Ray34 Sterling By Musicman Customer Service

[jkramer5]

I've owned a Honey Burst Ray34 since about August of 2009. I've had to contact Sterlings customer service three times since then and they have been fantastic each time.

The first was within a month of buying the bass. One of the controls ( can't remember which one exactly ) quit working. I carefully opened the control plate and quickly found the issue. The splice where the wires from the control knob to the pickup were poorly soldered. The shrink wrap that had been holding them together fell off and the wires separated. I could have just taken it back to where I bought it, but I've rewired many bass's so I quickly fixed it. I then removed the shrink wrap from the remaining splices and found one more cold joint and repaired. While there I did the rest just on spec.

I emailed Sterling support, not to complain, but to report what could be a Q.C. issue. The Sterling by MM line was fairly new then and I figured it might be something they would want to know about.

I received a reply quickly asking me to email them the pictures I'd said I took and I did. They also offered to pay for the repair if need be. I thanked them and declined as it was already taken care of. They thanked me for the pix and informed me they'd had a few calls about this already and were aware of it. No excuses or red tape, just service.

The next time was when I was curious if a standard Stingray pickguard would fit a Ray34. The person that responded did so with a nice email with pictures showing the difference between the pickup on a Ray34 and a standard stingray and how a stingray PG wouldn't be a drop in replacement. A bummer for me, but great service.

The last time was about 3 weeks ago. I was cleaning the bass while re stringing it. While I was wiping on the pickguard between the pickup and the bridge, a small chunk of the pickguard about the size of half a grain of rice, cracked off. It was well away from the edge of the guard, but before I could stop myself I wiped once more and the chunk put a big scratch about the length of the pickup about 1/4 inch behind it.

Bummer, not a big deal, but still. A few days later I emailed them describing what had happened, and offered to attach pic to clarify it. The response again came quickly. They asked for my address so they could send me a new guard, free of charge. I thanked them, provided the info and about a week later USPS dropped off a new guard.

I'm really pleased with the bass. I got a great deal on it during a sale where I bought it, and and even more pleased by the customer service I've received as it's owner. I wouldn't hesitate to purchase another one of their products. Sure there have been minor issues, but they are far out weighed by the service I've received.

Just thought that I'd report in that not only does the bass look and sound great and priced very well, but the service is top notch.