5 String for $300-$500?

[Jon Draffan]

I've seen people complain about a lot of things. I'm curious about those complaints but I have none myself. Plus pickups are pretty easy to upgrade. I'm more concerned about setup and playability out of the box.

I bought a Schecter J-4 new and when it arrived the "hum-cancelling" Js hummed, even with both pickups on. Assuming it was a grounding problem I opened it up, didn't see anything loose… So I took out the pick ups and found the worst soldering job I've ever seen on a factory bass. There was a strand of wire coming out one of the leads, and because of a coil tap function, each pick up had three wires. All three looks like the kind of bass you would take in for a repair job. Within a couple of hours of owning it the neck pick up stopped working.…

I will say that when it was working it felt amazing and it sounded great. So, check your bases they're really great, when they work. If you're close with a good loot here or skilled at doing the work yourself I highly recommend a J4

 

[Rod Barchetta]

I have had my Ibanez 405EQM for about 4 or 5 months. It cost right at $500 (but I got it as a present). It has great balance. The neck has a fast satin finish and feels really good in my hands. The electronics are whisper quiet whether you touch the strings or not and loud as hell when you do. The action is super fast. The B string has good tension and holds pitch well. The finish is awesome and what caught my eye and stole my heart in the first place (Surreal Blue Burst). With the 18v 3 band EQ and coil tap feature, you can achieve nearly every tone you could ever want.

It is taking a while to get use to the string spacing, but every day I get closer to achieving the same level of precision I have on my 4 strings. I have adopted a floating thumb technique when I play 5-string to keep the low strings quiet (shout out to Scotts Bass Lessons online). I wish the inlays on the neck were more special, the tiny dots just don't do it for me. I am not particularly fond of the color of the neck; I wish it were darker. There is a noticeable drop in power when using single coils, but that's to be expected.

Final analysis, I am really amazed that Ibanez can offer an instrument of this quality at this price point. I have heard some say the sound of an Ibanez bass is somehow "baked in", but I do not find that to be the case. I think these perceptions are what's "baked in". It's hard for people who have paid so much for their instruments to appreciate the fact that there is very little difference between their beloved treasures and some of the off the shelf offerings available.

Congratulations Ibanez! You have made me a very happy customer and I appreciate your work.

 

[Mvilmany]

G&L Tribute L-2500.