Has anyone regretted buying the Ray4?

[Smoove-Groove]

I have a $3000(canadian) stingray classic that I bought a couple years ago and it has one of the most unstable necks of all my basses. I have to tweak the truss rod every two weeks. And it sits in a room with 17 other basses that I don’t have to touch.

 

[jlm00013]

Love the one I have (it’s actually my daughters now lol). I added a Delano pickup and a passive/active switch. It’s such a great playing bass for the price.
View attachment 4641129

Which Delano pickup did you put in yours? I put in the MC 4 AL.

 

[jlm00013]

You guys' photos are killing me!

I'll pile on...

 

[Artman]

No regrets at all. Stable neck, low action, and perfect frets on my 2020.
It’s been a fun bass to do mods on a little at a time.
The latest upgrade is Schaller tuners, and fancy pickguard.
This bass plays great, sounds great, and looks great too.

 

[Artman]

I recently bought a Ray 5, HH, from G.C. For $289 ($450 elsewhere) new (supposedly) but had to wait for them to be in stock.

Anyways, I set it up as I do all my basses, and all good 'cept for...

when I press the first fret, I hear the second fret. Just for the heck of it I put two layers of blue tape over the first fret, and it plays fine. I can only guess that the first fret is too low. I'm not sure what to do about it, but maybe use something better than the blue tape and play it like that.

Take it back to GC, and get another one without the fret issue.

 

[Bent77]

Regret is a strong word. I think saying we parted amicably is more realistic

 

[Gustopher]

Which Delano pickup did you put in yours? I put in the MC 4 AL.

MC4 FE - it sounds REALLY good with the stock preamp.

 

[rtslinger]

nope no regrets

 

[ok-djmiller]

I used to have a USA SUB, which I traded (and sometimes regret it). I played a couple Ray4s in a music store and was very unimpressed with the feel, fit, and finish. Not an instrument I would personally buy, but of course YMMV.

 

[LadyLoveStingRay5]

I'll pile on...
View attachment 4641420

One just like this was my 1st Ray. Very nice!!

 

[Cave Puppy]

No "ragrats" here. I bought a SUB bass at GC for $179 during the before times. I installed an Aguilar pickup and a Mojotone two band pre-amp and the thing just flat out rips! The neck is sublime as well. It's one of my favorite basses now. Pro-tip: A Fender type bent plate bridge will fit with no mods to the bass.

 

[Jim C]

I bought a Ray 4 right before Christmas for $250.
This is by far, the best playing sub $600 bass I've ever played.
Set up perfectly right out of the box and it plays better than my 2020 MIM Precision (with no sharp fret ends).
I have an 83' Ray as well as an OLP copy (with a Nordstrand pup / no preamp).
The Ray 4 is a bit dull even with the treble dimed but easy to fix with a little amp EQ.
I also lowered the pickup to get rid of some of the mud as these are high output.
Edit: I compared the Ray 4 to the Ray34 and did like the wider neck but could not justify the extra price difference as this particular Ray 4 has a perfect neck and weighs 8 1/2 lbs. Pretty sure I could buy a better pup and pre and it would still be less costly.

Have been thinking about "borrowing" the Nordy from the OLP.
From Lobster's review, it seems like he liked the preamp more than the pup.
Did you guys like the pup change a lot or just a small improvement?

 

[Marc valero]

I recently bought a Ray 5, HH, from G.C. For $289 ($450 elsewhere) new (supposedly) but had to wait for them to be in stock.

Anyways, I set it up as I do all my basses, and all good 'cept for...

when I press the first fret, I hear the second fret. Just for the heck of it I put two layers of blue tape over the first fret, and it plays fine. I can only guess that the first fret is too low. I'm not sure what to do about it, but maybe use something better than the blue tape and play it like that.

I made the same Ray 5 HH order with GC, but didn't get it, yet. Don't know when, but I got a Ray 5H about four years ago and plan to gig with it today.

 

[OllyW]

I though mine was a great bass for the money. My only issue was the hefty weight which is why I let it go.

 

[Buzz E]

The pickup/preamp combo output was really high. I was constantly adjusting the controls on it and the pedals I had at the time. It didn't play with pedals really well.

 

[salmon256]

I bought a wacky used one from Guitar center used section. Big mistake and I thought the seafoam didn't look like the pictures. HOWEVER, I tried some in GC and other places well set up and new and I plan to make it my next bass buy. The one I got was just bad and I thought I was done with Ray4 until I tried some well set up ones, not a pick player so it's gonna take some getting use to but can't wait to own one. So I regret buying one that was bad then returning it. It was a good experience though to tried better ones for me. Good luck!

 

[salmon256]

I love this Bass.

+1 for the Norwegian flag. hello fellow Norwegian-American bassist!

 

[ahbradot]

+1 for the Norwegian flag. hello fellow Norwegian-American bassist!

Great observation Viking brother! Thank you

 

[skycruiser]

I had one like the bass posted in Post 5 in this thread, with the big SUB on the headstock. Hated the sound. I swapped the pickup and still wasn't happy. I probably should have swapped the pre-amp instead (or both). Ended up getting rid of it. I'd like to try some type of 'Ray in the again down the road, but it's behind a couple other basses on my list.

 

[sotua]

Had one. Neck was iffy to really adjust the truss rod without buzz (but possibly was limited to that run - GC was liquidating stock like crazy on that color, and only that color. This year's run I haven't tried) but ultimately workable. Nice 1.5" nut but chunkier front to back than my jazz (which is really, really thin due to defret and refret shenanigans). It sounded great but I got rid of it because I've come to realize that I'm a passive JJ guy. That's my bass happy place. The HH setup did produce some righteous tones (particularly for slap and modern rock pick tone), but I never felt like I could get the sound I wanted out of it without lots of fiddling. Perhaps I would have had a nicer time with the single H configuration (I did have a OLP MM2 passive single H and that worked for me, but had to get rid of it because of wrist/shoulder issues that made the chunky neck painful for me).

Replaced it with a G&L Tribute JB2 and now I'm super happy. I have the JB2 with rounds and a Fender MIJ JBass with flats, and that covers all my needs.

What was my point? Oh yeah, for less than $300 just go for it.