Sterling by Music Man Ray4 SUB – Stingray SUBstance at a Serious Discount! – LowEndLobster Review
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Hey everyone! Today we’re FINALLY going to review the stock Ray4 SUB from Sterling by Music Man. This ‘entry level’ bass has some serious professional level potential! Featuring a basswood body, maple neck, and standard sized Stingray hardware, can the Ray4 SUB be your one and only Stingray? Let’s find out!
Here are ALL the SUB Mods we’ve done so far:
Ultimate Stingray Mod Guide (10 videos)- https://youtu.be/APjwrZ97mcY
Project Mint-O-Ray (4 videos)- https://youtu.be/FzUm1bBZkHI
Project Mold Smoothie (4 videos)- https://youtu.be/xe8rHwPxjRE
Project Code Red- https://youtu.be/ofAA3V9JfnI
Seymour Duncan SUB- https://youtu.be/54jmGrjh9-8
Aguilar AG4M+Stock Preamp: https://youtu.be/E8dbuzhZLMM
This bass and all my other basses with rounds are strung with SIT Foundation Nickel Plated Stainless Steel 45-105(125) unless otherwise noted. Check them out at https://sitstrings.com/
Info on my signal chain, setup and more: https://youtu.be/QtZdeV7Ngv0
Discord: discord.gg/dzrFMzD
Facebook: fb.me/LowEndLobster
Instagram: Instagram.com/LowEndLobster
Reverb Shop: reverb.com/shop/lowendlobster
#Sterling #Music #Man #Ray4 #Stingray #SUBstance #Discount #LowEndLobster #Review
Originally posted by UClpTFnWcfIg4pcgFZ8dRTyg at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmWnibIVhwQ
Is this guy for real? The guitar is too loud so he turns down the volume on the guitar! ???? turn your amp down! Duh!
I think the nut might be a bigger issues than the tuners
Sterling by Musicman by Ernie Ball
Would you say the sting Ray sub 4 has the same sound that Queen used when they released Another on Bites the dust ??
Had one for 5 years, love it.
I recently purchased that bass and I love it. It's a lot of bass for $350
How would this bass be for aggressive punk/thrash music. Everyone seems to be into funk that review this bass
I was interested in this guitar until you got to the price. Here in the UK it's currently the USD equivalent of $600. If it used to be a $299 guitar then it's not worth it. I'll take a look at the new Marcus Miller Stingray range instead. Thanks for the review!
Dude I certainly came here for the bass but then I heard the song of time and it just look me back to my childhood… Now im not probably not getting the bass but a N64
Yeah the tuners are ok. Recommendations for better ones?????
The D string does not respond as well the others
This one or squire better?
Мечтал о такой гитаре 35 лет. Классный звук, звук резины , а не проволоки. Спасибо за доставленное удовольствие!
JuliaPlaysGroove still plays hers, and she's an AMAZING player!!
Damn that boy got a cute laugh
As a beginner, I recently visited a music shop to test this bass, having sound tested a good half dozen basses beforehand (including the Yamaha 304, Fender Player jazz and precision, Ibanez SR300, Squier Affinity, Squier CV Jaguar and SX SWB1. I honestly came away scratching my head and my experience of this sterling bass hasn’t mirrored what I have heard on YouTube channels or read on forums. Most forums say it has a reasonably thin neck, with only a few saying it has a baseball bat feel. I think it has a baseball bat feel compared to the others I tested. It was more akin to a precision neck. In terms of sound, I could only test it through the small shop’s Rumble 15, and it so overdrove that amp that it was unlistenable. Even turning the volume down and twiddling the tone knobs, I could not get a nice sound out of it. I tested 3 other basses through that same small amp and they all sounded ok. Very odd experience indeed. I turned up thinking this was the bass for me and came away totally mystified as to the difference between what I hear on YouTube and what I hear live. Does this bass need a large amp/speaker to shine? Is that it? Anyway, was a good lesson to me on the absolute need to feel and hear a bass in person. Strangest of all, of the basses I have tested, the sweetest sounds come from the most expensive of those I tested (the Player precision) and the cheapest clone (the SX SWB1, whose playability was astounding). It’s a real struggle to get my head around this. The price paid seems to bear no relation to the playability or sound of a bass. And perhaps because those two elements are extremely subjective, therein lies the issue.
I've been playing one of these since about 2017. I've loved it. My only complaint is that the tuners need replaced pretty quickly. Once I set mine up, it's been the best feeling bass I've ever played. I love the Stingray feel and the narrow neck that this bass has. I don't know that I'll ever get another Stingray simply because it needs no more. It's as perfect as I could ever ask for.
