To the Group - I originally posted this in a thread but it's too good to get lost and it deserves it's own discussion. For everyone what wants to know what a Stingray sounds like, here ya go ...
Thats what a stingray CAN sound like. I have yet to meet someone who plays with that much treble though. He has a very similiar slap style to me. Hmmph. And thos ssound like VERY new, stainless steel, strings. Still a good clip tohugh. But dont think a stingray HAS to sound that, zangy.
Yeah, it sounds almost like the acoustic sound of the bass without an amp. Does Louis always play that aggressively? He must be breaking loads of strings.
Well - Depending on who you believe, Louis Johnson "invented" slap bass. (Larry Graham devotees would disagree.) The Stingray is the axe on which he perfected his style of doing it.
Thats fine. But. I still dont think that the stingray = taht tone. His tone is wayy more aggreisve than most stingray tones i hear. (imo)
very trebly. i like Flea's tone on that video he did with rivers phoenix, i think that's a much more accurate example of what a more modern stingray would sound like.
That's no more definitive than calling Jaco's tone the definitive Jazz bass tone. That might be the definitive Louis Johnson slap tone, but that's about it.
Thats WAY too zingy for my taste. Bass players play on the LOW-END for a reason if you get my drift. Edit: Now that I think about it, he had some akward hendrix styling left hand technique too.
Find some old Haircut 100-listen to High Noon or one of the nicest sounding Stingray licks: Sade/Kiss of Life
Louis is da man! I am not a big fan of Musicman basses, but I love his tone. It's very old school. Ted
I agree, the tone is too trebley, as you said. I think it could partially be due to the fact of the recording/compression, but that, to me, is not what I think of when I think "stingray."
Ummm...no. That's Louis' sound. I've been playing StingRays since 1977 and that is not MY sound at all. Props to Louis, he's fantastic, but, well, no.
Yep.. that's about what a very aggressively slapped Stingray with new steel roundwounds recorded in part by a condenser mic 2' away from the body sounds like. One of many many possible tones that this bass is capable of, but I wouldn't call it the definitive tone. Just a popular one.
I like his technique - it looks a little sloppier than some out there, but the man plays with guts(why I opriginally liked Flea also) It's so raw and unrefined - yeah!
I'll sidestep the debate on use of the word 'definitive', but suffice it to say... that's the sound I dig most from Stingrays! I've had that video for a looooong time, and Louis' slap sound is still the one I look (listen?) for when I play a Ray.
Ugh. If I had heard that, and that only, prior to shopping for a Stingray, I would have looked for something else. I set my treble and mid flat and I boost the bass slightly.