Ray 34 neck is the Wider stingray neck.
Ray 4 and ray24 are Jazz necks.
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I must have played a Ray34 last month when I was there, because I pulled a Ray off the wall and tried her out, and didn’t like the neck at all.
But I saw a post by you talking about different neck sizes so I thought I would give them another chance. So I tried one out today and I could learn to like it. It was around $500 so must have been Ray24. Didn’t see any Ray4s.
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Yeah, the Ray24 comes in butterscotch or Toluca lake blue, and. Burst I think.
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The I tried was butterscotch. When I return I might actually noodle with it a bit.
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I never played one, I know it’s the same neck as the Ray4.
What I don’t know is how comfortable the body is.
It is a flat slab body, like the Stingrays of the late 70’s.
No belly cut or rounding of the body for where your forearm rests.
I don’t really see that being a big deal, but if it’s bothersome to you, then be sure to try a Ray4 before you decide yes or no.
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Slab bodies not at all bothersome to me. My Aerodyne is like that as was my Schecter, and I’m totally good with it
I’m more of a picker so I don’t really rest my forearm there
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I love my butterscotch Ray24. On my return to the Chesapeake area next month I will bring that with me.
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Thanks, @T_dub for posting this! I have the locks that came with my Urge but had no idea how to install/use them. This is a HUGE help!
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You may not need to do this fix. It’s for when the hole was already loose, or the screw with the strap lock is smaller.
I have put strap locks on about 7 Basses, and only needed to do this on 2 Basses I bought used. Every new bass, and some used ones, did not need to add the material in the holes.
This will work if needed, but I would see if you can get by without it first.
Sometimes, the strap lock screw goes in tight, and adding material could make it hard to screw in, and maybe even force you to strip the screw head.
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And with some of the screws that you seem to get nowadays seemingly made from butter it’s so easy to strip them. Always good to have a screwdriver that is a good fit for the screw head
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This seems very very true on these straplock screws for sure. The one screwdriver I have that really fits the head, does not fit all the way down the barrel of the Dunlop strap locks, so its a get it in as far as you can with that one, then hope you didn’t go to far and can get it back out again, then get smaller screwdriver and go sssssssllllllllllooooooooowwwwww with lots of force and pray you don’t strip.
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It’s definitely upgrade day for me…
I just finished adding the Zero Fret to my ESP. I also filed the nut to BEAD and added the .128 LaBella flat B string. She sounds great. It’s like playing a 5 string with an absent G string.
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@John_E from someone who has installed more than her share of Dunlop strap locks… this is why it’s so critical to drill the hole with the size bit they suggest in the instructions, and make sure it’s the exact right depth. The pre-drilled hole makes the task of twisting the screw much easier.
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@PamPurrs most basses have smaller screws on the strap buttons to start and require some drill out.
Of course this also depends on the straplock you are using as well.
I use Dunlop, they generally require drillout, some don’t.
I think they specify a size so people don’t do 1 of two things.
- Drill too small a hole and risk damaging the wood via cracking.
- Drill too big of a hole and risk the instrument falling to its demise
For length…
- So they don’t drill too far and hit something else (some guitars or basses have a lot going on in the back.
- So they insure its far enough if longer than the original screw to again prevent any cracking.
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New strap locks is the first thing I do on any bass and I have never had to drill out. Why would you need to? The screws use the existing hole as a pilot and go in nicely.
At least for Schallers.
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The Dunlop’s are quite a bit bigger than Fender stock and with hard wood it’s better to give them some breathing room, or ask the hulk over to help out.
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Congrats on modding this to a BEAD bass…
The way the B string feeds into the tuner peg looks weird, though… as if it goes straight into the hole, and no windings around the peg!? Might be the angle of the photo, but I can’t see any silk or any tapering part… was that a longer scale B string you got there??
Mainly curious (as always) 
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The silk on that B string is black, so you can’t see the windings, but rest assured, there is a full 3+ winding on that peg.
The other strings are a different story. Because I had clipped the silk to just past the next highest peg, when I moved them over, they went up to the higher peg. This created a shortage of silk, and each of those has only 1 and a half windings, but they’re secure.
I ordered some new strings to fix that problem, but the B string is just fine.
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Ah, yes, OK… was so focused on finding something red there, LOL
Thanks for elaborating… now I can sleep soundly 
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I’m so glad my little string lullaby has lulled you into a peaceful slumber 
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