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Ibanez BTB Club, Part 2!

I finally received my new Ibanez BTB 1405 and it is a beauty.

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I've got a 5 string BTB in overall pretty good shape. Purchased new in 2001-2002. Very little cosmetic wear, electronics in great condition. Don't really play it anymore. I've picked up a Jazz Bass that gets most of my attention these days. Anyone have any clue what its worth for resale?

Thanks!
 
Well exact model I am not quite sure of. I got the serial # and was hoping that would tell me exactly but it didnt :( According to the serial # lookup tool it was built in 2001 in Korea. It was listed at around $800-$850, but only paid $400ish at the time. The guitar shop was having a giant 50% off everything in the store sale.
 
I have to say that after playing my new BTB 1405 the last couple nights I absolutely love it. This is the best bass I've ever played and it is very aggressive. Gonna take me a while to learn the different tonal options I can dial in with it but I love. Beautiful and very good sound to boot. I've always been a Music Man bass but I believe I've found my new go to bass.
 
267 campbems
268 VTheHTyphoon Are you planning on making any videos to show off that behemoth of a bass? :D

I might once I get a new set of strings on there. The plain string on top is a little pain in my ass so I am gonna buy the Dean Markley set.

I do have a good question for everyone here. that maybe has a 6 or 7 string anything. What do you use for a case? The case that came with this bass has 2 big issues in my opinion. 1. The grooves for the neck going over the accessory hatch are not fitted for the 7 string neck. 2. The neck and body sit relatively at the same height and the section of the case that holds the body doesn't have padding to lift the body to the height that has it sitting flat in the case. The neck ends up being pushed on to sit in the grooves when it is closed and that cannot be good for the bass.

Any suggestions?
 
About 6 months ago I removed the pre-amp from my BTB405 and started fooling around with passive setups.

A few mistakes and experiments later it’s been finished, a lot more simplistic than I had originally started out trying but does everything I need. Needed new knobs because some of the new pots are US imperial whereas the knobs are metric. Couldn't find any cosmic-grey to match the original hardware but the black seems to work okay.

Also got some Nordstrand Big Splits in there too. Because the original pickups were larger than the Barts in the modern BTBs I needed some high-density foam along the sides of the pickups to blend it all in.

Its setup with vol / bal / tone / tone cap switch / series-parallel switch, restrung EADGC

Really pleased with it. The Nords made a huge difference alongside the cap selector. Worth the upgrade. Bought this new about 9 years ago and have spent more than I would of liked on the upgrades and failed attempts but I love the way this bass feels and having played it for so long I don't want to change.
 

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I have a BTB575FM which I intend on selling but I've never had it professionally set up. Maybe I'll change my mind when I do so... the action is quite high on the highest frets and the heavy Roto 66s I have on it are too tense for my liking.


Mothbox, if I ever decide I'm keeping my BTB, I'm copying your mods. One of the things that make me dislike my bass is the 18V circuit, which is nothing but a hassle to this passive circuit lover.
 
I have a BTB575FM which I intend on selling but I've never had it professionally set up. Maybe I'll change my mind when I do so... the action is quite high on the highest frets and the heavy Roto 66s I have on it are too tense for my liking.

If you can't do it yourself have a professional setup. I had the action lowered and now its a dream to play. Before I gained an appreciation for a good setup I played with high-action and it limited my playing range quite a bit.

I play with Sunbeams at the moment although hear the L'Bella XR series is similar.

A developed a dissatisfaction for the pre-amp which grew over time. I felt like I couldn't adjust it because the effects were too strong and ruined the tone. I mulled the possibility of replaying it with another pre-amp but I do all of my EQ tweaks on the amp so I wanted options on the bass itself I couldn't change on the amp and options which I could easily switch between songs.

The EADGC setup was the result of never using the low-B, the string was too floppy and I'd never had a response I liked on the amps I'd played through.