Jus wanted some opinions on H and HH stingrays

[kevins]

just out of curiosity when you tried out the HH did you play with your thumb resting on the top pickup and then play the H with your thumb resting on the H pickup? if so that does produce a radically different tone and may be why you cant get the same sound out of both.

 

[DaddyFlip]

just out of curiosity when you tried out the HH did you play with your thumb resting on the top pickup and then play the H with your thumb resting on the H pickup? if so that does produce a radically different tone and may be why you cant get the same sound out of both.

Good call, kevins; but he plays with a pick.

 

[Mogee]

I play mostly standard tuning at church, but with my band we play a half step down and drop C# and I do not have to do any adjusting between tuning. I notice of course, that the tension is a little higher in Standard tuning, but after a couple minutes of warming up, its no big deal. As far as the H vs HH, I play most of the time in the setting that puts the closet coil to the bridge combined with the closest coil to the neck most of the time. So either position 2 or 4, depending on how you look at your selector. But its nice to have 4 other tones with the flick of a switch. Work on your basics. Finger positions, scales, right hand technique. Get to know your frets. If you don't already know the names of the frets on all 4 strings at least to the 7th fret, learn it. It will help a ton.

 

[IvanHardy]

The bass has detents somwhere in the middle of the knob's range of motion; when you feel the click, that's flat. Flat on an amp depends on the amp, but you should be able to find it. It either has a detent (click) like the bass or it will say on the faceplate.

If you want advice from a beginner on how to go about finding and keeping your tone, do the following:

1. I would spend a lot of time practicing songs you want to play in standard tuning with the bass and amp set flat. Alternate tunings might be cool (and sometimes necessary), but they can be a crutch and induce sloppy play for a beginner. This will give you a basic idea of the guitar's natural sound and should cause you to focus on your notes, style and technique.
2. Then begin making changes to the controls on the bass to find the sound you are looking for. Leave the amp flat during this time. Don't change the tuning yet. Continue to focus on your playing.
3. When you find the primary bass control setting you like, memorize this setup and practice being able to return the knobs to this setting at any time.
4. Find a second sound you think you might use using only the controls on the bass. Practice changing between the primary and secondary settings so that you can hit these anytime. Commit your sound to memory.
5. Use amp controls only when you play out (different place than where you developed your sound) to regain your tone you worked hard to achieve with the primary and secondary settings. Example: during sound check, put bass controls on primary setting. Listen for your sound. If you don't get it, adjust amp controls until you do get it. Now it's just like being in your practice room and you can go back and forth between your primary and secondary sounds with just the bass controls. This will be comfortable and familiar and you can concentrate on playing.
6. If you just have to play alternate tunings, you aren't going to hurt your bass, but you can hurt your sound if something like poor string tension makes notes unclear or kills intonation. Don't change the setup for a drop tuning. Try changing to a higher tension string first (usually a larger diameter), then you will have to go through the primary and secondary sound setup again. If this doesn't work for you, then you need more advice than I'm able to give.

Tone comes from the guitar and its controls, not a bunch of amp EQ and pedals. Hope this helps and wasn't too confusing.

ok to answer the other guy's question i rested my thumb the bridge pickups on both HH and H. secondly i play both pick and fingers. i mostly play pick due to the fact my friend taught me using a pick. the fingers i taught myself by watching cliff burton and johnny christ. i feel i'm faster with a pick but can do a little more technical stuff playing fingers. as for the falt settings ever since i decided to use treble now according to what you're saying on my bass the tone and treble is set to flat. i turn the volume and bass all the way up and turn the tone and treble till it hits that click halfway. and all i have is a f****r rumble 15 to play through. i'm trying to save up for a Gallien Krueger amp. and i feel i'm going to keep using power slinky's on my basses for a while those are gauges i like.

 

[five7]

ok to answer the other guy's question i rested my thumb the bridge pickups on both HH and H. secondly i play both pick and fingers. i mostly play pick due to the fact my friend taught me using a pick. the fingers i taught myself by watching cliff burton and johnny christ. i feel i'm faster with a pick but can do a little more technical stuff playing fingers. as for the falt settings ever since i decided to use treble now according to what you're saying on my bass the tone and treble is set to flat. i turn the volume and bass all the way up and turn the tone and treble till it hits that click halfway. and all i have is a f****r rumble 15 to play through. i'm trying to save up for a Gallien Krueger amp. and i feel i'm going to keep using power slinky's on my basses for a while those are gauges i like.

