Sterling by Music Man SUB Ray 4 Bass
This is part of the package of kit I purchased from my friend Anita. And it really was the hook which got me interested in it in the first place. It’s it’s a cheaper version of the Music Man Stingray which is used by many renowned bass players.
So why did I get it?
I have previously described the cheap, second-hand Redwood bass I got as a project, and the Yamaha bass I replaced it with in a earlier post. They were both great basses for me, but I felt something was missing with the Yammy.
Thinking about it, the Redwood was junk when I got it and, although I transformed it into a playable instrument with a bit of TLC, it was always a bit compromised. But I had it at a time when I was making by first steps into bass playing, and so having an great instrument didn’t really matter, and it wasn’t so bad that it put me off. In fact really the only major thing wrong with it was the action was a bit high, and I actually shimmed the neck to mostly fix that.
But what it had was character. The body had chips and scratches and the frets were quite worn in places (I think the original owner must have obsessively played a single riff), and the knobs were slightly flaky. It was sometimes a little bit of a struggle to play but, as I said, not enough to put me off. In fact I think I liked that about it. And the fact that I had rescued it and restored it also, maybe, gave it a special place in my heart.
When I replaced it with the Yamaha, I got a much better bass, that sounded better, played better, that the knobs worked reliably on, and that didn’t have nicks and little patches on the chrome where once there had been rust.
But it also felt a bit characterless to me. I think the problem was it was too similar to what I had before and I think in my mind I had envisaged upgrading to something else. Maybe if they had stock in a different colour than black, I might have gelled with it more. In retrospect, I didn’t enjoy the black.
When Anita told me she was selling her bass and sent pictures, I was really interested. It was a step up, quality wise, from the Yamaha I had and it looked great. It seemed to have the character I was looking for. It is a simpler guitar, having only one humbucker, and I think that was part of the appeal: where I am now with my bass learning, I actually like having simpler controls. The Yammy was very flexible, but I never knew what to do with the controls so I generally left them set to one setting. The Sub Ray has limited options, but they fell “right”.
When I went to pick it up, I knew it was the right choice. It looks great, plays great, and has character in spades. And it also has a fair bit of tonal variety if I ever want to explore it, but with only one humbucker and a couple of tone controls, I’m not going to be overwhelmed with options. And I love the look of the headstock with the chunky open tuners.
I’m not really into chasing tones, especially on the bass, but I do like how this bass sounds: it has a it of a “bark” to it that seems to suit rock music. It has a satin finish neck which feels great, and a bit of a retro, kitschy style.
Here’s a video of me playing it over a backing track from September last year. At the time I had only just got this song up to speed, but wanted to get it posted before the month ended.
The production on this is a bit rushed and not particularly slick, but I didn’t want to spend too much time on it. The audio isn’t a great mix but it’s mainly so you can hear the bass. And I somehow truncated the video abruptly, but I couldn’t be bothered to go back and re-render it.
Shortly after getting the SUB Ray, I was wondering what to do with the Yamaha, when a local friend phoned me. His teenage son had been learning bass at school, and he wanted to get him one for his birthday and wanted advice. He had been considering getting him a Yamaha as that is what his son was using at school. How serendipitous! So I sold the Yammy to him and, basically, threw in the cheap bass amp I had for free. His son loves it!
So that is my last guitar from my current collection.
Cheers,
Keith