Sterling by Music Man

[uwe]

Of course you can play them in any music, but funky (not neccesarily slapping) stuff is where their general sound character makes you really perk your ears. Flea, Tony Levin ..., that is a classic Stingray sound to me. Cliff Williams isn't though he plays one. And you hardly ever see them played with a pick (probably due to their ultra-presence), Cliff Williams being again the exception, but not using a Stingray sound.

[Dave W]

I've seen 'em played with a pick many times.

Funk perks my ears, but not in a good way. 

[uwe]

It's the most pick-unfriendly bass ever, those huge pole pieces get in the way unless you have the pup real low which creates issues with that other stingray disease, the a little less assertive G string.

[Dave W]

Why would you need to pick right over the pickup? 

[Basvarken]

Why would you need to pick right over the pickup? 

Because that is exactly the spot where your hand is, if you have the palm of the hand at the bridge (which is what a lot of pick players do)


Here's an example of a MM Stingray (made passive) played with a pick:

[Dave W]

That sounds good, Rob. Still a MM sound when passive, even though the preamp is thought of as part of the sound.

I never pick or pluck down by the bridge. Too little string movement for me.

[patman]

A zillion years ago I saw Emmylou Harris at the University of Cincinnati Fieldhouse--awful cavernous acoustics

I think it was Emory Gordy Jr playing a (then new) Stingray with a pick and some sort of flatwound or groundround strings---I remember being impressed back then (probably '75? or so) that it sounded real clear in the fieldhouse.

The two other acts on the bill that night, Earl Scruggs, and Pure Prairie League, both used precision basses that boomed with an indistinct roar.

[uwe]

Because that is exactly the spot where your hand is, if you have the palm of the hand at the bridge (which is what a lot of pick players do)


Here's an example of a MM Stingray (made passive) played with a pick:

Quite right. The MM pup is too close to the bridge to pick before it and too far away from the bridge to pick behind if you want to rest your hand on the bridge. Besides, the way that whole bass hangs on you leads you to picking over the pup which is what finger players probably prefer to do as they can then rest their thumb on the pup. The Stingray ergonomics make perfect sense for a finger player, for a pick player not so much.

[Dave W]

What makes you think most pick players use that position? I've seen pick players play everywhere. Not everyone wants to be Nikki Sixx.

Here's some MM pick goodness from At The Drive In.

[Hornisse]

One of my favorite songs using a Stingray w/pick. 

[Nocturnal]

A few thoughts on the B.O.C. video:

1. I have always loved this song!

2. I HATE this video!!

3. What are those guitars they are playing? They look like a cross between an Explorer, Flying V, and Moderne.

4. What the Hell was the drummer wearing?? 

I do like the bass sound in this song a lot tho. I'm kind of indifferent to Stingrays. I don't really dislike them, but they don't fit me.

[Hornisse]

It is a pretty cheesy video.  That is Buck Dharma's Balestra Vulcan guitar.



I really liked Joe Bouchard's Alembic tone on the Spectres record too. 

[uwe]

Ah, mighty BÖC. But that is not Joe playing the bass on the recording, it was Buck on that particular track. Buck demoed it at home, played it to the others and everyone (well, Eric Bloom mostly, the others thought some of Buck's songwriting "too commercial", but Bloom was pragmativ "we have families to support and shouldn't watch Journey being in the charts all the time") liked it so much they just stuck with the demo and used that for the record. It sounds a bit like a demo too feelwise. There is probably no other BÖC member featured.

Whether Buck used a Stingray for the recording is anybody's guess, he certainly played with a pick though.

Of course you can dig out Stingray pick players and they might even be picking away from the bridge (in a Stingray you kind of have to!), but they are exceptions to the rule of the finger playing Stingrayer. And most pick players on bass rest their hands where most guitarists would rest them (unless the bass is too low to rest the hand at all).

Nikki Sixx is an extreme and the pinkie anchoring in the optigrap probably a convenient means to still have some control over the TBird while having it slung so low, but you don't have to be Nikki to generally prefer to have more more "rebound" on the string as a pick player by not playing it too much towards the neck unless you are going for a special sound. I generally play a hand (my hand) away from the bridge because that is where the side of my palm rests as I do a lot of righthand muting, basically all the time. That works with most basses, notably not with the Stingray (those darn pole pieces ...) and the Ric 4001/4003 where the bridge pup cover forces me to play farther back to the bridge than would be natural for me. Why not do away with the pup cover then? I find the cavernous routing around the bridge pup of a Ric hideously ugly so I compromise.

Dave, you listen to At the Drive-in? That's almost prog! 

[Dave W]

No, I hadn't heard of them until somebody posted the video at another forum a couple of years ago, can't even remember where. I was impressed by the bass tone so I saved it. Listened to a few more videos, their songs are (were) okay, nothing I would regularly listen to.

[Aussie Mark]

the optigrap probably a convenient means to still have some control over the TBird while having it slung so low

Look, ma, no optigrab!