The root of the problem is exposed. The rumble 15!

 

[RaginRog]

JOSH, Fist and Rog are giving you the best advice. I've been playing less than you and have never even been in a band. On my own, I thought I had learned some songs pretty well that my church plays. When I practiced the first time with our leader, I got blown out of the water- I couldn't keep up and I couldn't play the right notes. He told me, "This is what you need to work on and this is what you should sound like." So I stopped obsessing over what bass I wanted to buy next and started practicing what and how he told me. Now I'm starting to get it.

I still love to obsess over equipment; I love equipment and I like having good stuff. But you can't buy talent and you can't buy ability- you have to work on it if you want to be a player; we all do. And you have to motivate yourself if you're teaching yourself (as I am). Let them kicking you out motivate you to be better; it may be the best thing that ever happened to you!

You asked for opinions on H vs. HH. First let me say that your Stealth H SLO Ray will do anything that you SAY you want to do sonically and it is a great match for the style you SAY you're into. I don't think you have chosen poorly at all. I do think you and others have goofed around too much with the setup for no reason. I would make arrangements with Customer Service to send it in for a factory setup OR have them recommend someone local to you that can perform a factory setup. Then leave it alone (really, LEAVE IT ALONE) and learn to play it. I prefer HH for the following reasons:

1. I like the way HH looks better than H
2. I play fingerstyle exclusively close to the neck so my thumb rests on the neck 'bucker
3. I like the tone a neck pickup produces (deep & boomy with almost no mid)
4. I sometimes like the tone a neck and bridge pickup produces (same as above with a little mid bite added)

I could take an H and do some EQ workarounds to accomplish 3 and 4, but an H would never be able to give me 1 and 2. So, you have to figure out what is pleasing and comfortable to you first. This will be a big confidence booster to you as you motivate yourself to play. Worry about tone details later. You can do it- don't quit and focus on what is important: learning the fretboard, timekeeping, and technique.

PS... can anyone name me a good drop C song?

Thanks for the Kudos Brother!

You give some pretty straight advice yourself, and appear much wiser than someone with such little playing time. I just got back into playing in late 2003, after taking 8 years off...which I sucked the 2 years before hanging it up. I'm still learning, and getting better with each year. It's too much fun!!

Take Care,
Rog

 

[IvanHardy]

The root of the problem is exposed. The rumble 15!

so my rumble 15 is the root of the problem?

 

[Jim Roseberry]

so my rumble 15 is the root of the problem?

FWIW, The SR4 H sounds massive and full of punch playing thru an SVT-CL + Avatar 2x10 Neo.

I'd Get a setup on the SLO... and take your instruments to play thru some better amps. I think you'll find what you're currently missing...

 

[IvanHardy]

FWIW, The SR4 H sounds massive and full of punch playing thru an SVT-CL + Avatar 2x10 Neo.

I'd Get a setup on the SLO... and take your instruments to play thru some better amps. I think you'll find what you're currently missing...

will do. probably gonna go take it to the tech at GC tommorrow. so i'm really into gallien krueger's but svt's are they budget friendly?

 

[DaddyFlip]

but svt's are they budget friendly?

Yes, but only if you have a large budget!

An inexpensive or underpowered amp can be a limiting factor, but it may not be the root cause just because it is in a manufacturer's 'value' or 'budget' line. In your case, I don't think it is because, again, you started your thread by saying that "skill" and "style" were the root cause of the problem. You couldn't buy these two things even if you had an unlimited budget. There are some guys on this forum that could take your factory setup Ray and sound great (even in drop C) through your Rumble 15, so don't blame the equipment yet. At this point, your equipment is capable of way more than you can deliver. Read the end of Mogee's post again (good one, Mogee)- this is what you need to concentrate on. If

Big name, expensive gear is awesome, looks good, sounds good and impresses others. But if you don't have the skill or style required for the performance, all that great gear will just expose more of your shortcomings.

 

[DaddyFlip]

Thanks for the Kudos Brother!

You give some pretty straight advice yourself, and appear much wiser than someone with such little playing time. I just got back into playing in late 2003, after taking 8 years off...which I sucked the 2 years before hanging it up. I'm still learning, and getting better with each year. It's too much fun!!

Take Care,
Rog

Kudos where due! Frustration can be a great teacher and pride is a massive stumbling block when you're learning to do something everyone else already knows how to do. Yes, I like it and I want to be a player, not a collector.

