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Ibanez BTB Club, Part 2!

#461
Bradass said:
That *might* be from where the previous owner rested their thumb and sweat/acid/whatever wore through the finish over time
Click to expand...

Could be... I took the neck off and ree installed it while putting strong pressure on side of neck relative to body. It's less off kilter now... Good enough as long as it stays put. But of course neck relief is all over the place so I'll let it sit in tune over night and set it up again once it has settled a bit.

Also raised neck pup a bit... Sounds way better now in full neck solo pan. Like a precision but more high treble.

In fact there is so much high treble in this bass I can't cut it out with treble control all the way down on the bass! But with my mid controls broken off things could be pretty crazy there... Impossible to judge or adjust properly until that control is repaired.

Still... I'm making headway!

First fret buzz is back.... This might take some minor fret filing once I'm certain the relief etc are in a fairly final position...

E on the b string is sort of a dead note. Odd. I don't recall that before I remounted the neck.

Anyhow... This bass is definitely worth the trouble... It does things my ebmm us subs can't, and my cort never sounded this good ever.

Thanks for replies guys... Sorry for minor derailing of the thread, but it seems likely, thanks to this discussion, I'll be staying a btb man for a long time.

Cheers :-)
Don
 
#469
Wow, my 405qm is totally growing on me the more I practice with it! I don't feel nearly as bad about the b string tone now, blends better than it did before as the neck settles in after my drastic adjustments. Tone and playability are pretty amazing, and I'm comparing it with 2 ebmm us made sub 5 strings and the memory of my long gone alembic series 1.

Still waiting for the new mid pot, but I can nail portrait of Tracy better on this than on the Music Mans! I've always loved a good 2 pickup blended tone and this along with mid control is where the btb has what my budget 2 band virtual stingray-classic subs miss out.

Update: i should add that I played my alembic series 1 and 70's Ibanez Japanese Musician fretless exclusively through my years as a professional bassist. This btb brings me back to a cool combination of the Ibanez and Alembic. Nice!
 
#470
OK I have a problem..... I keep buying basses LoL

The 405 is driving me crazy with it's insane potential.... But I'm still waiting for the new mid pot and working on the ideal neck setup....

So I just got a btb556! 6 string....

The light natural look one..... Really low action.... Amazing bass... New strings.... Ready to record!

I think I'll finish the 405 and sell it.... But we'll see if I can bring myself to do that once it's completed :-)
 

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#471
Interesting.. It could be that the broken midrange pot is shorting out in a particularly musical way on the 405, but the 405 is quite a bit brighter sounding than the 556 which has Bart 1s. Also what everyone says is true... The 556 is a really low output bass. Also 405 gets hissy with treble cranked... 556 is studio silent maxed out with amp (with tweeter) turned up to compensate for low output level.

Anyone know if there's an output level trim pot inside this 556 I can use to crank up the output level? Pickups are already quite close to the strings, so I doubt that is the culprit.

Incredible tone though.... Love it! Lowest action bass ever besides the Alembic series 1 out of several dozen owned through my life.
 
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#473
Yea definitely the same eq... Through barts versus ibanez pups or different body woods the tone from 556 is much less upper mid and treble forward, and presumably the barts are lower output hence the volume difference.

I'm just disappointed that Ibanez didn't adjust the output level from the preamp in the 55X to compensate for this.

It's not critical... But it's annoying when my 405 and two Musicmans are much louder when changing instruments through my amp/recording.

That being said, the 405 is so bright that I was planning to add a passive tone switch (cap between pups and preamp) on a push pull knob or mini toggle so I could get a more passive tone from it when desired.

I'll prob leave it alone now that I have the 556 though and just fix it so it's stock.
 
#474
dkelley said:
Yea definitely the same eq... Through barts versus ibanez pups or different body woods the tone from 556 is much less upper mid and treble forward, and presumably the barts are lower output hence the volume difference.

I'm just disappointed that Ibanez didn't adjust the output level from the preamp in the 55X to compensate for this.

It's not critical... But it's annoying when my 405 and two Musicmans are much louder when changing instruments through my amp/recording.

That being said, the 405 is so bright that I was planning to add a passive tone switch (cap between pups and preamp) on a push pull knob or mini toggle so I could get a more passive tone from it when desired.

I'll prob leave it alone now that I have the 556 though and just fix it so it's stock.
Click to expand...

I'm sure this is a stupid question, but it doesn't hurt to ask...have you tried a new 9V battery in the 556? She's real purdy btw, love that light natural look. What is the topwood on it?
 
#476
dkelley said:
OK I have a problem..... I keep buying basses LoL

The 405 is driving me crazy with it's insane potential.... But I'm still waiting for the new mid pot and working on the ideal neck setup....

So I just got a btb556! 6 string....

The light natural look one..... Really low action.... Amazing bass... New strings.... Ready to record!

I think I'll finish the 405 and sell it.... But we'll see if I can bring myself to do that once it's completed :-)
Click to expand...

Very nice
 
#478
I have a btb 550. Im happy with this bass but I think
a new pickup would be ...hmm..better? It has a pair of mk1 and that is not good.
Thinking of mk5 or nordstrand big singles. Wich one has more like modern jazz sound with barking mid? Maybe a new preamp?
 
#479
Changing pickups will change the sound of your bass more than a preamp.

You should go for the Nordy Big Singles. They are good :)

Ferenc said:
I have a btb 550. Im happy with this bass but I think
a new pickup would be ...hmm..better? It has a pair of mk1 and that is not good.
Thinking of mk5 or nordstrand big singles. Wich one has more like modern jazz sound with barking mid? Maybe a new preamp?
Click to expand...
 
#480
Bradass said:
I'm sure this is a stupid question, but it doesn't hurt to ask...have you tried a new 9V battery in the 556? She's real purdy btw, love that light natural look. What is the topwood on it?
Click to expand...

Top is maple, thin layer of walnut I think and then the main body wood is mahogany.

Neck is 5 piece maple and walnut.

New batteries (btbs use 2 9v) made a bit of difference. It's now in the ballpark of my Musicmans! However my Btb405 is still louder and significantly brighter than all my other basses, in a really sexy sounding way. Almost considering swapping these 556 Bart 1s for the ibanez pups in the 405 but I doubt they're the same size. I suppose the difference could be the woods though not pups since I've read the btb ibanez pups were built by Bart and very similar to Bart 1s.
 

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