(No fluff, no filler, no unboxing videos, no rambling, no annoying slap demos.)
"Limited Edition" means it comes in "Ruby Red Burst Satin." It's otherwise identical to the other Ray5 HH models. Note that the Ray35 is a different model entirely, and over twice as expensive!
Price: $350 on sale, regularly $450.
Unboxing: There is no case candy or even a warranty card, just a tiny Ziploc with two Allen wrenches. Make sure you find it before you throw away the packaging!
Finish: I found no finish flaws. Fretboard isn't rolled, but the fret ends aren't sharp or protruding. The body is darker than the pictures. It's mostly satin black, with a small patch in the middle that's more the color of the "Walnut Stain" model than "Ruby Red". The entire bass is satin finish, including the neck. The fretboard is a nice-looking slab of jatoba, dark but still reddish, that goes well with the body. The strings sit centered on the neck and the pickups.
Setup: Pretty good out of the box for an Indonesian bass. I had to raise the low B, but intonation wasn't bad. Neck relief was perfect. Action was low for the price point. No high frets. Better than I usually see at this price.
Strings: The stock strings are awful. The top two strings sound completely different than the bottom three, and they have the abrasive feel of the cheap Chinese strings you get off Aliexpress. Plan on changing them right away. I hope these aren't real Slinkys, or Ernie Ball has a QC problem!
Feel: The neck is comfortable and fast, and the satin finish feels great in your hand. The tuners are surprisingly smooth for open-gear. It's one of my favorite bass necks regardless of price. The body is contoured, not the retro slab. Weighs 10 pounds despite being made of basswood -- but it's a Stingray, and Stingrays are big and heavy. Get a good strap. It feels like a Stingray, not a cheap clone.
Sound: Mostly like a real USA Stingray, but the ceramic pickups have slightly less crispness and clarity in the high end, which also makes them less nasal. It sounds like they might be a bit hotter, though the preamp makes it hard to tell. You don't need to push them right up next to the strings to get high output. The 2-band preamp does exactly what you expect to the sound. It comes with a 9V battery already installed, but it's not even alkaline so it probably won't last very long. Has the usual dead spot at the 5th fret on the G string, but so do the USA ones.
Other differences from a real USA Stingray: The bridge has narrower string spacing. I measure it at exactly 16mm, compared to a USA model at 17.5mm. This means the strings are closer together, but the B and G aren't falling off the outside of the neck like they are on every USA Stingray I've ever played. I think this is an improvement. Others might hate it because it's different.
The tighter spacing also means that it'll be difficult to replace the pickups, since the pole piece spacing will probably be for a USA Stingray and wrong for this bass. You'd probably need to replace the bridge along with the pickups. But this is still better than the 4-string Sterling Stingrays, all of which simply use pickups with the wrong spacing!
The tighter spacing doesn't mean a smaller pickup housing, so the pickups stick out well on each side of the strings compared to a USA Stingray, making them an excellent built-in ramp for fingerstyle.
Conclusion: It's a solid, well-built instrument, priced fairly for what it is. It's different in a couple key ways from a USA Stingray, which I like but many will probably dislike, and it's a lot darker than "Ruby Red". If you want the original string spacing and pickups, you need to spend a lot more money on the USA version. But if you want something that's definitely Stingray-ish but not quite as nasal or cutting (it's a fine distinction, but definitely exists), and has 16mm string spacing, the Ray5 HH is an improvement over the original.
I hope this helps some people decide if they should buy one!
"Limited Edition" means it comes in "Ruby Red Burst Satin." It's otherwise identical to the other Ray5 HH models. Note that the Ray35 is a different model entirely, and over twice as expensive!
Price: $350 on sale, regularly $450.
Unboxing: There is no case candy or even a warranty card, just a tiny Ziploc with two Allen wrenches. Make sure you find it before you throw away the packaging!
Finish: I found no finish flaws. Fretboard isn't rolled, but the fret ends aren't sharp or protruding. The body is darker than the pictures. It's mostly satin black, with a small patch in the middle that's more the color of the "Walnut Stain" model than "Ruby Red". The entire bass is satin finish, including the neck. The fretboard is a nice-looking slab of jatoba, dark but still reddish, that goes well with the body. The strings sit centered on the neck and the pickups.
Setup: Pretty good out of the box for an Indonesian bass. I had to raise the low B, but intonation wasn't bad. Neck relief was perfect. Action was low for the price point. No high frets. Better than I usually see at this price.
Strings: The stock strings are awful. The top two strings sound completely different than the bottom three, and they have the abrasive feel of the cheap Chinese strings you get off Aliexpress. Plan on changing them right away. I hope these aren't real Slinkys, or Ernie Ball has a QC problem!
Feel: The neck is comfortable and fast, and the satin finish feels great in your hand. The tuners are surprisingly smooth for open-gear. It's one of my favorite bass necks regardless of price. The body is contoured, not the retro slab. Weighs 10 pounds despite being made of basswood -- but it's a Stingray, and Stingrays are big and heavy. Get a good strap. It feels like a Stingray, not a cheap clone.
Sound: Mostly like a real USA Stingray, but the ceramic pickups have slightly less crispness and clarity in the high end, which also makes them less nasal. It sounds like they might be a bit hotter, though the preamp makes it hard to tell. You don't need to push them right up next to the strings to get high output. The 2-band preamp does exactly what you expect to the sound. It comes with a 9V battery already installed, but it's not even alkaline so it probably won't last very long. Has the usual dead spot at the 5th fret on the G string, but so do the USA ones.
Other differences from a real USA Stingray: The bridge has narrower string spacing. I measure it at exactly 16mm, compared to a USA model at 17.5mm. This means the strings are closer together, but the B and G aren't falling off the outside of the neck like they are on every USA Stingray I've ever played. I think this is an improvement. Others might hate it because it's different.
The tighter spacing also means that it'll be difficult to replace the pickups, since the pole piece spacing will probably be for a USA Stingray and wrong for this bass. You'd probably need to replace the bridge along with the pickups. But this is still better than the 4-string Sterling Stingrays, all of which simply use pickups with the wrong spacing!
The tighter spacing doesn't mean a smaller pickup housing, so the pickups stick out well on each side of the strings compared to a USA Stingray, making them an excellent built-in ramp for fingerstyle.
Conclusion: It's a solid, well-built instrument, priced fairly for what it is. It's different in a couple key ways from a USA Stingray, which I like but many will probably dislike, and it's a lot darker than "Ruby Red". If you want the original string spacing and pickups, you need to spend a lot more money on the USA version. But if you want something that's definitely Stingray-ish but not quite as nasal or cutting (it's a fine distinction, but definitely exists), and has 16mm string spacing, the Ray5 HH is an improvement over the original.
I hope this helps some people decide if they should buy one!
