The Most Affordable Musicman Stingray Bass - Sterling By Musicman Ray4 SUB Bass Review 

It’s been too long without a new video. Great to have you back. Another solid review.

Welcome back. To me it made more sense to get one of these and mod it instead of saving up for a Ray34. The build quality is great.

I bought the blue woodgrain Ray4 and was thrilled. My first bass and it sounds crazy. Thanks for the review

Amazing playing, man! Excellent review!

you've convinced me to overlook the jazz bass neck on this bass, thanks man. Now i've found a second bass to save for :D

Great review. Thanks! I like your priorities.

Awesome review! I got my SUBray4 for 6 years, all stock. Rocked it to a lot of gigs and never disappoints! With a compressor and a Sansamp made it sound expensive!

I bought a Ray4 a year ago for everyday work; I now save my 2009 Ball Family Reserve is for special occasions. I upgraded the Ray4 with Aguilar AG4M pickup, Ball Super Slinkys and Aguilar OBP-3SK/PP preamp, and it sounds excellent. Played great right of the box, stays in tune. I love it.

Brilliant review thankyou

Dude. The Sting Ray fits your style great. The Victor Wooten part you played sounded awesome. I feel like the mid forward sound is less forgiving but you have great technique and feel, so it sounds fantastic. Even for a cheap ass bass.

This review really opened my eyes to this bass man. I may have to cop one for myself. I'm still a beginner.

I just picked up a used one yesterday and I was very impressed with the build quality.

Got one of these from Sweetwater for less than $300. Bought it to be a backup instrument. I like it so much; it's become my primary bass. I like maxing out the bass and treble. It's a great sounding and playing bass! At that price, I'm thinking about picking up another one for alternative tunings.

Very good and a bang for your buck loving it

I have a couple of these, they are one of the best deals out there. I did put an Aguilar pickup in one but didn't really need it.

I like these better than the more expensive ones because I like the thin jazz like 1.5 inch neck width.

I've got two of these. Kept the stock pickup in one for rock stuff and replaced the other with a Duncan SMB4 Alnico for cleaner tones. Bought both basses used to save money - the market is flooded with them. Also the necks on these are pretty stable in temp/humidity changes, surprising for a budget instrument.

Great vid bro! I have the sunburst, its a monster bass and the actice sound kills every mix (studio & live)

I sold my sbmm ray 4 and got the 34. I love the 34, its my go to bass ever. Still the ray 4 had a very different sound although keeping the stingray sound and i'm very much thinking of rebuying a 4

Sounds really good, but I prefer the sound-of-the Pickup on the SS-4 (which I own & love). Nice demo, advice & playing. oNe LovE from NYC

Just got one, same colour, same specs. I usually play Fender Precision Bass 4/ Ibanez BTB 4. THIS IS GREAT FOR HARMONICS / FAST TAPPING / AGGRO TRIPLE FINGERSTYLE (J. Myung..) and it really SHINES in a PROG METAL / HARD ROCK context. UNVALUABLE.👍🏻

great video - really helpful although we know you can make anything sound amazing with the tone in those fingers 🙂

Best budget bass ever , got mine in chopper blue , dropped in a Seymour Duncan for $95 sounds amazing

Wow… I was certainly not expecting that voice to come from him…but hot damnnn what a solid player!!!

I love my Ray4. The stock pickup is a hot ceramic wired in series. That just wasn't my sound. I switched it to parallel and that helped, but it didn't quite get me there. I found a SD SMB-4A on clearance and I jumped on it. That nailed it for me. I even got an aftermarket preamp, but I'm happy with it the way it is. Ceramics have their place tonally, it just wasn't my taste for this bass.

It's been a while.. More gig vlogs pls.. From Philippines

as far as I know the preamps in those basses are wired kinda weird which is what gives them that overly hot sound

Anyone know the name of the piece/song he's playing at 9:46? Thanks in advance.

a certain utuber with exactly the same, must have hjelped to sell a bunch of those. No wonder they sponsored her with a 5 string and a short scale. Well deserved. Might be the reason I picked up one myself. Play a litle to loud for my taste, but ehh, can come in handy some day.

