Frankenstein Ray 34

[AroundTheFur922]

Greetings, I'm an extremely novice bass player and made a very spur-of-the-moment purchase today. I have been using a Fender Jazz bass (Mexican) for the past few years and, although I very much liked the feel of it, I wasn't very happy with the overall sound. I had read online over the past few years that for the type of music I like to play (Tool, RHCP, 311) that a bass with an active pickup might better serve my needs. I'd been considering a SUB Ray for the past year or so which sells for around $300. I played one and liked the tone it produced. By chance, when I went into my local Guitar Center today I saw that they had a used Sterling Ray 34 on the floor for $370. I checked online and was surprised to see that this was more than half the price of a new model. It's in mint condition except that the stock pickup has been swapped out with another brand that I'm unfamiliar with and for some reason, 2 of the knobs have been removed. Was this still a wise purchase considering these modifications? If I wanted to replace the knobs and original pickup, how much would it cost me and where would I be able to purchase them? Any replies/advice are appreciated.

 

[wvbass]

You aren't familiar with EMG? Weird. You probably won't fond one of the original imported pickups for sale new. The EMG is arguably a better pickup.

Exit: I suggest you consider adding an EMG EQ to it and leave the pickup alone, unless you just don't like the tone.

 

[harleyman888]

Emg's usually come with their own electronics. Most likely removed all the stock guts. Where is the battery located?

 

[mmbongo]

Interestingly enough, you say you wanted a bass with an active pickup...and the stock pickup on these (or any Sterling/SUB/MusicMan) is not active. But by chance, someone put an active pickup in this one! Odd that you've never heard of EMG though.

 

[lokikallas]

I'd pick up a BQS system and a couple of matching knobs and be happy.

 

[AroundTheFur922]

I've never really done any research into aftermarket products for my previous basses and aside from Seymour Duncan, couldn't name a single 3rd party pickup maker. I guess I'm just trying to see if it was a decent investment for the price and whether it having aftermarket parts will affect the tone I enjoyed hearing from the SUB Ray.

 

[Down_Low]

www.bestbassgear.com stocks a lot of parts, you should be able to find most of what you need there.

It's also worth reading the MusicMan Sound and Pickup sticky in the Pickup forum. Lots of options on what you can do to the electronics, but if you want to get it back to original/close as possible to a real Stingray you might be better off dropping a Nordstrand pickup in there rather then the EMG.

As pointed out also worth checking if the pre amp has been replaced. There's a few options, such as John East, that are very similar to the stock pre amp.

All said and done it may cost more than it's worth to change it back to close to its original state. I'd try the EMG electronics first and see if your happy with them.

 

[harleyman888]

Those look like the emg mmcs pickups. Silver emg logo is on that model. The emg passive pickups would have a hz after the logo for this style of pickups. May want to change the battery.