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Just bought a Sterling Sub 4 bass. Impressed!


logicred
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I have many basses (I mean many!) and play funk. Always been a Fender Jazz person and my main bass is a deluxe which I love dearly. I struggle massively with the jazz basses when playing live though, always sound too muddy in halls/pubs. I posted something a while back about this with some excellent advice received (isolating risers for the amp etc). I joked that I perhaps should "buy a stingray" to cut through better. Anyway, had the opportunity to buy a Sub4 REALLY cheap @ £180 (Indonesian). Restrung it and took it to practice last night. I was quite literally astounded by the sound of it. It's seriously light (the RAY34 and real stingrays are Ash, this is basswood). I struggle with heavy basses which caused me untold back/neck pain over the last 3 years.

I have never in my life had a bass that cut through so much. I could literally hear EVERY note. I don't know why it feels better than everything else for slap, but it just does. I understand people mod these with different pickups and preamps etc too for even better results. The output is REALLY REALLY hot though, not sure why!

Anyway, if anyone wants to try the stingray route, I would recommend trying a secondhand one of these, especially if you prefer light basses.

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[quote name='lukeward2004' timestamp='1499681494' post='3332866']
I always loved the sound of a ray, but I could never get on with the neck profile.
[/quote]

You can order a Stingray SLO Special, it has a Jazz-like taper instead of the chunky P profile. Or you buy a USA Sterling, these all have a Jazz-like taper.

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These Ray4's have a very slim neck like the SLO / Sterling. The Ray34 is chunkier like a proper Ray.

I had a black/maple one and the fretwork was very impressive for a cheap bass, with a nice satin finish to the neck and board. Very light and resonant too. I miss it!

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Glad you like it. I bought one about s year ago as my back up to my EBMM Stingray. I like it. I generally set the 2 band eq fairly flat and boost a little to suit. The output isn't too hot then and still sounds great. Great for a bit of slap on the side too. Must get some new strings to bring it back to its best.

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+1 to all above. I treated myself to a Sub Ray 4 recently and now my poor old Ibanez GSR doesn't get a look in any more. Very simple controls but it is an absolute beast on the bottom end, even through my 30W Ashdown amp. I also like the balance of the thing, seems to sit nicely while playing; the neck is thicker than some but this is something I got used to fairly quickly (by that I mean I get the same amount of fret buzz and bum notes that I had on the Ibanez, now it's back to being operator error :D)

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Popped into Andertons yesterday and had a little okay on a sterling ray 34 - lovely bass!

The neck profile seemed much better than what I had expected and certainly comfortable enough, but I still can't find a nice sound out of those markbass amps (the one they had for me to jam through.

Still, a lovely bass!

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