I installed the Aguilar AG 4M in my Ray 4 SUB. I followed the instructions and it bypassed the preamp, ground to the volume pot housing and white to the volume pot control. Volume works but seems to turn the bass to a passive unit.
Rewired it to the in and ground on the preamp. The preamp is for sure engaged, but the high tone knob doesn’t seem to be working. Only the bass control is functioning.
Hopefully someone else has taken on this project and can help me. I would like to wait to order the East or Aguilar preamp until I am for sure going to stick with bass.
If you are just swapping the pickup then it’s just a straight swap since the Aguilar and the Ray4 OEM pickup only has 2 wires. I won’t even do anything to the original setup just strip the wires and then splice the pickup wires in place.
I stole this pro tips from Max at FatBass tone, Alligator clips. Use it to test if everything works before final connection. It’s been pain free for me.
I’d go with John East. It’s a guarantee fit. OBp 2 or 3 just too many options and that also may require you to drill another hole for the side jack to make room for all of your knobs too,
I have both and much prefer the East than the Aguilar as a DIY project.
Don’t need one just use your’s less issue with lining up the holes.
2 bands are usually bass and treble. I actually like this it’s very “HiFi” sound in the sea of 3 band EQ equipped basses I have the 2 band is definitely a welcome change.
3 bands is just Bass Mid Treble. your typical setup. you can definitely try out the
Holy wow, $305 for the 3 band. But I feel like having more options is better. I think I will have spent almost Stingray 34 money but I have a feeling will be happier with it once it’s all done.
I’m going to use this as a reward for finishing the beginner to baddass course.
I’m new to the bass but played Electric guitar for years. Getting back into music and hopefully going to find a means of playing with other people again.
I am going to do a counterpoint to Al here - I dislike 2-band preamps.
The reason is that is simple - with bass, the mids are usually what I want to boost or cut. With a 2-band, there is no great way to do this as the low and high bands usually overlap in the mids on bass preamps.
Well there’s a cheap super tone upgrade that cost you almost nothing. Do the web search. Your Ray4 is wired in series right now. The original StingRay is wired in Parallel. just learn to DIY the wiring. Then you get the pure StingRay tone. I think you can do that in the 2 wire pickup.
Yes so true, do take my advice with a grain of salt as almost everyone here knows that I generally play with everything in the middle, no boost no cut, unless I’m after anything specific. I own more basses with just Volume knob(s) no tone knobs than many people collections. It’s a blessing and a curse of owning multiple basses, That’s how I usually roll.
I think the 3 band East is in my future. Thanks for the advice! I like the idea of being about to shape/cut or boost the mids.
I’m enjoying the Aguilar with the stock 2 band preamp. If I bump the treble up a touch from center and drop the bass down to 20%-30% it gives my Ray4 a really fun tone. I think I’ll upgrade the preamp after I finish the course as a reward. The stock pickup had to go, a lot of distortion on just about everything stock.
