Ibanez BTB33. 33" w/Ramp

I really have to hand it to Ibanez. They seem to be really experimenting in some interesting directions. I hope they sell enough of these (and the portamento, and the fanned fret) that they keep doing stuff like this.

I like this one. I've been very curious about 33" scale; I have never spent any time with this.

 

More pics here: http://www.americanmusical.com/Item--i-IBA-BTB33-LIST

 

It's been a goal of mine to get a five string exclusively for high C tuning and chord playing, and a slightly shorter scale would make it easier to play like that. This would be my fifth bass if I got it, but then I'd have all my bases covered (pardon the expression).

 

I wonder if it could be converted to a low b? Warwick introduced a med scale 5 that is impossible to find in the USA. Med scale seems to be the perfect scale for eliminating dead spots.

 

Ibanez...great instruments, terrible marketing. Ams has new poplar btbs, the PJ SRs, and a completely new jaguar style bass family.

Now that I'm not on mobile:
Poplar BTB: http://www.americanmusical.com/Item--i-IBA-BTB1605E-LIST with wenge neck!
PJ SR: http://www.americanmusical.com/Item--i-IBA-SR656-LIST
Talman - Jagish beginner basses: http://www.americanmusical.com/Item--i-IBA-TMB300-LIST

 

Ibanez is killing me, I just bought a btb675. They have a new sr5 with nordstrand pickups and the btb33. Time to decide which of my current basses to sell.

 

AMS has removed all of these new basses from their web site "page not found".

 

Maybe Matt Garrison can pick up some swag, and help Ibanez market this as his signature bass. It's not like Fodera will lose market share.

 

Yeah.... I see that the 33"er isn't on AMS site anymore... Maybe after the NAMM show??

 

This is on my list big time!! Seems too good to be true. Anyone know the price?

 

Looks like it's ~650 British Pounds... So ~$1,200??? ish.....

 

Kudos to Ibanez for trying new and different things.

 

You're not kidding.... A couple of years ago, they had a 6 string bass that had two D and G strings on it... So strung low to high, E A D G D G... The seconde D and G strings had no frets under them... The "Ashula"

 

The bass looks great. Between the Portamento last year and now this I really intrigued by what Ibanez is doing. It's cool to see a large scale company like them taking some fun chances. I definitely want to check this bass out!

 

Anyone know which is the strings spacing? It would be perfect with 16,5 mm

 

No string spacing (and I HATE when they don't put the string spacing at the bridge, and the Nut width...), but:

- BTB5 5pc Maple/Bubinga neck-thru
- 838mm/33” scale
- Ash top/Mahogany wing body
- Rosewood fretboard w/Abalone dot inlay
- Medium frets
- Graph Tech BLACK TUSQ XL nut
- Mono-rail V bridge
- Bartolini BH1 pickups
- Ibanez Custom Electronics 3-band eq
w/Mid frequency switch
- Black matte hardware
- String Gauge: .032/.045/.065/.085/.105
- Factory tuning: 1C,2G,3D,4A,5E

 

BTB's string spacing is 19mm for 5-strings, and 17mm for 6-strings, it says on the website of Ibanez about the string spacing in the Mono-Rail Bridge on the BTB's, but I hope that the space change in this model, at least 17mm........

 

Hope they announce this one in the US soon, I definitely want to try it!

 

New images from Ibanez website, they have added the bass to their catalog

http://www.ibanez.co.jp/products/u_...&cat_id=2&series_id=53&data_id=105&color=CL01