Painy Posted October 16, 2016 Share Posted October 16, 2016 (edited) For quite a few years I played Warwick basses and nothing else but over the last few years I started feeling the pull of more traditionally styled instruments and I've been gigging a (Squier VM) precision and a (Chinese built Fender Modern Player) Jazz. Yesterday my last remaining Warwick was collected to go to its new home and the newest member of the family arrived in its place: a translucent blue Sterling SUB Ray 5 - which for me completes what I tend to think of as the holy trinity of P/J/MM but all from the relatively budget end of the price spectrum. Now I've only played a full fat Musicman Stingray on a few occasions and that was quite a few years ago now so I'm not going to try and compare them in any detail other than to say the neck is much slimmer than I remember the Musicman being (which suits me fine) and from memory again feels much lighter too but it sounds pretty much how I expect a Stingray to sound. The very high output of the pre-amp in these has been spoken about plenty of times before and I have to agree it is pretty excessive - the low B in particular. Fortunately my compressor pedal has a -10dB pad which sorts that out as well as evening out the output across the strings. Electronics aside the rest of the bass seems excellent with a good standard of fit and finish, functional if simple hardware and a very fast, playable neck. A common factor between the three basses being that they are very well built but the electronics are the weak point (fortunately the part of a bass that I can most easily upgrade - as I have already done with my precision). It also came setup pretty well with a decently low action - although I prefer it even lower but was able to get it down to where I like it with no problems. The combined new cost of buying all three of my gigging basses is probably around the used price of just one of their American built big brothers but running them though my (somewhat more high end) Aguilar rig they all sound great to me! [URL=http://s38.photobucket.com/user/Richard_Pain/media/Mobile%20Uploads/IMAG0426_1_zpsuixz7brl.jpg.html][IMG]http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e113/Richard_Pain/Mobile%20Uploads/IMAG0426_1_zpsuixz7brl.jpg[/IMG][/URL] Edited November 5, 2016 by Painy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
machinehead Posted October 16, 2016 Share Posted October 16, 2016 The recent "budget" basses are a massive bargain and there's a certain enjoyment in owning what you know to be a quality instrument that cost a fraction of a mid to high end instrument. Frank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingrayPete1977 Posted October 16, 2016 Share Posted October 16, 2016 Looks great, other than the rosewood board it looks just like my blue pearl/maple ebmm version Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Painy Posted October 16, 2016 Author Share Posted October 16, 2016 [quote name='machinehead' timestamp='1476651414' post='3156059'] The recent "budget" basses are a massive bargain and there's a certain enjoyment in owning what you know to be a quality instrument that cost a fraction of a mid to high end instrument. Frank. [/quote] Definitely this. I honestly think today's instruments in the £250-£350 price bracket are easily the equal of those in the £700-£800 bracket from when I started a little over 20 years ago. The most expensive bass I've owned was a Warwick Streamer Stage 1 5 string - the current master built version of which would buy this whole trio of basses 5.5 times over!!! The Warwick was a lovely bass but I'm pretty sure I'll have more fun with these 3 and the £4500 change . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Painy Posted October 16, 2016 Author Share Posted October 16, 2016 [quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1476651689' post='3156061'] Looks great, other than the rosewood board it looks just like my blue pearl/maple ebmm version [/quote] Thanks . I must admit I would have preferred the look of a maple board given the choice but I'm still very happy with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingrayPete1977 Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 I think it looks good with either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huge Hands Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 Hi Painy - sorry to hijack your thread, but where did you get the pickup/bridge covers for that 5 string Precision? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowhand_mike Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 (edited) all look good, fenders are growing on me (slowly), but am i going mad cos to me the picture seems to be a Fender P and Squire J? how you coping with the difference in string spacing as the Sub looks narrower than the other 2 Edited October 18, 2016 by lowhand_mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twincam Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 P and jazz, musicmaster. Cool but imo your missing two iconic basses. Which have there own qualities which you can buy cheap and are much like there expensive counterpart. Hofner ignition violin bass. Completely hollow like the original, and does have that hofner sound more than the mid range versions do imo. Epiphone thunderbird classic. Has the gibson USA pickups, nearly identical construction/materials. Sounds just like the last model gibson did. I think then you have all the "iconic" bass tones covered and each sound different from one another. Shame epiphone don't do a decent eb0. