EdFriedland
Well-known member
I recently had a busy stretch of live work with a particularly wide range of styles. And I had a MM in my hand the whole time.
Thursday was a steel drum trio gig playing everything from Reggae to Jazz. My Sterling 5H fretless gets fat and dubby in series mode, bass boosted. Then for jazz solos I get my Jaco on in single coil. For the funkier stuff I go to "Pino" mode (parallel). The fingerboard is planed perfectly, it whines, sustains, and I can control the mwah nicely. Awesome growl on the low B too.
Saturday night early was an acoustic songwriter thing, used the 25th 5 HH with EB Flats. This bass is incredible. Mainly using coils 2&3 in passive/series mode, sometimes I'd switch to coils 1&2 (series) and play up on the fingerboard. The tone is super warm and distinct. It really supports without getting lost.
Saturday late was a 10-piece dance funk gig. I haven't done a gig like that for years, seriously. Lots of low B, and the Sterling 5H fretted totally kicked ass. I pumped it through my Genz GBE1200/NeoX212 rig, and it flattened the mutha. Again, the series/parallel thing totally rocks. For stuff like "I Want You Back" I use series, highs rolled off, bass up to about 7, through the tube channel and it totally fills out the bottom. Then, parallel for "Stomp". One thing I love about that bass (and all of them) - no matter how loud the band gets, I can always HEAR myself. The soundman complimented it, so that's all I need to hear.
Sunday morning jazz brunch - back to the Sterling 5 fretless. I've been really digging using this axe on straight ahead jazz gigs where upright would be expected. I'm totally a Jaco wanna be, so I make no bones about my fretless playing sounding kind of obvious... but I've also played upright for 38 years, and I find I can get really close to the same response with this bass, if I play up on the fingerboard.
Sunday night, Latin-Jazz gig with the 25th again. I play a lot of chord behind the guitarist - above the 12th fret I play tumbao lines on the low B and E, and guide tones on the G and D. Again, I stay in passive mode. Not to take away from the awesome 4-band eq... but I never use it! Palm muting the B & E, I get a super punchy, dark bass tone, and the natural high end of the pickups makes the upper chord tones really speak.
Tonight I rehearsed (yes... the R word) with my fun rock band project, The Sideshow 5. I've been using my new Stingray 4 for this band since I got it - with flats. Thanks to Craig Young's suggestion, I put the meanest, fattest flats on the planet on this puppy - LaBella 760M (can't call them "Jamerson" strings anymore) 52-73-95-110! It took a few weeks for them to settle in, but now, with the help of a little foam under the strings by the bridge, this is the most amazing rock bass ever. I can go from an open hollowbody type tone with a pick, to corpulent bottom with the fingers, nice round articulate voice for the funkier soul stuff, and it gets real crunchy when I need to rawk. The G string could push a freakin' busload of Cheesheads up a hill.
So... I'm pretty amazed at how I was able to cover so much ground with my 4 MM basses, and they were all a total pleasure to play. I'm trying real hard not to get all fanboi about it, I'm just very impressed! EBMM rocks.
Thursday was a steel drum trio gig playing everything from Reggae to Jazz. My Sterling 5H fretless gets fat and dubby in series mode, bass boosted. Then for jazz solos I get my Jaco on in single coil. For the funkier stuff I go to "Pino" mode (parallel). The fingerboard is planed perfectly, it whines, sustains, and I can control the mwah nicely. Awesome growl on the low B too.
Saturday night early was an acoustic songwriter thing, used the 25th 5 HH with EB Flats. This bass is incredible. Mainly using coils 2&3 in passive/series mode, sometimes I'd switch to coils 1&2 (series) and play up on the fingerboard. The tone is super warm and distinct. It really supports without getting lost.
Saturday late was a 10-piece dance funk gig. I haven't done a gig like that for years, seriously. Lots of low B, and the Sterling 5H fretted totally kicked ass. I pumped it through my Genz GBE1200/NeoX212 rig, and it flattened the mutha. Again, the series/parallel thing totally rocks. For stuff like "I Want You Back" I use series, highs rolled off, bass up to about 7, through the tube channel and it totally fills out the bottom. Then, parallel for "Stomp". One thing I love about that bass (and all of them) - no matter how loud the band gets, I can always HEAR myself. The soundman complimented it, so that's all I need to hear.
Sunday morning jazz brunch - back to the Sterling 5 fretless. I've been really digging using this axe on straight ahead jazz gigs where upright would be expected. I'm totally a Jaco wanna be, so I make no bones about my fretless playing sounding kind of obvious... but I've also played upright for 38 years, and I find I can get really close to the same response with this bass, if I play up on the fingerboard.
Sunday night, Latin-Jazz gig with the 25th again. I play a lot of chord behind the guitarist - above the 12th fret I play tumbao lines on the low B and E, and guide tones on the G and D. Again, I stay in passive mode. Not to take away from the awesome 4-band eq... but I never use it! Palm muting the B & E, I get a super punchy, dark bass tone, and the natural high end of the pickups makes the upper chord tones really speak.
Tonight I rehearsed (yes... the R word) with my fun rock band project, The Sideshow 5. I've been using my new Stingray 4 for this band since I got it - with flats. Thanks to Craig Young's suggestion, I put the meanest, fattest flats on the planet on this puppy - LaBella 760M (can't call them "Jamerson" strings anymore) 52-73-95-110! It took a few weeks for them to settle in, but now, with the help of a little foam under the strings by the bridge, this is the most amazing rock bass ever. I can go from an open hollowbody type tone with a pick, to corpulent bottom with the fingers, nice round articulate voice for the funkier soul stuff, and it gets real crunchy when I need to rawk. The G string could push a freakin' busload of Cheesheads up a hill.
So... I'm pretty amazed at how I was able to cover so much ground with my 4 MM basses, and they were all a total pleasure to play. I'm trying real hard not to get all fanboi about it, I'm just very impressed! EBMM rocks.
