Ibanez BTB Club, Part 2!

[glassmoon]

Unavailable

Which bites more as that looks even closer to the MR2 than anything I've seen.
At least I know they exist! And not only in AliExpress

 

[glassmoon]

And then I realised that I was on the USA site - changed to the UK site and viola! There they are!!!!!

 

[mellobud]

I just picked up what I believe is a BTB 305bgwnf for $70. It has an unfortunate carving of some skulls in it that I will be sanding out but overall, it’s in good shape.
It looks like the bass below but with a couple dings and a skull carving.

My question, I am unfamiliar with this preamp and the strings on it are the deadest strings I have ever encountered so I can’t get a feel for how the preamp is voiced. Should I get some brighter SS strings or my usual Ernie ball Nickels? Is the preamp zingy or dark? It has the EQB-IIB 2-Band in it with “stacked” j pickups. Does that mean humbuckers in a single coil package? Thanks guys.

 

[VillageIdiott]

Interesting. I am an owner of a BTB1005 (first year!) and I love it. I had no idea they made a version with single coils. Very cool. Also... great find at that price! I assume that is an internet picture. Can you post one of your actual bass?
I often buy "project" basses... strip them down and refinish. It can be a lot of fun. I am interested to see the carvings on your bass.

 

[mellobud]

Interesting. I am an owner of a BTB1005 (first year!) and I love it. I had no idea they made a version with single coils. Very cool. Also... great find at that price! I assume that is an internet picture. Can you post one of your actual bass?
I often buy "project" basses... strip them down and refinish. It can be a lot of fun. I am interested to see the carvings on your bass.

I rewired everything to VVT passive jazz configuration with 250k CTS pots. I did not like the preamp.

 

[Snert]

Looks good. Not my fave colour, but it's not my bass.

 

[mellobud]

Looks good. Not my fave colour, but it's not my bass.

That’s fair. I was going to go with navy blue but my daughter insisted on satin sea glass.

 

[8liter]

I love the new color scheme and the electronics.

What tools and materials did you use for the paint work?

 

[Michael Jewels]

Great work refinishing that bass.

That shade of blue is very easy on the eyes; very relaxing.

Much good luck with her.

Mike

 

[mellobud]

27419367[/URL], member: 144971"]I love the new color scheme and the electronics.

What tools and materials did you use for the paint work?

Don’t follow any of my refinishing tips.
I’m just a dude with wood putty and spray cans. Rustoleum white paint and primer and krylon colormaxx sea glass satin. Mistakes were made.

27419443[/URL], member: 11696"]Great work refinishing that bass.

That shade of blue is very easy on the eyes; very relaxing.

Much good luck with her.

Mike

thanks, it’s going to be a gig backup bass

 

[enricogaletta]

I rewired everything to VVT passive jazz configuration with 250k CTS pots. I did not like the preamp.
View attachment 5037042 View attachment 5037043 View attachment 5037044 View attachment 5037045 View attachment 5037046 View attachment 5037047

Nice job! Unfortunately Ibanez factory preamp are not so great!

 

[Blue Dragon]

Been a while since I posted here but my BTB 745 is still going strong. I think I said before long ago that this will likely be the last bass I'll ever own. About 6 mo ago though I did take it to a local luthier to have it worked over and to sand down the edge where my right arm crosses the body. That one little bit has been my only problem with this bass as long as I've had it, but I did develop a bruise on my forearm there when playing long gigs. He just rounded it out a little and it's been just perfect ever since.

I know this isn't the top of the line BTB, but it's top of the line for me and I guess that's what really matters. Plus if anything ever does happen disastrously to it, it still wasn't that expensive. I'm preaching to the choir but damn this is one nice design. I don't even mind it's not that well known out of bassist circles. If somebody thinks I'm playing an Alembic, who am I to correct them? More power to y'all who sport multiple basses, but frankly I don't play out all that often and don't really plan to. Between this and a nice Mexican Fender Precision... I'm good. I think I just wanted to post this to give a little thanks to my BTB beauty. She'll be with me till the end if all goes as planned!

