Stingray5 pickup replacement

[Grand Wazoo]

Hi everyone, my name is Francesco, as you can tell I am new to this EB forum, although not new to forum's per se, as I have my own (a motorbikes one, my second passion) so I know more or less how these things work...

I'll get to the point.

I am very happy with my 4 years old Stingray5 (see pics below) however I sometime find that the sound is neither here nor the in terms of tonal response over different strings, not stating the obvious, sometimes I find that it is punchier in volume on the high strings and a bit more muffled and muddy or even quieter on the lower strings i.e. the E and low B.

Personally I am anti-effects when it comes to bass playing I am happy to play it straight and clean into a Trace Elliot valve amp with a nice eq setting, I dislike compressors, flangers, phasers and the rest of it. To me bass is boom-boom-slap-slap and that's about it,

I leave the effect stuff to those who want to sound flash, but in essence our role is to bassify the harmony of a band, you know what I mean, push the drummer, create pedal tones, harmony and diversify the direction of a song with our web layers of scales, walking basslines etc etc.

I have always been using the recomended strings i.e the Super Slinky 2836, the ones that come in the lime green packet, but I have also tried other brands and not had any joy.

I have been reading a lot about this Seymor Duncan pickup model SMB-5A that has a much wider tonal capacity over middle to high frequency and my hope is that by using this pickup I might obtain a better wide ranging response.

I have already tried altering the height of the original pickup itself, and it makes little difference, so I am prepared to hear from anyone here who might have had a similar experience, either changed their pickup for the SDuncan, or any other brand.

This is the pickup I am talking about Seymour Duncan SMB-5A 5-String Music Man Alnico Pickup on eBay, also Guitar Parts, Parts Accessories, Guitar, Musical Instruments (end time 01-Nov-08 06:29:06 GMT)


Thanks in advance for your feedback

 

[Grand Wazoo]

Well it seems no one has any opinion on this subject, I was hoping to hear from anyone who upgraded their pickup on their SR5ers, but no luck

Nevertheless, I went ahead and ordered that Seymour Duncan Basslines pickup, it was cheap enough, so if I don't like it I can always swap back with the original and sell the Duncan, hopefully I will be able to add some feedback here to help other Stingray owners who might be in the same situation as I am with at least one opinion on that p/up.

 

[Jimmyb]

You may have had more luck if you'd posted in the bass section.

Having said that, most people seem to be pretty happy with what's offered in the bass. Also, it's a company owned forum, so it is sort of not the done thing to encourage people to go for other types of pickup. There are quite a few other places to have that discussion.

A bit like going onto a factory owned Moto Guzzi forum and saying how good Yamaha's are...

 

[Grand Wazoo]

You may have had more luck if you'd posted in the bass section.

Having said that, most people seem to be pretty happy with what's offered in the bass. Also, it's a company owned forum, so it is sort of not the done thing to encourage people to go for other types of pickup. There are quite a few other places to have that discussion.

A bit like going onto a factory owned Moto Guzzi forum and saying how good Yamaha's are...

Appreciate your comment and thanks for pointing it out to me, yet the example of the bike is slightly irrelevant as while I am loyal to Yamaha, I still fit aftermarket exhausts to my bike to get a better performance.

My post was not meant to offend in anyway EBMM for their excellent basses, if I remember rightly a few years ago people use to fit Modulus carbon fiber necks on the stingrays, (I think Tony Levin had one of those too) There is a whole word of add ons / replacement parts out there none of which removes any respect to EBMM or other manufacturers.

cheers mate