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Axis 30th Anniversary

My dull and flat Stingray help!

donkelley said:
I already did. Any combination of what i and others said.

Sent from my SGH-I717D using Tapatalk 2
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Yeah, that. The magic setup. Setup will fix all your problems, whatever they might have been. As long as it is a "good setup" by a "professional".

And people are surprised that I react allergic to it.

Hey OP, how about answering some of the questions from people who want to help you?
 
uOpt said:
Well the OP clearly isn't interested in fixing this but let's theorize.

Low pickups make for less volume and less distortions. They don't make it sound dull.

Strings too low cannot make it sound dull without lots of fret snarl.

I am really not a friend of all these "magic" things attributed to a "good setup". If the thing sounds like a turd and the strings swing freely it is not a setup problem.

Of course the OP isn't even interested enough to answer basic questions such as whether this bass sounded better in the past.
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No mate - The OP doesnt always have computer access so kindly pull your head in a bit... I appreciate the help but not the attitude ;-).

To answer the questions:
The bass was bought used from the first owner and since then it has been set up and serviced twice. The second time with a full refret and neck shave etc at which point it sounded brilliant but it has gone down hill since then. I also went from Nickle strings to stainless which improved it a bit but not by a lot. Especially after the strings lost that new string twang.
The action is pretty good - Better than my jazz bass and there aren't any string mutes on it.
I hadn't thought to check the pickup height but I cant imagine it could adjust itself from the last set up. I'll check it anyway. Also the neck is pretty straight.
The only big change it's had is that it hasn't been getting played much for the last 6 months but thats it.

When I compare it to the Jazz, the musicman has a LOT more output. More than I would usually attribute to an active bass. I always have to turn the bass's vol down a few notches to avoid distortion. But that actually makes the bass sound even duller... It seems to be bipolar in that respect. It's either running hot as hell which makes for a spectacular hard rock sound or its running cold and flat which is useless for everything else.

SO now Im sorry for not getting back within a millisecond of your questions and I do apprciate the help but do have some respect for folks that arent blessed with as much spare time as you :-)

Cheers!
 
What i wouldn't do is turn your volume down on a stingray. The output is normally not that high! If it distorts your amp because of the high output, check your amp. I always run mine at full volume... and never had problems with overloading or distorting annything.
but if you do turn volume down i would suppose you loose some twang and aggresiveness too.. not too sure about that.
 
sanderhermans said:
What i wouldn't do is turn your volume down on a stingray. The output is normally not that high! If it distorts your amp because of the high output, check your amp. I always run mine at full volume... and never had problems with overloading or distorting annything.
but if you do turn volume down i would suppose you loose some twang and aggresiveness too.. not too sure about that.
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Yeah I've found that the output distorts or at least pushes to the limit, any amp I put it through. Same with DI recording. I always have to just take it down a few notches - Tis rather frustrating.
 
Prolly not the technical term. Before re-fretting they cleaned the neck up by sanding/shaving out the damage and restoring the fretboard to a nice new flat strip etc...
 
Maybe a short in the preamp or in one of the potentiometers making it behave incorrectly

Sent from my SGH-I717D using Tapatalk 2
 
I think you should home in on the high output thing. With the EQ even a Stingray should not cause more clipping than -say- a Precision bass.

Maybe you bass pot is stuck or otherwise broken?

JNRYJD said:
Prolly not the technical term. Before re-fretting they cleaned the neck up by sanding/shaving out the damage and restoring the fretboard to a nice new flat strip etc...
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OK, that's called a fretboard re-radius (sometimes fretboard level, but that term is too close to fret level for my taste).
 
We could be talkin about this forever. You should just take it to a tech. We can just guess but he will know if something is wrong... or mayebe nothing is erong and you just have a crappy amp.
 
sanderhermans said:
We could be talkin about this forever. You should just take it to a tech. We can just guess but he will know if something is wrong... or mayebe nothing is erong and you just have a crappy amp.
Click to expand...

There's nothing wrong with the amp.
I think the tech idea might be my only course...

Cheers y'all!
 
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