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Strings to tame a Sting Ray ?

Only saw Pure Blues mentioned once here. If I don't have a set of Kalium equal tension hybrid sets on my Modulus Q5 SS (read sweet spot) I have Pure Blues on there. The moddy can really be hi-fi at times with the geaphite neck and EMG pickup / pre amp and since it is a sweet spot can deliver a ton of high end information. Pure blue make the Moddy punch holes in the walls and warm it up very nicely
 
Try new strings but you'll also have to adjust technique and EQ. I suggest also turning the volume on the bass itself down to 75% or so... great trick for dialing back the "in your face" aspect of your sound regardless of string.

La Bella RX are a nice roundwound, more mellow than many but still very roundwound-ey
 
I’m in the minority in that I do NOT like TI Jazz Flats

No need to worry.

Minority of what? Active posters? even with those that do at least 2-3 posts a day, I do not think most of those like or use TI Jazz flats. There's one guy that is their default response and even put it in Haiku poetry.

They are expensive. And I was just told by a friend who plays at some orchestras in Europe, the Thomastik Spirocore which the DB side says they keep it for 10 years or so, do get change every year or at least every 2 years by people who play the bass (and probably their only bass ) a lot, like bowing it daily. And it makes sense. My friend said that past 1 year, his Thomastik Spirocores just sound dead when you are bowing. Maybe okay for plucking.

I would really would like to know who much a bass with TI JF gets played. If you have 11 basses, sure you can keep them for a while. I'd really like to hear those TI JFs that have been there for 4 years and then how many hours a week does that get played.
 
Try new strings but you'll also have to adjust technique and EQ. I suggest also turning the volume on the bass itself down to 75% or so... great trick for dialing back the "in your face" aspect of your sound regardless of string.

La Bella RX are a nice roundwound, more mellow than many but still very roundwound-ey

Strange, I experienced the opposite... if I have a low signal going to the amp I instinctively play harder to compensate, which results in a less mellow/round tone. In fact I even recently added a booster pedal that I use for my two active basses.

I actually have a set of new La Bella RX that I haven't yet installed on my Warwick Corvette 5 (this also currently strung with EB Slinkys)
 
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Hello,

For years I loved my Sting Ray with maple fingerboard and fresh Ernie Ball regular Slinky strings for an aggressive and nasty tone I wanted for the type of music I mainly played.

Now I am seldom playing that genre, and for the others I play I feel I would like a smoother/rounder/mellow/more gentle tone. Not really a darker one; I still want some presence and brightness.
I got some good results by changing the EQ on the bass or outboard, but I would like to see what different strings may bring.

I play with fingers and pick, some slap.

Any suggestions?
I tried reading some threads in this Forum; am I in the right direction with DR Sunbeams or stabilized(*) Hi Beams?

Thank you!


(*) By “stabilized” I mean that, to my understanding from what I read, the Hi Beams are too bright when new and they deliver their best after some use.
Ernie Ball slinky flats. Thank me later ;0)
 
I'm sorry if everyone already knows this: The 3-band has a characteristic spike at about 4kHz, even with the treble at zero (if treble is rolled off a lot, this spike is also rolled off a lot, but it still sticks up over the surrounding frequencies and so stays noticeable, at least to me). I don't remember if the 2-band does too.

IF *this* is the feature you aim to "tame", as you said, then I know from experience that you might not succeed with just a string change.
My two Stingrays were my most expensive basses so I resisted modding them, and sold them, and bought the passive Sterling Sterling ash. That was my personal solution, but a REAL Stingray fan probably needs that spike.
 
So, regarding those Cobalt flats... considering that after trying different gauges of the EB Slinky's I settled on the Regular 50-105, what would you suggest ?

(I have no experience with flats)

45-105

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On an Stingray I'd consider Elixers.

Big fan of EBCF and DR Nickel LoRiders on my passive Jazzes.

The Elixers however are what may have come on a US Cirrus? Were perfect on my old one. They do well taming the hi-fi zing from brighter basses while retaining round grunt.

View attachment 5383681
I actually have these on both of my Stingrays right now - and also on my Big Al. The TB'er I bought my Stingray Special from uses tham and put a fresh set on that bass before he sold it to me - and he did the same thing when he sold me his Big Al (yep, bought both from the same TB'er). That set on my Special is now two years old and still sounds pretty good. When they were about a year old, I decided to try them on my ceramic Stingray and they're now nearly a year old. I haven't detected much mellowing in either set yet, which makes sense because they're coated. I like them a lot - their warmer tone, their relative smoothness, their very long life, and their stiffer feel. Though I prefer nickel Lo Riders, I do like the Nanowebs a lot as well and have no problem keeping them on these basses until I decide it's time for a change.
 
No need to worry.

Minority of what? Active posters? even with those that do at least 2-3 posts a day, I do not think most of those like or use TI Jazz flats. There's one guy that is their default response and even put it in Haiku poetry.
My unscientific and completely anecdotal impression from reading Talkbass is that the majority of people who mention TI Jazz Flats love them. Like I said, just my impression.
 
Tone knob?

The zinginess in new strings is very high frequency stuff. If you had a low pass filter where you could lop off stuff above a variable frequency, that would be great.

Unfortunately, that’s not how tone controls on basses work.

Most active basses have a shelf filter for the treble end. That takes out high mids and treble equally - not really what you want.

Passive tone controls, over the top half of their rotation, damp the upper mid peak - they don’t cut the “zing” range until we’ll below “half tone” - at the point where the DI start cutting the zing, you’ve lost a lot of mids. Again, not what you want.

An outboard EQ can get you what you want - I use Source Audio EQ2’s on my pedalboards. Part of what they do is a low pass (aka high cut) filter. Between that and not playing strings that are new on gigs, I have zing issues well controlled.
 

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