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Painy Posted October 18, 2016 Author Share Posted October 18, 2016 (edited) [quote name='Huge Hands' timestamp='1476787727' post='3157183'] Hi Painy - sorry to hijack your thread, but where did you get the pickup/bridge covers for that 5 string Precision? [/quote] It was a bit of a mission to say the least. I found a thread on Talkbass where a chap had found the bridge cover on eBay. Only problem was the Chinese seller (who also did the pup cover) wouldn't ship to the UK. After a call for help on here, a fellow BCer who was going to the states on holiday to visit family was kind enough to give me the address of his sister in Florida to get them shipped to. She then brought them with her to New York where they met up. He then brought them home to the Republic of Ireland and posted them to me in Norfolk. If you can find a way to get it home, the eBay item number is 151314126658. Edited October 18, 2016 by Painy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Painy Posted October 18, 2016 Author Share Posted October 18, 2016 [quote name='lowhand_mike' timestamp='1476790813' post='3157214'] all look good, fenders are growing on me (slowly), but am i going mad cos to me the picture seems to be a Fender P and Squire J? how you coping with the difference in string spacing as the Sub looks narrower than the other 2 [/quote] That's a naughty F decal on the Squier P. The Fender logo on the jazz is genuine but being a Chinese Modern Player the logo is lined up on the headstock a bit differently and it's in gold like a Squier rather than black which might be what's confusing your eyes . The string speaking is much tighter on the Ray. I'm pretty adaptable with string speaking fortunately though. The neck and string spacing on the Squier is actually perfect for me but the Rest is still very nice to play as I'm finding plucking string to string is very fast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Painy Posted October 18, 2016 Author Share Posted October 18, 2016 [quote name='Twincam' timestamp='1476796322' post='3157301'] P and jazz, musicmaster. Cool but imo your missing two iconic basses. Which have there own qualities which you can buy cheap and are much like there expensive counterpart. Hofner ignition violin bass. Completely hollow like the original, and does have that hofner sound more than the mid range versions do imo. Epiphone thunderbird classic. Has the gibson USA pickups, nearly identical construction/materials. Sounds just like the last model gibson did. I think then you have all the "iconic" bass tones covered and each sound different from one another. Shame epiphone don't do a decent eb0. [/quote] That'd be Saint Peter and the angel Gabriel then Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowhand_mike Posted October 19, 2016 Share Posted October 19, 2016 [quote name='Painy' timestamp='1476821928' post='3157631'] That's a naughty F decal on the Squier P. The Fender logo on the jazz is genuine but being a Chinese Modern Player the logo is lined up on the headstock a bit differently and it's in gold like a Squier rather than black which might be what's confusing your eyes . The string speaking is much tighter on the Ray. I'm pretty adaptable with string speaking fortunately though. The neck and string spacing on the Squier is actually perfect for me but the Rest is still very nice to play as I'm finding plucking string to string is very fast. [/quote] haha nice one, thought i was going nuts. string spacing was the main thing i struggled with when i changed up to a 5 string, was just wondering if you found the same experience between 5 string spacings between basses Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huge Hands Posted October 19, 2016 Share Posted October 19, 2016 [quote name='Painy' timestamp='1476821155' post='3157624'] It was a bit of a mission to say the least. I found a thread on Talkbass where a chap had found the bridge cover on eBay. Only problem was the Chinese seller (who also did the pup cover) wouldn't ship to the UK. After a call for help on here, a fellow BCer who was going to the states on holiday to visit family was kind enough to give me the address of his sister in Florida to get them shipped to. She then brought them with her to New York where they met up. He then brought them home to the Republic of Ireland and posted them to me in Norfolk. If you can find a way to get it home, the eBay item number is 151314126658. [/quote] Blimey. I was mega excited about the possibilities of getting some for my home built Squier P5....until I read that. I think I'll wait a few more years to see if I can get them in the UK a bit easier..... I'm mega jealous of you now.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Painy Posted October 19, 2016 Author Share Posted October 19, 2016 Well you could always PM OddBass65 and ask when he's going again ..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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