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Sterling by MM Stingray sub pickup wiring

Tim Skaggs

Tim Skaggs

Sep 28, 2002
5,146
8,238
#1
I recently traded for a new SBMM sub series 4 string bass. It has surprisingly good quality construction when it comes to fretwork, and reasonably good quality overall. I did replace the tuners….

I’ve looked at multiple threads regarding pickup & preamp upgrades for this bass, and Low End Lobster has darn near done a dissertation on this topic, so I do know several (dozen?) upgrade options. Thanks to @LowEndLobster for all the work & info sharing about the SBMM Stingray Sub-Series.

From a comment in one of the videos by Lobster that some of the later SBMM Stingrays have 4 wire pickups, I opened the control cavity on my bass & found the pickup IS a 4 wire / 2 coil, with one wire from each coil soldered together, so it’s definitely wired in series now. I’ve re-wired multiple dual-coil pickups for series-parallel switching, (mostly P-bass type pickups), but have found it’s rarely worth the effort because parallel is usually a watered-down/ thin sound of the two wiring options, HOWEVER, this is my first Music Man style pickup equipped bass.

So, what I don’t know is how the stock SBMM Stingray Sub pickup sounds wired in parallel, & was hoping someone knew this & could let me know if the parallel tone is worth the effort to implement series / parallel switching of the pickup coils.
 
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#5
Tim Skaggs said:
Sorry about that. Once I got “Lob” typed, I saw you. I see now I should have started with”Low”….
Click to expand...
No worries -- I'm getting used to it. Now I just post this:

b4b.jpg
 
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#6
I wired up a MM pickup (passive, no active EQ or preamp) with a series/parallel switch. I always leave it series. I believe (could be wrong) that on MM basses with the preamp they are Parallel by default. My understanding is you get wider frequency response in parallel - more clean/natural (you called it "thin" and that is how it sounds to me too, series has lots more character) - and the active electronics make up for the lower output. Anyway ... on my passive bass with MM, I always prefer the series setting and it gives me no reason to want to add active EQ - I love it passive.
 
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#7
AndyPanda said:
I wired up a MM pickup (passive, no active EQ or preamp) with a series/parallel switch. I always leave it series. I believe (could be wrong) that on MM basses with the preamp they are series by default. My understanding is you get wider frequency response in parallel - more clean/natural (you called it "thin" and that is how it sounds to me too, series has lots more character) - and the active electronics make up for the lower output. Anyway ... on my passive bass with MM, I always prefer the series setting and it gives me no reason to want to add active EQ - I love it passive.
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Yeah, the parallel wiring of most pickups provides more high end, but usually significantly less output. It’s the same with putting two pickups in series or parallel, but maybe a little more pronounced when switching “a pickup” between series & parallel.

That being said, I know there are some pickups set up to switch between series and parallel that have fans of both settings. And, as mentioned, I don’t know what a MM pickup sounds like in parallel, so was looking for input from those that do.

I might just temporarily wire it up in parallel with a couple jumpers and play it for 30 minutes just to see what I think. That would be fairly simple to do and undo.
 
#10
I also have a SBMM RAY4 Sub Series with a 4-wire pick up. It was wired in series and I changed it to parallel. 2 benefits . . .
  1. Tone closer to what I think of as StingRay tone
  2. Lower output which solved the pre-amp clipping that is a common problem with this model.
I actual like the series tone . . . thick and powerful . . . but its not really Ray-ish IMO and the pre-amp clipping made it un-usable for me (yeah, I could use the volume knob but I am one of those who to use the volume only as an on/off switch).

My theory is that SB makes these series to make them sound more powerful in the Guitar Center bass shredding room relative to other entry-level instruments. And/or maybe to differentiate more from the more expensive Ray24 model which, I think, is the same p/u and pre, except wired in parallel . . . I think I saw this on a @LowEndLobster vid.
 
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#11
After a few responses and my own reply on what I COULD do for myself, I realized anyone responding to my post could only provide a verbal description of the sound of a SBMM Stingray pickup in parallel. Describing subtle differences in tone with words isn’t what I would call an exact science, so I decided to get off my a$$ do what I should have to begin with. I went down to my shop, pulled the control plate out of the bass, separated the two pickup leads that were soldered together, and connected each lead to the polar opposite of where the existing pickup leads were connected.

Using a couple jumpers with mini grabbers on each end, I connected one of the recently separated leads to the input of the preamp with the pup lead that was already connected to the preamp input and the other recently separated lead was connected to common / ground. The result was as expected; more high end, but significantly less output and possibly a little less midrange.

I won’t try to describe the detail of the tone achieved, but it’s good to me and achieves what AaronBass4 explained. The output is closer to most other basses and not at distortion level as it is with the pickup in series. Wiring the pup in parallel will also allow me to set the pickup height back fairly near the strings. It’s buried deep in the bass body at this time to help lower the output of the bass.

I suppose if someone else asks what the SBMM pickup sounds like in parallel, I can be a source of info and not a requester of info. I thank everyone for their responses that got my feet moving to try out the parallel wiring option.
 