 

[dax21]

Yeah the edge on the upper body is a well known nuisance, I can't play mine for longer than half an hour without feeling it there tomorrow. Wristband is a must. I never thought about sanding it but the edge did lose all of its finish after more than a decade and the line is completely whited out now.

I also haven't posted here in a while, BTB hasn't been my main bass for a few years but a new band made me dig it out and start rehearsing and playing live with it. Going back to 35" scale and wide string spacing feels like a cadillac, or at very least a fancy longboard.

 

[groove pump]

That’s fair. I was going to go with navy blue but my daughter insisted on satin sea glass.

Just calling that color "satin sea glass" makes it look 50% more cool!!

 

[mellobud]

27432875[/URL], member: 287895"]Been a while since I posted here but my BTB 745 is still going strong. I think I said before long ago that this will likely be the last bass I'll ever own. About 6 mo ago though I did take it to a local luthier to have it worked over and to sand down the edge where my right arm crosses the body. That one little bit has been my only problem with this bass as long as I've had it, but I did develop a bruise on my forearm there when playing long gigs. He just rounded it out a little and it's been just perfect ever since.

I know this isn't the top of the line BTB, but it's top of the line for me and I guess that's what really matters. Plus if anything ever does happen disastrously to it, it still wasn't that expensive. I'm preaching to the choir but damn this is one nice design. I don't even mind it's not that well known out of bassist circles. If somebody thinks I'm playing an Alembic, who am I to correct them? More power to y'all who sport multiple basses, but frankly I don't play out all that often and don't really plan to. Between this and a nice Mexican Fender Precision... I'm good. I think I just wanted to post this to give a little thanks to my BTB beauty. She'll be with me till the end if all goes as planned!

I softened that edge on my refin project. I could have done more to it on this edge but it did make a good bit of difference.

 

[Lujon]

Here’s my BTB500 refinish project. I wouldn’t normally mess with this but the wear on the ash body was pretty nasty. I also replaced the vari-mid preamp with an Audere 4 band, which sounds way nicer!

 

[thepathunderfoo]

I just acquired a MIK btb. I believe it's a 1306. It's a great bass and ticks all the boxes.
Being an older bass, I figured there would be some problems here and there, and for the most part its ready to roll but I've run across one hurdle I'd like the hive minds advice on.

My action is not as low as I would like, and the bridge saddles won't go any lower, and yes, the neck is straight. It's not bad, but it's definitely suboptimal. Has anyone gone through this? Thoughts?

 

[Maramos43]

Hi everyone!
I have a BTB-806ms since August 2022. I have tried since to adjust the truss rod to my liking (pretty low action) with mitigated success: I have achieved somewhat low action but what bothers me is that there is some considerable relief on the B string side, and I can't go lower than that setup or the high C and G strings will buzz horribly in the 2nd - 4th fret. When measuring relief, the C string has NONE! Is uneven relief normal in such a wide neck? Is my neck warped?
Thanks in advance

 

[fourstringbliss]

Recently bought a BTB745 from a fellow TB'er. He had installed black replacements for all of the hardware - much better, and saved me the trouble and expense of doing it myself. He also had someone round off the edge where a normal arm contour would be, but I took it farther, sanding in a smooth slope from where the walnut top blends with the ash - much more comfortable.

I rewired the pickups in parallel and they definitely sound better. I might keep them instead of replacing them with Big Splits as I had originally intended. I'm going to be replacing the preamp with an Audere Classic next month and trying out an outer coils/parallel/inner coils switch to see if I like the sound of those options.

Either way, happy to be back on a BTB!

 

[fourstringbliss]

I have these strings in the classifieds that fit the above BTB745 perfectly. I used them for a few days and then put some Sadowsky flats on instead. These sound really good, but I've gotten used to lower tension strings.

For Sale - La Bella 760FS-B-XL Deep Talkin' Flatwound Bass Guitar Strings - .045-.128 5-string Extra Long