Gaano124

On 24/01/2024 at 09:03, PFunkRay said:

That's looking good Gaano, what are your plans for it if you do find a neck?

I notice you have a Fender neck offered up against your template. Bear in mind the scale length is the same for a Jazz and MM but the MM neck is 21 fret and longer than the 20 fret Fender neck. If you read my first couple of posts, they modelled the body they made me with a Fender neck and drilled the bridge holes based on the scale length using that neck which put them near the back of the body. Had I used a Fender neck and those bridge screw holes, the pickup would be in the wrong place.

How did the Harley Benton sound with the mnats preamp? I actually bought one of those MB4s to take apart and compare to my body. The pickup location on them is exactly the same as a Stringray but the pickup was ceramic and one coil measured 6.15K compared to 3.56K on my Nordstrand AlNiCo so I'm curious how close to the stingray sound it got. The body shape on them is exactly the same as a stringray so a great platform to build a sound-a-like, especially if you get one with a basswood body. Stupidly good for a smidge over a hundred pounds.

Good news. Today I found a guy that would sell me a Status Stingray neck but it is a fretless unlined. I'll buy it, try it fretless and if I don't like it I'll do a fretwork with my luthier. 

Also seems to be a vintage one with the status logo black outline (not gold like yours) and truss rod adjust at the bottom of the neck heel

My plans are to use it as my signature/gig bass, I want to do a neck plate like the stingray special one, red body and carbon fiber pickguard, control plate. As bridge I will mount on some monorail in black, as well as the tuners (they would be black too). I know that the fender neck is also 34" but it misses one fret. If you notice the neck is placed a little bit forward from the neck heel bottom, in order to match the stingray classic diapason scale (nut-bridge screw). By the way, I placed that neck only for reference, I'm selling the maple jazz neck rn and because of that I had it lying around in my room. 

The Harley benton with mods sounds 1:1 to my ears, best deal for the price as a base for mods, but the basswood is awful... I tried to dig a battery hole with my luthier and the wood was so soft that it was so difficult to not make any dent... But in the end we succeeded and it was a killer bass! The pickup is an handmade Stingray replica made in Italy with alnico rods, 70€... For that price it was an absolute win.

I still think that a sterling sub ray4/5 are the best modding platforms tho, If I'll find one I'll take it and keep in my closet waiting for future projects. 

Still looking for a status neck, because I know what look I'm seeking for

On 20/01/2024 at 23:24, PFunkRay said:

Long time since I've posted on here as I've had my hands full with a new job, new baby and a new puppy, but I was able to finally find a status neck.

I made some sleeving out of carbon fibre tube to reduce the tuner hole diameter allowing me to fit some Gotoh GB707 tuners and get it strung to make sure everything aligns right.

Made a carbon fibre neckplate and battery cover for the back so everything ties in.

 

 

This is how it looks now, little bit more work left to do. Need to do a bit of resin work to sort the holes in the back of the headstock and want a thinner battery cover but I love how it looks.

 

 

 

 

Man, this is dope. I'm also building a stingray myself and have been looking for a status neck since a few weeks but nothing... I did avoid some weird scammers on facebook but other than that I couldn't find any selling...

I've also made some 2EQ preamps starting from mnats PCB and installed them on any harley benton and sub rays but this time I want to recreate the real thing (in my style with carbon neck eheh)

50 minutes ago, BassAdder60 said:

I briefly had the same bass from new but … 

 

I found the D and G strings always sounded weak and I couldn’t get the tone I felt happy with and sold it to Guitar Guitar making a large loss 🙄

 

It was planned to be my favourite gigging bass but I was never really happy with it and returned to the trusty PBass 

Glad you found a way to make it work as it felt lovely to play. 

You know, this bass didn't need an upgrade at all, I've never had a problem with weak strings. The only "problem" was the fact that has a nut 43mm wide, but to me (I'm gigantic) it's not really a problem, because it's still comfortable to play. I upgraded because of my GAS syndrome and because i hated the slide side of the old pickup, i couldn't have a thumb rest, and also because i wanted a more vintage sound without spending 3 or 5k of money or just buy another bass (i have 3) like a ray 4 to mod, that's all.

This is the old humbucker with the slide side. Sounded good, but too nasal and deep for me, that's because it should be an alnico III instead of alnico V like the nordstrand one

1 hour ago, iconic said:

Dean Markleys or GHS Brite Flats probably😎

1 hour ago, itu said:

What I have heard is that he loved Rotosound, and he used roundwounds, too. Which ones, I have no better understanding. But some comments have pointed out that he hit the strings very hard, because his first strings were flats.

Thanks guys, but i think i'm going to put some Dr. I hate rotosound, too much tension for me, i'm a light touch player (Gail Ann Dorsey kinda style) just wanted to get closer to a vintage Louis Johnson sound, not to replicate it completely. Thanks for the advice.

11 minutes ago, itu said:

If you want to make the bass a close copy of Louis Johnson's, put flats on.

Didn't know! Gauge and brand?

These are the results... Just an unbelievable improvement, and i'm still with the standard 3 band eq!

42 minutes ago, Waddycall said:

Hi, sorry they’re long gone. In the end I fitted the Delano Hybrid pickup with a jazz neck pickup and a sonar 2 pre. I think what I was really missing was the neck pickup/middle position tones. It’s been a fantastic, versatile covers bass bit I’ve recently sold it to another member on here.

Oh great... I'm just interested in building a sorta of Louis Johnson sound for cheap... I'm just 1 year and a half into bass but my ears are in need of a better vintage and warmer sound, expecially in slap. I'm just trying to know if buying a john east mmsr 4knobs 3 band eq would be worth it (it's expensive, here in italy the total price woulkd be like 270 euros) can be worth or otherwise would be better making my own 2 band eq pre ernie ball replica with the addition of a rotatory switch to fill the last hole (jack on the side and not on the plate), i'm extimating like 60 euros in total. I have no money for an original pre ernie one (3k euros minimum) or just an ebmm classic stingray. The only thing I could do is to find someone that wants to exchange my mim jazz custom for a sterling ray 24 to upgrade in the future... I don't really know what to do. Tomorrow the nordstrand will be delivered to my house but i can't figure out how to get rid of the annoying clacking sound without getting poor...

On 13/04/2019 at 16:53, Waddycall said:

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

 

 

Hi. I know that's an old post but I'm going to do the same mod on the same bass (also same color palette...) and I wanted to hear the samples but it looks like the link ha expired... Is there a chance i can hear those saples? Thanks in advance