My disease is cured!!!!

[Joey SQUID]

I started playing bass in 1994 at the age of 18 and my first bass was a Stingray 4. I was obsessed w/ flea and had to get one. A couple of months later I started getting into 311, Incubus, etc. Sold the Stingray and bought a Warwick which I played for 2 years. I then got friendly w/ Beaver Felton and bought bass after bass including Lakland USA, MTD's, Sadowsky, Roscoe, Fender, F Bass...You name it and I probably have owned it and sold it. Up until 2 years ago when I got a Stingray HH from my wife as a 30th Birthday present did a light bulb go off in my head. I had always wanted a Sabre because Eric Wilson from Sublime used to play one and my wife knew that and figured the HH would be as close as I could get. Well thank you to my wife for opening my eyes and ears to what started me playing 14 yrs. ago. A Music Man!!!!! NMow in 2008 I own 3 basses at the moment and they are all MusicMan basses and a Bongo is in the future!!! Thank you everyone at EBMM. I am always looking for more basses...but never other brands! And a BONGO...... Fugghedaboudit. That is next on my list
One Love
SQUID

 

[Eggman]

You're the best Joey. Congrats on finding your tone - congrats on the Bongo.

 

[slucas]

NMow in 2008 I own 3 basses at the moment and they are all MusicMan basses and a Bongo is in the future!!!

Joey,

I think your real disease is just now being realized, and for it there are treatments available but THERE IS NO CURE

 

[bob atherton]

Good post Joey. My story is that I too have been through a host of basses over the past 35 years (yikes!) I had a MM Stingray about 5 years back and sold it mainly because I didn’t know how to get the tone I was after.

My basses have been mainly Rickenbacker’s, Fender J and P’s and a Gibson Les Paul. The crazy thing was there was me, playing a local pub or club gig with maybe three basses on a small stage, swapping them about between, blues, jazz, rock, fusion numbers etc. Frankly I must have looked a bit of a dork, though kindly no one ever mentioned this to me. Hell, I’ve seen many, many really big bands and the bassist never changes his instrument throughout the set, sure there might be another 5 backstage but the same bass is played throughout the set.

I recently got another MM Stingray. This one is black with a maple neck and looks as cool as you like. More importantly it can give me every tone that I’m looking for just by tweaking the 3 band EQ. It can go from fat bluesy Fender P ish tone to a good slappy bite to a Rick/Gibson growl. OK, it may not reproduce the exact tone of these other basses, but who cares? It gets me very much into the ball park and no one, but no one in the audience will know any difference other that the bass player is not switching bass yet again.

All this makes for me being a better player as there were always a few numbers where the last few bars the main thing on my mind was switching bass.

Maybe now with only one bass on stage I might progress from the pub and club circuit…?

 

[jlepre]

Joey,

I know how you feel. In December of 2007 I had 3 Fenders and 1 MM. Within a month I had 3 MM's and 1 Fender. I'm now selling my 1 Fender and looking at a MM Fretless.

 

[Duarte]

Stories like these make me happy. I love happy endings! This time last year I had 2 fenders, now I have 2 music mans and a fender. CRAZY!

 

[Joey SQUID]

You're the best Joey. Congrats on finding your tone - congrats on the Bongo.

I didn't get a Bongo..yet...I really don't know if I would keep it due to the way it looks. I still am not crazy about the shape but I love the sound

 

[Eggman]

I didn't get a Bongo..yet...I really don't know if I would keep it due to the way it looks. I still am not crazy about the shape but I love the sound

As with most of us here - you will find the Bongo shape incredibly comfortable to play and the looks will appeal to you more and more every day!

 

[Joey SQUID]

That Lava Pearl/tort was sold already Where can I get one???

 

[slucas]

Call customer service, they will find one if it is out there.

 

[LoEnd]

As with most of us here - you will find the Bongo shape incredibly comfortable to play and the looks will appeal to you more and more every day!

I couldn't agree more

 

[Kristopher]

Great story Joey, I always like to read stuff like that.

I recently got another MM Stingray. This one is black with a maple neck and looks as cool as you like. More importantly it can give me every tone that I’m looking for just by tweaking the 3 band EQ. It can go from fat bluesy Fender P ish tone to a good slappy bite to a Rick/Gibson growl. OK, it may not reproduce the exact tone of these other basses, but who cares? It gets me very much into the ball park and no one, but no one in the audience will know any difference other that the bass player is not switching bass yet again.

I think people underestimate the power of the onboard EQ. I played my Stingray for years and didn't touch my 3-band because I had some stupid idea that you should only use EQ at the amplifier. Boy was I dumb! A little tweak here, a little tweak there, and you have a tone for anything you could want. Get a bass with an HS and add the option of putting a single coil sound in the mix, there's nothing more you could ever want. I'm finally getting the hang of my HS (yes I'm a bit slow haha) and it's great.