The Guitar (and Other Musical Instruments) Thread | Page 24 | Fab Forum

Ernie Ball Music Man makes really good instruments. Always wanted a red stingray

I appreciate your indecisiveness @Beatlebug (when did this Bebu thing start?), I'm pretty split between the styles of bass myself. The P is indeed very forgiving, it's a warm comfortable thumpy sound with flats and a lovely clanky gritty whumpy sound with rounds. Those are the sounds it's best at. So many great P players including Colin Greenwood and Kim Deal, it's having a bit of a comeback lately.

If you do go for a PJ pay close attention to the distance between the pickups and the distance between the J pickup and the bridge. Different PJs take different attitudes. My SB-2 has the J close to the bridge and treats the J as more of a tone knob and there's a few PJs (and some Jazzes) that are similar to this.  Other PJs (like the shortscale Jags) have the P in the traditional place but the J much closer to it. This makes the J less trebly which might be good in a shortscale but in a longer scale bass might be a bit useless. So contrast and compare! A PJ isn't that much different to a Jazz but it is a distinctly different tone. I don't know any specific person who is a key PJ player, everyone has a go at them.

The Jazz can fake a Precision to a certain degree, but has has a much wider mid-range and treble. With rounds you can do punk and funk but you can also turn the tone and bridge pup off, play near the bridge and do reggae and ska, many have. And of course there's that quacky bridge pup sound that Jaco fanatics insist is the proper tone for a Jazz. And, like the Precision, it has a different character with flatwound strings, still has more range than the Precision but you'll get the thump and the bridge pickup will sound different. The world is pretty much split between the Ps and the Js. One of my favourite Jazz players was the late Dee Murray of Elton John's band, a massively underrated player. Another underrated player, George Murray, who played for David Bowie!

The Stingray approaches all of this from a completely different direction, with a bridge humbucker powered by an active preamp. Very popular with the rock/funk crowd but it was being used way back by bands like Siouxie and the Banshees, when the combination of a Stingray and bass chorus was heard all the time.But its more versatile than that, Tony Levin has been playing them with King Crimson for decades. Their sound ranges from aggressive to jazzy, I don't hear them being used for reggae! Also their necks are chunky which might put you off, people like Jazzes because they're easier to play down the neck but now its a thing to have even Precisions and PJs with tapering necks (like my SB-2).

Finish paying off the Cort 06 next week, terribly excited! Still playing the heck out of Siobhan, the next step will be an amp for her and the others but I must buy a synth first. (@Beatlebug I hope you don't mind me telling other people on the internet about your lovely guitar channel, it has been getting great reviews from those whose opinion I value).

Absolutely @Beatlebug, if it doesn't feel right and fun to play it won't matter how good the tone is! Everyone's different and bass presents particular problems for those of small frames or small hands. Do cast your net wider for shortscale basses, there are a few, like the Squier Jaguar I mentioned but also the Gretsch Junior Jet II which is a wicked little monster! And by practice amp, which do you mean, acoustic guitar, electric guitar or bass guitar?