Did I get a dud Stingray Ray4?

[GroovinOnFunk]

I don't feel like I should have to make truss rod adjustments or major saddle adjustments to a new bass.

That is absolutely ridiculous. And you jumped to that conclusion while it was missing a string? Man... I work at a music store and it's always the people buying the cheapest stuff that have the highest expectations. Haha. Good grief.

So you expect the builder or the store you bought it from to know your playing style? The humidity where you live? Whether you like low, medium, or high action? And then you want them to give you a full top to bottom setup, fret level crown and polish, right? They aren't psychic. Learn to set up your bass. It is absolutely reasonable to have to set up a new bass to your liking, especially when shopping on a budget

 

[beatdatthang]

One of my biggest disappointments was a Ray35 I got from GC last summer. It was a purple sparkle with all black hardware. All of the tuners stripped out upon 1st tuning and the truss rod was stuck. I have used American Ernie Ball basses for years and never had a problem. The new Sterling line has been a big disappointment for me.

It seems like the run of black hardware they were using was defective, along with the frozen truss rods. I don’t know if anyone had issues with the ones with chrome hardware.

 

[ole Jason]

Every one of those basses I've picked up has been resoundingly awful. Music Man really needs to get a better handle on the QC of their import series. If Schecter, Fender, and countless others can produce decent cheap basses abroad so can MM.

 

[Hounddog409]

I was looking for a knock-around bass that I can keep at work and use for practice. I came across the Sterling Stingray Ray4 on Musicians Friend's stupid deal for $249. All the reviews said that it's a solid build, good playing bass and you get what you pay for with the tone. Sounded perfect for my needs.

It arrived yesterday and was unplayable out of the box. On first tuning, the E string snapped and unraveled. No biggie on that because I would probably put better strings on it anyway. Once the other three strings are tuned, you can't even make a tone on the first three frets and there is significant fret buzz up to the middle if the neck. I raised the action at the saddle pretty high and now I can get tone across the fret board, but still with significant buzz. I believe the neck may be backbowed. I don't feel like I should have to make truss rod adjustments or major saddle adjustments to a new bass.

Also annoying is that I can feel the sharp edges of the frets on the sides of the fret board. I can live with that with a cheap bass, but I think this should be a little better quality.

My question to anyone who is familiar with this bass is should I exchange it for another one? If I just got a bad one I wouldn't mind trying another one. If this is typical, I'm just going to ask for my money back.

Thanks in advance!

First of all, you cannot setup a bass with 3 strings. Wasting your time.

1. Install new strings and tune.
2. Check/Set neck relief.
3. Adj bridge.
4. Adj pickup.

And check your expectations. Any bass shipped likely needs setup. Regardless of price.

 

[HowieD72]

Didn't OP put this to rest on post 21

Yes he did. I guess some people can't read....including myself!!

 

[monti2889]

Here's my opinion.....
The issues you describe, are all fixable, some to be expected, others, disappointing to have to fix in a new bass. From my experience the sterling so b basses are great value and usually have a good attention to detail. My guess is you received a bass that has sat in the wearhouse for sometime and has been neglected. As such, it's more of a reflection on the seller, not the manufacturer. There's a different seller, that performs setups and adjustments prior to shipping. They also include SWEETs in the box. Some of those sweets may be salt WATER taffy, sugar tarts...etc.
Me personally, I would take my chances and send it back for exchange. If I liked the second one and it still needed adjustments....id probably do the adjustments and live with it.

 

[_One//Man//Mutiny_]

Never attempt to set it up without all the strings on it.

 

[fishdude101101]

I was looking for a knock-around bass that I can keep at work and use for practice. I came across the Sterling Stingray Ray4 on Musicians Friend's stupid deal for $249. All the reviews said that it's a solid build, good playing bass and you get what you pay for with the tone. Sounded perfect for my needs.

It arrived yesterday and was unplayable out of the box. On first tuning, the E string snapped and unraveled. No biggie on that because I would probably put better strings on it anyway. Once the other three strings are tuned, you can't even make a tone on the first three frets and there is significant fret buzz up to the middle if the neck. I raised the action at the saddle pretty high and now I can get tone across the fret board, but still with significant buzz. I believe the neck may be backbowed. I don't feel like I should have to make truss rod adjustments or major saddle adjustments to a new bass.

Also annoying is that I can feel the sharp edges of the frets on the sides of the fret board. I can live with that with a cheap bass, but I think this should be a little better quality.

My question to anyone who is familiar with this bass is should I exchange it for another one? If I just got a bad one I wouldn't mind trying another one. If this is typical, I'm just going to ask for my money back.

Thanks in advance!

I've never bought a bass that didn't need a truss rod adjustment out of the box whether it cost $200 or $2000. It's the foundational adjustment and it takes 30 seconds.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

I was looking for a knock-around bass that I can keep at work and use for practice. I came across the Sterling Stingray Ray4 on Musicians Friend's stupid deal for $249. All the reviews said that it's a solid build, good playing bass and you get what you pay for with the tone. Sounded perfect for my needs.

