Sterling SubRay 5 Sound - I need convincing!

[Blue_floyd20]

Hi All, I've liked the Stingray shape for a long time and recently acquired a Sterling SubRay 5. It's my first active bass or guitar. My other regular gig 5-string bass is a Yamaha BB235 which other than perhaps getting a little bit thin at the top end has a very nice warm tone, but it's passive.

 

I took the Subray out for a rehearsal and with all of my fiddling I couldn't get the warmth the Yamaha has. In fact it sounded quite gainy, like a really subtle drive effect, no matter what I did. I've got an EHX bass battallion which has my distortion and compression in it. I was rather hoping with the pad button it might be OK with the SubRay but it just sounds really hot. Without the pedal direct into the amp it sounds a bit boxy with no depth of tone. The tone adjustment works on the guitar (fresh battery!) it just isn't the beast I was hoping for. I play with a pick most of the time due to a finger injury but the only time I could get near the roundness of tone I wanted was playing finger style on some ska stuff.
 

Am I looking at a standalone compression pedal and drive/distortion pedal? I'm not a pedal board guy, one or two plus a tuner is enough for me - anyone had similar experience and solved it?

 

TIA

[Lozz196]

You can try a drive pedal to add some warmth by having the gain/drive set very low, this way just takes off the harsh edges of the clean sound. A pedal with a valve in would probably add even more warmth.

[Terry M.]

2 hours ago, Blue_floyd20 said:

 

I took the Subray out for a rehearsal and with all of my fiddling I couldn't get the warmth the Yamaha has. 

It never will due to the lack of a neck pickup and the hot active electronics. They're like chalk and cheese.

Edited March 21 by Terry M.

[Hellzero]

First thing to do is to wire the pickup in parallel and not in series as they are wired at the factory (hoping you have the 4 wires plus screening ground wire), then it will work properly.

 

And don't forget that even if there is a center detent, it's a boost only preamp, so start with all at zero and add the bass and treble to measure.

Edited March 21 by Hellzero
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[songofthewind]

There is also a mod for the Sub series original preamps, which were very hot. It doesn’t look very difficult, and I have a schematic if you’re interested. I haven’t done it but it’s because I’m heart lazy.

[Blue_floyd20]

33 minutes ago, songofthewind said:

There is also a mod for the Sub series original preamps, which were very hot. It doesn’t look very difficult, and I have a schematic if you’re interested. I haven’t done it but it’s because I’m heart lazy.

I am interested. But also lazy 😅

[Hellzero]

1 minute ago, Blue_floyd20 said:

I am interested. But also lazy 😅

In fact, the volume (250 kOhms) is before the preamp on the early series, but it has to be after the preamp and a 25 kOhms linear or logarithmic (up to you and your taste).

 

Easy mod, really.

 

But you have to do both to get the best out of this bass.

 

Check if your pickup has 4 wires.

 

I can send you the correct parallel wiring and it's hyper easy to do too.

[Blue_floyd20]

Thanks for all replies. So, gigged with the SubRay Saturday night. It was the centre detent of the pot that was getting me. I really had to start at zero and lifted both between 20/30% to get a much nicer sound out of the beast. Then I could tweak the top end up when needed (like Down in the Tubestation/Town called Malice). I've been used to the Yamaha setting everything to 100% and using the EQ on the pedal to alter the sound for individual songs. It's a different way of working. But the guitar is definitely growing on me.