Musiclily Pro 57mm 4-String Bass Bridge for Music Man Style Bass Replacement, Black

As part of upgrading inexpensive basses, I like to give them an all black hardware look. I used to take all the chrome bits to a local powder coater. He went out of business. I tried a couple of other local shops but it turned out that it was less expensive, and faster, just to order black hardware.I specialize in Sterling by MusicMan Ray4 and Ray5 upgrades. By changing the pickup and preamp, I can get the inexpensive basses to sound almost 100% like a "real" Stingray. This is the bridge I have been using. Although it takes up to two weeks to arrive, the wait is well worth it. The bridge is a perfect fit, a great drop in replacement for the original bridge. Although inexpensive, I have found Musiclily products to be very high quality. I use a LOT of their products when I upgrade including their machine heads, string trees, bridges and control plates. Great stuff at great prices, if you can handle the longer than usual wait times.

I love black hardware on basses, especially on Stingrays. I get SUB ray4's and black them out and then sell them, or I will black them out for friends or friends of friends.Few people will put hardware on a bass that cost more then the bass itself, and fewer people will pay for a bass, 2nd hand (new or dlightly used) for what it cost to black out a bass, unless you buy inexpensive (sometimes cheap crap, sometimes decent values, I have had decent results with inexpensive import tuners, musically and Guyker)Its simple math.A Sterling by MusicMan Stingray sub series Ray 4 cost $349 (up from $299 recently, most likely due to Covid).To get HipShot tuning keys cost over $100, and a Hip Shot Stingray Bridge cost over $100. You see where I am going with this?A control plate, no name are $25, Ernie Ball Music Man control knobs are $10 each, so add $301 string treeAll black pick guard screws.A black pick guard if it did not cone with oneAdd it all up and you are well over $349, the price of the bass itsslf.And there is litttle to no market for selling the original hardware off the bass.So if I did a black out using all the parts I just talked about, you are at or above $700.Now with $700 or a little nore, you can get a ray 34 WITH BLACK HARDWARE, and the Ray 34 also comes with the same pick up and preamp used in Ernie Ball USA stingrays prior to 2018, when the USA stingray got a face lift, and new name, Stingray Special, with new Neyodidium pick ips and redesigned pre amp.In 2018, Sterling by MusicMan also got a complete line makeover.The Ray34 got the USA electronics that the USA models no longer used, the Ray34ca turned inro tge Ray24, and pretty much got nothing new but the name and a few colors.Then there is the Ray 4. When it was $299, it WAS THE BEST BASS FOR $300 or less. Since it went up to $349, it is now the best bass you can get for $350 or less.Dont get me wrong, the Ray34 is a great bass, and one if the best buys for under $1000, and the ONLY REASON fathomable to pay $349 for a bass, and $350 for hardware there is, is if you insist on the thinner, more narrow Jazz like neck that comes on the Ray 4, rather then the thicker, chunkier necks (like modern P bass) that come on USA made Stingrays and import Ray34's (if you want a USA made Stingray with a Jazz neck, 1.5" or 38mm nut width, you have 3 options, and only one will cost you under $2000, 1 get a Ernie Ball Sterling, looks alot like a stingray, but has a jazz or sterling or SLO neck on it, they all mean the same thing, 2 - San Luis Obispo (SLO) custom shop, be prepared to pay over $3000, or 3, find a used Ernie Ball Music Man BFR (ball family reserve) SLO special, it is a limited run, special edition stingray with a sterling, or in this case a SLO neck, I have one, got it for $1100, in excellent condition, built in 2014, but I got it early in the Covid lockdown when people were desperate to sell things, now, be prepared to spend $1500 to $1800 for tge same thing.So id you must have a jazz neck and a stingray, the Ray4 is tghe way to go (i have one myself, in fact I have had a Ray34, ray4HH, and currently have a Ray4 and a USA made Stingray SLO specia)l. I have USA Fenders, I have Squire (Pete Wentz) signature series, ESP LTD B-4E and FRX-TA (Tom Araya of Slayer signature model). I have a Yamaha SRV-550, a DEAN MetalMan ML (the Dimebag style guitar but on a bass) Ibanez SRX-400 and a Danelectro shorthorn (Fat Mike style),and a Tobias TobyAnd My number one go to bass is my Ray4. I upgraded the pickup to Aguilar (a whole other rabbit hole when it comes to stingrays and sub rays), but my dark blue ray 4, is the one color that I donr really like black hardware on, but if I did, I would get a hip shot. Because this is a bass I know I will have for life i just dont feel the need to upgrade the hardware on it, it is really good for what it cost, and the super goid hardware on my USA Stingray doesnt make me like that bass better, so why change perfect.ButBack to blacking them out and flipping them, the hardware cost is diminishing returns. Its even hard to get people to pay the break even price of a new Ray4 once it left the store, even if its in a sealed box, kind of like a car, once you drive it off tge lot.....Now put in $100 pick up and tell them how much better it sounds, even prove it to them how much better it sounds, they are still gonna want to pay less then $500, even when the bass plus tax is around $389, and an Aguilar pick up is $125 or more, not to mention, tge labor and time I put into it all together, and did a bang up set up on it, and they still barely want to pay what i paid out of pocket for it all (less labor) even when shown the receipt.So here we are, with this option.Will it work, yes.Is it black, obviouslyIs it cheap, yes, and if done right you can do the whole bass blacked out for under $100, but finding buyers is another thing.This bridge isnt half bad either, but the saddles are small and not so great.Do yourself a favor, save money, buy this bridge instead of hipshot, and buy a set of saddles from Ernie Ball Musuc Man for about $22, and swap them out with the cheap ones. You will have a decent bridge for under $50, instead of ovwr $100 on hipshot.I only put hip shot on things I know I will keep for ever, so, I only have a few basses with hipshot, or Gotoh or Shaller or Babicz etc....I go thru basses like people go thru socks, buy low, put some work in cleaning it up, put money into it where money is needed, only put new strings on if they are so dirty and hard and grimey when you bought the bass off someone that kept it in the attic for 10 years or so, cuz most of the time, as soon as you sell it, the first thing the new owner does is put their favorite strings on it. Boil the strings if they are that bad, clean them up just enough to play for 20 min, you just need thrm playable to make the sale, cuz it is a certainty that the buyer will have new strings on within the first half hour he gets home with the bass.

Finally getting around to finishing up my bass build. Used my cnc router to cut out a foam blank to verify that all the components are fitting. The bridge plate is very nice and screw holes are clean and plate throughout. Nice looking part!Update 10/30/2023 routed out wood blank and did a dry fit-up. bridge looks great and works as expected.

Made a custom 3D Printed bass body, knobs, wiring harness and pickguard. This bridge made it a complete wonderful bass. Works Perfect!