Ibanez 2024 release disappointing

[N4860]

It seems like it would be very easy for anyone who wanted a short scale E-C bass to just go buy any short scale and change the strings and replace the nut if needed. Doesn't seem like something that a manufacturer would want to sink a bunch of money into for what is probably going to amount to a loss. The market for basses is already quite small, but even more so for a niche instrument like a short scale E-C bass.

 

[6-3-2]

More options for their headless basses is good news to me.

 

[Bar Band Bassman]

You can buy an MTD Kingston LK5. Restring it E-C.

The Bar Band Bassman

 

[fhtagn]

Disagree, and I have never seen a "metal player" with a single cut BTB.

Now you have:

(The band is called Bell Witch. Pretty heavy stuff.)

 

[FRoss6788]

Now you have:

(The band is called Bell Witch. Pretty heavy stuff.)

Cool.

My point was it's ridiculous to suggest the BTB range, especially the single cut variety, as "metal" basses.

Any other examples? I thought not.

 

[Adam Felix]

It seems like it would be very easy for anyone who wanted a short scale E-C bass to just go buy any short scale and change the strings and replace the nut if needed. Doesn't seem like something that a manufacturer would want to sink a bunch of money into for what is probably going to amount to a loss. The market for basses is already quite small, but even more so for a niche instrument like a short scale E-C bass.

The TMB35 is an entry level instrument with questionable consistency in built quality. Make me a made en Japan 32 scale 5 string tmb.

 

[Adam Felix]

You can buy an MTD Kingston LK5. Restring it E-C.

The Bar Band Bassman

As I recall pretty expensive. Not liking the looks. But yeah, I think that’s the only option in the whole bass market for this configuration. That ridiculously conservative

 

[Deleted member 394181]

Would it be cool to revitalise "Roadstars and Musicians" ?
You know, respecting the originals, but in a non radical way.

 

[cxcxcx]

Ibanez as we know it now has been around since 1957, and has its roots in the early 1900s. There’s nobody in this thread or on this entire form that’s run a successful musical manufacturing venture for 67 years.

They’ve been solvent and profitable for decades - they know what the heck they’re doing. They have a history of repeatedly embarrassed American guitar companies by staying current, being forward-thinking, and in some cases, simply building better guitars than USA mass manufacturers.

The old notion if “company X makes cool and different guitar Y I’ll be first to buy it” doesn’t hold water. This was proved beyond a doubt in the 19mm string spacing Music Man Stingray 5 debacle of 2011. This is where Ernie ball said they’d make a 19 mm string spacing SR5 if they got 125 orders, since so many players said they’d buy one if EB made it. The number of orders they actually got was a single digit.

It also seems cheap and easy for a company to modify an existing model to make a more focused and esoteric offering, but it isn’t. The costs for tooling, automation, and break from SOP aren’t cheap, even if CNC is involved. This can be a five or six figure venture very easily and companies just aren’t willing to throw that kind of money around. Too much of a ding to the bottom line.

As always, even though we’re talking about guitars and basses and we’re passionate about them, the laws and rules of business still apply. It’s easy to say “Ibanez should make….” when we’re not footing the bill for it.

 

[Standalone]

What mass market manufacturer has a wider or more adventurous set of offerings than Ibamez?

 

[Micha84]

Expecting Ibanez to cut back on the SRs is like telling Fender to produce less P basses.

 

[Crackle]

I personally would like to see Ibanez reissue the Roadster RS824 and similar basses of the late '70s to early '80s. Most of their current basses don't appeal to me at all.

 

[Nightsprinter]

I am let down by the '24 lineup.

The EHB colorways are boring, the Caribbean Green finish SR would look cool in a reggae band but I really don't like it, the addition of stainless fishman fluence is cool in the SRMS but I wish they would have an offering other than the blue chameleon color. I know I'm making it seem like I'm picky about colors, but I'm really not. Ibanez just managed to release a whole host of stuff that doesn't appeal to me.

I'd be more impressed if they put out a press release stating a deeper dedication to quality control and playability from the Indonesian plants that make their stuff.

Different strokes. I'm sure they'll all sell well. Just not to me.

 

[GroovinOnFunk]

We really can’t know for sure unless they try.

This is really not true and any company that just threw sh!t at a wall to see what sticks as their business model is doomed to fail. Because, what do you want them to do, just make a dozen of these and see if people like them?

They're Ibanez... If they're going to make something they have to invest in building hundreds if not thousands of these units before it ever goes to market.

What you want them to bring to "the masses" is something that the masses don't actually care about. A very small subset cares about it.
You want a custom shop instrument at an affordable price. We all do. But you're not taking any business considerations into account (or if you think you are, then they're not actually founded on market reasearch and the information that Ibanez is surely looking at).

 

[groooooove]

Just airing my disappointment. 2024 could have been the year where Ibanez made the short scale/medium scale 5 string e-c part of bass playing accessible to the masses. For those either liking what Serek is up to or for those liking the alternative scale lengths of many of the new Fodera basses. The Mezzo bass and the Talman bass could easily have been expanded upon with iterations of their already existing basses. A higher end passive TMB35 or a medium scale TMB. A Mezzo that doesn’t look like a beginner bass with crappy active electronics. They could have made one 5 string with 24 or 26 fret cutout and in natural finish mimicking Janet Gwizdalas new FBass. The opportunities were many. I don’t get it. I hope you read this Ibanez, and get your sh*t together. You are not bound by tradition like Fender. Make something a bit more creative. Am I alone with this opinion?

you have every right to start your own company, and bring these items you describe 'to the masses.'

if you really believe they'll sell enough quantity, at a sustainable profit margin, i don't get what's stopping you?

 

[FRoss6788]

you have every right to start your own company, and bring these items you describe 'to the masses.'

if you really believe they'll sell enough quantity, at a sustainable profit margin, i don't get what's stopping you?

 

[J Wilson]

Whatever they do or don't introduce, I'll never complain about Ibanez, who easily builds the widest range of bass guitars of anyone else out there. Certainly not all to my taste, but I got to give them big props, especially as they are willing to try new and even oddball stuff instead of simply making the same things over and over in 'this year's bold new colors!'.

 

[Naviiin]

I think we're gravitating to the "market research and profits" argument a bit too fast, especially because us players really have no way of definitely knowing Ibanez' strategies. Sure, it's obviously why they do a majority of the things they do like surfing the Fishman popularity wave with their new multiscale or releasing a bunch of different versions of their best selling basses. But, at least based on their external communication, that's not exactly how decisions are made for their Bass Workshop line. They're using words like "innovation" and "exploration" in the copy, even going as far as telling players that choices are being made based on "the personal desire by one or more members of the Ibanez bass development group": Ibanez Bass Workshop | Hoshino Europe B.V.

Like we can't be a 100% sure, but I have a hard time believing they went 'you know what would make us a profit? A 7 string half fretless half fretted bass!' Sometimes they do experiment to innovate.

 

[Adam Felix]

Would it be cool to revitalise "Roadstars and Musicians" ?
You know, respecting the originals, but in a non radical way.

That would be great. They have a great catalog of previous lines.

 

[Adam Felix]

you have every right to start your own company, and bring these items you describe 'to the masses.'

if you really believe they'll sell enough quantity, at a sustainable profit margin, i don't get what's stopping you?

I’m seriously considering it. As I see it, it would be easy money keeping a sharp eye at the various bass forums and making models based on what niches players are asking for. Main obstacle is getting efficient production set up. That’s where a giant like Ibanez will have an advantage, and for the same reason why a random talkbass user wouldn’t be as likely to succeed.