Sterling HH vs Sterling HS vs Sterling H: Sound?

[philthygeezer]

Which would you choose and what is the difference in sound between the three.

I used to have a nice Sterling H but found it a little bit surgical compared to my 2 band Ray. I thought having another pickup in the front would fatten it up while still leaving the growl. What do you reckon about the three?

Thanks,
Phil

 

[AnthonyD]

Arin?

 

[phatduckk]

Arin?

hi

 

[mynan]

How many times have you answered that question, Phatty?

 

[phatduckk]

ok - serious answer here.

I have 1 HH, 1 HS and 3 H's. Does that mean I like the H the best... no. Just stumbled upon the right deals at the right time. I like 'em all. But, the rub with stuff like this always happens to be that something I love may be something you're not too into. With that said - i'll try n put my impressions into words.

OK - the H. This bass is great for driving & cutting tone. Its a monster and I love it.

Now - if you wanna mellow the guy out you can achieve that goal with a 2 pup version. So, how do the 2 PUPers differ?

I find that the more coils you add to the neck position the more refined the bass gets. So you end up with (This applied to HH and HS in position 3 all coils on):

single h: aggressive
HS: tamed a bit
HH: a nice refined tone

Adding coils from an HS or an HH's neck pickup into the mix doesn't necessarily result in a big fat "BOOM". you get more of a change in tone than a low end boost. BUT when you turn the bass knob you get some serious low end... more than if you were running a single H.

so in my experience - its not like you get an immediate boost in low frequencies by flicking the neck bucker on. the new switching positions are like more canvasses to paint on... they're differently voiced starting points. you can then reach for you paint (the eq), go nuts & come up with a billion ideas

 

[phatduckk]

How many times have you answered that question, Phatty?

a lot. LoL

my IM and email is accessible here and on TB. So between here, TB and even youtube I average about 3 Sterling questions a week.

i try and answer all of em and encourage any offsite folks to come here and hang out.

 

[Kristopher]

Mr. Phatduckk, I have a question for you....

Have you noticed the single coil neck pickup to have a lot of high end frequencies? Maybe for me it's the contrast between the mid-rangy bridge humbucker and the single coil neck pickup, but mine seems to have quite a lot of super high frequencies. I know it's a personal perception thing, but I'm wondering if I'm not alone in mine.

 

[phatduckk]

Mr. Phatduckk, I have a question for you....

Have you noticed the single coil neck pickup to have a lot of high end frequencies? Maybe for me it's the contrast between the mid-rangy bridge humbucker and the single coil neck pickup, but mine seems to have quite a lot of super high frequencies. I know it's a personal perception thing, but I'm wondering if I'm not alone in mine.

in order to refresh my ears i just grabbed the HS and solo'd the neck pickup and played for a bit at low volumes (cuz its almost midnight).

ya know dude - I really thought I was gonna agree with you on this but after a quick play i dont have the same impression you do. i switched from position 1 to 5 and played the same thing and i didnt really hear any outlying highs. i gotta state tho - i just played pretty quietly so its not the best test case scenario... plus my strings arent too new.

anywho... ya - the bridge bucker has a nice mid voice but i cant right now say that the neck single coil has a bunch of highs. the thing is, off memory, i was ready to agree with you tho. so, im really gonna have to give this a shot come morning when i can really play and not worry about waking people up.

i'll try and get my dad to bust out his gizmos and check out the wave forms this weekend. he's a nerd and is always stoked to work with me on stuff so unless my mom ropes him into going to costco im sure he'll lend his expertise. if he's free come saturday or sunday ill try n get him to do readings for all 3 sterlings at each PUP position.

 

[Kristopher]

Thanks man, that's awesome. I'll see if I can make a recording or something to show what I mean.


EDIT

Here:
http://members.cox.net/khanson16/Bass/SterlingNeckSingle.wav
http://members.cox.net/khanson16/Bass/SterlingBridgeBucker.wav

No EQ was used, just straight into the computer, then normalized.

 

[phatduckk]

how bout that - ya, youre totally right. i swear mine doesn't sound like that. interesting.

ill experiment with pickup height etc and see if i can get mine to sound like that

 

[Kristopher]

My pickup height on the single coil is 9/64" on the bass side, 11/64" on the treble side.
Humbucker is 14/64" on the bass side, 11/64" on the treble side.

Which, now that I think about it, makes my setup a little weird and backwards. Maybe I should take a look at changing it a bit...

I didn't think that pickup height could accentuate specific frequencies (like the treble on the single coil). I should lower it and rerecord and see what happens.

I'm very interested in seeing what you come up with!

 

[philthygeezer]

Fantastic information and thanks for taking the time!

 

[fly]

EDIT

http://members.cox.net/khanson16/Bass/SterlingBridgeBucker.wav

No EQ was used, just straight into the computer, then normalized.

this is the sound i am after.............and the reason why my next EBMM is gonna be an HS....

very nice man


thanks for sharing that.

 

[fly]

My pickup height on the single coil is 9/64" on the bass side, 11/64" on the treble side.
Humbucker is 14/64" on the bass side, 11/64" on the treble side.

Which, now that I think about it, makes my setup a little weird and backwards. Maybe I should take a look at changing it a bit...

I didn't think that pickup height could accentuate specific frequencies (like the treble on the single coil). I should lower it and rerecord and see what happens.

I'm very interested in seeing what you come up with!

you have a sweet sound dialed.............you really wanna change it?

man it's nice...................

 

[Kristopher]

Nope, I don't want to change it. I'm just curious if Phatduckk gets the same sound cause Phatduckk is the Sterling MAN and he'd know what these basses are supposed to sound like. All in all, I was expecting a "yeah that's the right sound" reply and that's it. My HS is an amazing and beautiful bass, it's going to stay with me, unmodified, until the end of time, end of story.

Btw, I changed the pickup height and there was no change besides a volume change. I do have a maple board, which is rumoured to be brighter, so that may contribute.

 

[phatduckk]

i gotta check this out with new strings. i have a HUGE chunk of software i gotta release on monday so i dunno if ill be able to get to it thing weekend. but i'll hop on this early next week

 

[legion]

Still debating the HH vs HS issue myself...

So bump for some expert enlightenment

J

 

[GGK]

Set up, are both sides of the pick up( Sterling H) usually set at the same distance right out of the box ? I consider myself more of a recreational player but would like to see if I could get a little more thump from my G string. Should this part of the pup be raised ?
Tks

 

[theoldmiami]

Another opinion here - I have an SR5 HS, which is NOT a sterling, but I'm sure the general feel is the same. During a set with my HS, I usually will keep the bass on position 4 (position 1 is pointing to the bridge) which is the single-coil and one of the coils from the Humbucker.

This position sounds to me much like a P/J mix. It mellows out the attack when you don't need the aggresive growl. Not all songs call for the bridge humbucker sound.

So... I love the HS model, even though it's a SR5, I would highly recommend this P/UP configuration for people who need versatility, and don't gig with multiple basses.