• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Has anyone regretted buying the Ray4?

#42
I had one a short time. I love some things, but not others.

Loved:
  • Tone - Very thick mid burp. It was cool.
  • Look - Light green with maple neck.

Not Loved:
  • Neck - I like narrow thick necks but this neck was very narrow and not very thick. I was just small overall.
  • Weight - Too heavy for my tastes. On the verge of neck dive but not quite.
  • Tone - The tone was a bit too mid-heavy. EQ didn't really fix it.
  • Overall Quality - It was quite good for $300 but my standards are higher, esp. related to hardware.
  • Dead Spots - It had them. I don't like them.

After figuring I liked the basic tone, I decided to build a Warmoth replacement which fixed all the "Not Loved" problems while maintaining the "Loved" features.

NBD: Stingray something; Can you guess? | TalkBass.com
 
  • Like
Reactions: dralionux
#43
Here is mine, with an EMG MMHZ passive pickup (wired in series), and a Kaish ($10.00) pick guard.
B400C840-C455-4938-AC5B-17658C2F34D2.jpeg
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Giffro, Artman and jlm00013
#44
S.F.Sorrow said:
Yeah, I've definitely regretted buying my Ray4. Apart from a Squier Bronco it was probably my worst bass purchase ever.

I sold a real Stingray because it wasn't really my kind of tone and it was mostly gathering dust in my studio. After a while I thought it might be a good idea to have a Ray in the studio after all. I read all the decent reviews (mostly around here) and got a Ray4.

The fit and finish was more or less as expected in this price range. Let's just say it looks great from a distance... I expected a bass in this price range to need a bit of tweaking but this one was particularly poor. The setup was horrible and the fret ends looked like they had been cut with a chainsaw (as expected in this price range, no big deal).

Unfortunately the frets were also very uneven and needed a complete levelling/crowning. The nut slots were also way too high and needed filing (I made a new one out of bone instead). I repair guitars for a living so at least I could do all the work myself.

But it gets worse...

One of the saddle intonation screws had stripped threads out of the box. Only a small part of the threads were damaged so unfortunately I didn't notice this until I had sorted out all the other problems and changed the strings to a type that needed a very different setup/compensation. At this point it was obviously too late for a refund. The stripped screw turned out to be a nightmare because no-one seems to sell these screws separately. Apparantly intonation screws are not considered "replacement parts"... All the traditional hardware stores in my area have been replaced with huge chain stores that no longer sell single screws, only large packs. It actually turned out to be cheaper to order a complete Harley Benton Fender-style bridge, use one of the intonation screws and throw the rest of the bridge into the parts bin (I wasn't even sure if the screw would fit but luckily it did).

And then we get to the worst part...

The preamp (and/or possibly the pickup) was junk, and I really mean JUNK. The pickup seemed to overload the preamp. To avoid getting a nasty distorted signal when digging in I had to lower the pickup to the point where it sounded thin, horrible, anemic. I know some Ray4s of the past had a problem with too hot preamps but this shouldn't be one of those. I did at bit research before buying and the ones with the faulty preamps shouldn't still have been around at the time of purchase (May 2018 and mine was a new color for 2018 so definitely not old stock). The pickup/preamp didn't have a particularly great tone to begin with so I decided to replace them with a new pickup+preamp from Nordstrand rather than waste time on a warranty claim.

I guess I ended up paying more for replacement parts than for the bass itself. Luckily I could do all the work myself. If I add the cost of labour I could probably have gotten a Ray34 instead and had some spare change.

At least I ended up with a great instrument in the end, right? WRONG! It still has some slight fret buzz in certain areas of the neck, even though the frets are PERFECTLY levelled. This is something I normally only experience with cheap basses. The problems seems to be that it has a very uneven response along the neck with some areas resonating too strongly, causing the strings to vibrate with an unusually large amplitude (which leads to fret buzz). Some areas are very "dead" as well and I'm not talking about the typical dead spots in the usual positions. For example this bass sounds completely "dead" around the 10th-11th frets which is something I've never actually experienced before.

These basses generally get decent reviews so I guess I must have had extremely poor luck... but my advice would be to test it thoroughly before buying or at least get it from a store with a generous return policy.
Click to expand...

****************I have had an experience similar to this with every SUB series Stingray 4 string and I have owned 5 of them. Returned every one.**************

YMMV
 
#50
I really like my Ray4, which I bought on sale at GC (satin transparent black finish). Since nobody asked, here's what I did to it: replaced the too-hot, muddy stock pickup with an Aguilar AG4M after watching a video about it by Bully Thakidd. Sounds 100 times better. I DIDN'T replace the preamp after watching a vid where LowEndLobster pointed out that it's the same preamp that's in the Ray24. It does work just fine, though I might still change it out some time when I'm bored. Then I replaced the black pickguard with a red pearloid number I bought on ebay, which is the real reason for this post -- to get people's thought. What do you think?
IMG_4108.JPG
IMG_4109.JPG
 
  • Like
Reactions: bigdaddybass12, jlm00013 and filler83
#51
I think it looks cool and I bought the same bass on a sale at Christmas.
Is there a cheap source for pick guards that fit well?
If I changed the pup and used a Moody strap, I'd have more in accessories than the cost of the bass which seems odd (to me)!
 
#52
I bought mine from an ebay seller named precisiongtr for about $40. There may be cheaper ones out there but he keeps a wide variety of different pickguard materials in stock, so you have a lot to choose from. It's true that you can quickly spend more on mods than you did on the bass. In fact, if you change out both the pickup and the preamp it would be hard NOT to. But you can't put a price on fun... (well, you can, but let's keep things wholesome here).
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jim C
#53
This just in:
Changing a Ray 4 from series wiring to parallel makes this a much more musical bass.
Clearer tone, the mud is gone, and the output is reasonable! I see no reason to make this switchable to series wiring. Highly recommended mod and much more noticeable than the video posted by Lobster (probably because it was a video).
Wonder why they did not do this at the factory?
 
  • Like
Reactions: jlm00013
#56
Own both Ray4 and 5 previously. Better build quality than both indo Squier VM and CV in similar price point, especially factory fretwork and neck stabilization . Hardware are nice. The only weird thing is the satin coat on Ray4 neck has wet-sticky finished , but it become fine after couple week i play on it.
Weight on Ray4 just 3.5kg and 4.25kg on Ray5.
Ray4 sound too bright and zingy for my taste, Ti flat tame it nicely ; meanwhile Ray5 sound more mellow and smooth, a set of EB 2810 give it some bite and the B string sound pretty solid clear, and useful tone until 13th fret !

YAP_1593.JPG
YAP_1595.JPG
YAP_1879.JPG
YAP_1892.JPG


I no longer own both just because i am more P guys.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Artman

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back