It arrived yesterday and was unplayable out of the box. On first tuning, the E string snapped and unraveled. No biggie on that because I would probably put better strings on it anyway. Once the other three strings are tuned, you can't even make a tone on the first three frets and there is significant fret buzz up to the middle if the neck. I raised the action at the saddle pretty high and now I can get tone across the fret board, but still with significant buzz. I believe the neck may be backbowed. I don't feel like I should have to make truss rod adjustments or major saddle adjustments to a new bass.

Also annoying is that I can feel the sharp edges of the frets on the sides of the fret board. I can live with that with a cheap bass, but I think this should be a little better quality.

My question to anyone who is familiar with this bass is should I exchange it for another one? If I just got a bad one I wouldn't mind trying another one. If this is typical, I'm just going to ask for my money back.

Thanks in advance!

With only 3 of 4 strings there is insufficient tension on the neck and the set up will be wrong given the symptoms you see. Replace the strings.

 

[Mastermold]

I've never bought a bass that didn't need a truss rod adjustment out of the box whether it cost $200 or $2000. It's the foundational adjustment and it takes 30 seconds.

I recently bought a cheap Sterling Ray5 from Sweetwater and out of the box it was set up pretty well, no truss adjustment needed, the only adjustment I had to make was to the G-string saddle for intonation. New strings were a must, of course, but I've not had to touch the truss. Maybe Sweetwater gets credit for that.

 

[fishdude101101]

I recently bought a cheap Sterling Ray5 from Sweetwater and out of the box it was set up pretty well, no truss adjustment needed, the only adjustment I had to make was to the G-string saddle for intonation. New strings were a must, of course, but I've not had to touch the truss. Maybe Sweetwater gets credit for that.

Well, I'll admit I'm picky, like REALLY picky. Every bass I've ever bought online or in person, I've considered them almost unplayable until I did a setup on them. I've never pickup one in a store that was even close. But I can usually look at the bass and tell if it'll setup well easily, or if it's gonna need a neck shim, or nut filed more, or whatever.

But like I said I'm super picky on setup. Action goes up or down a 1/64th and I can tell.

 

[badinage]

I was looking for a knock-around bass that I can keep at work and use for practice. I came across the Sterling Stingray Ray4 on Musicians Friend's stupid deal for $249. All the reviews said that it's a solid build, good playing bass and you get what you pay for with the tone. Sounded perfect for my needs.

It arrived yesterday and was unplayable out of the box. On first tuning, the E string snapped and unraveled. No biggie on that because I would probably put better strings on it anyway. Once the other three strings are tuned, you can't even make a tone on the first three frets and there is significant fret buzz up to the middle if the neck. I raised the action at the saddle pretty high and now I can get tone across the fret board, but still with significant buzz. I believe the neck may be backbowed. I don't feel like I should have to make truss rod adjustments or major saddle adjustments to a new bass.

Also annoying is that I can feel the sharp edges of the frets on the sides of the fret board. I can live with that with a cheap bass, but I think this should be a little better quality.

My question to anyone who is familiar with this bass is should I exchange it for another one? If I just got a bad one I wouldn't mind trying another one. If this is typical, I'm just going to ask for my money back.

Thanks in advance!

I bought a Sterling Ray 4 from GC (along with a Squier CV60s) mailorder, sight unseen, in February 2022. I'm accustomed to doing set-ups, no prob. THE RAY had a backbow in the neck causing fret buzzing. With the truss rod relaxed as far as it would go, string tension (slowly but finally) pulled the neck back into a usable relief after about a month. I returned it anyway because the return-window was running out, I was afraid a weather change could bring back the backbow, and I decided it really is true what "they" say about the second (or "neck" pickup) on a HH Stingray: It's just in the way.

Go here:
https://www.talkbass.com/threads/the-sterling-by-musicman-sub-ray-4-and-5-club.1396797/

Lots of helpful advice.

I grow weary of this as a first answer. I've noticed a lot of "clubbers" are unappreciative of new folks coming to them and straight-away saying they have PROBLEMS with the piece of gear all the "clubbers" love so much they formed a club over it. ...So you're sending folks blindfolded to search in what may be hostile territory.

 

[ComeHomeShane]

I was looking for a knock-around bass that I can keep at work and use for practice. I came across the Sterling Stingray Ray4 on Musicians Friend's stupid deal for $249. All the reviews said that it's a solid build, good playing bass and you get what you pay for with the tone. Sounded perfect for my needs.

It arrived yesterday and was unplayable out of the box. On first tuning, the E string snapped and unraveled. No biggie on that because I would probably put better strings on it anyway. Once the other three strings are tuned, you can't even make a tone on the first three frets and there is significant fret buzz up to the middle if the neck. I raised the action at the saddle pretty high and now I can get tone across the fret board, but still with significant buzz. I believe the neck may be backbowed. I don't feel like I should have to make truss rod adjustments or major saddle adjustments to a new bass.

Also annoying is that I can feel the sharp edges of the frets on the sides of the fret board. I can live with that with a cheap bass, but I think this should be a little better quality.

My question to anyone who is familiar with this bass is should I exchange it for another one? If I just got a bad one I wouldn't mind trying another one. If this is typical, I'm just going to ask for my money back.

