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WHy did Tim commerford convet from a stingray to a jazz???
- Thread starter BrandonBass
- Start date
I associate his signature tone more with a StingRay, though. That's how a StingRay sounds, in my mind. He can finagle that sound out of a Jazz but it sounds like a Ray tone to my ears.
I remember reading somewhere him saying that everyone was going for that "Flea" sound, so he decided to move in a different direction and went with the Jazz.
I doubt that anyone would know for sure, however the neck size is substantially different and some folks role their thumb over the top to work close to the nut & (for some) to increase speed. Obviously I'm guessing; it could also be a commercial issue.
ha, so what is going to move on to now? Flea has been rocking out fender jazzes recently
Plus, I dont get what he mean by 'everyone one going for the flea sound'. Jazz basses along w pbasses were still the most common basses even at the peak of rhcp's popularity.
Here is an old quote from the Fender News interview with Timmy from around 2005:
"FN: What do you like, specifically, about the Jazz Bass?
TC: It’s comfortable. You can watch the Jaco (Pastorius) instructional video and see Jaco roll up all the pickups and roll the front pickup back and kind of like dial the sound in. That’s one thing about every Jazz Bass that I love—if you turn up both pickups all the way and then roll that front back, you kind of get that low-end “doo-doo-doo” sound, and then it goes into a (makes an open-ended “wah” sound). That’s my sound, right there. That’s it. No other bass does that for me. My hand goes there and it knows how to roll the pickups real quick and make it happen. It feels comfortable—the shape of the bass; everything about it is just perfect."
"FN: What do you like, specifically, about the Jazz Bass?
TC: It’s comfortable. You can watch the Jaco (Pastorius) instructional video and see Jaco roll up all the pickups and roll the front pickup back and kind of like dial the sound in. That’s one thing about every Jazz Bass that I love—if you turn up both pickups all the way and then roll that front back, you kind of get that low-end “doo-doo-doo” sound, and then it goes into a (makes an open-ended “wah” sound). That’s my sound, right there. That’s it. No other bass does that for me. My hand goes there and it knows how to roll the pickups real quick and make it happen. It feels comfortable—the shape of the bass; everything about it is just perfect."
I was gonna say, he's been playing Laklands for several years at least.
However, Flea has extensively used both the Stingray and the Jazz.
I'm thinking it must have been something to do with overall ergonomics. I find Fender Jazz Basses to be more comfortable than StingRays, in my limited exposure to StingRays.
If so, he's not using them exclusively. I just went to Lakland's shop today and they're building him several new basses--I saw the necks.
FYI, here's one of the necks. This is a custom job being built by Lakland's former head luthier, who now works for them again but has his own side business (Welcome to Chicago Bass Doctor). I believe it's a 35" scale four-banger.
