P-Ray? Stingision? Not a clue. Now with video!

[fretmeister]

2 hours ago, gjones said:

A Ping Ray?

 

WINNER!

 

 

[fretmeister]

@HeadlessBassist

 

Sorry for the delay.

 

I recorded a play along of one of my favourite songs: “Come as you are” by Beverley Knight.

 

And then because I was curious I recorded did it again for another 3 takes with different amp sims.

 

SVT 4 Pro.

Dirty Aguilar Tonehammer

Joe Dart heavily compressed (although new roundwounds not flats)

Fat DI.

 

Bass EQ stayed the same apart from the Tonehammer as the low was far too much so I backed it off a little, but it was only boosted a little in the first place.

 

There’s a little playlist of the 4 on YouTube.

 

 

 

 

 

[HeadlessBassist]

17 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

@HeadlessBassist

 

Sorry for the delay.

 

I recorded a play along of one of my favourite songs: “Come as you are” by Beverley Knight.

 

And then because I was curious I recorded did it again for another 3 takes with different amp sims.

 

SVT 4 Pro.

Dirty Aguilar Tonehammer

Joe Dart heavily compressed (although new roundwounds not flats)

Fat DI.

 

Bass EQ stayed the same apart from the Tonehammer as the low was far too much so I backed it off a little, but it was only boosted a little in the first place.

 

There’s a little playlist of the 4 on YouTube.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks! Sounds epic. Especially with the Helix SVT 4 Pro sound. Those Aguilar MM pickups really are something special. I love the one I have in my 95 Stingray. Nothing sounds quite like it.

[fretmeister]

I can’t decide which I liked best.

 

I did do another one with my John Stockman / Karnivool patch and it sounded so OTT, but unfortunately the levels were crap and it was clipping all over the place. 
 

I used Moises to remove the original bass part. Such a great app!

[ezbass]

On 12/07/2025 at 17:41, fretmeister said:

Sounds…. Just like a Stingray. For a lot lot lot lot lot less money.

 

Aguilar pickup, OBP-2, 18volts.

 

nice.

 

On 14/07/2025 at 16:25, MartinB said:

 

 

Rays and skates can be hard to tell apart. Mine's not a StingRay - it's a CheapSkate! 😁

 

 

Squier Sonic Precision
Warman MM4 pickup

Retrovibe Stinger pre-amp

Custom scratchplate by earlpilanz (because I hacked out the pickup cavity by hand and it's not pretty 🙈)

My current ‘Ray GAS is leading me down this route. In general, ‘Rays are generally too heavy for me and the ones that aren’t are £3k-ish 😱. I have a Squier 40th anniversary P that has a neck I like, is lightweight and balances well, which I picked up from Thomann on the cheap deals they were doing on this model, some time back. Time to invest in a Dremel (other small handheld tools are available) with a router attachment methinks; how hard can it be? 😬

[fretmeister]

Get stuck in!

 

Get the pickup in the right spot and you’ll be grand.

[ezbass]

1 hour ago, fretmeister said:

Get the pickup in the right spot

I’m pretty sure that this is the MM hard up against the bottom edge of the P pickup (which I’ll remove). Turns out that I have an MM style pickup spare (Bassculture), if I can work/find out the wiring on this, that’s a few bob saved.

[MartinB]

You want the centre line of the MM pickup to be in the region of 30 1/2" to 30 5/8" from the nut

[ezbass]

12 minutes ago, MartinB said:

You want the centre line of the MM pickup to be in the region of 30 1/2" to 30 5/8" from the nut

Brilliant, many thanks for that. I think I may have sussed the wiring conundrum too. Looks like it’s time to invest in some new tools and get started.

[fretmeister]

12th fret to the neck side of the pickup on an original stingray is 321mm

That’s what I went with. Not quite enough room to have the P pickup as well.

 

[ezbass]

7 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

Not quite enough room to have the P pickup as well.

I considered that, but it just makes life complicated and defeats my original intention. I may manufacture some sort of ramp to cover the void before going down the custom pickguard route (it’s where my hand sits when I play anyway, so a rest would be useful).

[kwmlondon]

FenMan Praycision

Edited 18 hours ago by kwmlondon

[Bassassin]

Not sure if I'm gatecrashing this thread here but I've recently hauled this oddity out of the Big Pile Of Near-Forgotten Basses:

 

 

It's a 2004 Aria STB-GT, which would seem to fit the hybrid bill as it's an Aerodyne-ish P shaped body with a Jazz-proportioned maple/blocks neck, plus an MM pickup in the correct position!

 

The original pre was pretty horrid - and constantly drained the battery, so I cleverly converted it to passive with series/parallel switching, only to find it sounded worse. So I sort of gave up - which is a shame as it's a great player and (IMO) looks amazing.

 

However, 10 or so years later it's back on the slab as we speak, having a well-deserved hose-down & about (this afternoon, hopefully) to be fitted with a shiny new Retrovive Stinger Pre!

Edited 3 hours ago by Bassassin

[PaulThePlug]

Nice... but, those mono rail saddles make my teeth itch.

[Bassassin]

1 hour ago, PaulThePlug said:

Nice... but, those mono rail saddles make my teeth itch.

 

Yeah... Not a fan, but it's set up nicely, intonates properly & they don't shift once locked down. Just as well it was only a £99 bass - makes me less likely to have a brainstorm & stick a Babicz or something on it!

[PaulThePlug]

Maybe a Curve Back, Hi Mass type that hide the ball ends, Gyker or some-such from Ali Express?