Can verify the 504/505 is fantastic; I have a 604 (same electronics) and I wouldn’t even consider changing the pickups; they are top notch. I would stack them up against much more expensive pickups.
The only reason I have a 604 instead of a 504 is a pristine one turned up used while I was saving up for a 504. They are lighter though, so you might want to check out a TRBX605 too.
Hey thanks! I’ll keep my eyes open for one. I have to sell a few things around here before I make the purchase anyway (not to raise money, but to make some more room and to justify the purchase to my hot wife), so I’m not in a hurry.
There are 3 basses that I consider essential members of my arsenal. They are:
Why these three?
They are the low end voices in so many of the pop, rock, country, blues tunes etc. that have been written, recorded, played and heard over the radio or over the common media playback devices over the last 40-45 years.
Odds are that one of these three will create the tones heard in ones head when choosing the perfect bass tone for the given occasion.
P-bass drives a lot of punk too 
Welcome aboard @lespaul1963,
I agree with the first 2, don’t know about the stingray:thinking:it’s the one I haven’t got in my arsenal as yet, but I think my “Ricky” fills that void nicely 
Cheers Brian
Hi @lespaul1963 . That sounds like a real nice combination of different sounds and different feel of each bass you chose.
It’s funny you should say that @TNKA36 because a Ricky did cross my mind too.
Certainly an “itch I’ve got to scratch”
I’ve also recently found a decal of Lemmys signature that would be a fitting tribute to the great man.
That’s it ! I’m due a little money very soon and I will be looking for a Rick even if it’s just to look at and say to myself “ Lemmy has one of those “
My bass teacher tried to sell me his Rick when I was just starting out 20 years ago… seemed like a typical Mc Donalds (Super-size-me) up size event so I refused… So many things from my youth I now regret…
What did you Mod on your 2020 Ray 4? (this is my go to bass, and I love it, for the price, I couldn’t be happier and hard pressed to find comps)
I replaced the stock pick up with an Aguilar in mine, and love it.
I am going to replace the pick up on my Ray34 at some point, and I might even replace the Pre-amp, but have been told the difference was not that big, and just replacing the pick up was usually enough, and by enuf, I mean getting it close enough to EBMM sound. Of course, this is just what I was told, but I value the info from the source, so I don’t doubt it at all.
I gotta say, a modded Sterling by Music Man StingRay Ray 4
at $299
plus a $120 Aguilar pick up,
making it $420,
it is hard to find a better production bass for price (after mod), IMO.
The Neck is so smooth and easy to play, and it has tone for days and days.
Dropping in a 3-band preamp would probably take it up there really close to a EBMM. Maybe better in some ways (as you just put a really great pickup on).
Yeah, the info I got was,
“Ehh, I could have probably gotten away with just swapping out the Pick Up, and leaving the orig. 3band preamp, the difference is subtle if any”
That said, if I find, like, feel, keep the right bass, I would probably do that to the right Ray34, but for the Ray 4 (which is a 2 band, still could be swapped, but ehh…) I probably would not make the change.
That all said, I will probably experiment with different pick ups as well, see what I may or may not like better or worse.
There is plenty of time, I am sure to do a preamp sometime.
Course, I have still yet to pick up any of my basses for a real practice session since getting home yet, so I got lots to do before planning any upgrades at this point. LOL.
Oh cool, it originally had a 3-band? For some reason I thought the Sterlings had 2-band.
Nice bass.
The Sterling now has the Sub Series and the Stingray 34
Yes, it has gotten a little confusing, but the
The Sub-Series are the
SBMM Stingray Ray4 (Ray5)
&
SBMM Stingray Ray24 (Ray25)
(Both the 4 and 5 string versions are 2 band)
Then you have
The EBMM Stingray Ray34
(I do not believe they call that the Sub Series any longer)
This is the 3-band.
This is the Sterling model that is made to be the step down from the EBMM
The Ray4(5) and Ray 24(25) actually has a STERLING (EBMM STERLING) shape neck on it, with the width at the nut 38mm (not sure the 5 string)
The Ray 34 has the EBMM Stingray Shape with 42mm width at the nut (the EBMM is 43mm I believe)
There are subtle differences and similarities throughout the lines and the cross over between Music Man and. Sterling by Music Man, but they are there and they do make the difference between what crossover models and features you are getting or missing out on.
