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Bongo 2026 Collection

Nick Beggs - Kajagoogoo - Stingray!

I have met Nick Beggs as he used to teach at the Guitar and Bass Insitute in London way back in 1992 when I was a student there, he told me at the time his main basses were a fretless Wal, the Stingray and the Chapman Stick. He is a great bass player and a very down to heart person.
 
Nick was def a bit of lad back in the day, great player, still is, I well remember him and his ray and the "mighty" Kaja ( :) )infact he had a fair few at one point iirc.
 
Nick is great! Even though he has always owned/played different basses at the same time, he played StingRays then, and still plays StingRays today.
 
Another one of those players of whom I liked the sound before I knew what a StingRay was... and now understand how they got that sound.
 
I love Nick Beggs! Just a note, the original recording (and video) was done with a Wal. I never saw him play the Wal live of course. He seemed to play nothing but the Stingray after a certain point.

:D
 
zuma said:
I love Nick Beggs! Just a note, the original recording (and video) was done with a Wal. I never saw him play the Wal live of course. He seemed to play nothing but the Stingray after a certain point.

:D
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Video of him `live on the Tube' on youtube playing a black Wal.
 
bassmonkey said:
Video of him `live on the Tube' on youtube playing a black Wal.
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Well spotted. Great bass too! It sounds like the only thing live is Lihmal's voice, though. Interestingly, it sounds like a Stingray to me on that backing track. What do you guys think?

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAu7njYBgok"]YouTube - Kajagoogoo Kajagoogoo Live on The Tube 1983[/ame]
 
zuma said:
Well spotted. Great bass too! It sounds like the only thing live is Lihmal's voice, though. Interestingly, it sounds like a Stingray to me on that backing track. What do you guys think?
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They're obviously playing to a recorded track. Happened most of the time with those 'dancing' shows back in the day. You can see the guitarist missing alot of notes that magically happen to come through.

zuma said:
Just a note, the original recording (and video) was done with a Wal. I never saw him play the Wal live of course. He seemed to play nothing but the Stingray after a certain point.
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I love hearing Nick on whatever he plays, but as far as the two basses in question, I have them as well. He's a mega slapper, and I find my Rays to be a better slap bass and the string spacing works better for popping (the Wal spacing is tighter). Maybe he discoverd the same thing.
 
Caca de Kick said:
They're obviously playing to a recorded track. Happened most of the time with those 'dancing' shows back in the day. You can see the guitarist missing alot of notes that magically happen to come through.
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Maybe on that clip, but the show "The Tube", from which it was taken, had mainly live bands on. There are some great clips of Paul Young and Go West featuring Pino Palladino doing his thing with the fretless Stingray. All live.
 
Hey all

Ive seen him play rays but to take it further ive seen him play rays with rosewood and just maple necks..the neck debate in general seems to go on and on....

some ppl say maple is bright and good for slap...others say rosewood is (warmer) when i personally think of them...there is an (assembly) to rosewood necks..alot of people say like pino palladino who (from anytime i saw him play his fretless) it was rosewood...i heard he had that bass's neck redone many times...those necks tend to be layerd on top of maple at the core...so that makes me thin if some one wore out a maple neck that would be that...anyone care to clairify this let me know..
Damian
 
that bass shines like its nobody's business, and i guess it sounds good too ;) i was too busy lookin at it.
 
zuma said:
I love Nick Beggs! Just a note, the original recording (and video) was done with a Wal. I never saw him play the Wal live of course. He seemed to play nothing but the Stingray after a certain point.

:D
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Really?
Didn't know that :cool: ...my brother got very rare Wal from '80.s, great bass, but Nick is using StingRay in live performance, that's obvious, ...wonder why :D ?
 
Great bass player Nick Beggs, crazy guy to, played live not long ago on the same bill as my band , Stingray all the way on that occassion as indeed did I lol.

Allways liked the guys playing and I tended to think back in the day that he was actually better than Mark King as both guys were doing the pop slap thing, I preferred Nick as he had a harder heavier edge to his tone imho.
 
Here you guys go...read all about it from the man himself. He mentions buying a Stingray early on:
http://zumaz.com/images/Too_Shy_transcription_by_Nick_Beggs.pdf

You may want to right click and "Save...as" since it's almost a 4MB PDF file. The text is small so I had to keep the quality high hence the larger size.

I recorded this video BEFORE I was sent that wonderful transcription by a friend so my version is sort of a combo of the synth and real bass lines:
YouTube - Kajagoogoo - Too Shy - bass lesson

Sadly, I also recorded that video before acquiring my '83 Stingray but hey, at least I used a cousin right?!
 
Damian said:
Hey all

Ive seen him play rays but to take it further ive seen him play rays with rosewood and just maple necks..the neck debate in general seems to go on and on....

some ppl say maple is bright and good for slap...others say rosewood is (warmer) when i personally think of them...there is an (assembly) to rosewood necks..alot of people say like pino palladino who (from anytime i saw him play his fretless) it was rosewood...i heard he had that bass's neck redone many times...those necks tend to be layerd on top of maple at the core...so that makes me thin if some one wore out a maple neck that would be that...anyone care to clairify this let me know..
Damian
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I'm a mapleboy too, and really like this Nick's ash'n'maple natural SR!

Some voices in my head are talkin' to me, ...buy a Classic Natural flame maple SR5! :D
 
keko said:
I'm a mapleboy too, and really like this Nick's ash'n'maple natural SR!

Some voices in my head are talkin' to me, ...buy a Classic Natural flame maple SR5! :D
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Waves The Force hand at Keko - "This IS the bass you are looking for."
 
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