Waddycall

1 hour ago, Bigwan said:

Maybe a silly question, but have you tried contacting Ibanez? 

No, not yet. Being the impatient type and it’s being a weekend I was hoping I could just put an order in for a new one!

Thanks. I’ll give that a go. I had seen their site but misread it as no shipping to addresses outside the us. No web orders doesn’t sound quite so definitive.

cheers

Took delivery of a used Ibanez SR1820 yesterday. Was playing it on and off all day and was really pleased with it until the blend pot packed up!

ive tried contract cleaner but that’s not sorted it. Might take the pot out and disassemble it later. 

Anyone know where I can get a replacement? It’s PCB mounted so I guess it has to be the exact one. They’re shown in the Ibanez spares catalogue but I can’t see any uk sellers on the internet, only German or American and neither will post to the uk.

https://cs.hoshinogakki.co.jp/pcw.nsf/item.xsp?documentId=EE088A978F5B6FEF4925821A0002A13D&strItemKey=3EMV5_S_5D_01&curSuffix=5D01&curFromYMTX=&curToYMTX=&strMode=newpage

apologies for grainy pics.

cheers,

pete

Thanks to Dan for recent purchase of his bass pod. Super smooth transaction, great communication, fast shipping, secure packaging and a great price!

buy from Dan with confidence.

Pm sent

Is this still available?

The pre amp definitely made the biggest improvement. If I could choose the pre amp or pickup it would be the pre amp. It’s so much more versatile and lots less noise. I think the pickup made a very small difference in comparison. Looks like mouthmw found the same from the post above. With the original pickup in the demo probably wouldn’t be noticeably different.

On ‎10‎/‎04‎/‎2019 at 00:16, kyuuga said:

Any chance of sound clips? 😛

Here you go. Excuse the shoddy and repetitive playing. I'm useless at slap but I know its good for tone comparison so thought Id do what I could with this temptations tune. Its got some slap and finger playing in it so a good mix. It starts off with the treble mid and bass in the middle. After the first pause the bass and treble are boosted to about 75%. After the second pause the bass is fully cut and the lowest mid frequency is boosted. Its recorded in Cubase through a Zoom R16 as interface with a little bit of compression.

https://soundcloud.com/user-693218768/ray-34-with-mm42-and-johneast

Update - I still think it sounds great. Just got back from band practice. Just need to be better at playing it now. 

4 hours ago, kyuuga said:

Was the East preamp easy to install? I've been thinking of replacing the preamp on my Ray34 as well, the current one is so sizzly...does the preamp remove all that un-wanted clicking noise? 

Yep, pretty easy to install. It comes with the jack socket ready soldered leaving just the pickup wires, battery wires and bridge ground to connect. Had a few beers now but as far as I can remember -

remove battery

remove screws and lift up control cover

Snip off battery wires

snip off pickup wires 

snip off ground wire from bridge

remove jack socket from plate

remove old pre amp including jack

remove pots from plate

fit new pots to plate

strip back pick up wires and connect to new pre amp with screw terminals

strip back battery wires and connect to pre amp with screw terminals

solder bridge ground to new pre amp ground wire and insulate with heat shrink (not supplied)

install new jack socket

Refit control cover

i did add an extra ground wire which I connected to the bridge ground and soldered to a washer I put under the bass control pot. This was before I’d tried using the supplied springs in the kit. These may have done the job without the extra wire.

the pre amp change definitely got rid of the harsh high end noise that the original seemed to accentuate. The east pre amp seems more useable even as a two band than the original and once you start playing with the mid sweep control there are lots of tones available. Doesn’t seem as nasal as the original either. 

