Stingray HH Pickup Configuration Opinions

[Big Ron]

Hi yall,

Now that I have had my 5hh for a few years, I thought I would weigh in some opinions and see what other people think. Regarding the HH model, I am glad I chose it over the regular H as a prefer all of the various positions. The bridge humbucker alone sounds excellent like a classic stingray. The outside coils mimic a Jazz bass wonderfully. The both humbuckers is a very clean sound, deep low and and tingly highs. I also like the two inside coils as they remind me of a warwick/ric type sound, great with a pick. My only opinion is, I really do not prefer the isolated neck humbucker at all. It does not sound anything like a pbass (not like it is supposed to), but the G&L 2500 5 string with two humbuckers nails the pbass tone. I find the sound muddy and just not pleasant to the ears, so I never use it. I know people on here don't support mods whatsoever, but I would love to be able to wire that position to use the bridge humbucker and one coil of the neck humbucker (how the laklands or HS models are configured, which sounds awesome in my opinion.) I am leaving the bass as is for now, but just a neat thought. Curious how you guys like that neck position?

 

[Golem]

The neck H may be your least fave choice but I'm
sooprized you consider it useless. OTOH, I find my
HH less useful than my HS, even tho the HS has a
a coil choice thaz semi-useless ... or kinda "special
effect only". Thaz the bridge single, also available
on 1H Sterlings where it's even more specialized
than on an SR. The Bridge Single is sooper hot on
an SR but even more hotter on a Sterling. Insane !

Everything has some kinda purpose to somebody
and no one should feel shortchanged if they only
use 4 outa 5 options on the coil switch. It's not a
Signture model with your name on the headstock.
It was built for everybody.

So you could try rewiring it or just ignore the coil
setting you don't use. Also, I'm not sure it can be
rewired without serious risk of messing up the PU.
Like most folks here, I recommend enjoying the 4
coil settings you do use and not rewiring anything.

For perspective, perhaps consider the many digital
devices in our lives. They are loaded with options
we never need, just cuz the chip has abilities that
cost nothing extra to include. We ignore the things
we never need and we don't really care about that
as it's just the nature of the chips. Enjoy your HH
and its 4-way switch. If you wanna get silly, you
can run the unused position to ground and call it
your mute switch

 

[Ox Boris]

I use the neck pick up for Tainted Love and Lonely Boy.

 

[Big Ron]

I never said it's useless, it's just prefer not to use it. I'm not complaining because that hunbucker makes all of the other positions possible and I think it's more versatile than the hs configuration, I just really prefer the sound of a single coil and a hunbucker, and I wish they had a switching option to take advantage of that. I have tried using it in reggae, but even then I prefer the deep lows of both hunbuckers, and I just play close to the neck for that style. I'm sure in the future I will get some bass with a hs configuration, but I really do like the fact that this instrument is like having 4 basses in one, that's why I chose it. I was just curious how other people perceived its sound. Thanks for the reply.

-Ron

 

[Big Ron]

I use my moog for tainted love do you play over that pickup? It's weird but I always play this bass over the beige humbucker, my main bass for years was a pbass, and I was used to the lower tension playing in the middle, but I prefer and always play right over the bridge. The b string is also much more pronounced and cleaner/tighter at that spot as well. I

 

[Ox Boris]

I use my moog for tainted love do you play over that pickup?

I play even further up, resting my thumb on the base of the neck.

 

[kn38ms]

The neck H may be your least fave choice but I'm
sooprized you consider it useless. OTOH, I find my
HH less useful than my HS, even tho the HS has a
a coil choice thaz semi-useless ... or kinda "special
effect only". Thaz the bridge single, also available
on 1H Sterlings where it's even more specialized
than on an SR.

Everything has some kinda purpose to somebody
and no one should feel shortchanged if they only
use 4 outa 5 options on the coil switch. It's not a
Signture model with you name on the headstock.
It was built for everybody.

So you could try rewiring it or just ignore the coil
setting you don't use. Also, I'm not sure it can be
rewired without serious risk of messing up the PU.
Like most folks here, I recommend enjoying the 4
coil settings you do use and not rewiring anything

For perspective, perhaps consider the many digital
devices in our lives. They are loaded with options
we never need, just cuz the chip has abilities that
cost nothing extra to include. We ignore the things
we never need and we don't really care about that
as it's just the nature of the chips. Enjoy your HH
and its 4-way switch. If you wanna get silly, you
can run the unused position to ground and call it
your mute switch

Golem never disappoints! friggin' nails it everytime

 

[five7]

I use the single coil on my sterling 5 HS in extremely boomy rooms, works great without changing the eq of my amp. Over the years I have found all of the settings to be useful and sound great. When you are switching back and forth demoing a bass some don't sound as good as others. Not really the way to look at it.

 

[Golem]

I use the single coil on my sterling 5 HS in
extremely boomy rooms ...........

Clearly, the bridge single has wormed its way
into our hearts. It's been around, unchanged,
since the first SR5 1H, and then continued on
the 1H Sterling 4-string. A 1H bass has "only"
3 choices on the switch, and if only 2 outa 3
choices proved useful to most players, surely
at some point loooong ago EBMM woulda just
rethunk the whole shuhbang.

My own SH Sterlings are FL, so the hottitude
is smooth, "molten" rather than "explosive".

 

[Michael Murphy]

Big Ron wrote:

> I really do not prefer the isolated neck humbucker at all. It does not sound anything like a pbass (not like it is supposed to),

I didn't like the neck humbucker solo'd on any of my 2H basses with my usual amp rig, but i recently got a new speaker (Acme Low B-1, much more clean, clear and hi-fi than usual bass cabs) and today i tried 2 of them through it and really liked the tone, and thought it was very much like a P-bass. Less muddy than it used to be. Shrug.

Golem wrote:

> If you wanna get silly, you can run the unused position to ground and call it your mute switch

Not a terrible idea, really.

 

[BobKos]

Maybe this is the impetus for a Gamechanger Stingray variant? Not likely but it's a thought.