Watch It First
Sterling by Music Man built its whole reputation on one sound: that StingRay humbucker growl that shows up on more records than most bassists realize.
The RAY35HH takes that same DNA and stretches it across five strings and two humbuckers instead of one.
It’s about as close as most of us will get to the „real” Music Man StingRay 5 sound without paying USA-built money for it.
Build and Design
Body is nyatoh, which Music Man and its Sterling sub-brand have leaned on for years because it’s stable, resonant, and cheaper to source consistently than ash or alder. It’s not a downgrade, just a different tonewood philosophy.
The neck is roasted maple, bolted on, with a 12-inch fingerboard radius that’s flatter than a vintage-style bass. That flatter radius makes a real difference once you’re comping chords or doing fast fills across five strings – less fretting out, more consistent action edge to edge.
Nut width comes in at 45mm, which is on the generous side for a 5-string. Your fretting hand gets breathing room, though players coming from a narrower 4-string neck will need a session or two to adjust.
22 medium frets (one more than most StingRay-style basses), open-gear tuners, and that Charcoal Frost finish with a white pickguard give it a look that’s more understated than flashy – which, honestly, suits a working bass.
How It Plays and Sounds
Two Alnico humbuckers, a single volume knob, an active 3-band preamp, and a 5-way pickup selector switch. That switch is the whole story here – it’s not just neck/bridge/both, it gives you five distinct blend positions between the two pickups.
Set it to the bridge-heavy positions and you get that aggressive, cutting StingRay honk that works so well for funk and slap. Move toward the neck side and it thickens up into something warmer and rounder, closer to a P-bass with more bite.
The active preamp adds real headroom – boost the bass for a modern low end or scoop the mids for a more aggressive rock tone, and it responds predictably rather than getting muddy or harsh.
On the low B, this is genuinely one of the tighter-sounding budget-adjacent 5-strings out there. Part of that’s the 34-inch scale doing its job properly, part of it’s just Music Man knowing how to build a low string that doesn’t flap around.
Who It’s For
This is the bass for the player who’s outgrown their first 4-string and wants the classic StingRay attitude but needs the extra low range for modern worship, gospel, funk, or session work. If you’ve spent any time comparing it to Yamaha’s cheaper 5-string options like the Yamaha BB235, the difference is immediately obvious in the preamp and pickup response – this one’s built for a more aggressive, cutting tone rather than a vintage P-bass thump.
It also makes sense for a gigging bassist who wants a serious backup or main instrument without committing to a full Ernie Ball Music Man price tag. You’re getting most of the attitude of the real StingRay 5 at a meaningfully lower cost.
Session players will appreciate the 5-way switch specifically – it means you can dial in a huge range of tones without reaching for a different bass between takes.
The Honest Niggles
It’s active-only. There’s no passive bypass, so if the battery dies mid-gig, you’re not playing until you swap it. Carry a spare 9V, always.
Two humbuckers and an active preamp mean this isn’t a light bass. If you’re used to a poplar-bodied entry-level 4-string, expect noticeably more weight on your shoulder over a long set.
Like most of the Sterling by Music Man lineup right now, stock runs on a 3-4 week lead time, so don’t order this the week before a gig expecting it to show up in time.
And it’s a genuine step up in price from entry-level 5-strings – fair enough given what it delivers, but worth knowing going in if you’re comparing it against something like the Ibanez EHB600, which takes a completely different (and cheaper) approach to the 5-string problem.
Where It Fits in a Rig
Because the preamp already shapes so much of the tone, you don’t need a huge pedalboard with this bass. A compressor like the Boss CS-3 is still worth having to tame the more aggressive bridge-pickup settings live, but beyond that, keep it simple and let the preamp do the work.
For amplification, something with real headroom matters here – a combo like the Fender Rumble 100 or the more compact Ampeg Micro-VR Stack both give this bass room to breathe without flattening the low B into mush.
If budget is genuinely tight and you want to compare a totally different value proposition at the 4-string level, it’s worth reading up on the Harley Benton PJ-4 Deluxe – a completely different design philosophy, but useful context for what your money buys at each price point.
Specs at a Glance
- Body: Nyatoh
- Neck: Roasted maple, bolt-on
- Fingerboard: Rosewood, 305mm (12″) radius
- Scale: 864mm (34″, long scale)
- Frets: 22, medium
- Nut width: 45mm
- Pickups: 2x Alnico humbuckers (HH)
- Electronics: Active 3-band preamp, 1 volume, 5-way switch
- Bridge: Sterling by Music Man design
- Strings: Ernie Ball 2836 Regular Slinky (factory)
- Finish: Charcoal Frost
Final Verdict
The RAY35HH is what happens when Sterling by Music Man takes the formula that made the original StingRay famous and scales it up properly instead of just bolting on a fifth string. The 5-way switch alone makes it more versatile than most basses in this price bracket, and the low B is tight enough that it never feels like an afterthought.
It’s heavier, it’s active-only, and you’ll wait a few weeks for stock – none of which will matter much once you plug it in and hear that growl for yourself. For a bassist who wants real StingRay attitude across five strings without the full Ernie Ball Music Man bill, this is one of the smartest routes there.
