiden, Sabbath and the likes...can't play "right" and do Geezer or Harris!!
Rock on my bottom end brother!
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Glad you can make it work. I guess I got used to the extra room on a BTB some years back and couldn't make the switch. Every time I play a narrower bass in a store my right hand trips over itself....and that's both fingers and pick.
 
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#54
J-Bassomatic said:
Definitely a Ric, LOVE the way they sound and they just look COOL. I've almost bought one twice. The first time I wound up with a J Bass because the Ric neck felt so alien to me. It was instant love the first J Bass I held. Big disappointment that something could look and sound so cool and be so odd in the hands. The second time was about a month ago. A 4004. I kept telling myself that I'd get used to it eventually, like so many here say, but nope, put it back up on the wall.
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Maybe the problem is with your hands, not the Rick's neck? ;)
 
#55
I have sort of the same thing with my Ric. Maybe a bit more unusual than most who struggle with Rics. I have actually no problem playing it. It feels great on my hands. But after a few songs, it gets somewhat annoying to hold. I don't know if it's because it's so body-heavy, but something about how it feels on my neck and back just feels wrong.

Speaking of which, could a wider or just generally different strap help with that?
 
#56
I've always admired music man basses. But I've only ever wanted to buy one. And it was a Bongo. I was young but it seemed to play itself. I was also broke so no dice. I seem to remember really liking the sterling's when they first came out. I played both at guitar center i think. Possibly Mars Music even which was way cooler than G.C.
 
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#57
two fingers said:
Glad you can make it work. I guess I got used to the extra room on a BTB some years back and couldn't make the switch. Every time I play a narrower bass in a store my right hand trips over itself....and that's both fingers and pick.
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BTB is a nice bass...wutcha doing picking on that? That's a funk machine if ever there was one!
 
#58
LadyLoveStingRay5 said:
Some of my all time favorite bassist used Stingray basses. Louis Johnson, Bernard Edwards , Paul S Denman,Oscar Alston, Allen McGrier, Nate Watts , John Deacon. I just live to listen to their Stingray playing. I'm especially fond of the 2band Classic Ray tones.

But I can't stand the way these basses feel in my hands. I'm just not comfortable playing them. The pickup placement is too far back and I like to rest my hand on the pickup when I play if I'm not muting the strings with my palm. The necks are too chunky for my small hands , they seem to be heavy the majority of the time . And I find the bodies too cumbersome .

Since they are uncomfortable for me , I can't get good tone .
So I'm stuck just enjoying listening to others play them .

Do you have this kind of love/hate relationship with any bass?
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I've owned 4 musicmans.

picture of the most recent one
IMG_0167.JPG

Also had a black SR5, a bongo 5 that I ordered because I wanted a specific pickup configuration in a finish that they didn't make as a production bass, and a fretless 4 SBMM Ray 34.
IMG_2104.JPG
I think they are great basses for the money. There are some small details that I think could be better. considering the price of a new stingray has essentially doubled over the years I think there should be a little more love put into them. I kind of look at musicman as high end parts basses. They make the parts and put them together and it is what it is. Doesn't seem like they do much once the bass is assembled for example making sure a compensated nut isn't sharp on the g string side you're not cutting your hand at shows when you're really getting into the music. This was a big problem with the last one I had . As you can see in this picture (not my bass)
IMG_2381.JPG
the nut has a this sharp part that would cut the side of my index finger at shows when I was really getting into it. Replacing a nut isn't a big deal but it's just little things like that. Another thing was the pickup poles on all but the bongo started to rust. The bongo I owned had a black paint/coating over the pickup poles. I just think if you're going to sell basses in the $1500-$2500 range they need to little issues like these ironed out.
 
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#59
Without a doubt it is a Stingray for me.

I have bought and sold 6 of them. I love the way they look and feel. The necks always bothered me, so I got an SLO. I sold that. I then really missed it and bought the exact same bass again. The Stingray tone is great, but for some reason it just doesn't do it completely for me. I try and try but always end up in the same spot. As much as I like the bass, it's just not a keeper. I think I've finally come to grips that I'm just not a Stingray guy. So, I took my latest SLO and just recently traded it for a Spector on here. Immediately I feel in love with that compared to the Stingray. There is NOTHING wrong with them, they are amazing instruments, they are just not for me.
 
#60
bass40hz said:
BTB is a nice bass...wutcha doing picking on that? That's a funk machine if ever there was one!
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I play just about everything. I was in a wedding/private/corporate/variety band back then and it was versatile. I like to rock out just as much as I like to get my funk on. These days I am pretty much a P bass guy until my new Hammersmith gets here.
 

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