S.U.B. Club

[mcnach]

Very likely. Part of the paint near the bottom edge of the fretboard had come off when I bought it. Pretty obvious what caused it too, the seller I bought it from used the bass for Rocksmith and very likely ate potato chips while playing...there were some crumbs in the gig bag and the neck smelled of potato chips. Took me a while to remove that grease and smell. ugh....
I was waiting for more of the paint to peel off but it hasn't - I've decided to leave it as is, have that slight worn look.

!!!!!!!

A guitarist I play with, one day he was looking for something in his gig bag pocket... and ended up just emptying the whole thing on the ground. You would not believe what came out: wrappers, crumbs to make a cake to feed a family made of... all kinds, chips, biscuits and various unrecognisable items... ugh. I wonder if he sold you his bass

 

[mcnach]

You could always sand the paint off, back of neck,which I did on one of my SUB's. I have a Sterling US SUB,that previous owner sanded,and did a nice job making it a nice satin neck,and nice wood grain,under all the black paint. Takes some time and patience,using different gauge of sand paper. View attachment 3241638 View attachment 3241639 View attachment 3241640 View attachment 3241641

That's a VERY nice looking neck. Often those SUBs have very meh looking necks, but yours looks great!

 

[Maxdusty]

!!!!!!!

A guitarist I play with, one day he was looking for something in his gig bag pocket... and ended up just emptying the whole thing on the ground. You would not believe what came out: wrappers, crumbs to make a cake to feed a family made of... all kinds, chips, biscuits and various unrecognisable items... ugh. I wonder if he sold you his bass

ha ha ha....pretty sure it's not the same person, maybe related though. The seller was new to playing an instrument, had put numbered colored stickers on the neck to coincide with the fingering scheme in Rocksmith. He was selling the bass because he decided bass playing wasn't for him. So yes, not only chip crumbs, but there were white salt residue smears on the neck I had to clean up (I think this is what ate at the paint finish in that spot. Good god, why use an awesome MIA bass like this???? Do it on a cheap First Act or something. I feel like I rescued the bass from a horrible fate. I at least got it for a very cheap price, seller I think just googled "SUB" bass and priced it as a used Sterling SUB instead of a MIA Musicman SUB.

 

[Axstar]

Can I join this celebration of frugal frivolities?

I have a white Sub Ray4. I bought it last month, though I'm guessing it has been on the shelf for a while as it has the big 'Sub' logo on the headstock.

I've done some mods...

The bridge and preamp came from 'Retrovibe' here in the UK. The preamp is a clone of a '77 Stingray preamp. The bridge required me to drill the body for the inserts, which was scary but manageable.

The pickup is a Kent Armstrong which, when wired in series, does plenty of Stingray bite.

I cut the pickguard myself from red 3-ply pickguard material. I guess it looks like a Japanese flag.

I love the preamp so much that I want to hear my other basses through it! As such I'm going to break it out into a pedal. I will replace it with an Alembic Stratoblaster clone in the Stingray, and conventional passive volume and tone controls. This will allow me to boost the output cleanly, and route other basses through the '77 preamp clone. I want to hear my Rickenbacker through it!

The stock Sub preamp is pretty decent. The stock Sub pickup is furiously hot, and wired in series. This might be why some people have distortion issues.

 

[mcnach]

Can I join this celebration of frugal frivolities?

I have a white Sub Ray4. I bought it last month, though I'm guessing it has been on the shelf for a while as it has the big 'Sub' logo on the headstock.

I've done some mods...

View attachment 3312918

The bridge and preamp came from 'Retrovibe' here in the UK. The preamp is a clone of a '77 Stingray preamp. The bridge required me to drill the body for the inserts, which was scary but manageable.

The pickup is a Kent Armstrong which, when wired in series, does plenty of Stingray bite.

I cut the pickguard myself from red 3-ply pickguard material. I guess it looks like a Japanese flag.

I love the preamp so much that I want to hear my other basses through it! As such I'm going to break it out into a pedal. I will replace it with an Alembic Stratoblaster clone in the Stingray, and conventional passive volume and tone controls. This will allow me to boost the output cleanly, and route other basses through the '77 preamp clone. I want to hear my Rickenbacker through it!

The stock Sub preamp is pretty decent. The stock Sub pickup is furiously hot, and wired in series. This might be why some people have distortion issues.

I like the red pickguard...

Here's my white USA SUB with a similar pattern

 

[shrigg]

Acetone works great to remove the black paint while preserving the original clear poly coat underneath. Remove the neck, mask off the headstock, don some rubber gloves and have at it! I have done this on a few SUBs with excellent results.

Here is one I did a few years back:
View attachment 2193770

Removed the black paint on the back of the neck, muchhhhhhhhh better!


View attachment 2193768

View attachment 2193769

View attachment 2193770

 

[LkS]

Can some one tell me what is the nut width on these?

