I recall footage of Cliff Burton playing the shit out of his rick, and he was not a pick player, or at least not always a pick player. And I donāt remember for sure, and i donāt want to miss speak here, but I thought Geddy Lee was more of a finger player if not all finger style (I should be shot for not knowing right off the top of my head), and I have seen him play his rick a lot.
@howard. I am not even a bongo fan, so I am not gonna beat you up about it. I have never played one, and that might change my mind, after-all, I did start thinking I liked Ibanez and LTD and Schecters best (from what I had) until I started playing the first Ray4 I bought, which quickly became and remains my go to bass, and I did not see that coming at first
But,
BUt
BUT, a big but. (true story time)
it was in Jan of last year when I was taking a friend up to LA to get some stuff from his familyās house in the Hollywood hills. I had just started toying with the idea to play music again, and I just decided I wanted to play bass instead of go back to guitar, and while we were up in Hollywood (last January) on a Saturday afternoon, I decided I wanted to go into the Hollywood GC. Like THE GC. The one that was on the airwaves daily on FM hair metal radio stations talking about the sale of the century (every friday and every saturday and every sunday and basically every day of the week. lol. They used to be joked about so much around souther cal in the 80ās thru 90ās. Anytime somebody would talk about something being on sale or a special or a discount, somebody else would imitate the GC commercials Live, this weekend only, on Friday, on Sat, on Sun, this week only prices slashed etcā¦)
Ok, so yes, THE GC, on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood. We walked in, and I was walking around looking at the basses, started around the used section, which wraps into the guitar wall and back to the bass corner used section, and back front to the cheap bass wall, I made my way around the whole thing, and all the stingrays caught my eyes, like yeah baby.
But I was just thinking and I was just trying to see if they had any $99 specials I could just pick up to start playing, so when I was walking around and finally found the Ibanez Gio and Squire and Mitchell basic model wall, I remember thinking to myself, walking past the stingrays, ok that is the big boy section, I need the kiddy section.
So, they did draw my eye immediatly.
And this was before I got back to the stage of recalling every bass model that every bassist played, I had not paid attention in years, I was just walking into the GC, after 20 years not playing, and not following music video or being stuck in Orange County Punk mode, etcā¦ so when I first walked in, I was not like Oh yeah Stingray, yeah, that was the bass Fender made after selling Fender, and bla bla bla. but it caught my eye as a bass among basses, so it is not surprising to myself that I am a stingray guy.
It just never happened with the bongo for me
But I will tell you Joe @Jazzbass19, an funny thing, the one bass that I was looking for on the wall that I thought of as the king of all basses, that day in the GC in Hollywood, was Rickenbacker and I was looking around for those while I was in the store that day. bummer they didnāt have any, and I still have not had a chance to play one, but they look a little wider at the neck then the Jazz nut, which is the same size as my Ray4 and my Stingray Slo Special, 38mm, and is my preferred Nut width, the rick looks a a bit wider, do you know what it is, or I can look it up
but
That is why I bought the Stingray SLO Special, for the neck. white is not my preferred color, but I found this 2014 SLO with the right neck, ,in impeccable shape, plays and sounds amazing, and found it for $1050, I could not pass it up.
you see, I got my Ray34, and got it plecked, and I was happy to have it back, and when I started playing it compared to my Ray4, I realized the neck was way bigger, something I didnāt notice when I bought it out of the pawn shop. I would have bought it any way, but it made me question if I would want a real EBMM stingray, which typically is the ame size as the Ray34, so I got the SLO, knowing I would play it more and it will be like one with my Ray 4 and any ray4 or ray 24CA I may ever get, or if I get another EBMM Ray, chances are I will get one with a slo neck or with 1.625 max nut width, cuz the 1.69 is just a little too big.
And that is why I am selling the Ray23 and the stingray4, and keeping the Ray4 and the SLO Special
it just feels better for me to play.
of course, I have other basses, but they all have pretty narrow nut width.
I donāt have much problem buying something an then selling it if I donāt like it, but most things are pretty readily available where i live, always for sale and easily accessible, so for me it is easy, buy it, play it for a while, and decide if it is a keeper or not, but for many, I know it is not so much an option, due to location, availability, cost, etcā¦ so if you canāt buy one and stomach that you might end up selling it due to not liking it, then I would definatly wait until you get a chance to get a good test on one.
. Itās not helpful that the price is actually kind of reasonable either.
I was reluctant to part with the black one, the only reason I let it go was I had 2, even though the black one was older ā76ā I like the ā79ā burgundy colour better, and it is like new, the black one was a players bass, and itās gone to a good homeā:+1:
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