Thanks in advance!

That's a tough situation. You spend a couple hundred bucks on an instrument, you expect it to work as it should. TBH, a reasonable expectation.

Unfortunately, basses of any quality are a roll of the dice. I own multiple $2k+ Stingray Specials. They all feel different, play different, and require different levels of maintenance. In my experience, the variations with basses in that $300-600 price range could very well mean that it's unplayable until set-up by a pro.

Here are the options that I would be considering if I was in your situation...

- Return it as soon as possible without investing more time, effort, and money into that particular instrument. However, this might not be in the return policy on that 'fire sale' instrument.

- Call customer service and ask them to fix the bass. They will likely send you to an 'approved' retailer or repair shop. It could be in your area, it could be hours away. Sometimes this works out, but most of the time that shop says the instrument is not repairable. Typically in this scenario they will send you a new instrument (idk why but refunds are usually not a part of this type of thing).
the new instrument could be a the needle in the haystack and have amazing playability, or it could be worse than the first one. This could put you back in the same exact situation.

- Take it to an unrelated professional to see what is wrong and how much it would cost to repair. If it's a reasonable cost and worth it for the price you paid, perhaps just paying a pro to do their magic will make the bass super awesome, way beyond the quality it should be. Or they might say no, it s.o.l. Which takes you back to the first two options.

Either way it sucks. There's players on here that follow a strict 'try before buy' rule for this exact reason.

Lastly, the components of the bass you purchased are definitely not of high quality. They're OK, they work. A pro could fix up the frets and probably set-up the bass really well and make it good to play. But the quality of components is one of the major factors behind the cost of a bass.

Anyways, I've rambled long enough. Im sure you're smart enough to have figured all that out on your own... I'm just sharing ideas based on my experiences.

Good luck!

 

[sokolasty]

Each guitar I bought needed setup

Half of them had intonation issues (for me it's more than 4 cents out of tune)

1k$ LTD Surveyor 87 has sharp frets
One had faulty pick up and went back to shop
Two out of four 700$ Fender Mustangs wouldn't intonate, in one of two others switch was faulty and was replaced

Every new bass I bought needed to have scale set, i. e. wouldn't tune on twelfth fret, up to 20 cents.

It's all cost cutting. Let the consumer do the quality check


EDIT
One bass did not require 12th fret intonation setup.
Harley Benton 5 string fretless.

 

[SteveCS]

Once the other three strings are tuned, you can't even make a tone on the first three frets and there is significant fret buzz up to the middle if the neck.

Which will almost certainly go away once the 4th string is reinstalled and brought to pitch. The truss rod is there to counter string tension. With only the strings on, guess what ...

 

[andare]

If you have string buzz in the first 5-7 frets, release the truss rod, don't raise string action at the bridge.

Always set up any guitar, regardless of quality and price. Between environmental changes and personal preferences, there is no single, everlasting setup. Learn to turn a few screws if you want to have a playable instrument.

Follow the acronym TRAIN.
Tune, Relief, Action, Intonation, Nut and Noodle (as in play around to see if all the adjustments work well for you) in this order only as every adjustment affects the next one.

Anyway 249 bucks is a cheap instrument. Expect to have to finish and polish the frets, round the fretboard edges and smooth rough spots and corners.
And expect the same from Mexican Fenders at 4x the price, nowadays.

 

[Deleted member 271037]

That is absolutely ridiculous. And you jumped to that conclusion while it was missing a string? Man... I work at a music store and it's always the people buying the cheapest stuff that have the highest expectations. Haha. Good grief.

So you expect the builder or the store you bought it from to know your playing style? The humidity where you live? Whether you like low, medium, or high action? And then you want them to give you a full top to bottom setup, fret level crown and polish, right? They aren't psychic. Learn to set up your bass. It is absolutely reasonable to have to set up a new bass to your liking, especially when shopping on a budget

Agreed. A setup is nearly always needed when buying a new, factory fresh bass. In this price range I would expect the bass to also need some fretwork to unleash it's full potential.

Also, good luck returning a bass after breaking the E-string. I hope the store has a generous return policy.

 

[petermwright]

It's disappointing for it not to be playable when it arrives, and the string breaking is not great. But yeah, you have to expect to need to do a setup (including adjusting trussrod) with any new instrument, even high end ones. But as everyone else has said, with only 3 strings, you can't make any judgement about the neck relief anyway. And rough frets is par for the course at that price point.

I realise you're returning this one in any case. But in any case, it's good to have realistic expectations about any new bass you buy. I've never bought one that didn't need a setup.

 

[Five or Six]

He's sending it back...anyone buying online has to expect setup will be needed. To think otherwise is fooling yourself. If you can't setup a bass, have it done! First, throw the strings that came on it away! I don't care what brand they are. Put your favorite on it, tune it and let it set for a day or so. Then, start a major setup. A proper setup can take 2 or 3 days allowing the bass to acclimate. Everyone has their own way. My way of setup is just that, my way. Out of the box perfection is seldom. Even "off the wall" purchases require attention.

 

[brocco]

I use a medium grit soft sanding block ( hardware store ) on rough fret edges and it does the trick.