 

[58kites]

Acetone works great to remove the black paint while preserving the original clear poly coat underneath. Remove the neck, mask off the headstock, don some rubber gloves and have at it! I have done this on a few SUBs with excellent results.

Here is one I did a few years back:
View attachment 2193770

Tell me more please.
I take it you took the neck off the body?
Then applied masking tape all over the fretboard face and over the rosewood showing on the edge as well?
The gloss on that clear coat looks full glossy and enough for a fully finished neck back.
The maple looks like the high end well selected stuff, and looks like what is often called out as quarter sawn.
Why in the world would they bother to paint the back of the neck after applying the really nice gloss clear coat on it?
This change definitely makes the SUB look way less budget, I love my "blackout" SUB but if I stripped the black off and ended up with this, I would feel like I got a free upgrade.
I've got to assume not many of the SUB necks have such a nice selection of maple. ...??

 

[mcnach]

Can some one tell me what is the nut width on these?

Exactly the same as Stingrays from the same period (2003-2006), 43mm

 

[LkS]

Exactly the same as Stingrays from the same period (2003-2006), 43mm

Did they switch to 41mm later?

 

[mouthmw]

Can I join this celebration of frugal frivolities?

I have a white Sub Ray4. I bought it last month, though I'm guessing it has been on the shelf for a while as it has the big 'Sub' logo on the headstock.

Cool bass, but this is the USA SUB club. No need to mod these for sure as they have the original Stingray pickup and preamp.

 

[Axstar]

Cool bass, but this is the USA SUB club. No need to mod these for sure as they have the original Stingray pickup and preamp.

Ah. Bummer.

No worries, I sold my SUB so I'm back out of this club, either way.

Stingrays do their own wee thing, but it doesn't work for me.

 

[58kites]

I'm finding out that my USA SUB does more than a wee thing, StingRays are more versatile than I always thought they were.

 

[StayLow]

Anyone know if the fret material is the same on the USA SUBs vs regular Stingrays? Thanks.

 

[58kites]

Anyone know if the fret material is the same on the USA SUBs vs regular Stingrays? Thanks.

I can't imagine they are not, no real savings in sourcing something else and having to keep stock of several different compounds/sizes of fret wire.

 

[rogerbmiller]

Anyone know if the fret material is the same on the USA SUBs vs regular Stingrays? Thanks.

I believe it’s the same as are the necks with the exception of the black satin finish on the SUBs vs the oil finish on the standard line. Fun fact: you will see some subs out there where the owner remove the black finish only to find beautiful flamed maple underneath.

Really where they saved money on these subs are in using the unbranded imported hardware, the slab construction, and the crude finish. I believe they also some might’ve saved by using Poplar for the body wood. And since everything was painted, they didn’t have to worry about matching grain for the body pieces.

 

[58kites]

I agree with all of that.
Proof of your fun fact is half way up this page.. look at the finish on the back of shrigg's SUB neck.
The gloss coat that was under the black looks very good, and the piece of maple used for his is great.
I think the tuners and bridge are pretty good, so that does not disappoint.
I like the sound of poplar just fine, a number of my Peavey USA basses are poplar bodied and they are great basses.
I really like the texture paint on the bodies, no finger prints showing on a black bass is a good thing and the finish seems pretty bullet proof.

 

[StayLow]

I can't imagine they are not, no real savings in sourcing something else and having to keep stock of several different compounds/sizes of fret wire.

Good point. Thanks.

I believe it’s the same as are the necks with the exception of the black satin finish on the SUBs vs the oil finish on the standard line. Fun fact: you will see some subs out there where the owner remove the black finish only to find beautiful flamed maple underneath.

Really where they saved money on these subs are in using the unbranded imported hardware, the slab construction, and the crude finish. I believe they also some might’ve saved by using Poplar for the body wood. And since everything was painted, they didn’t have to worry about matching grain for the body pieces.

If it's a satin finish on the neck it's a very thick and sturdy satin as it doesn't seem to wear down over time and even when there's dents in the neck the finish remains. I'd have called it gloss or at least gloss-y.

"Imported" hadware seems totally identical and I believe it was marketed as such. Only difference I could tell comparing to various U.S. stringrays is lack of logo stamps on hardware.

Some unscrupulous sellers even swap out their U.S. EBMM SUB or SBMM (Sterling by Music Man offshore basses) hardware for EBMM then sell the U.S. model with the unstamped hardware from the lower models, carefully concealing this in their advert pics. Be very sure to see pics of all the hardware logo stamps if buying a U.S. model.

Is the standard (non-SUB) U.S. model's hardware even made in the U.S.?

 

[Jscriv]

Woo hoo finally found the US SUB Club!! Got this off of TB last year.

 

[mindwell]

I've had many Stingray 5s, but I've wanted to try a SUB 5 for a while now. Just got this guy and like it a LOT. Isn't light but fits me to perfection, and I really like the tones from the alnico PU & 2 band preamp. Seems drier and harder-punching than the ceramic-SR5s I'm used to. Totally would like to try a fretless SUB 5 next.