Preamp help

[Jimryan]

Evening all,

I've recently bought a sterling SUB ray 4 as my next project bass.

My first upgrade is gonna be the preamp changing from the stock 2 band. I'm thinking either an East 3 band, an ernie ball 3 band stingray pre or the seymour Duncan 3 band with the ceramic pickup. I've used the SD ceramic PU in my other basses before, but with pre's I'm out of my depth. I'm after an old stingray sound, edging towards the east pre for ease, but don't know what to go for and wanted your guy's thoughts.

Cheers

James

[Les]

I have an old Stingray and that's 2 band, how would changing to a 3 band get the sound you're looking for ?

Les

[Jimryan]

I'm after more control of the mids. The current pre only has bass and treble boost/cut so I'm thinking drop in a 3 band so I can play about with the mids a bit more.

[blue]

Stuff is all over my head. Back in the 60s I don't think we had mids. Just bass, treble and volume.

Blue

[BigAlonBass]

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1419653874' post='2641637']
Stuff is all over my head. Back in the 60s I don't think we had mids. Just bass, treble and volume.

Blue
[/quote]

Treble? You must have used expensive Amps!

[stingrayPete1977]

First thing you need to do is not fit the Ceramic pickup if you want a proper old school Stingray tone, only mid 90s to late 2007 Stingray 5s used ceramic pickups, they sound great I love mine in my oldest SR5 but its not what you want to get what you want, stick with Alnico for the pickup, the East preamps are great, I have the 2 knob 2 EQ version but I would have gone for the sweepable mid one like mcnach other than I wanted to keep it sort of standard as its in my Classic5 bass and the reason I bought it was as a 5 string version of a pre EB Ray which are still my favourite basses, they just lack a string for me


The Stinger ones off ebay are meant to be very good and give a proper Ray sound for not a lot of cash either.

Edited December 27, 2014 by stingrayPete1977

[Roger2611]

I fitted the John East 3 band to my Sterling along with a Delano pickup, totally transformed the bass to what I always thought a MM bass should sound like.....possibly doesn't help you a lot as you don't know what I thought a MM bass should sound like in the first place........so basically....brought Sterling....disappointed with the sound....fitted pick up and pre-amp.....happy with sound

Hope that helps

[HowieBass]

The John East claims to deliver the best of both worlds, with the mids set flat there's supposed to be no colouration so you have the classic 2 band Stingray sound; dial in either mids cut or boost with a sweepable mid frequency for additional tonal control - expensive though compared to something like a Stinger old school sounding 2 band preamp.

Edited December 27, 2014 by HowieBass

[mcnach]

[quote name='Jimryan' timestamp='1419644085' post='2641624']
I'm after more control of the mids. The current pre only has bass and treble boost/cut so I'm thinking drop in a 3 band so I can play about with the mids a bit more.
[/quote]

Then the John East MMSR is the one.

With the mids set at the centre detent, it's a traditional Stingray 2EQ. So The classic 2EQ is covered (not that the 3EQ is all THAT different, but you know what I mean).
The mids module where you can select the centre frequency with a sweepable control is fantastic.

Only I wouldn't say the SD pickups are very "classic Ray", neither the ceramic nor the alnico. I like them, but if you want more classic Stingray I'd look elsewhere... maybe try to source a real Stingray pickup? They do come up on eBay from time to time.
edit: the Nordstrand MM4.2 is sometimes recommended as an old school Stingray pickup. I tried one and I did not like it much. It felt a bit lacklustre compared to the real thing. The SD alnico (model SMB4A) does not sound like a traditional Stingray, but at least it sounds really good!

Regardless of the pickup, the MMSR preamp is excellent.

Edited December 29, 2014 by mcnach