Long time not posting, Sterling questions

[lowmid]

Hello, I've always been a guest in here so It's my first post,!!!

I'm currently not owner of an MM bass but i'm planning on a sterling or stingray

the best tone I ever played was at a guitar center type of shop ( key music in Brussels) I played a 2band maple trans blue stingray thru an ashdown Abm 300 stack with 210 and 115 (similar to my rig which is a 210-400 abm combo) and Gawd I fell over!!!

Currently I own an iby atk 400 customised to my specs, but I've recently discoverd that no other bass could do the MM trick as good as an MM.
the atk lacks that upper mids zing of an MM bass!!! but does Jb and PB tones greatly So I'll never sell it

(by the way, Do you know If I should ditch the sucking preamp out of the ibanez and play passive, or put another pre and which??? to get a more sparkly MM type of tone??)

basically , I'm in search of a stingray 4 tone But I tend to like the sterling shape more (only in body looks, I'm comfortable on both necks)

and I never tried a real sterling beside a sub one quickly in a shop .

However I tried several stingrays and instantly fell in love

I know I need to try a sterling by myself but I like to hear your voice before

my brain is mainley attracted to the polepiece material of the pickups, however I tried a SR 5 and Liked the tone !!!

by the way can someone (phatduck??? ) post a sample of a HS sterling??? or just a sample to prove that sterlings could do the stingray trick???

Where can I buy cheap MM's (used) in the chicago area??? my parents will go there by the end of august!!

Cheers

dammit, what a paper!

 

[phatduckk]

by the way can someone (phatduck??? ) post a sample of a HS sterling??? or just a sample to prove that sterlings could do the stingray trick??

howdy ... ya, ill try and remember to record some clips of the HS Sterling.

I'm pretty bad at talking about tone to be honest. I know I like Sterlings but I dont know why.

Randy ... you wanna chime in on the Sterling tone vs. the SR5 tone? I think that input can help you since you've played and SR5.

 

[lowmid]

thanks

Do you prefer maple or rosewood??? in looks I tend to prefer maple but the rosewood SR4 I tried once blew me away and was a bit more middy than the maple one And I like flea's live MM tone a lot but I tend to think that I'll be able to have the rosewood tone when diming the preamp wether I will have to boost and introduce hiss to get the maple tone out of the rosewood ones

a fairly general consensus is that the stelring sounds brighet than a stingray, would a rosewood fingerboard sterling sound like a maple stingray???

cheers

 

[phatduckk]

he he

i mean - in essence a Stingray sounds like a Stingray and the Sterling sounds like a Sterling. I dont think a different fretboard is gonna bring one of them closer to sounding like the other. I don't know that i'd say a Sterling is brighter sounding than an SR4. The Sterling (even the single PUP one) has the 3 way switch (5 way on 2 PUP models) ... so you have 3 tones. On the 3 way switch I'd say bridge is "close" to SR4, the middle is brighter and the neck is just "mean" sounding (neck is my fav).

even tho i can tell the difference of the RW and maple in the soundclips I recorded I still base my FB choice on looks. ya - theyre different but I dont think theyre different enough. Essentially if RW sounds deaper you could argue that RW w/ Stainless Steal strings should sound like Maple w/ Nickel strings. I feel that there's too maybe variable that you could change on purpose (strings, action, pup height, on-board eq, amp eq, attack, where u pick/pluck) to get them both to sound damn close to eachother.

 

[Randracula]

Randy ... you wanna chime in on the Sterling tone vs. the SR5 tone? I think that input can help you since you've played and SR5.

The SR5 and Sterling are very similar in tone but the SR5 is just a tad more polite than the Sterling.IMO the Sterling has to be the most aggressive sounding bass out there.

 

[phatduckk]

The SR5 and Sterling are very similar in tone but the SR5 is just a tad more polite than the Sterling.IMO the Sterling has to be the most aggressive sounding bass out there.

thanks for chimin in buddy

 

[Figjam]

Id agree with the polite comment. I wonder why that is? Perhaps because of the increased mass of the bass in general? Not sure, but my SR5 definitely has a little less of that grunt than my sterling. It has a wonderfully smooth and solid tone,whereas the sterling tends to bark a bit.

 

[Randracula]

Id agree with the polite comment. I wonder why that is? Perhaps because of the increased mass of the bass in general? Not sure, but my SR5 definitely has a little less of that grunt than my sterling. It has a wonderfully smooth and solid tone,whereas the sterling tends to bark a bit.

Your right on Fig..........

 

[philthygeezer]

+1 to all comments so far. My Sterling is sounds a tad cooler and more aggressive than my 'Ray 4. Take the mids back a bit and add some bass and its close to the Stingray with a little more growl though.

 

[lowmid]

Thanks!!!!

I really need to test these out! (sterlings)

Still no one who knows where to get decent prices in chicagooo?? perhaps used ones?