I've played Fender type basses all my life, (over 50 years). But I'm looking for a change. Ibanez seems to have so many models and all price ranges. How is the workmanship? Are there any models that are more desirable? I'm looking for a 4 string. Where do I start?
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Ibanez Basses (school me)
- Thread starter SJan3
- Start date
This
SR400EPBDX | SR | ELECTRIC BASSES | PRODUCTS | Ibanez guitars
Prefer Powerspan pup over BH1/2. This 405 look more elegant than current SR500 and previous SR600 too.
If money no problem, Premium are good to go.
SR400EPBDX | SR | ELECTRIC BASSES | PRODUCTS | Ibanez guitars
Prefer Powerspan pup over BH1/2. This 405 look more elegant than current SR500 and previous SR600 too.
If money no problem, Premium are good to go.
SR Workshop, Premium or Prestige. Or EHB.
I'd also suggest a BTB, but there's no 4s, at least not new.
I'd also suggest a BTB, but there's no 4s, at least not new.
Their build quality and feature value is really good and always has been.
They are a pretty darn fine bass..At least the ones I have encountered have been pretty well made.
This 73..? is my couch bass, and its got the best neck out of my other models, I just love this thing.
This 73..? is my couch bass, and its got the best neck out of my other models, I just love this thing.
Is the SR Workshop like their custom shop?
Also, which are made in Japan, which in Indonesia?
I think Prestige = Japan, Premium = Indonesia.
I have a Premium ATK805e (Indonesia) and an older '90s SR690 (Japan). Both have great build quality, for sure. Especially the SR - it feels just amazingly solid.
Personally, I've always got my eye out for 80s Musician and Roadstar models...
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No, not in the same mould as the FCS for example. Workshop instruments are limited ranges that the Ibanez designers are allowed to create that are a bit outside of the regular product lines.
Ibanez have an excellent website that gives all the specs and posts which are MIJ. Most are MII, but the quality is really excellent and this comes from someone who's owned Alembics and other boutiques so I have a reference.
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I have never truly gotten my head wrapped around active electronics. To the best of my knowledge, Ibanez does not make passive basses (maybe custom shop?).
I have one of their basses ... well, it's an SDGR ... which has an "active/passive" switch. If that's accurate (and I'm not sure it is), I am less than impressed with the "passive" sound that bass provides.
All of that said, I recently bought an Ibanez RGB300 and it is the closest I have found to a sound I really like. Some would say it can't be all that good because it doesn't have an "EQ section" so much as bass boost and treble boost. Only two. No intricate adjust-three-sections-of-the-mid-range as well knob.
The SRs (The two I'm not absolutely in love with) have very comfortable, thin bodies and suffer from a bit of neck dive.
The RGB has really brought me back to being a fan of Ibanez basses (my first was an '84 Roadstar II in 1984).
I have one of their basses ... well, it's an SDGR ... which has an "active/passive" switch. If that's accurate (and I'm not sure it is), I am less than impressed with the "passive" sound that bass provides.
All of that said, I recently bought an Ibanez RGB300 and it is the closest I have found to a sound I really like. Some would say it can't be all that good because it doesn't have an "EQ section" so much as bass boost and treble boost. Only two. No intricate adjust-three-sections-of-the-mid-range as well knob.
The SRs (The two I'm not absolutely in love with) have very comfortable, thin bodies and suffer from a bit of neck dive.
The RGB has really brought me back to being a fan of Ibanez basses (my first was an '84 Roadstar II in 1984).
I have a couple of Roadstars - a '79 RS800 and an '86 RB550. They're both incredibly well built, very comfortable and nice sounding basses.
Unfortunately though, I can't speak to the newer models. Most of them aren't really my thing aesthetically so I never really bothered with them. However, I've pretty much only heard good things, including about their budget lines.
Personally, I think you should get an Iceman in sunburst.
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I love Ibanez bass guitars. Unfortunately I don't have one at the moment.
Just sold an older style Road Gear bass RD905AH that was beautifully made and solid presentation.
The SR300 series is the starting point if you're on a tight budget but for a tad extra SR400 and upwards is where Ibanez basses start to highlight qualitative changes..
Can't say I've experienced anything in their boutique range, unfortunately.
I'm gassing for a 5 string after selling my SR405QM after I swore I'd never play in cover bands again.... now I'm back in two of them grrrrrr!!! Oh well...
Anyway, they're very light weight and comfortable, have quite slim necks. Preamps are reasonably good to a point where I didn't find it necessary to swap or upgrade.