Muito bom 👍👍👍👍👍 !!!

Sounds perfect. I looking for MM as a big fan of RATM and Red hot chili peppers(Only to Californication :D) It cost 550usd.

Got one of those, and thinking of stringing it up with GHS flatwounds. What do you think, worth the try?

100% worth it

Tried 3 of those in music stores, one had a warped neck, the other was lumpy on the back of the neck and the third had a major buzz which we suspected was coming fom the truss rod vibrating inside the neck. Not impressed at all, and I certainly would not mail order one of those. Mind you, Ray34 I've tried were not any better, they all had major construction problems.

Kerrren abizzz Marcelo

Great video. I have this exact bass. You mentioned switching out the pickup. What pick up would you recommend switching to? Thanks.

Be nice to see a good bass player demo this🤔. I think Marcello could make a plank of wood sound great. Great review. 👍

What do you think about the short scales Stingray basses ???? Thought about getting one .....

That’s it! I am now convinced! Buying this next week! Thank you! One question though: Do you think the Ray24 is a better choice when comparing to ray4? On which one would you spend the money?

I think you are a great player Also I have been thinking about getting some type of Stingray. So this review is interesting for me. But I am mostly a J Bass player, playing in a Tower , EW&F type of horn band, also I play latin jazz/world music. Sure I like Lois Johnson and Bernard Edwards , Gary Grainger ( Scofield) and whoever the guy in the first Jeff Lorber Fusion band was, but this Stingray sound is so far away from my Marcus Miller type of sound that I have gotten used to over the last 40 years. And jut like you, I just can't see how a Stingray would fit into what I do.

I like the sound of the 2 band EQ on this $300 bass better than the 3 band on my Stingray Special that literally costs 10x more than this... Do I swap to a 2 band vintage style preamp... or just sell it, pocket the money and buy one of these because I've played these in the stores and they feel pretty much identical to my USA one. They feel very improved over the old SUB Ray4 I had a decade ago before my current one, much lighter, better sounding electronics, and the neck and fretwork is much better than the old SUB logo ones before they changed to the Sterling logo

As an entry level instrument, I think they should propose a passive instrument instead of using a cheap preamp. It would make the instrument cheaper or, for the same money, they could invest in better quality hardware (bridge and tuners). That’s why I went for a Kramer D1 as it comes with passive electronic, good Seymour Duncan pickup and overall better wood (light mahogany for the body, 3 ply quartersawn maple and ebony fingerboard). And the instrument is also cheaper… a no brainer to me :-)

The problem with the Sterlings, is they have like a 1 in 3 success rate, from the factory. You can go to guitar center and try several before you find one that doesn't have a dead pickup, or bad fret buzz.

Pretty sure that nobody was ever sorry they bought any kind of MM bass.I have a 1998 Sterling that still sounds and plays great and versatile. Recording engineers have remarked on the quality of the tone and clarity of this instrument. Only my US Sadowsky gets the same compliments.

КРУТО звучит💖🙏💖👍🏻

Great review, though I'm gonna say adding $200 to a $550 bass is kinda hefty. Gotta look at it from the budget perspective for cheaper instruments I THINK

você é brasileiro?

The stock SUB preamp and pickup is not all that bad. Rarely will you find a video of a stock SUB compared to one where someone who bought a $300 Sub then spent $350 modding it. Bottom line it does not sound much different.

try harley benton, under 200 ;)

I had one, I was so glad to get rid of it, it is only after I did I realised just how bad it was.

As close to a Wal bass . That most people can afford.

I have one of these it sounds good but will not intonate! It's irritating

Marcs telling us he doesn't like or play rock bros mad 😭

Watched the video to see what kind of (1st) bass to get. Three seconds in, I'm considering taking up harmonica instead.

Sounds thin. Good for beginner bass.

Very poorly constructed bass.

Poor machine heads , microphonic pick up , poor build quality