Hi there, I have a Sterling SUB Ray4 bass which I'm using for recording tracks at home. I find that the low end is very boomy and my recordings are quite muddy and nasal sounding. was wondering whether upgrading the pickup would help achieve a more even, well rounded tone. I've seen demonstrations with people using an upgraded pickup plus preamp, but I would like to know what a pickup replacement alone will do for the tone (I'm on a budget!). So far I've seen the Delano MC4 AL and some by Seymour Duncan, are there any other alternatives?
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Improving tone of Sterling SUB Ray4 Bass
- Thread starter Bassmaster_Gnl
- Start date
If it were me, I'd start with the preamp, not the pickup. I like the sound of the original two-band Stingrays best: the Retrovibe Stinger is a faithful recreation at decent price, for instance.
Or you could get a Seymour Duncan Blackouts. Not a Stingray clone, but apparently a nice, inexpensive preamp.
The stock pickups are decent, in my experience, but they're quite hot, so if the preamp swap doesn't get you all the way there, an alnico replacement pickup might make things a little less intense. Keep an eye on the classifieds here to save some money.
Or you could get a Seymour Duncan Blackouts. Not a Stingray clone, but apparently a nice, inexpensive preamp.
The stock pickups are decent, in my experience, but they're quite hot, so if the preamp swap doesn't get you all the way there, an alnico replacement pickup might make things a little less intense. Keep an eye on the classifieds here to save some money.
I have read that the pickups in these basses are wired in Series. I believe they are internally wired under the cover and only have two leads at the controls.
If you're good at soldering and can rewire the pickup in Parallel like the original Stingray, it might solve your issue.
Then again, getting an aftermarket AlNiCo pickup with a 4 lead cable will help. Either the Duncan or Nordstrand, or even Kiesel's MM pickup is really nice.
If you're good at soldering and can rewire the pickup in Parallel like the original Stingray, it might solve your issue.
Then again, getting an aftermarket AlNiCo pickup with a 4 lead cable will help. Either the Duncan or Nordstrand, or even Kiesel's MM pickup is really nice.
What @fermata said. Start at the preamp. Pickups can help but those aren't bad. You can find a lot of options. Some of them are available prewired for Rays so you don't need to solder anything, just snap the pickup leads into terminals.
Thanks for your suggestions. I'm not too knowledgeable about any of the internal wiring stuff, how can I determine if the pickup is wired in series or parallel? If it's not that, it sounds like a new preamp would be the best option rather than a new pickup. I neglected to mention, I'm playing fast punk music with a pick, are there any particular preamps that are better suited to this style of music? I find that currently the sheer bassiness of the tone I'm getting isn't quite suited to what I'm trying to play. I can attenuate this using the bass knob, but it seems to suck out the main body of the tone and leave it sounding thin. There doesn't seem to be much 'air' or quality to my recordings either, would I be right in thinking that a preamp upgrade would help towards this?
A multimeter will reveal whether the pickup is in series or parallel (higher impedance = series, lower impedance = parallel). But I wouldn't worry about it, for now at least. (If a tech is installing the new pre, they can check then.)
Edit: The MojoTone pre below looks great.
Edit: The MojoTone pre below looks great.
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Okay, thanks for sharing your recommendations! Suppose I'll have to do some digging around and do some sound comparisons...
I like the look of the Glockenklang 2-band pre, does anyone have any experience with this? The only thing is, it seems to be designed for a 2 pickup configuration, with a balance control knob to control the bias between each one. I was wondering whether it might be feasible to use this to control the balance between the bridge/neck coil of a dual coil pickup, such as the one in my Sterling. Any thoughts?
I think that over-complicates things without much benefit. For it to work, you'd need a new pickup with four exposed wires, but the the coils/slugs are close enough together that you won't experience a dramatic tonal difference; meanwhile, you will introduce single coil hum as you pan toward one coil or the other.
I think the MojoTone Stingray pre recommendation is a winner here, although of course there are also others, if you want to spend more money. Or if you're not set on a Stringray clone, I've read about people putting the Seymour Duncan Blackouts pre in their Ray4s and being happy with the sound. (That one is so inexpensive, you might be able to go for a new pickup while you're at it, if you want to do a full electronics overhaul.)
I think the MojoTone Stingray pre recommendation is a winner here, although of course there are also others, if you want to spend more money. Or if you're not set on a Stringray clone, I've read about people putting the Seymour Duncan Blackouts pre in their Ray4s and being happy with the sound. (That one is so inexpensive, you might be able to go for a new pickup while you're at it, if you want to do a full electronics overhaul.)
The reason I ask is because I saw a vid of someone doing the exact same thing with selector switches to switch between parallel, bridge coil only, neck coil only, and series. Having said that, he was adjusting the EQ controls quite a lot so it's not entirely apparent what difference switching the coils was making. Do you know if there's any demonstration vids for the MojoTone pre? What kind of tone do the Blackouts produce? I'm hoping to get more clarity out of my tone and a bit less of the upfront, low-end punchiness which seems to be clouding my mixes a fair bit.
MojoTone should sound like a classic two-band Stingray, so any examples of a pre-Ernie Ball Music Man would give you the idea. Off-hand, I'm not aware of a Blackouts sample, but YouTube may have something. (My hunch is that the lows will be tighter than on the stock preamp.)
You could also, as a test, wire the pickup straight to the jack and see a) if you like the passive tone and b) ascertain if the boominess is related to the pickup, of not.
You could also, as a test, wire the pickup straight to the jack and see a) if you like the passive tone and b) ascertain if the boominess is related to the pickup, of not.
Okay, thanks for the info. I might try wiring it passive as you suggested and seeing how it sounds. I'm fairly sure it's the sound of the preamp that I'm not getting on with, so that might well resolve the issue!
Okay, thanks for the tips. I've tried boosting treble and cutting the bass, but not rolling both back. I'll give it a go.
If I remember correctly, pickup is series wired and can not be opened (epoxy).
I tried Bartolini replacement but it was too polite so I stock pickup went back.
Ray4 is good inexpensive bass that won't sound like Stingray, but can sound good unscooped. I remember playing it mostly flat, maybe little boost on bass. It was good enough for a rock festival with 2000 bikers. I even got compliment from a RHCP tribute bassist that played a lovely Stingray.
I tried Bartolini replacement but it was too polite so I stock pickup went back.
Ray4 is good inexpensive bass that won't sound like Stingray, but can sound good unscooped. I remember playing it mostly flat, maybe little boost on bass. It was good enough for a rock festival with 2000 bikers. I even got compliment from a RHCP tribute bassist that played a lovely Stingray.
I was contemplating opening it up and seeing if I could turn it into a four wire, sounds like a waste of time from what you're saying! I think I need a more even tone without such a heavy bottom end, as I'm playing fast and hard and it seems to get lost amongst other instruments.
