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This is why Louis Johnson ended up with a Stingray!

#81
Dr. Cheese said:
I remember that video well. A Sabre is on my bucket list.:) I owned one back in the 1990s and let it go like a jackass!
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I know the feeling I had the same one Louis was playing (79) and sold it...however I'm in the process of getting another one and I gotta tell ya I've yet to hear another bass with a preamp with the same type voicing that the Sabre had
 
#82
hands5 said:
I feel ya Doc,but you have to remember I"ll be Good To You/Get the Funk outta Ma Face were On The Look Out For # 1 lp which Louis was using a Precision and I actually got to see this tour and @ that time he was playing a Blonde Ash Precision and when They played Get The Funk Outta My Face Louis switched to Guitar and George played Bass. A Jazz Bass @ that.
I started seeing Louis use a Tobbacco Sunburst Ray on the Blam tour ( which he kicked ass !)
The Light up the Night Tour I saw him use a Ray and a Sabre
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I know he started out on a P-bass. Like Brad, I had no idea you couldn't slap a Precision either!
 
#83
When I was young there was an older bass player in the neighborhood named Bobby Prindale. He would go around with his Fender P bass hanging over the back of his shoulder and he use to flip it around and play all of Larry Graham and Louis Johnson's bass lines. The finger style ones as well as the thumped and plucked ones(today referred to as slapping and popping). And his live performances were legendary.

Sadly in the 80's he got killed arguing over a bottle of wine
 
#84
JAUQO III-X said:
When I was young there was an older bass player in the neighborhood named Bobby Prindale. He would go around with his Fender P bass hanging over the back of his shoulder and he use to flip it around and play all of Larry Graham and Louis Johnson's bass lines. The finger style ones as well as the thumped and plucked ones(today referred to as slapping and popping). And his live performances were legendary.

Sadly in the 80's he got killed arguing over a bottle of wine
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I hope a tape of him surfaces one day so he can be put on Youtube!:)
 
#87
hands5 said:
I feel ya Doc,but you have to remember I"ll be Good To You/Get the Funk outta Ma Face were On The Look Out For # 1 lp which Louis was using a Precision and I actually got to see this tour and @ that time he was playing a Blonde Ash Precision and when They played Get The Funk Outta My Face Louis switched to Guitar and George played Bass. A Jazz Bass @ that.
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Hmmm...in this clip you can see the lefty Jazz Bass sitting behind George.
YouTube - The Brothers Johnson - I'll Be Good To You 1976
 
#88
#91
Hoover said:
Considering JJ got his 5-string nearly a decade earlier than that you'd think there must be an older performance clip somewhere, no?
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I'm sure there is, but still its one of the earliest because besides JJ, virtually no one else had a BEADG five in 1984. I think Yamaha may have just started producing the BB5000 then, and the Stingray V was three years off. The Fender Jazz V came even later.
 
#92
Dr. Cheese said:
I'm sure there is, but still its one of the earliest because besides JJ, virtually no one else had a BEADG five in 1984. I think Yamaha may have just started producing the BB5000 then, and the Stingray V was three years off. The Fender Jazz V came even later.
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Any idea when Ken Smith started making 5-string instruments? I know I saw a couple of bassists around Boston -- Tim Archibald comes to mind -- rocking a Smith w/ a low B around 1984...or maybe it was '85?

Eh, sorry, thread-drift!
 
#94
jdthebassman said:
i like them both i have a 76 series1 and a 77 stingray,different sound but just as funky.
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I can not possibly agree with this more. I have a '77 Series 1 and a '79 Stingray. They are both fantastic but they are both VERY different animals. In fact, I think outside of them both being two of the earliest basses with active electronics (Alembic of course being the first) and the fact that they both have 4 strings, they are about as completely different as you can possibly get. I understand the original point of this thread as being based on Louis Johnson's bass of choice during different eras, but that aside, I find these two basses so vastly different that I wonder why they are being so vehemently in compared with each other. It's like comparing a Rolls Royce to a Lamborghini. You CAN... I guess...but why would you want to?
 
#95
OOTB68 said:
I can not possibly agree with this more. I have a '77 Series 1 and a '79 Stingray. They are both fantastic but they are both VERY different animals. In fact, I think outside of them both being two of the earliest basses with active electronics (Alembic of course being the first) and the fact that they both have 4 strings, they are about as completely different as you can possibly get. I understand the original point of this thread as being based on Louis Johnson's bass of choice during different eras, but that aside, I find these two basses so vastly different that I wonder why they are being so vehemently in compared with each other. It's like comparing a Rolls Royce to a Lamborghini. You CAN... I guess...but why would you want to?
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I certainly had was not vehement about anything. I just said the Stingray was a better fit for LJ.
 
#96
I do understand and I acknowledged the original point of the post (kind of, I guess), although I guess I didn't say it as well as I could have. I was more or less commenting on the posts that came out of this, some of which went beyond the original intent of the post. I just find these two particular basses to be be SO different in construction, woods, electronics, neck shaper, ergonomics, etc, etc, that outside of the original intent of the post (in regards to Louis Johnson's use of each) it's difficult to compare the two. That's all. It's like apples and oranges. Now if we were comparing the P-bass to the Stingray, that to me is a little closer to to a reasonable comparison. I meant no disrespect to the thread or the to the original post. I just happen to own one of each of them so I figured I'd throw my opinion out there.
 
#99
leo.jpg


From the History Files. Leo and that pocket protector!
 

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