So, now that I confused you further @howard
I meant that I was talking about my Ray34 for preamp upgrade, not the ray4, sorry, still a bit fuzzy from all that is going on, but I know you understand.
Yes, if I were to do a 3band upgrade to the Ray4, I may see some improvements that are not there with the 2 band eq, however I am not sure they would be much different then anything you would normally get with a 2 to 3 band EQ, so not sure it would be worth it in the Ray4 upgrade list
so, to be clear for sure,
I have a Ray 4 that I upgraded with the Pick up
And
I have a Ray34 that I will upgrade the pick up, and possibly the 3band from the Sterling (not EBMM) to Aguilar and see if it is better.
One other element is that I also may decide that I like the EBMM Sterling (model not mfg) bass neck shape, with the 38mm width at nut, over the EBMM Stingrays neck shape, so I may end up playing a EBMM STERLING as my go to instead of an EBMM Stingray after it is all said and done.
But this is the fun part for me too, I like to play with a lot of basses and nail down the right thing.
Good choices!
I replaced the pickup with a Seymour Duncan 70’s MM AlNiCo pickup, and the preamp with a MojoTone MM 2-Band preamp.
I switched the oem strings for my choice of balanced tension strings. I didn’t name the strings because everybody favors different strings.
It sounds exactly a like a late 70’s StingRay now.
You should know that the original MM Stingray 2-band pre was “boost only”, so “Flat” is with both Bass and Treble turned all the way down. The MojoTone Pre is an exact clone of that preamp. It’s a great set of tones, but not for everyone. I find that with this setup and altering my playing technique, the Ray 4 is quite versatile.
The MM 3-band StingRays do produce a different and more modern sound and character than the 2-band models. Choose wisely because neither one will completely emulate the other. I was going for that original 70’s voicing.
Not so sure if I’ll sell the Ray 4 anytime soon. I might keep it until I’m too old to play live.
If I we’re to pick 3, it would be based on tonal variety. These are what I would have in mind:
Ibanez SR655e Antique Brown. Killer looks, and gives you that PJ variety.
Sire M7. Humbuckers that can be ran Series, Parallel, or Single coil for each pickup, and a killer EQ:
Gibson EB 3 (Rickenbacker or Alembic could also do) for its unique pickup placement high up on the neck. Nice thumpy sound:
This is true with all stingray’s according to Scott Ball.
even tho there is a center click on the knobs on the Ray4, it is still a boost, although with that stock pick up it doesn’t matter. I left the stock Pre-amp in my bass when I upgraded the pick up to Aguilar, and I was satisfied with the results.
I should clarify that when I was talking about the Pre-amp being close enough to the EBMM, I was referring to the pre-amp in the Ray34. The current Ray34 use the pre-amp that was used in the Stingray Classic’s built until 2017, and was updated to the Stingray Special in 2018. The pre-amp was changed in the Special, not sure exactly what, but it is different then the one in the Classic, and the one in the classic is now used in the SBMM Ray34. This is why I was saying I may not even replace that, possibly just the pick up. although the Ray34 is a pretty good pick up, it is still not the EBMM pick up.
Is that the Old Smoothie Clone pre-amp? or does MojoTone, or the maker of MojoTone make other stingray clone pre-amps?
I have seen it reviewed, but it was with an Old Smoothie Modded Ray4, so it went so far as to upgrade to a 5 string pick up like the Old Smoothie.
Herrick pick ups are probably the next pick up I try, but Seymour Duncan is on my list too. I don’t have a bass needing pick ups right now however.
unless I end up keeping my Ray4HH, I am gonna certainly swap out the stock hot mess pick ups. I do think I will go with Herrick’s however.
On the RayHH, with the pick up selector, there will be some cool things that could be done with the Herrick pickups. Sure there will be good things that could be done with many pick ups, but I really want to give the Herrick pickups a go. I may even go with a DarkGlass Tone capsule pre-amp and just make it NOT a Stingray.
Thats what is so good about the Ray4’s, so much possibilities and not really that much money or work to change them.