Some may have seen my Ray34 in the for sale section a while back. I was not able to get the tone I wanted out of it for the band I’m in. It wasn’t selling and rather then drop the price further I decided to hang onto it and turn it in to the bass I wanted it to be.

ive fitted the 3 band John east pre amp with variable mid frequency, a nordstrand mm4.2 pickup and a tort guard to fit the new pickup. It’s becom a much more useable bass in my hands and to my ears. The biggest difference has been the pre amp. With the original I never knew what to do with the treble control because of all the clicking and clanking it seemed to accentuate. With the John east I can have the treble right up for some sizzle without the unwanted noise. It now sounds warmer and fatter too. if anyone else is considering changing the electronics in a Ray34 I’d recommend the east pre amp first. The pickup was a smaller step in the same direction.

For the total spend I could have bought a second hand stingray but I’m still very pleased with the result. I love the neck on this bass and didn’t really want to let it go.

Great playing but a bit of sustain is always nice when demonstrating tone! Both sound great. I’m trying to persuade myself I don’t need a mustang and this hasnt helped!

Thanks guys. Gives me a couple more options.

Hi,

can anyone recommend a good helpful supplier to get Delano pickups from. Current experience is like getting blood out of a stone.

cheers.

Does it have passive tone control?

What are the controls on this?

It comes down to the fact that something is worth what people are willing to pay. Personally I think that’s obscene money for a second hand bass. 

I had one on my Ibanez in my last band. Needed it for a few songs. Singer and guitarists would never factor in time for me to retune so the d tuner was awesome. Never had tuning issues, it was very reliable. As stated above you need to use iit whilst tuning up to make sure the strings settled.

Well I got a bit fed up with the flats so tried some new slinky’s and swapped the Hartke head for my Rumble 150 head. Totally different! The clarity/transparency of the Hartke head was amplifying elements of the sound that aren’t audible through the rumble. Sounds loads better and has brought the zing back under control. It’s there when I want it. With the flats a bit of zing was out of the question.

Wow! Just got back from band practice with the flats on. Can’t believe how good it was sounding. Very pleased. Ray with flats through an ebs multidrive. Hartke head and fender 115. Sounds great clean too!

Bit too soon to know how it’ll sound with the band but with flats on this bass is sounding great!

Well, hopefully just a minor teething problem but last nights practice with the Ray wasn’t good! The punch and clarity completely disappeared in the mix and I was struggling to hear myself. The only way I could get it to cut through was with a tone I didn’t like!

ive just put my set of fender flats on. I’ll give those a go next time. 

21 hours ago, stewblack said:

Isn't it great when a bass just fits you? And neck love is the best. The body may have the looks but it's the neck makes or breaks the relationship.

Wonder what a shiny reflective silver scratch plate would look like on that black beauty...

Yep, not happened before. What’s really weird is the fact I thought I liked narrow necks. When I got my p bass it seemed to wide at the nut. This is a few mm wider but fits just right. 

7 hours ago, sblueplanet said:

I had one of these too. Loved the tone and could hear little difference between it and a US Stingray I tried in comparison.

I only moved it on because of the weight. Was too heavy for my liking.

This one weighs in at 4.3kg. 400g heavier than my p bass. Band practice tomorrow. Let’s see how it feels after a couple of hours hanging off my shoulder. Looking forward to hearing it in the mix.

Went up to Exeter today to have a look at a few basses. Not really getting on with my MIM p bass and as I’m back in a band again I thought I’d have a look around, try a few and see what I like. I was expecting to be coming home with, if anything, an Ibanez SR as I had an SR600 in the last band and quite liked it. Anyway I tried a few out today -

Rockbass NT Streamer

MIM jazz

Aerodyne Jazz

ibanez SR500

Mustang PJ

And this Ray 34 that was heavily discounted at Project Music. I’d never played a stingray type bass before but always been interested. Once I’d played it I kept coming back to it and nothing else seemed to have as good a combination of playability and tone for me. Pretty versatile tone wise too. Can’t believe the punch, definition and clarity. I absolutely love the neck on this. The notes seem to just flow out of my fingers!

!

Very happy and can’t wait to try it out at band practice this week.

cant stop playing bullet in the head!

Thanks for the info chaps. If this band works out I may be posting NBD!