Discontinued Ashula Bass

[wsmerwin@hotmai]

I recently learned of the SR2010ASC Ashula hybrid bass. After what appears to be a period of eighteen months, this instrument is no longer in production. What caused this instrument in particular (and any instrument) to be discontinued ?

[bassybeenz]

Probably the fact that no one bought it.

I always thought the stock tuning was kinda dumb, I would have tuned it b-c like a regular 6 so that g and c would be fretless. And I'd have a low b to d for regular bass lines.

[wsmerwin@hotmai]

There seem to be a few owners according to TalkBass Ibanez SR2010 ASC (ASHULA) any owners here?

[Jazz Ad]

It was a special 2010 model, not meant to be continued in time.

[KingRazor]

I wonder why the discontinued the SV guitar? That was a really nice sounding guitar.

[Duuuuuuuuuude]

I'd never heard of them before but I just checked out the Youtube video. It looks really fun to play

[XtheDeadPawn]

Looked like an abortion to me. Like the builders ran out of fretwire one day and decided to cover it up by saying it's a hybrid.

I mean that and Jay Leno have the same thing in common they both outstayed their welcome (The Jay Leno show anyone?).

[Mr_Music90]

Originally Posted by bassybeenz

Probably the fact that no one bought it.

I always thought the stock tuning was kinda dumb, I would have tuned it b-c like a regular 6 so that g and c would be fretless. And I'd have a low b to d for regular bass lines.

This is so not true!! The Ashula bass was sold very fast, cause Ibanez made only 200 of them, Limited Edition! The exact reason, why it was discontinued, stays a bit unsure for me, but I guess they just wanted to do something special

[Achille]

it is a great bass, I own it.
You can tune it anyway you like however it is not a 6 strings bass, just 4 + 2.
I was a bit concerned when i saw it is made in Indonesia however...it sounds really good, it feels just like a very good Ibanez, the neck is excellent and looks gorgeous (at least to me). I bought it second hand from a guy that probably was not sure how to use it and indeed as hybrid bass you need to re-think your way of playing. I appreciate any instrument that invite you to search different paths in music, that's why I will keep it for a while.

[Wallace320]

Not a great bass, but a great "concept" instead

I mean: in a shop I know so well, I was asked to try it out and eventually demo it

I briefly held it in my hands then, before actually startin' demo it, I asked for something like this: pull all the stock strings out, put a set of B, E, A, D in the lower fretted register (to have'em tuned A, D, G, C) then put a pair of flat G and C strings (regularly tuned) on the higher fretless register

This way, instead of doubling D and G string on same octave, with the nonsense (to me) of roundwounds on fretless fingerboard, I doubled G and C string on different octaves with a somewhat downtuned former Paul Gray Ibanez 4er and an additional proficient flat equipped fretless soloin' fingerboard.

Otherwise, I too felt perplexity about the stock Ashula tuning offering

My €. 0,02

Cheers,
Wallace

[Mr_Music90]

The concept is great indeed! But in my opion, the sound of the Ashula is too ''cold''.
Not a lot of sustain, no real deep and warm sounds.. Kinda miss that

Maybe if they made the body from Swamp Ash or Alder wood and put some better electronics in, it would sound great!

[petrus61]

Thought it was swamp ash? Anyway, one look at the poor thing and I kind of figured it would have a very short lifespan.

[Mr_Music90]

Light Ash body

The idea behind it was very good, but like I said earlier : Some different electronics and different body wood, would have make it a bit better..

I was thinking more about a Swamp Ash body, custom Nordstrand EQ with bass and treble Boost/Cut controls and Nordstrand pups. Nordstrand DC pups for the fretted part, and then a added J-style Nordstrand for the fretless part

[Achille]

Originally Posted by Mr_Music90

Light Ash body

The idea behind it was very good, but like I said earlier : Some different electronics and different body wood, would have make it a bit better..

I was thinking more about a Swamp Ash body, custom Nordstrand EQ with bass and treble Boost/Cut controls and Nordstrand pups. Nordstrand DC pups for the fretted part, and then a added J-style Nordstrand for the fretless part

maybe then it would have had a higher price and being a concept bass + expensive would not fit Ibanez target...

[pklima]

I was thinking there'd be another use for it - a lot of mainstream pop songs these days have programmed synth parts with pitch bend effects which means notes inbetween the pitches of the 12-tone scale. Quick pitch bends like the ones in "Gangnam Style" sound fine on fretted, but slower ones don't really work - see the two-octave glisses in Rihanna's "We Found Love" as an example. This bass would let you cover most of those parts with the fretless section (OK, not "We Found Love", you'd run out of fingerboard in the original key of Bb minor), without having to give up frets for the rest of the song.

It might well be the perfect bass for playing a lot of popular songs from the past couple of years, at least if you don't have sequences or a keyboardist who's good at quickly configuring pitch bend wheel settings between songs.

[JAUQO III-X]

Here's one for sale.


Limited Editin Ibanez Ashula Bass

[Mr_Music90]

Originally Posted by Achille

maybe then it would have had a higher price and being a concept bass + expensive would not fit Ibanez target...

Why so? Gerald Veasley has a $5000 Ibanez signature bass, bus it's cheaper version (the import model), has the same specs. It's only 1 / 5th of the price of the GVB36 Okay, quality of construction and tone of the GVB1006 aren't as good as the GVB36, but still the wood types and electronics are still the same

[SolarMan]

If I could play it as well as this dude I would want one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idp9NO_v1VE

He sounds a bit like Tony Franklin

[JAUQO III-X]

Originally Posted by SolarMan

If I could play it as well as this dude I would want one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idp9NO_v1VE

He sounds a bit like Tony Franklin

He sounds very good. But it's definitely not the first fretted/fretless hybrid electric bass guitar. There was a company in the 90's whose name escapes me that was offering a fretted/fretless hybrid and a few more custom ones here and there years before Ibanez came out with theirs.

[sevdog]

I think it looks pretty sweet. If I had a spare grand to spend on a toy I might grab one of these. It definitely is a niche instrument. But with some creativity you could probably come up with some really cool songs...and you could tune it however you want, just like any bass, so that argument against it isn't very legitimate.