NBD - Ray 34

[BassAdder60]

New bass day 

 

Sterling Ray34 in black arrived today and I’m very pleased with it.

Nice neck (43mm at nut ) and very good EQ adjustments using the active preamp. 
 

Liking the bass on full, mids backed off slightly and treble boosted

Very punchy sound 

[BillyBass]

Lovely looking bass, congrats.

 

How heavy is it?

[horrorshowbass]

Awesome 👌 

[Franticsmurf]

Nice. I have the Sterling Ray34HH. I usually have both pickups selected with a mids dip.

[BassAdder60]

2 hours ago, BillyBass said:

Lovely looking bass, congrats.

 

How heavy is it?

Just weighed it 9.6lbs 

 

Slightly more than my PBass 

 

The black model has a mahogany body 

Edited June 1, 2022 by BassAdder27

[BillyBass]

35 minutes ago, BassAdder27 said:

Just weighed it 9.6lbs 

 

Slightly more than my PBass 

 

The black model has a mahogany body 

That's not bad.  The one I picked up must have weighed about 11lbs or something like that

[BassAdder60]

On 01/06/2022 at 17:32, BillyBass said:

That's not bad.  The one I picked up must have weighed about 11lbs or something like that

I think the Ash bodied variant is often heavier than the black mahogany body version 

[dub_junkie]

Love the roasted necks. I keep ogling the new for ‘22 purple sparkle 4 string. 

[la bam]

On 06/06/2022 at 00:12, dub_junkie said:

Love the roasted necks. I keep ogling the new for ‘22 purple sparkle 4 string. 

 

They look stunning!

[BassAdder60]

I’ve used my Ray34 at rehearsals with my Ampeg V4B and it’s a lovely combination for rock 

 

The Ray34 neck feels similar to my PBass and just has more grunt compared to the excellent PBass ( which I will still use )

 

I don’t see it’s any less a full fat EBMM Stingray and although circa £1000 it’s a very decent bass and I couldn’t see myself paying £2K + for the American EBMM 

The set up out of the box was spot on and only needed new strings which I’m using 45-100 pure nickel Fender 

Running the 3 band mostly flat sounds very nice and it allows small tweaks where you want a brighter tone ( punk ) or more mellow tone .. rock Ballard etc 

Superb bass 

Edited June 16, 2022 by BassAdder27

[Lozz196]

I’m very tempted by one of these myself, I’ve had a few Stingrays in the past but the ash/maple combination has proved a bit “bright” for me, thinking that mahogany/rosewood would be a better pairing.

@BassAdder27 how do you find the general sound compared to your Precisions?

[BassAdder60]

1 hour ago, Lozz196 said:

I’m very tempted by one of these myself, I’ve had a few Stingrays in the past but the ash/maple combination has proved a bit “bright” for me, thinking that mahogany/rosewood would be a better pairing.

@BassAdder27 how do you find the general sound compared to your Precisions?

With the EQ set flat on the Ray it sounds “ similar “ to my PBass but a little more punch. Better clarity too 

The Ray34 is like a PBass on steroids ! 

[la bam]

I've just played my new ray 34 (ash, roasted neck) at an outside gig, it's a complete tone machine. Gees, they're good these stingrays. Really full sound. Easy to play too.

 

I played through my sansamp bdi pretty much flat. What was great though is that the tone can be so easily changed using the eq on the fly. As it was an informal garden party I had chance to experiment and theres so much tone and possibilities in there from fat, punchy funk, to mid driven rock. The only difference I'd say between the 34 and a precision is that the 34s bottom e is softer and rounder, you dont get that slam. Well, maybe you can after a bit of eqing and playing around, but the bottom e just felt softer than the others. Not in a bad way though.

Edited June 18, 2022 by la bam