Jump to content
Why become a member? ×

Upgrades to my Ray34


Waddycall
 Share

Recommended Posts

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.

 

F9B58B44-9DDD-4517-9C51-495852BE285A.jpeg

8E173A1B-B75E-4C13-95D5-ED44C4B9645C.jpeg

Edited by Waddycall
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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. 

 

Edited by Waddycall
  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Had this exact combo in my previous 3 band Stingray because I wanted it to sound like a 2 band ray. Fantastic preamp and pickup combo IMO. Preamp alone would have done it to be honest, the Nordy pickup is a bit more polite than the stock pickup (at least, the stock Stingray pickup). It seems to focus more on the low mids and doesn't go as low as the stock pup.

I tried the Nordy MM4.2 with:

- John East MMSR - best results, I always bumped the low mids a bit, cut bass and treble just a tad. Great Sade like tone.
- Norstrand MM preamp - pretty good, close to a 2 band Stingray, but still a bit too polite for me. Vintage, sure, but polite vintage.
- original Stingray 2 band preamp  - similar to Nordy preamp, but I noticed more mids and a bit more forward tone. Weird phase cancellation though - if I were to crank the bass and treble controls all the way, I'd effectively lose the low end and end up with a tinny tone. Probably because the Nordstrand doesn't go quite as low, being more low mid focused. Putting the original Stingray pickup back with the 2 band preamp solved the issue and was the best pairing with the original preamp IMO.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, 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

  

 

Perfect, thank you! Great demo, I wish all of them would be like that. No fancy stuff, just the pure natural sound. And that's exactly the tone I've been looking to get out of my Ray, the current preamp is a lot more harsh and trebly. The John East one sounds more "full" and even though it does lose a bit of definition it's definitely worth for the increased midrange.

Do you think the preamp alone would suffice? Does the Norstrand pickup make any significant difference?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
7 hours ago, tommorichards said:

If you go for a retrovibe stingray preamp and an alnico pickup over a ceramic, you'll get 95% of the way to a stingray tone. 

It's why Fleas newest fender signature bass is a MM pickup with a 2 band eq. That combination gives that tone. 

But the pickup that comes with the Ray34 is already alnico...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 years later...
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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Gaano124 said:

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

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Edited by itu
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

IMG-20230414-WA0071.jpeg

IMG-20230414-WA0073.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...