 

[Jim Roseberry]

Yes, but only if you have a large budget!

My point wasn't that the OP needs an SVT-CL...
But rather that there's nothing "wrong" or "lacking" with his instruments.
(At least nothing that a good setup wouldn't remedy)

If the OP wants to checkout new Amps that aren't terribly expensive:
The Micro VR head ($300) thru a good 2x10 cab sounds excellent... and is light on the back and wallet. It looks like a toy... but check it out.

 

[kevins]

FWIW, The SR4 H sounds massive and full of punch playing thru an SVT-CL + Avatar 2x10 Neo.

I'd Get a setup on the SLO... and take your instruments to play thru some better amps. I think you'll find what you're currently missing...

oh dear god yes! i played on a svt CL and started paying the layaway the next day, the combination is superb. i was about to throw in the towel and get a 2h but the tube power taught me what the ray should soundeth like.



i know its biased and i know its badmouthery and i mean no offense to anyone but guitar center isn't always the best place to shop around for a new bass, they're great to try out stuff of course but all my experiences have been hit or complete miss with them.

in my opinion it sounds like its a complete miss with your local one. that salespersons description of the 1H vs 2h sounds nonsensical to someone who has been playing a stingray for years and no offense to guitar center fans but there is no excuse for a musicman instrument to have shoddy setup, musicman makes their instruments INCREDIBLY easy to adjust. im not saying every independant place is gonna be better, ive ran into independant mom and pop shops full of complete douches, but when you're a business with hundreds of locations no matter what some of them are not going to be up to par.

i mean take a mcdonalds or a taco bell, you have good ones or bad ones.

and in no offense you come off as a noobie bass player, which isnt bad at all, you can be highly skilled on a technical level or not but one thing always takes time to get and that is pulling out your own tone.

you have two beautiful basses:work with them, you can do a lot with them especially the three eq, when i started out i had the bass almost all the way up the mids almost all the way down and the trebble halfway down and i always played above the pickups. now i play towards the neck have the bass slightly boosted the mid nearly all the way up and the trebble cut. and it sounds smoother and more warm to me. the point is that you are not going to find a good tone on the bass you have until you work with it for a long time and get framiliar with all the controls. and to realize that throught the right cabinets and through the right amplifiers mids are one of the best sounding parts of the bass' sound

i mean there are thousands of variations in playing style and sometimes wood quality and what not that may make the 2h and h you played on different but all in all you can really get all the sounds out of a 2h that you can out of an h.

and nothing sounds better than a head and a cabinet. i remember combo after combo, and believe me the switch to head and cabinet changed the quality of sound for me for good.

so play around with it and figure out what sounds good or bad, and its gonna take a while but eventually you'll develoup an ear for good and bad tone. and seriously reconsider ampeg, i thought they were crap when i first started out, and i still dont like the solid state stuff they put out but the tubes! the tubes are wonderful! and so are the classic cabinets but thats if you like that kind of tone.

 

[freddy]

"...i turn the volume and bass all the way up... and all i have is a f****r rumble 15..."

As a previous poster said, start with the eq at the centre detents. You'll probably find that you do not need to venture too far from that to get a good sound. This is an active bass- having volume and bass controls at full into a Rumble 15 will likely not sound good. Also, you might want to check your battery.

 

[rizzo9247]

I don't know if I would trust a GC employee with my bass....

There are plenty of well qualified techs here in the city, but I dont know what they would charge a full setup. If you want me to take a look at your bass and bring it back to factory specs free of charge, let me know.

 

[RaginRog]

Kudos where due! Frustration can be a great teacher and pride is a massive stumbling block when you're learning to do something everyone else already knows how to do. Yes, I like it and I want to be a player, not a collector.

I hear you....but I guess I'm weak...I have a small collection...is 3 basses considered a collection?

 

[RaginRog]

will do. probably gonna go take it to the tech at GC tommorrow. so i'm really into gallien krueger's but svt's are they budget friendly?

GK's are pretty good amps. Punchy amps with lotsa growl. I played GK for a couple of years, but then moved on to Markbass amps.

 

[IvanHardy]

well what if i tried to get a backline 600 amp with an ampeg cab? or should i just get a combo amp? plus if anyone has facebook you guys can see my covers to see how i play.

 

[Bloodfist]

Ivan, post a link to your facebook.

 

[IvanHardy]

same name on facebook. Ivan Hardy.