Show us your first bass!

Interesting, the SR300’s I’ve seen did not feel flimsy to me at all, though to be fair I haven’t owned one, just seen them in stores.

Light? oh yeah. But not flimsy.

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I didn’t really notice it so much until I started playing them against my ESP LTD and Stingray, which are built like tanks, and still are pretty good and quick in the neck department.

I am just saying what I felt on mine. I kind of thought, maybe its just these, but then I saw other reviews, and people, saying, Ibanez, come on, you can do better then this, and then I started to realize that It was not my imagination, or the basses I had, that this was what these lower models were.
I still kind of want an Ibanez P bass, or a Talman, or even a Tiesco (I think that is the 30" one), but the cheaper priced, sr, even when I felt them in stores, I was like, hmm, maybe my basses werre not the current release, or they were just old, and i picked up the one in the store, and yeah, nope, they were just like the ones I had.
Of course, covid, and I couldn’t get them to get me down a 500 or whatever ones they had higher then that. They were like Are you going to buy this bass today". I was like yeah, FU, I just bought a bass here two days ago, and I have some checking to do. “we have a long line outside sir, so if you are not going to buy it today”.
more GC hate. LOL :hot_face:

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At first glance, I thought that was Josh’s Peavey Cirrus. :slight_smile:

So much design similarities in musical instruments. And some outright clones of others. Not saying that’s good or bad, because it’s for a reason. Just a thing.

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Its feature set is truly great for a bass at that price.

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My ESP LTD B-4E

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Looks cool. I love “woody” basses. I have a mental blocker on panels on the back though myself. That’s why I always have passive basses. I know it’s dumb, but it’s just how my brain works. :rofl:

Might be from my violin days or something…

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Get a SBMM Stingray SUB Ray4. Only has the battery box on back, but you can hardly notice it.

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That’s really nice! I like it.

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Cool, I’m hesitant to shipping electronics directly to my house, and as you pointed out I didn’t want to wait either… inventory is low, people in lockdown have to entertain themselves, we might see a bunch of used basses reselling next year…
One thing that helps me from the sub4 is that there’s no pickups or modes to choose from, the controls are basic vol-treble-bass, so I focus on executing technique properly, I cannot hide or blame the gear, if it sounds off it’s because I’m not playing right

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Speaking of “woody basses”, my favorite (within reason) is the Ibanez SR655e Antique brown. https://c1.zzounds.com/media/productmedia/fit,2018by3200/quality,85/SR655EABS_CU_Body_Top_792535-f292584f966cb03fb21e2336ecdcf5a0.jpg

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That’s gorgeous.

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Spector NS Pulse if you like your wood grain tinted :call_me_hand:

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Ibanez really has some nice finishes in their intermediate instruments

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you can find any number of pick ups to upgrade the stock.
The stock pick up in the Sub Ray4 is the weak spot, and one of the only weak spots I might add.

However, the pick up on Ray4 is wired in series, and unless you rip it apart you can’t reallly change it.

the pick up in the Ray24 is also wired in series, but it can be wired in paralell.
they wire it in series on purpose I suppose to show that the moe expensive Ray34 will sound better in the store than it. so people pay the $100 to $300 more for a Ray34 (which also has a fatter neck, so if you like more narrow necks, then the Ray4 and 24 is the place to be)

But, for Ray24 owners, is is easy ad free to make the pick up sound much better and more like a Stingray by changing it to parallel over series.

All other Stingray’s, from the Sterling Ray34 to the Music Man Specials are wired in parallel, and it is much of the stingray sound.

But the Ray4 owners were not given this luxury to be able to wire it parallel, again, making somebody pay the extra $150-$200 to get the 24 for the free upgrade, because otherwise, the Ray4 and Ray24 are pretty idendical, all but the flat slab mahogany body, and the vintage tint added to the neck.
otherwise, the basses are the same
tuners
pre-amp
neck,
fretboard
oh, the bridge, the bridge on the 24 looks more like the modern stingray (funny because it is supposed to be inspired by the classic look and design) and the ray 4 bridge looks more like the classic stingray bridge (less the mutes)

Anyway, what I mean to say is, for price between $40 and probably $250, you can upgrade the stock pick up, and as long as you get a pick up that is wired in parallel (like my Aguilar) or CAN be wired in EITHER series or Parallel (like the EMG I believe) and wore it as such, you will make your $300 bass sound like a $900 bass or better (I think my Aguilar pick up on my Ray4 sounds better then the Ray34 with stock / parallel and better music man 3band pre-amp.

My Aguilar was $119 and took 2 minutes to mod after taking out all the screws, about 10 min - and about 15 to put it all back together, so 1/3 hour ish. and I love this thing, sound, neck, playability, I just love it.

I am not rushing out to replace my Music Man pick ups with an Aguilar or other pick up, I like it just fine (and the Ray34 is just fine too, just not as good as the Ray4 with Aguilar)
But I will upgrade any Ray4 I ever have with a pick up in paralell, and I want to try some others out actually, so If I can find a Ray4 used for $150ish, I will get it and put in a Herrick or EMB or Seymour Duncan (those are the three I want to try most) or even a Chinese made Wilkinson, because it has 4 poles along the top and 8 poles along the bottom, kind of like a Jazz pick up with smaller poles on each side of the string instead of one large pole centered under the string, just to try different things.
But you can make a stingray sound more like a stingray or less like one with all the pick up and pre-amp combos they have these days.

I personally think in most cases (except the Dark Glass tone Capsule) the on-board Pre-amp does not make as much, or very little fdifference to the overall sound, and the pick up does most of the work, that is why I leave the stock pick up in my Ray4

if I wanted to make it 5 way, with push pull or stacked controls to get low mids, upper mids, and low and high controls, along with other options that might come on them, active passive, (with the right pick up) etc…
Then I would look for a pre-amp, but for now, my ray4, just upgrade the pick up and I am good.

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It’s funny because for me when EQing on my bass, the mids knob is the only one that really matters :slight_smile:

not totally true because cutting treble can help sometimes too, but mostly true - it’s the mids I usually want to mess with.

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Then if you get a Ray4, the pre-amp would suite you.
For me, I like with just the Pick up.
I can adjust mids on my amps (SWR has great options for mids) or on a pedal or in GarageBand. But my favorite sound is with Bass at the togglej or in the middle and my treble about 50% cut from center.
So 12oclock and 9 ocklock with 12 being top dead center.

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that looks like a nice axe!

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So…this is my monster, i bought this Vision bass on Amazon, it was the cheapest…
I have made complete setup and changed the strings, and it really help to get a better sound.
I have already saw one Ibanez i would like to have, but first want to make some real experience and get better also :grin:

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Cool pic!

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Got a Dixon BSM 66R from a friend for like $70 bucks when I was in high school. I took it apart to refinish it and someone stole it. I’ve had 10 basses since that 1st one.

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