Sterling by Musicman Ray 35

[TommyK]

Just purchased this Honeyburst Ray 35 from guitarandampshop.co.uk for £639. Beautiful swamp ash body, Matching headstock, Rosewood board, Black scratchplate, 3 way switching and 3 EQ.




As with the previous Ray 34 Review, this is a made in Indonesia, Quality checked and set up in California model, so hence is around half the price of a US made Stingray 5.

So what are the differences and do they add up to 600 quids worth?
So far having owned both a Stingray 5 and this i would say that the extra £600 is going to be hard to justify. (perhaps there could be resale value arguments and I guess some people will still just want the real thing)





The Build quality is fantastic. The neck is perfect to play, all frets finished properly and the neck pocket is as good as you'll see on anything. The electronics are top notch too, no scrimping on sheilding or controls, all feel as they would on the US models and no extra, nasty unwanted noises!


The only noticeable savings you can see are with the position markers (just plain white, no MOP), Tuners (obviously just copies of the originals) and the cheaper battery box. You would say it is just a little more functional on the finer details I guess.




To me this sounds even better than the Stingray 5 i had. I always wanted something that just sounded like a 5 string version of my Stingray 4 and this is it! All the punch and general Stingray ferocity you could ever want. It has the same super versatile 3EQ and the same 3 way switching options that you would find on a standard MM Stingray 5. It has shovel fulls of Bottom end, the usual shimmering highs and full on mids that you would expect from a MM and of course with some EQ tweaking you can really "rein it in" for the more mellow occassions. The B is also near perfect to my ears. Really clear and nice and punchy, none of that floppy muddy sounding nonsense!



In short, "I love this Bass!"

If i were thinking of getting another Musicman, i would definately go for a look at the equivilant Sterling model first. Great value for money.

I just hope they do a Bongo or a Big Al next!!

[stevie]

Really excellent review! Thanks for that. I will now wait for the used ones to start appearing.

[stingrayfan]

Good review, cheers. Sounds like you're of the same mind as me - you like your Indo-Ray more than the US one you used to have. My review's in the link below.

[ezbass]

Love that finish. I tried one of these back when they first came out and loved it, I just loved the Ray34 I tried at the same time more and so got that instead. Enjoy your bass.

[Bass-Thing]

Just got exactly the same on Ebay for £450. Flabbergasted to be honest but very happy.

[DanTheMusicman]

Im thinking of getting one of these in black or natural. just hope my exam marks are good to get it

[Bass-Thing]

[quote name='Bass-Thing' timestamp='1335311263' post='1629255']
Just got exactly the same on Ebay for £450. Flabbergasted to be honest but very happy.
[/quote]

I just wanted to share this with you. Loving this bass, though I thought a small hardware change was appropriate.

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[ChaoticMike]

8 months on, and I have persevered... I got one from the States but thought I couldn't cope with the 5 strings and put it up for sae here. Luckily, no-one bit, and I can now pretty much always hit the note I want... Mostly! More practise, more practise...

Building a fEARful 12/6 and 12sub next week...