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Ibanez BTB Club, Part 2!

#544
Hmm.. Well I know the BTB 130x is neckthrough. I'm not so well known with the past BTB's cause during then only the Prestige models were NT (and the 130x is one of them).

Gabriel51 said:
The "past" are the ones I'm interested in. I know some of the lower numbered BTB's where bolt-ons but I don't know which ones. I going to buy one now that i have moved back to 19mm spacing, however I want a NT...
Thanks
Click to expand...
 
#545
Mr_Music90 said:
Welcome to Talkbass and what an awesome bass guitar! Strung with a .150? From which tuning did you tune it down, if I may ask? :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the warm welcome :)

The .150 is tuned down to F#. There is so much resonance, it's unreal. I plucked the F# just after I took that first picture.. You could feel the resonance through the entire floor.. :D My main concern is that the tension is good because its a Conklin Snakeskin. Other strings may not be as good, so I hear?

I have a friend who has an SR505 with a Rotosound .175 at F# and there is no clarity. Less of the string thickness, more of the longer scale and clarity happens! He learnt that the hard way, and is now suffering from bass envy ;)
 
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#546
Mr_Music90 said:
Instead of buying a new bass, why don't you take your current BTB to an luthier and ask if he can make the neck A-symmetrical for your? :) This way you can play the bass easier and the first frets are easier to reach, even with the 35 inch scale lenght :)
Click to expand...

Just saw this. Making the neck asymmetrical...is that making the low side thinner or the side closer to the high-C thinner?

Also I realized that the padding on my strap has worn thin so I think that might have been the catalyst to all my problems. I have a Gruv Gear Duo Neo strap meeting us in New York before our shows there next week, so I'm hoping that will be the end if my discomfort. Stretching before every show as well as practicing yoga regularly have really helped too.
 
#547
That's correct :) MTD basses (both the import models as well as the hand made USA custom models) have this feature.. ALL of them. It's easier to reach the 1st till the 5th fret, especially the lowest strings. But it helps you play better over the entire neck in general :)

Although the picture below shows some samples for the electric guitar, the same principal is used for bass guitar aswell.

Figure 4 is the most common asymmetrical shape for a (bass) guitar neck.

Asymmetric-neck-shapes-3.png


Sharlee D'Angelo, bass player of Arch Enemy, has a signature bass (the first one with NT design) made by Ibanez that has a different asymmetric neck which you can see in figure 4 in the picture below. It's handy if you do a lot of stuff on the higher notes.

Asymmetric-neck-shapes-1.png


When it comes to your strap : It's really importnant that besides the correct material and wideness of the strap (a leather 4 inch strap will hold you bass better balanced than a 1 inch or 2 inch cotton strap) that you have the correct height for your bass so that your hands and wrist don't get hurt. If you have a Gruv Gear Duo Neo strap then I would suggest that you keep the strap a bit loose on your shoulders.

metalinthenight said:
Just saw this. Making the neck asymmetrical...is that making the low side thinner or the side closer to the high-C thinner?

Also I realized that the padding on my strap has worn thin so I think that might have been the catalyst to all my problems. I have a Gruv Gear Duo Neo strap meeting us in New York before our shows there next week, so I'm hoping that will be the end if my discomfort. Stretching before every show as well as practicing yoga regularly have really helped too.
Click to expand...
 
#548
Huehuehue :hyper:

Yeah it's something that you have to find out for yourself and you have to like it of course :)

For me, F# is too much. I don't mind down tuning but the lowest string I would put on a bass guitar will be a Low B (thickness .140). Tuning it to Bb, Low A or Ab is something which I think is pretty cool, but lower than that won't happen :p

MisterJMorgan said:
Thanks for the warm welcome :)

The .150 is tuned down to F#. There is so much resonance, it's unreal. I plucked the F# just after I took that first picture.. You could feel the resonance through the entire floor.. :D My main concern is that the tension is good because its a Conklin Snakeskin. Other strings may not be as good, so I hear?

I have a friend who has an SR505 with a Rotosound .175 at F# and there is no clarity. Less of the string thickness, more of the longer scale and clarity happens! He learnt that the hard way, and is now suffering from bass envy ;)
Click to expand...
 
#549
Mr_Music90 said:
That's correct :) MTD basses (both the import models as well as the hand made USA custom models) have this feature.. ALL of them. It's easier to reach the 1st till the 5th fret, especially the lowest strings. But it helps you play better over the entire neck in general :)
Click to expand...

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for the info! I might look in to having my luthier friend treat my neck this way. How do you think that the dual truss rod neck of the BTBs will react to the asymmetric profile? Will I have to adjust the tension between the two? I don't wanna accidentally warp my neck!

When it comes to your strap : It's really importnant that besides the correct material and wideness of the strap (a leather 4 inch strap will hold you bass better balanced than a 1 inch or 2 inch cotton strap) that you have the correct height for your bass so that your hands and wrist don't get hurt. If you have a Gruv Gear Duo Neo strap then I would suggest that you keep the strap a bit loose on your shoulders.
Click to expand...

It's been a nightmare trying to find a wide, super padded vegan guitar strap. I eventually had to get one made a few years a go. It's a regular guitar strap more or less but it has a thick foam pad that is about 4" wide. It worked for a long time, but now I guess the padding is starting to wear thin. I think that might've been the catalyst to my problems.

Really excited about the Gruv Gear strap though. Sounds like it will really help once I get the thing adjusted correctly. Luckily I'll have another weeks worth of dates to fine tune the strap before the end of our tour. I already play my bass rather high, and I guess the posture is similar to a classical guitarist's (I even play with a footstool sotting down, haha). Hopefully the adjustment period to the harness-style strap won't be too long. Someone in another thread mentioned their saxophone players saying it takes about 30-40 hours to get used to a harness.

