Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Stingray-most versatile bass ever made?
- Thread starter mbell75
- Start date
That was my problem with them as well. They really needed to offer those electronics in their more popular basses (Sterling and Stingray). I would have been the first in line.
Same goes with the electronics from the Big Al and Reflex bass. I didn't mind the looks of the Reflex, but the ergonomics didn't work for me at all, being rather short armed and small handed. It just hung too far to the left and holding my arm at full extension all night doesn't cut it.
And the Big Al??? Well, I didn't hate its looks as badly as I hate the Bongo's looks, but it's not something that I'd be interested in for myself except for maybe a studio bass or something.
I know... where that myth got started is a good question.
I had one Stingray that could, if you wanted to stretch your criterion, be accused of having a weak G. Things is, it was strung with 35-95 strings. Guess what happened when I put heavier strings on it? Now, at the time, I was using 35-95 strings on everything else and nothing else had that particular problem. But I don't even know if you could call that a weak G string or not... it just happened to be a bass that didn't respond well to super light strings, but was much better with heavier strings, and I'm certainly not going to make a blanket statement based on that. A lot of people do base opinions on outliers, though. Go figure.
I was thinking the exact same thing about Motörhead. A p-bass just wouldn't have fit Lemmy's sound.
Probably a large part of why I never got on with a p-bass.
Yep, that too. Different EQ for different basses and different rooms/playing situations. Also, I've noticed that some folks who complain about Stingrays have all three (or two) knobs dimed. (eye roll moment)
Some players, although I'm sure could or can play any bass, get a certain sound that becomes a part of them as players and (as with Denman and Lemmy) it is due in no small part to the bass they choose to play. Has nothing to do with what they could play or what is more versatile. It's just their signature sound.
Denman himself said in an interview that he just "couldn't imagine playing anything else" and that the Stingray was just "him." Personally, I have a strong preference to Stingrays/Sterlings and J-basses (and to a lesser extent Mustangs because they are comfortable to play with my small hands). Nothing wrong with other basses and I can play whatever, but those basses just give me what I want.
Just stop the trolling!
Should have never responded to your initial trolling, if I'd known it would be you acting like a broken record for two pages.
If you truly seek versatility, then consider the error in focusing on the instrument itself.
The more versatile the bassist, the better the musical outcome at any moment.
The more versatile the bassist, the better the musical outcome at any moment.
Funny you should mention Paul Denman. A sound similar to his was what I hoped I would find in the Stingrays I tried over the decades...no such luck.
The question is about versatility. Not being able to cop the most recorded bass tone as well as others seems to me to be a bit of a handicap in the versatility department.
I had just the opposite experience. I cannot get that sound with anything but a Stingray (or some clone). But I agree with you in that there are lots of Stingray players who would never get a "Denman Sound." Thing is, it's not just the bass, but also in the way the player plays it--attack, fingering choices, strings/gauge, and many other factors. All those factors add up to a certain sound.
I know a lot of people assume that Denman used flatwounds. Not the case at all. I read an interview where he stated he used rounds. It's the Stingray AND the way he plays it. Of course, only Denman can sound exactly like Denman, but like I said, I get his "sound" pretty well with a Stingray or Sterling in the parallel mode and my typical very light touch on the strings. It has gotten to the point that I can't even play those lines on anything else; it just doesn't sound right no matter how I play them.
Not trolling at all, and FWIW, you're pretty much "acting like a broken record for two pages", insisting that somehow the most recorded bass in history is not "versatile", because *you* were unable to make it work - when literally thousands of bassists have had no trouble at all doing so across numerous genres of music, and hundreds and hundreds of hit records...
Also, to say that an Ibanez ANYTHING is a better bass than the most recorded bass in history may demonstrate that maybe you don't actually know what a good sounding bass is, lol...
Of course the player has a huge effect on the tone. That's an axiom.
As far as the "weak G" goes I've had several Stingrays and Sterlings. Every last one of them had a weak/thin G. It was the reason I finally gave up on them.
