For sale is a 1985 Ibanez Axstar, serial number H856010. It's a 4 string passive bass with 34" scale. The pickups are the originals. It has a few dings: there's about a 2mm ding on the neck, between the 10th and 11th frets. There's a small scratch above the neck pup, and another small scratch just below the volume knob. There's buckle rash on the back, near the electronics cover. There's a small (about 1/4" diameter) ding on the upper horn. All hardware is in excellent condition. The electronics are also in great condition, and the pots work smoothly with no 'scratchiness' or popping. String spacing is the normal ~18mm that you'd see on most 4-bangers. The action is set "low", which for me means at most 1mm of space between the E string and the 12th fret. The neck is as you'd expect for Ibanez: thin, fast, and very playable. It feels very nicely balanced on the strap with no notable imbalance, and it's comfortably light without feeling insubstantial. I've played this bass a lot: it's been my main bass for the last 18 months. I'm only selling this to defray the cost of my new Cirrus 5er; it's not easy to let it go.
When I first got this, I found its tone when strung with roundwounds to be very bright with a lot of treble and high mids. For rock, or cutting through a dense mix, that would work very well. Since that wasn't where I wanted to be tonaly, I restrung it with Fender 9120 tapewounds. These worked great in cutting out the brightness that I didn't want, and resulted in a bass that was small, portable, eye-catching ... and had low-end thump and presence.
The OHSC shows some road wear: there's a spot where you can see the outline of a sticker that once adorned it, and the edges and corners are a bit banged up. It's got scuff marks from years of travel. Despite all of that the interior is in very good shape, the bass fits snugly inside, all the hardware is in good working order, and it's just the right size and shape to make your neighbors suspect that you're loading a sniper rifle into the trunk of your car rather than a bass guitar.
I'm asking $375, shipped, including the OHSC, to any of the 48 states. Paypal preferred.
