I'm in the market for a new bass, and i'm debating between an american series jazz and a stingray. I love both basses. I hear people saying how newer fenders aren't very good, but I disagree. Who here would choose the jazz over the ray and why.
I'm in the market for a new bass, and i'm debating between an american series jazz and a stingray. I love both basses. I hear people saying how newer fenders aren't very good, but I disagree. Who here would choose the jazz over the ray and why.
Yo Funky,
These discussions always interest me but you have ten reasons why YOU would prefer one over the other--and those ten reasons are located at the ends of your hands. :^>)
While only you can pick a favorite, I whole-heartedly recommend that you sit down and play several examples of both basses. IMHO, you'll end up playing and owning BOTH. Trying to compare the two---depending on the features built into each--is comparing apples and oranges.
Bass-ically Yours,
Rich Briere
they're 2 totally different instruments - like comparing a Strat to a Les Paul.
I personally don't think either one is inherantly superior to the other; they're different. That said, I PERSONALLY would go with the Stingray, mostly because of the neck. I prefer the fatter neck. 1 11/16" nut on the Ray (and the P-bass, BTW)vs 1 1/2" (if I remember right) for the Jazz. The day they make a Jazz body/electronics with a P neck on it, I'll buy one.
I'll also disagree with catagorizing American Fender's as "not very good" True there are good ones and not-so-good ones, but as a whole they're pretty consistant.
I agree, they both bring something different to the table. If it were up to me? I'd buy an AmDlx Jazz over a Stingray. Why? Better growl and snappier highs. While the SR is good too, its use for me would be limited to funky, gospel-type music. YMMV.
Happy hunting.
Nice to meet you.
INteresting, JC...I think that the Stingray has more growl than the Jazz. The Fender definitely has snappier highs, though, the SR is more midrange-y... and to me the humbucker mixed with the active electronics have more....ooomph, for lack of a better term.
Not to say the Jazz isn't good as well, I think it's a bit more refined.
heck, given my druthers and a couple grand, I'd have one of each (with a Precision neck on the Jazz) in my stable...
You might also want to try an MIA Precision Deluxe for a nice combination of the features you admire. Mine is extraorindarily versatile, which is why I bought it.
I have the MIM Precision Deluxe, with the EMG's, and it rocks! I love it to death. I also have a MIM Jazz Fretless which I enjoy greatly...love the narrower neck...
BUT...if I was more than a hobbyist at bass, AND, if I was going to get serious, and start making some decent money playing, then I'd go with the Stingray 5-string as my primary gigging bass. I think that they took the Fender bass and improved on the design greatly. It's solid, dependable, that big ol' pickup sounds GREAT, and the neck feels great too.
"I'm gonna find myself a girl
that can show me what laughter means
And we'll fill in the missing colors
In each other's paint-by-number dreams..."
OK, so I reread my post, and I made myself seem like a rank amateur...I'm more than a hobbyist, I play bass every week at church, and am regarded by musician-friends as a pretty decent bassist...didn't want you to think I didn't know what I was talking about...I started playing bass back in '83 when I was a sophomore in high school, and won the Louis Armstrong jazz award as a senior, so I do know good bass tone.
Though I never learned to slap and pop worth a darn...I'm too steeped in Southern Rock and Country...
"I'm gonna find myself a girl
that can show me what laughter means
And we'll fill in the missing colors
In each other's paint-by-number dreams..."
This will do everything the Stingray AND the Fender will do, and sound better - for less money. Choose the HB2 pickup option. Everyone I know who has bought a Carvin has been very surprised at the incredible tone capabilities and professional quality. I've played the stingray and the fender (and still own a jazz), and the Carvin blows them away.
http://www.carvin.com/products/guitar.php?ItemNumber=B5
Exactly why I prefer the Jazz over the Stingray and the Precision (as well as a lot of other basses). It's also the reason I had my G&L custom ordered for me.
I read this a long time ago, and it's totally true, and it goes even more to why I haven't even picked up a Stingray (or Sabre for that matter)- "when I pick up a bass, it sounds like me playing bass- when I pick up a Stingray, it sounds like me playing a Stingray."
It does what it does, it sounds like a Stingray- it doesn't do what you want it to do- it makes you sound like you're playing a Stingray.
*Recipient of the 2006 Time Magazine "Man Of The Year" Award*
Some people are like Slinkies . . . not really good for anything, but you
still can’t help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs.
Davey: you like the smaller necks, eh? s'all good...different strokes for different folks. I personally like the feel of the bigger neck.
I don't really agree with the quote you repeated. To me, the Stingray is as versitile an instrument as any others out there - it's what you do with it. I would ask you to play one sometime, just for fun. Explore the electronics and what they can do. If you don't like it, no biggie; it's no skin off my teeth. I know people who play it jazz, rock, blues, punk, you name it, the SR can do it. So can plenty of others, I'm not saying anything bad about the Jazz; like I said, I want one with a P-neck.
Cre: greed, Carvin makes some incredible gear at short money...my only complaint with them is they have one neck shape - thin.
Correction, they have a 6-string guitar neck, a 7 string, an acoustic and 4, 5 and 6 string bass necks. very slim for all of them.
As I mentioned earlier, I like honkin' big ones.
Ain't taking anything awqay from Carvin, though - they invented the production/custom instrument. I just wish they'd intruduce different neck shapes.
I totally understand people not liking the 1.5" nut width, it's what I learned on, and I actually did have the Noel Redding Jazz with an 11/16" nut for around a year. I hated it, but I gave it my best shot.
I've been fortunate enough to play literally dozens of Stingrays and Sabres- and actually had a Stingray on loan for a month or so (this was around 1995 or so) I could never get it away from it's "signature" sound. Everything I played unmistakably sounded like it was coming out of a Stingray. Maybe some of it has to do with the bass sound I was trying to get out of it, the one I had on loan was being run through an old SVT-2/8x10 and my GK 800 RB/2+1x15. It's not my thing- I accept that, and I don't think any less of the instrument or anyone that uses it-
*Recipient of the 2006 Time Magazine "Man Of The Year" Award*
Some people are like Slinkies . . . not really good for anything, but you
still can’t help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs.
Fair enough, Davey...from your earlier post, I though t you were saying that you never played a Stingray.
I will admit that there is a sound you get from it, though to me the electronics give a pretty wide range of tweakability.
Depending on the sound you were looking for, the GK and Apegs are pretty distictive amps...at least the GK for sure, the SVT I haven't played enough to really get a feel for, but that could be part of it...
like I said, it's all good, man...