3 points of contention with the basses I've owned;
1: barrel jacks can become cracked internally if there is to much tension on the cable... so always allow room for movement with the cable
2: stacked tone pots can be temperamental and require replacing ... this may only apply to lower end basses...
3: The bridge on my old 405 model broke at the string retainer part.
Ibanez knew about this, so I'm told, so hopefully this has been rectified by now. Replacement bridges were cheap enough and a simple job.
Just sold an older style Road Gear bass RD905AH that was beautifully made and solid presentation.
The SR300 series is the starting point if you're on a tight budget but for a tad extra SR400 and upwards is where Ibanez basses start to highlight qualitative changes..
Can't say I've experienced anything in their boutique range, unfortunately.
I'm gassing for a 5 string after selling my SR405QM after I swore I'd never play in cover bands again.... now I'm back in two of them grrrrrr!!! Oh well...
Anyway, they're very light weight and comfortable, have quite slim necks. Preamps are reasonably good to a point where I didn't find it necessary to swap or upgrade.
3 points of contention with the basses I've owned;
1: barrel jacks can become cracked internally if there is to much tension on the cable... so always allow room for movement with the cable
2: stacked tone pots can be temperamental and require replacing ... this may only apply to lower end basses...
3: The bridge on my old 405 model broke at the string retainer part.
Ibanez knew about this, so I'm told, so hopefully this has been rectified by now. Replacement bridges were cheap enough and a simple job.
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I've owned two Ibanez basses in the past, a 1980 MIJ Musician MC824 four-string (owned in 1985), and a 1984 MIJ Musician MC924 fretless four-string (owned '88 - '90).
The 824 was a great sounding/playing bass - passive, with two single coil pickups. Foolishly, I sold it to fund a '78 jazz bass (which was nowhere near as good). Nearly 40 years later and I still miss that bass.
The 924 was active /passive PJ configuration with a 3-band eq. The pre-amp was very noisy and despite the eq, I struggled to get a decent sound out of it, so I sold it. Don't miss it.
I realise this is all going back several decades, but I thought you might be interested. Good luck.
The 824 was a great sounding/playing bass - passive, with two single coil pickups. Foolishly, I sold it to fund a '78 jazz bass (which was nowhere near as good). Nearly 40 years later and I still miss that bass.
The 924 was active /passive PJ configuration with a 3-band eq. The pre-amp was very noisy and despite the eq, I struggled to get a decent sound out of it, so I sold it. Don't miss it.
I realise this is all going back several decades, but I thought you might be interested. Good luck.
I have two - an SR1700 (pictured) and a fretless GIO - both are very well made, and play very well. The one thing that I really love is the very thin and comfortable necks. Great basses - and just like all instruments I recommend you try to play one before buying.
Been playing Ibanez’s since the 80s. In my experience, even the least expensive Ibbys play really well and sound great. And the high end ones are even better, with better electronics, hardware, and more interesting woods and finishes. IME/IMO it’s hard to go wrong with them, no matter which one you choose.
When I think Ibanez, I think of comfortable ergonomics, great playability, and excellent bang for the buck.
D
My experience with Ibanez is mainly the SR series and older Blazer/Roadstar/Roadster basses with P or PJ configuration.
The older Fender-style basses were excellent basses for the money back in the day but these days there are LOTS of excellent, cheap Fender clones. They're still good instruments if they're in good condition but they're not worth "vintage" prices IMO.
The SR-series are the CLASSIC Ibanez basses IMO. The current models are generally very good basses in their respective price ranges. Personally I've never quite bonded with SRs though. I find that regardless of pickup configuration they always seem to have a kinda "nasal" midrange that I can never quite dial out without completely scooping out the mids. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad tone, just not MY preferred tone. Also, many SRs are humbucker equipped and I generally prefer the tone and dynamic response of single or split coil basses.
A couple of things to be aware of:
The ultraslim necks on SR can be a bit unstable and require truss rod adjustments when the temperature/humidity changes. I've mostly experienced this with the cheaper SRs. Especially the older ones before they started using laminated necks. I rarely see SR necks develop serious issues though (like twisting or ski jumps). At least not more often than with any other basses.
I currently own an SR 2605. It's a very nice bass but it has some issues. The mono rail bridges are installed slightly too far back. The bass can't be intonated properly with all strings (including the stock strings...) and only just barely with some strings. I've seen the same issue with the 4-string version, the SR2600. I have no idea if this is a problem with other mono rail SRs. If it was a regular bridge it could have been easily moved of course but these mono rail bridges are recessed into the body. Also, even with the Nordstrand Big Singles it has a hint of that "nasal" SR midrange I mentioned earlier but this is just a matter of personal taste. I should probably also mention that the Nordstrand Big Singles have an INSANE magnetic pull on the strings. This causes fret buzz unless the pickups are lowered to the point where the tone ALMOST starts to suffer. It's a VERY fine line with these pickups and they have to be adjusted very carefully.