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#14
LowEndLobster said:
Heyo! I have a newer SUB that I'll be doing a full tear down on soon (electronics and hardware wise anyhow). I have no idea if mine will have a 2 or 4 conductor pickup - we shall see soon! Glad you bit the bullet and did the mod!
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Hey Lobster, thanks for the reply.
Mine had the following wire terminations;
Green hot terminal on preamp,
Red (and pickup lead shield) ground terminal on preamp,
Black & White connected together.

To get it in parallel, Black connected with Green & White was grounded, making the two coils in the pickup;
1. green / white
2. red / black.

I didn’t determine which wire pair was tied to which coil in the pickup, neck facing or bridge facing.

I know you will figure this out with as much modding as you have done, but maybe this info will help someone else along the way.
 
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#15
Installed a 25k ohm Audio taper push-pull pot for volume. The push-pull is to switch the pickup from parallel (down / pushed position) to series (up / pulled position).

The pickup in series still makes the bass output very hot, really too hot in some circumstances. I found a “fix” for this in a thread, which said to replace the original volume pot with an A25K (audio taper), but when I took out the old pot, I discovered it was a B25k (linear taper). I’m not sure how changing from a linear taper to an audio taper was supposed to tame the high output of the bass, but that what the “fix” was posted some years ago by a guy that was in charge of the SBMM line of basses.

Anyway, the ability to have both parallel & series available is nice, but I’m guessing I’ll use parallel most of the time and be ready to turn the volume knob down a little if I switch to series….
 
#16
Need help, I have a MM Sterling Stingray Short Scale passive bass, the stock pickup has 4 wires, looking to upgrade the pick up.... I tried a Seymour Duncan SMB-4A same color wiring as stock. , just replaced color by color and the pick up does not work. The included semantic looks to be illustrated for a pre-amp. Did I buy the wrong active Duncan. Need recommendations for an upgraded PASSIVE pick up 4 wire configuration. thanks
 
#17
Tim Skaggs said:
Installed a 25k ohm Audio taper push-pull pot for volume. The push-pull is to switch the pickup from parallel (down / pushed position) to series (up / pulled position).

The pickup in series still makes the bass output very hot, really too hot in some circumstances. I found a “fix” for this in a thread, which said to replace the original volume pot with an A25K (audio taper), but when I took out the old pot, I discovered it was a B25k (linear taper). I’m not sure how changing from a linear taper to an audio taper was supposed to tame the high output of the bass, but that what the “fix” was posted some years ago by a guy that was in charge of the SBMM line of basses.

Anyway, the ability to have both parallel & series available is nice, but I’m guessing I’ll use parallel most of the time and be ready to turn the volume knob down a little if I switch to series….
Click to expand...

If memory serves, the first run of those basses had a 250K volume pot before the preamp, so the fix involved replacing it with a 25K pot after the preamp. It's moot now (as you saw), because they incorporated the fix into subsequent production.

I 'passified' my Ray4 some years ago, and series was the winner (actually, normal series plus G&L's OMG wiring on a switch). But with a preamp, parallel is the classic StringRay wiring.
 
#18
Need help, I have a MM Sterling Stingray Short Scale passive bass, the stock pickup has 4 wires, looking to upgrade the pick up.... I tried a Seymour Duncan SMB-4A same color wiring as stock. , just replaced color by color and the pick up does not work. The included semantic looks to be illustrated for a pre-amp. Did I buy the wrong active Duncan. Need recommendations for an upgraded PASSIVE pick up 4 wire configuration. thanks
Click to expand...

The pickup should work OK without a preamp, but it might have been wound for mild output so it wouldn’t overdrive a preamp. I don’t know that, I’m just speculating that is a possibility.

Electrically, the pickup is actually two single coil pickups in one housing, which means you can wire it (the two internal coils) in parallel or series. Parallel is lower output, but with a little more high end. Series is higher output with a little less high end.

My guess is that you will want to wire it in series. My Sterling by Music Man Sub Series Stingray was wired in series to a preamp as follows;

Green - hot (this would be to your volume pot terminal)

Red - ground (this would be to the case of the volume or tone pot, or any other ground point in the control cavity).

Black & White - connected together with that connection insulated from touching anything else.

I do not know if the wire colors of your Seymour Duncan pickup is the same as the wires on my stock SBMM pickup. If not, this wiring description may be no good for you.

You can wire the pickup to a switch / push-pull pot so it can be switched between parallel & series wiring. I’m not going to attempt to describe that here, but there are many diagrams online and in threads here on TB to show you how it’s done.
 
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#19
Thanks for the thread ! Based on this I rewired my Sterling Ray35CA to parallel. Took 20 mins. Seems a warmer and more versatile sound, maybe not quite as much bitey fun, but definitely applicable to more gigs, also output is more at parity with my other basses so no more fiddling gain when changing basses. Nice one TB :-)
 
#20
Just did this mod (switching from series to parallel) and it is a big plus from me!
It is simple, just separate black and white and connect white to red & ground, than connect black to red.
Signal is not so insanely hot, so pickup can go up closer to strings. Also better balance, less muddy low mids.
 

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