I still consider Ray as far as building my next 6 string but I've just heard some bad stories from folks with enough experience to know that his basses can be a gamble. Care to comment lamarjones? I know you've had as much or more experience with Ray's work as anyone.
Electronics wise, the pickups and pres tend to be the flavor of the day, I can see that. My least favorite combo was the Nordy dual coils with the east pre, but one of my faves was the nordy single coils through the east pre. Also, those 6 string all blond double cuts that are real gas inducing, those were dual coils and east pre, and jeez they sounded so sweet, WAY up there for me. And frankly, the dual coils do best either passive or very slightly eq'ed, at least for me. My haz lab and bart setup is sick, unbelievable finger tone. The current audere and jazz pup setup is great too, but as we can all see, they switch up quite a bit. He will tell you though, passive is his fave.
As far as playability, there was a period for a little bit where I thought the necks were a little thicker than usual, but I don't think that lasted very long. (3-4 years ago?) All the necks lately, and ironically early on, seem really fast. Somewhat slim and wide, definitely not for the p bass fan imo. And, as far as tone on the basses themselves, there is a wide variety of woods being used (whereas an F is pretty much gonna be an ash body), but even with that I think ash, alder, and either regular or white mahogany is what he uses, and they all seem to sound really strong. So you are gonna have some basses that aren't sonically what some are looking for, but very well might work with others. Even within that variation though, he definitely manages to keep them in a certain realm that he feels best, he definitely has preferences that way.
Personally, I would buy one that he has built instead of commissioning one from ground up, I can't say that I think the delivery times are consistent from what I have heard. I haven't heard of anyone not getting their bass, but it can definitely take some time.
I also think that is where he does his best work, just building a solid bass within a certain realm, cause if you look at the stuff he uses, there is a lot of reusing same woods (tops bodies and all) so it seems he has particular things he likes. Most of the basses that I have played from him where he just 'has one that he was warking on' have really floored me. I can't say I've played a single dog though. Some of the thicker necks, sounded great, not my thing (I definitely talked with some that did like that thickness) but still played great. Actually, I have a bass on order with him, and it intentionally has some vague specs except for a piece of walnut I gave him. I'll try and be unbiased when I get it
Honestly, I would just love to hear real opinions positive and negative about the playability on different ones, cause for real I think he went through some expirementation trying to find a space for himself in all of this. Can't argue with keeping it real. this is just what I have experienced, and live a ways from PR! (which, a lot of stuff with him happens there)
I aksed about it, he really digs it and says its kinda cross from east and audere, but no idea what that means. I should try and find out....
