Sterling 'Cheat Sheet'

[bottle12am]

Alright, before we get started, gimme a cowbell moment.

My lefty Sterling finally arrived last night, and it is the most beautiful orange thing I've ever seen (yes, pics will be coming; no, UPS was no help as they delivered it to the wrong address... Fourth messed-up delivery in four weeks for me).

I've had little time to noodle on my new baby, but do want to use it for band practice tonight. Was wondering what hand positions and pickup selections you use to get various sounds out of the thing. Any shortcut tricks?

I know by definition, the bass is going to be a bright one, but was just curious as to what could be squeezed out of it.

(For ex., on my old P-J bass, I'd always get a brighter sound near the bridge, and a more woody, almost upright tone while playing by the neck).

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

(P.S. the tone, the trans-orange color, and sustain are beyond my wildest dreams. You may have even converted me to EB strings after 16 years of swearing by Rotos.... maybe.)

 

[Psycho Ward]

Sterling's are great!
Where you play, near the bridge or neck, has the same effect on all basses. I've seem to like the pickup switch toward the neck, boost the bass just a bit and play somewhere between the end of the neck and pickup.


I'm some others will chime in.

 

[AnthonyD]

I play with my fingers right over the pick-up.

These days I use the parallel setting on the pick-up (switch to the bridge) almost exclusively. Gives me a fat, well-rounded tone.

The series setting (switch to the neck) will give a bit brighter, sharper tone.

The single-coil setting (switch to the middle) is nice & clean and I like this position best when playing through a chorus effect (which I rarely do in real life, but like to do when noodling around on my own!).

Enjoy your new Sterling - it's number one in my book!

 

[Musicman Nut]

Alright, before we get started, gimme a cowbell moment.

My lefty Sterling finally arrived last night, and it is the most beautiful orange thing I've ever seen (yes, pics will be coming; no, UPS was no help as they delivered it to the wrong address... Fourth messed-up delivery in four weeks for me).

I've had little time to noodle on my new baby, but do want to use it for band practice tonight. Was wondering what hand positions and pickup selections you use to get various sounds out of the thing. Any shortcut tricks?

I know by definition, the bass is going to be a bright one, but was just curious as to what could be squeezed out of it.

(For ex., on my old P-J bass, I'd always get a brighter sound near the bridge, and a more woody, almost upright tone while playing by the neck).

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

(P.S. the tone, the trans-orange color, and sustain are beyond my wildest dreams. You may have even converted me to EB strings after 16 years of swearing by Rotos.... maybe.)

Just be thankful you didn't use FED EX, the last 3 basses I sent out all went to wrong States with the same address, So I'm assuming they Smoke Crack on their breaks or something, Yes and i did get refunds but that doesn't cut it when you have Customers waiting for a Bass that they assumed i sent it too the wrong Place. DJ

 

[Funky Chicken]

Thumb on the middle of the pickup edge. Switch awayfrom the neck (parallel). EQ-Bass, just UP from the notch-mids, just DOWN from the notch- treble, just UP from the notch.

11 years just like that.

 

[Lazybite]

If you wanna make that baby really growl.... turn all the tone nobs up full ball... I only recently discovered this..... couple that with a few eq tweaks on your amp and some good strings... you will blow people away.... responds nicely to both soft playing and hard playing...

 

[Figjam]

I put my thumb rigght in the middle of the pickup, or to the left of it a little.

Switch towards neck (series) for a nice aggressive trebely tone. Mids all the way up. Bass up 75% , treble up 60%. Amp is similiar (bass up a little, mids up a lot, treble flat).

 

[basspastor]

I play right at the end of the neck with every thing on the bass wide open and do my adjusting of eq. at the amp.