funkle

I love the J Tone. The J Retro I had had just a bit too much colour baked in when it was set flat, and I could never quite get that sound out of it (great though it was). I also never really used the mid controls. I swapped in a J Tone into my Jazz instead. Perfect for me. Found the EQ points I liked on the bass and treble trim pots quickly, and that was that. I control mids using pickup selection and hand placement, and having both treble control and passive tone control is really cool. The bass control is powerful and sensitive. It’s clean and pristine sounding, and the bass sounds very natural without the baked in pre-shape. Sounds great with single coils. I’m a huge fan of John’s work, and he is a pleasure to deal with.

Cool. I’d buy that...

Clear scratch plate.

Blue.

You’re in great luck. The 5 string Stingray neck is my personal favourite every respect. Nut width, string spacing as it progresses up the neck, depth...it’s the ideal IMO

I’ve owned 2 EBMM Sterling HHs with the 3 band EQ, in the past. I previously owned an SBMM SB14 7-8 years ago as well. The problem I had was the Sterling body was too small for me! I loved their aggressiveness but could never get my right arm to rest where I wanted it to for stable right hand technique. So I sold them. I’ve had some lovely Stingrays in the past too; the issue then was my technique wasn’t great and I never could get sounds out of them I liked. In retrospect I probably prefer the 2 band EQ to 3 band as well. So the Ray4 project was, for me, now that I’ve developed better technique, a cheap way to get the Stingray sound, plus the Jazz width nut/comfort. @owen the only way to get a Stingray with a Jazz width nut rather than a Precision type width is to order a USA SLO Special Stingray. £££. None of the SBMM models have 1.5” nut width either EXCEPT for the Ray4.

You’re very kind. I can’t wait to see how it all turns out. I love the Ray4 as it is - especially since it had a proper fret job and bone but, it’s just so sweet to play now. Light too. I think the Ray4 is a tremendous bang for the buck. Low End Lobster did an absolutely brilliant set of videos that I’ve mentioned before - but one thing that is absolutely clear to me from these is that a good pickup in the correct location gets you 95% of the way to the right tone; the EQ takes you the rest of the small distance that is needed. I haven’t seen another bass where I think the body wood matters less. Perhaps the maple vs rosewood debate applies here as well, I do think maple adds something at the top end, but really, those videos show very well that Stingray tone is hugely centred in the pickup/location. Cost of bass and mods becomes an issue when comparing my project to a USA SUB. I would recommend other people simply buy the USA SUB if the nut width is not an issue....By the time I’m done I will have spent £600 in total on buying my bass, fettling it, and modding pickups and preamp; obviously the resale value will never approach that. So buying a USA one is way smarter if it suits playability wise.

I wish the USA Stingray SUBs had Jazz width nuts. It would have saved me buying a cheap Sub Ray4 and upgrading it. That said, the Ray4 with an Aguilar M4 pickup and soon-to-arrive John East MMSR 2 band should sound pretty authentic... I did wonder about buying a USA SUB a while back and getting the neck altered, but it was prohibitively expensive/awkward; the Ray4 upgrade was a much easier prospect.

I’m going to second the Low End Lobster series. It is excellent. I just used it as the basis of sticking and Aguilar M4 and John East 2 band MMSR in my Sub Ray 4. The summary video is excellent, but each of the preceding videos leading up to the final summary are equally worthy of attention. The series illustrates well that the pickup really is most of the time, with a preamp adding the final bit of special sauce. But the pickup is key. Here’s the end summary video - Good luck and enjoy!