Count me in! Finally got one. Fell hard for Charcoal Sparkle first time I saw it. Watched a few used ones online and either was outbid or waited too long to pull the trigger so I missed out on them. Not this time.
I’ve been happily playing my SBMM Ray34 H for a couple of months since I hopped over to playing bass in my band having been the (crappy) lead guitar player for quite some time with this band and others. I found the 3 band eq to be very diverse. Love the roasted maple neck. Factory set up was pretty darned good compared to other Ray 34s I tried and other brands in a higher tier I tried.
Then I started looking into the HH Rays. Every demo I heard convinced me that HH would be the tool I would prefer to use. From there the hunt was on.
UPS dropped this fella’ off about 8 last night. Let it adjust to the house for a little bit then cracked it open. I pulled it out and checked tuning. My 14 year old daughter who doesn’t even play snagged it in awe and spent an hour teaching herself how to play 7 Nation Army. She always gets a little excited to see new gear come in to the house but never like this.
Eventually I got my hands on it and I immediately understood the difference between SBMM AND EBMM. I’ve experienced the levels of craftsmanship between Gibson-Epiphone, Fender-Squier, etc in so many other areas besides instruments, and this just supports the buy-once-cry-once axiom.
Action is perfect, frets, perfect, neck perfect…yeah, every aspect is just a bit better than my Ray34. The playability far exceeds the SBMM and that’s really the biggest thing for me. Didn’t realize how much I struggled to play certain runs until now. Truly the extra time spent crafting the EBMM justifies the cost.
But what a joy to play. I’ve always preferred ebony fretboards on my guitars and I get the same response I like from this one. Unfortunately after playing it for a few hours very quietly after the house went to bed I didn’t get to fully unleash the broad palette packed int the HH configuration. I got enough to know that I am going to love playing this bass for a long time. Can’t wait to explore it further.
I’ve been happily playing my SBMM Ray34 H for a couple of months since I hopped over to playing bass in my band having been the (crappy) lead guitar player for quite some time with this band and others. I found the 3 band eq to be very diverse. Love the roasted maple neck. Factory set up was pretty darned good compared to other Ray 34s I tried and other brands in a higher tier I tried.
Then I started looking into the HH Rays. Every demo I heard convinced me that HH would be the tool I would prefer to use. From there the hunt was on.
UPS dropped this fella’ off about 8 last night. Let it adjust to the house for a little bit then cracked it open. I pulled it out and checked tuning. My 14 year old daughter who doesn’t even play snagged it in awe and spent an hour teaching herself how to play 7 Nation Army. She always gets a little excited to see new gear come in to the house but never like this.
Eventually I got my hands on it and I immediately understood the difference between SBMM AND EBMM. I’ve experienced the levels of craftsmanship between Gibson-Epiphone, Fender-Squier, etc in so many other areas besides instruments, and this just supports the buy-once-cry-once axiom.
Action is perfect, frets, perfect, neck perfect…yeah, every aspect is just a bit better than my Ray34. The playability far exceeds the SBMM and that’s really the biggest thing for me. Didn’t realize how much I struggled to play certain runs until now. Truly the extra time spent crafting the EBMM justifies the cost.
But what a joy to play. I’ve always preferred ebony fretboards on my guitars and I get the same response I like from this one. Unfortunately after playing it for a few hours very quietly after the house went to bed I didn’t get to fully unleash the broad palette packed int the HH configuration. I got enough to know that I am going to love playing this bass for a long time. Can’t wait to explore it further.
and that's the ticket! sounds like a bull's eye (+ a cool-looking ax! 
) --- congratulations on your new instrument! 
