Sterling by Music Man S.U.B. Sting Ray 4 VSS

Ho comprato questo Sterling dopo averne provato uno in negozio e averne letto in giro sul web, e devo dire che conferma le aspettative sul prodotto. Non si tratta ovviamente di un Musicman e lo si può vedere da tante cose: la scelta dei materiali: il manico del mio esemplare ha un paio di piccolissime e irrilevanti imperfezioni, anche la verniciatura non è perfetta al 100%, ma la sostanza (che è ciò che conta) c'è tutta. Ottimo sound, robusto, scorrevole. Ho dovuto regolare la truss rod e l'action perché le corde erano parecchio distanti dal manico, ma a parte questo ne sono felicissimo. Davvero un ottimo basso per principianti o bassisti intermedi, o per chi vuole portare sul palco un basso che non costi una fortuna... ma lo sembri!

Bought this bass for some home use and possible gigging with it. Shipping came in about 1-2 days as promised. Impressed with Thomann and their customer service.
Does not come with a gig bag, but does come with a truss rod adjustment tool and an allen key for adjusting the bridge (both of which were used a lot in my experience. Read on.)

Pros:
Humbucker sounds excellent, extremely versatile. All electrics work without issue.
Finish on the instrument is great. Looks really nice. No concerns there.
Satin-finished maple neck was really comfortable in my hands.

Cons:
The set-up on this instrument out of the box is - without excessive exaggeration - absolutely shockingly awful. Fret buzz like you would not believe. Action was far too low. I understand it's not an expensive bass, yet I am disappointed even so.
Pickup sounds good but is not balanced so well - the E-string sounds far louder than the G-string, making slap-bass an extremely inconsistent-sounding option of play-style for this bass.
Slight fret sprout at the 13th fret. Not catastrophic, but still a QA oversight on the part of the manufacturer.

I spent a long while attempting to repair the instrument - firstly by restringing with Fender 9050L flatwounds (a personal preference) and then by getting to work on fixing the action. I spent perhaps 2 hours adjusting the truss rod and saddles on the bridge. I am yet to fix it. Very frustrating.
The buzz has abated a little but is still noticeable. So expect to pay some more money for a professional set-up when purchasing this instrument.
When playing the low E-string open, it sounds like there is a subtle modulation effect on the note - something akin to a wah or a flanger or a chorus, which is strange. I am still looking into resolving this.
Overall I have to say I am quite disappointed with this bass. It's going to be a lot of work (or money for a set-up) before she sings. I would recommend checking out a different instrument if you intend to buy for/as a beginner. It might just deter you from learning bass.

I ordered this bass knowing that it had a good reputation for its sound, but not costing a lot of money. It lives up to that very well.

I've owned USA Stingrays - 5HH, 4HS, 4H models - and USA Sterling - 4HH. This model doesn't have the gloss finish, the Schaller tuners, or the nifty bridge. But what it does have, in spades, is the Stingray sound. Plus it is lighter than many USA Stingrays I have tried. (Mine weighs about 9 lbs).

I'm a fan of the 2 EQ band setup over the USA 3 EQ band setup, and I love that the cheapest model in the whole series has a Jazz width nut/neck, the body with a forearm contour, and it's not heavy. I'll take this over any of my previous USA models because of its value.

The fretwork is excellent. I have straightened the neck so it has very little relief, and lowered the action to about 2mm at the 12th fret for the E string and going down to 1.5mm at 12th fret for the G string. That's a very low action, and the fretwork has to be good to allow that - kudos to the manufacturers.

The elbow grease needed to make it play as well as its USA cousins is to file down the nut. Like most cheap basses, they cop out on doing the fiddly job of correctly filing the nut down. Fortunately, I have some Stew Mac nut files which I use for this kind of work. With some careful filing and checking/rechecking, I fixed this issue.

So, after I filed the nut and did a final setup and intonation, I then had to lower the pickup height a little. As I lowered the strings with my setup, the sound became a little bit too bassy, as the pickup ended closer to all the strings. I used the EBMM website advice here for Stingray pickup height; they said it should be 7/32" from bottom of strings to the plastic top of the pickup. This sounds just right.

The neck depth is a little deeper than a typical Jazz Bass, but not much. More Precision like. But the nut width being 1.5" keeps it very comfy for me. I like it a lot.

Out of the box, the bass plays not badly and is set for a medium action. For me it feels stiff in the first few frets and goes slightly out of tune there when playing notes. I would say the nut filing work is more or less mandatory to make it proper. But once you do that, it's an absolute peach.

Buy one. If you can't do nut and setup work, take it to a luthier for this and a proper setup. Then you're pretty much done, as far as I'm concerned. USA 2 EQ Stingray sound for very little spend.