I also currently own a cheaper SR300E. Again, it's a very good instrument for the price but the tone isn't really my kind of tone. The nasal "SR midrange" is more prominent on this one. The neck is also a bit thin for my taste (I generally prefer "modern" P-bass necks). Also, I'm not really a humbucker person and this bass sounds best in humbucker mode, even though it has switch for coil splitting. In single coil mode it sounds like a kinda sterile version of J-bass. In addition to the humbucker and split modes it also has a "power tap" setting. This setting has a tone somewhere between single coil and humbucker mode. I'm not sure exactly what it does to be honest. Tonally I guess it can be seen as the best or worst of both worlds, depending on personal taste. To me the power tap setting sounds a bit weird, like there's some kind of phase issue/comb filtering going on (but I would say the same about both pickups on full with a J-bass and lots of people love that tone).
I must stress that although I've had some issues with my own Ibanez basses (and the Ibanez tone isn't really my thing) I still think they're very good instruments. I would even go as far as saying SRs are one of the classic bass models, up there with P/J-basses, Rays and Ricks. You really need to try one yourself before you can make up your mind though. All of the above are just MY personal opinions and I'm generally more into passive P-basses and vintage short scale hollowbodies.
The older Fender-style basses were excellent basses for the money back in the day but these days there are LOTS of excellent, cheap Fender clones. They're still good instruments if they're in good condition but they're not worth "vintage" prices IMO.
The SR-series are the CLASSIC Ibanez basses IMO. The current models are generally very good basses in their respective price ranges. Personally I've never quite bonded with SRs though. I find that regardless of pickup configuration they always seem to have a kinda "nasal" midrange that I can never quite dial out without completely scooping out the mids. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad tone, just not MY preferred tone. Also, many SRs are humbucker equipped and I generally prefer the tone and dynamic response of single or split coil basses.
A couple of things to be aware of:
The ultraslim necks on SR can be a bit unstable and require truss rod adjustments when the temperature/humidity changes. I've mostly experienced this with the cheaper SRs. Especially the older ones before they started using laminated necks. I rarely see SR necks develop serious issues though (like twisting or ski jumps). At least not more often than with any other basses.
I currently own an SR 2605. It's a very nice bass but it has some issues. The mono rail bridges are installed slightly too far back. The bass can't be intonated properly with all strings (including the stock strings...) and only just barely with some strings. I've seen the same issue with the 4-string version, the SR2600. I have no idea if this is a problem with other mono rail SRs. If it was a regular bridge it could have been easily moved of course but these mono rail bridges are recessed into the body. Also, even with the Nordstrand Big Singles it has a hint of that "nasal" SR midrange I mentioned earlier but this is just a matter of personal taste. I should probably also mention that the Nordstrand Big Singles have an INSANE magnetic pull on the strings. This causes fret buzz unless the pickups are lowered to the point where the tone ALMOST starts to suffer. It's a VERY fine line with these pickups and they have to be adjusted very carefully.
I also currently own a cheaper SR300E. Again, it's a very good instrument for the price but the tone isn't really my kind of tone. The nasal "SR midrange" is more prominent on this one. The neck is also a bit thin for my taste (I generally prefer "modern" P-bass necks). Also, I'm not really a humbucker person and this bass sounds best in humbucker mode, even though it has switch for coil splitting. In single coil mode it sounds like a kinda sterile version of J-bass. In addition to the humbucker and split modes it also has a "power tap" setting. This setting has a tone somewhere between single coil and humbucker mode. I'm not sure exactly what it does to be honest. Tonally I guess it can be seen as the best or worst of both worlds, depending on personal taste. To me the power tap setting sounds a bit weird, like there's some kind of phase issue/comb filtering going on (but I would say the same about both pickups on full with a J-bass and lots of people love that tone).
I must stress that although I've had some issues with my own Ibanez basses (and the Ibanez tone isn't really my thing) I still think they're very good instruments. I would even go as far as saying SRs are one of the classic bass models, up there with P/J-basses, Rays and Ricks. You really need to try one yourself before you can make up your mind though. All of the above are just MY personal opinions and I'm generally more into passive P-basses and vintage short scale hollowbodies.
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Not sure. For reference my ~2006 SR1000EBG Prestige says Made in Korea. Beautiful bass, feels great, prefer my short scales nowadays though, should let it go someday.