I'll keep your recommendations about how tight the strap is in mind! Thanks again!

EDIT:

Also recently I've begun stretching my arms and hands before we play as well as practicing yoga regularly. That, along with noticing and fixing some bad habits that have crept into my playing have made a dramatic difference in the pain(s) and soreness in my left arm/hand. The Gruv Gear strap should be another positive step forward down this path, alleviating the weight of my bass on my shoulder and removing the little bit of neck dive that my BTB has. Surprising how much effort I have to put in to correct even a little bit of neck dive.
 
#550
Sounds good! :) You don't have to worry about your neck. The BTB's have a pretty stable neck since they are laminated and neckthrough. It won't harm the neck if your friend luthier doesn't take off too much. Just slighty from the side behind the A string all the way to the high C string (if you have a 6 stringer, G string for 4 or 5 string bass of course :p ). Make sure you show him a sample like the one I uploaded so he knows what to do.

About the strap : The Gruv Gear Duo Neo can be a great advantage of both your playing and the neckdive of your bass. I don't have one, but I've heard it's a very good solid strap that will decrease neckdive and also the pressure on your shoulder(s). So if you got the money, go for it! :hyper:

About the stretching and such : Very good! It's very importnant to warm up before you start playing. Do not forget that you have to do some cool downs as well.


metalinthenight said:
Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for the info! I might look in to having my luthier friend treat my neck this way. How do you think that the dual truss rod neck of the BTBs will react to the asymmetric profile? Will I have to adjust the tension between the two? I don't wanna accidentally warp my neck!


It's been a nightmare trying to find a wide, super padded vegan guitar strap. I eventually had to get one made a few years a go. It's a regular guitar strap more or less but it has a thick foam pad that is about 4" wide. It worked for a long time, but now I guess the padding is starting to wear thin. I think that might've been the catalyst to my problems.

Really excited about the Gruv Gear strap though. Sounds like it will really help once I get the thing adjusted correctly. Luckily I'll have another weeks worth of dates to fine tune the strap before the end of our tour. I already play my bass rather high, and I guess the posture is similar to a classical guitarist's (I even play with a footstool sotting down, haha). Hopefully the adjustment period to the harness-style strap won't be too long. Someone in another thread mentioned their saxophone players saying it takes about 30-40 hours to get used to a harness.

I'll keep your recommendations about how tight the strap is in mind! Thanks again!

EDIT:

Also recently I've begun stretching my arms and hands before we play as well as practicing yoga regularly. That, along with noticing and fixing some bad habits that have crept into my playing have made a dramatic difference in the pain(s) and soreness in my left arm/hand. The Gruv Gear strap should be another positive step forward down this path, alleviating the weight of my bass on my shoulder and removing the little bit of neck dive that my BTB has. Surprising how much effort I have to put in to correct even a little bit of neck dive.
Click to expand...
 
#551
By the way I sold my btb405.. It was one that needed a lot of work when i got it but I replaced the dual mid pot, shimmed and re set the neck so the b string wasn't so close to the edge, solved the action issues, and cleaned it up. Turned into a hell of a player with a more modern tone that i prefer to my btb556 (which is also on cl)!

But as I have a Carvin and 2 ebmm 5 strings which I prefer to play, this one went for sale.

New owner is really excited to have a beautiful, great sounding bass.

I never quite felt at home enough on any BTB it seems compared to my others.

I will mostly miss the vari-mid... I could make the 405, and to a lesser extent the 556, sound like an aggressive Rik tone easily!
 
#555
In: Gruv Gear DuoNeo Strap.



Took a while to set up, but I think it's gonna be the answer to my weight/neckdive/carpal tunnel issues. Gonna adjust it again before tomorrow's gig and see how that goes.



It doesn't say on the site really, but the way you adjust the strap are four screws, three for the height of the main strap main strap and one for the position/height of the right shoulder strap. That along with the part that loops around the horn of your bass creates the tension on your right shoulder. So to drop it down a little bit you have to unscrew everything and readjust the right shoulder strap. Ugh. Totally worth the effort though, because this is the first gig in a month or so that my shoulder hasn't hurt. Also, the screws mean that once I get it to where I want it, this strap ain't moving nowhere which is a major plus.
 
#556
Hey fellow BTBers. I'd like to join this club with my older 4-string bolt-on neck BTB400qmbb.

I'm thinking of striping the red paint off and staining it for a natural finish. Also thinking about replacing the DFR-N4 neck puckup and DFR-B4 bridge pickup with EMG 40DCXs and the active EQ with an EMG BQS system or something.

Any help or tips on this (which pickups, which EQ system, tips on refinishing, etc.) would be appreciated.
 
#557
248 Ghofmann

For stripping the bass, I would recommend a heat gun and scraper. It can take a while, but it is still quicker than sanding.

It's been a while since I did it, but just heat an area of the finish and scrape it off. It will flake off quite easily when it is ready, but be careful not to burn the wood underneath.

Also, WEAR A RESPIRATOR! It doesn't smell nice and is apparently somewhat toxic.

You can also get poly stripper that some people have used to quite good effect, I think Citristrip is one of the brands used, but I have no experience on this.
 
#559
Just picked these up and started taking lessons, sooo excited to finally be learning how to play. Took the time yesterday to learn how to do a setup on her and set the fretboard nice and flat lowered the action as low as I could get it without any buzz on all 24 frets and then set the intonation as close as I could get it with my tuner. Also put straplocks on it. With the new setup it's soo much easier to play for me, takes very little pressure to fret the strings now.:bassist:
After learning to do my own setup I think I have the mod bug cause I've been drooling over the Noll TCP-3P with the 3-band vari eq. :D
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