Sterling Ray5 vs Ibanez SR305E

[Pablo 128]

Dears.
Sorry for my english.
I wanna buy my first own bass, I was playin a borrowed Squier afinity jazz bass, but I want buy my own.
My options are sterling by musicman ray5 and ibanez sr305e. I play covers of rock in spanish, and latin music. I am open to upgrade electronics.
Whitch bass do you think is better?, both have similar price.
Thanks.

 

[UNICORN BASS]

Based on what you play i would choose the Ibanez all day, good luck.

 

[wizard65]

I’d go for the Ibanez, very high quality for a great price.

 

[Maxdusty]

I've owned both these basses, both basses are good and good value for the money to start of with but the Ibanez is a a little more versatile in terms of tone, based on the music you play it may be more suited for it. The Rays tend to be a little more aggressive sounding basses due to the pickup. My main bass is a Musicman Stingray but I usually use a different bass for some kinds of music so I'm not being partial one way or another, I love Ray basses for what they do. The Ibanez SR305 is pretty good value for the money, it also has a slim neck, relatively light which makes it suitable as a first bass.
I don't know if used basses are an option but it would open up more choices and higher quality basses for the same price.

 

[Yahboy]

When you decide go with 34 scale 5 string bass between Ray5 and SR305e, highly suggest experience both by yourself.

Sr305e has vary tone , less notable neck dive , nice sounding power-span pickups, lighter weight.
But i dont like the B string at all (similar issue on my early day 2010 MIK SR705). Sound pretty like from different bass. But i prefer SR 4 srting more.
My previous SR300e has unstable neck even she has 5 piece laminated neck.

Ray5 has limit voice, but 2 band EQ can tweak the tone i prefer , she has slightly neck dive, the piece i own previously weight 4.2kg, G string sound has lacking meaty voice but the B string sound just solid tight, even fretted on 13 fret, she still ring solid clear. Overall build quality are better than current indonesia Squier CV bass i been own.
I love the tone with EB 2810 flatwound bass string loaded.