Hi again. I hope all is well. I was wondering what happened to the instructional video you did, showing the actual removal and installation of new preamp and pickup for this bass? I can't seem to find it anywhere and it would be really useful to be able to see it again, especially as they seem almost non-existent on here. Thanks!
Ive just bought one and its great. It sounds good, and it looks good, and i would say at the price, it's a bargain, i feel like i stolen it .
might be a stupid question.. but can i use this without batteries? sorry ????
I really want a stingray and I dont even know why. something about it is so cool but I can't tell what it is. cool content btw.
I bought a Ray4 last year and after a few months modded it with an Aguilar DCB-M4 pickup and a John East MMSR preamp. Absolutely beautiful tone now. I also went and added some Ernie Ball Cobalt Flats and the bass is an absolute dream to play. I like it better than my Ray34, which is also excellent.
I've got one in Mint Green finish with maple neck and it's really cool. Neck has 38mm width on the nut, it's less then regular Stingray or Ray34. I'd say that neck is the same as on Musicman Sterling.
My upgrades:
Copper foil electronics shileding
SeymourDuncan SMB-4D instead of stock pickup
Machine head replacement
Darkglass Tone Capsule replica instead of stock preamp. DIY 3eq Stingray preamp with boost-cut option also works fantastic
I just traded my player P bass for one of these. Roast me all you want Lol But I like this bass!
I’ve had my Sterling SUB Stingray for a year…. Love it! I’m getting ready to mod it!
I love these basses, just put an Aguilar pickup in one and it's nearly perfect.
I have a Wilkinson mm pickup what i want to build in my Ray 4,can i compare this Wilkinson ceramic pickup with the stock pickup from the Ray 24?
Besides the tuners, the control knobs are crappy plastic on the inside. I'm interested in getting one of these to do a mod on it. Does anyone make hole-for-hole replacement tuners?
A dozen? How many basses do you have, anyway? 🙂
i think you tried upgrading a Harley benton MM type bass recently ? here in europe this SUB costs about 500 euros (used about 300 ) the Harly Benton is 140 euros (new) , but listening to you here i think buying a sub is stil money well spend , or do you have other thoughts about that? i have a Preamp and pickup comming in from retrovibe , so i am going to upgrade it… hope you still see my comment on this already bit older video…kind regards Johan
I wanted to get a Jazz, but I'd heard good things about the Sterlings from a friend. Went into a small music shop and they only had three random basses (and no jazz), but they had one of these. I played it and it felt like what I was looking for in the Jazz so I bought it. It's a nice solid bass, and I love the look of it. They're hard to find in my country at the moment and they cost a lot more than they do in the US, so I was surprised to see that little shop had one, in the colour I wanted no less.
The standard strings are junk. One of mine was faulty and had a horrible buzz whether open or fretted (and it wasn't colliding with anything). Fortunately a new set of D'Addarios cured it.
It's taken quite some adjustment to keep it right, the intonation was miles off and I've just had to adjust the truss rod too, but It's a really nice bass to play. The neck has no nasty friction and is narrower than on my P bass, but not so narrow it's cramped. The pickup being near the bridge rarely gets in the way, and it's very flattering when it comes to slapping. If you're a total beginner like me, The sensitivity will show you where you are going wrong with your muting. You'd best learn to get good at it or it sounds awful, but in that sense It's a good teacher for sound technique. I still suck, but at least I know that now! It's very poor for tapping though. I guess because the pickup is so far away, but it comes through very quietly if at all. I'd be interested to know if that's a thing with all Stingrays.
I don't seem to have anywhere near the clipping issues that are in this video. Maybe my amp is just happier with it. It's cool I can upgrade bits later if I want though.
Mmmmm beatbuddy?)
Hi! Love your reviews! I am looking for a good all-around bass strictly for recording. What mods would you recommend for this bass, and by the time I am done, would the cost end up being the same as if I just bought a higher end bass? Thank you so much! I am watching videos for basses I know I don't want, just because you are so entertaining…
how about the more expensive bases sterling makes
this bass still has great sound to it regardles
I bought a SUB Ray4 to have something to fiddle around with during the holidays coming up (modify, that is).
I adjusted the stock Pup down, away from the strings, and this lowered the level that overloaded the preamp.
Does the distance of the pickup from the strings do anything to the tone balance, would you say?
Other thing I did was to lower the action and change strings. Now I just have to get used to the super slim neck which none of my earlier basses have.
@ LowEndLobster, this is a 2021 SUB Ray4 wired Passive (pickup wired parallel)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVKgGUs8gY0
15:44 tell me more about this "great replacement" theory you have…
At 299 or 350$ these are indeed great value. Over here in Europe retail prices for the SUB go from 460 to 500€, however. At that price point there are better options out there, imo.