MM Sterling Without A Battery?
 

I've read in a thread before that Stingrays work without a battery and it sounds good, just the tone controls don't work and the output is weaker. Does anyone know if this is true for Sterlings as well?

mine didnt work without a battery. i have noticed that on 2 band rays, there will still be sound without a battery. its not useable output though.

My 3band stingray doesn't work without batteries

just spoke with a tech that converted a stingray to passive and he said the output was super low, that the pickups were low impedance, like around 1k whereas passive pickups are 7-8k. does anyone know if there is a schematic out there to make the passive mode have a higher output without changing the pickups?

a stingray wired passive will still have decent outpul, its not like when you pull the battery from a ray. the humbucker is 2 coils wound to around 4k and in parrallel which brings it to around 2k. a jazz bass with two pickups dimed would have their resistance cut in half as well and the volume is still fine.

the pickup is fed directly into the input of the pre and the volume is after the preamp. you could wire up volume and an active passive switch before the input of the pre just like you would on a jazz.

Try taking the battery out & see how it sounds. I broke the battery compartment on my Stingray (yes I know this is a Sterling Thread) thanks to an oversized 9v & it sounded flat & slightly distorted.