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Sterling by Music Man SUB Ray4 and Ray5

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#641
last night installed hipshot Xtender key that i had lying around, replaced the string to d'dadrio pro stills lites and made some setup and some adjustments and very happy with the bass! missed the stingray punch and aggressiveness.

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and the old MM stingray i had and let go..

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#643
Jookbox said:
After 7 months of owning an Ray4 which I love, I'm upgrading to a Ray35. Going to get one later this week. I thought about upgrading to a Fender, but the Stingray type sound has grown on me a lot.
Click to expand...

The Ray35 is a solid 5-string bass! If you love and want the Stingray tone, a Fender just won't cut it (no Fender hate there).

I really dig my Ray35. Mine is 10.5 pounds (average SR5/Ray35 weight) but I wish it weighed about 1-1.5 pounds less. If you have a chance to hand-pick one, try to find a lighter one because some of them are heavier.
 
#644
Debated hard & long about which model MM to get. In the end the real-real thing was out of financial reach. After playing both the Ray34 and SUB for quite a bit and reading up on other players' experiences I decided that a SUB is actually much like a Ray34 and saving 1/2 the expense would give me some room to experiment and upgrade.

At first glance the adjustment is pretty good and the overall finish is great. I really love the satin finish on the neck although it benefitted greatly from a bit of citrus oil and elbow grease. After removing the control cover however quality control seems to have been absent that day (see photo 2). Misaligning those drill holes can only be explained by manual drilling after a visit to the local beer hole. It took quite a bit of modelling with epoxy and black paint to get it right (photo 2). The electronic innards are fine and seem to be the same as the Ray34. Components used are of a descent quality including the low-noise op-amp and there’s nothing wrong with the PCB layout (photo 4). The pot meters’ shaft diameter is quite a bit smaller that the fitting holes so I fabricated insert rings (photo 5).

Although an active bass is less perceptible to noise I decided to treat the SUB to the standard noise-cancelling package: copper foil in every nook and cranny. Pickup cavity and control cavity are connected by a hollow copper-foil tube which carries the pickup lead (photo 6). The pickup guard forms a Faraday cage with the pickup cavity (photo 7). The control cover with its copper backing does the same for the control cavity.

The pre-amp was put in a copper-foil basket and sealed with epoxy. The basket has an interference fit into the bottom of the control cavity (photo 8).

I also changed the volume control per instructions in this forum to be directly after the pickup. Apart from fixing the insane output level it also allows me to cut out the preamp completely (if you look close at photo 1 you’ll notice the little switch on the control plate) and still have volume control.

I am thinking of fitting a triple row switch to also cut out the battery when in passive mode. Instead of removing the jack to stop the battery from draining it’s just flicking the switch. BTW contrary to other posts the bass still sounds quite respectable when used in passive mode.

Cheers,

John
 

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#647
Nice basses JHandley and tomersg. I am planning to get the same bass (Ray4 with the walnut satin finish). I couldn't try one at GC but they had the SB4...was impressed.

I have a question: is it heavy? I've read the entire thread and I've can conclude that its between 8-9.5 lbs. I'm thinking whether the finish affects the weight as well? I wan't a light bass and the SB4 was perfect for me...but the walnut finish of the Ray4 is too much to resist.

Anyone who has tried both the SB4 and the Ray4 walnut? Thanks in adv. Cheers!
 
#648
NewBassHead said:
Nice basses JHandley and tomersg. I am planning to get the same bass (Ray4 with the walnut satin finish). I couldn't try one at GC but they had the SB4...was impressed.

I have a question: is it heavy? I've read the entire thread and I've can conclude that its between 8-9.5 lbs. I'm thinking whether the finish affects the weight as well? I wan't a light bass and the SB4 was perfect for me...but the walnut finish of the Ray4 is too much to resist.

Anyone who has tried both the SB4 and the Ray4 walnut? Thanks in adv. Cheers!
Click to expand...

I've had both and you are correct that they seem to vary greatly. My walnut sub 4 is over 9lbs, which I wasnt happy about at all. However, I have played other walnut sub 4s at GC that were significantly lighter.. I'd say no more an 8 lbs. I had an sb4 that was 7.5lbs, but I just couldnt seem to get the tones out of it as effortlessly as my sub4. I ended up sending the sb4 back and bonding with my sub ray, despite its weight. I suppose its the luck of the draw on this one unless you actually demo it in person. Good luck!
 
#649
NewBassHead said:
Nice basses JHandley and tomersg. I am planning to get the same bass (Ray4 with the walnut satin finish). I couldn't try one at GC but they had the SB4...was impressed.

I have a question: is it heavy? I've read the entire thread and I've can conclude that its between 8-9.5 lbs. I'm thinking whether the finish affects the weight as well? I wan't a light bass and the SB4 was perfect for me...but the walnut finish of the Ray4 is too much to resist.

Anyone who has tried both the SB4 and the Ray4 walnut? Thanks in adv. Cheers!
Click to expand...

the SBMM SUB5 I played weighed roughly the same as my American SUB4. the American weighs 9.5 lbs. 9.5 is a godsend when I tell you my Fender Jazz V is 14.5lbs.
 
#650
I've played on one of these. Ironically our church rents out the auditorium in a music store and meets there, so one day I picked one of these up and used it for worship service to see how it played. It sounded nice, but I will say it's more for slappy/jazzy style to me.
 
#656
Just received a black and maple Ray4. Stock. Great tone, playability. The E string gets a little loud and distorts, but that can be fixed easily (instructions earlier in this thread).

Mine is just around 8 lbs. It's comfy, could use a little oil on the neck, but other than that, the action is great - it roars like a StingRay and slaps like a dream. Great product for the price.
 
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