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Ibanez Ergonomic Headless Bass (EHB) club
- Thread starter Killed_by_Death
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- ibanez;headless
So, I love my EHB, but I consider the restringing experience to be a nightmare, at least initially.
When tightening at the pegs, there's the fear of guillotining your expensive new strings by over-tightening- but if you don't tighten them enough, you get the joy of a sudden creak as the string slips & loses tension while you're tuning or stretching out the new strings. Having been whipped by a snapped bass string as a kid & later violin strings while working at Music & Arts, sudden noises accompanied by tension changes when tuning are a great way to get some adrenaline pumping.
Two pieces of advice that I found did me more harm than good-
• use the long end of the hex wrench to prevent over-tightening at the pegs:
If you don't do them one by one, just be sure to put all the strings on & tune them up a little bit at a time, alternating frequently at first & then taking more care as you get close to your desired pitches, so that the tension remains evenly distributed & you can more accurately see what pitches you'll settle to.
When tightening at the pegs, there's the fear of guillotining your expensive new strings by over-tightening- but if you don't tighten them enough, you get the joy of a sudden creak as the string slips & loses tension while you're tuning or stretching out the new strings. Having been whipped by a snapped bass string as a kid & later violin strings while working at Music & Arts, sudden noises accompanied by tension changes when tuning are a great way to get some adrenaline pumping.
Two pieces of advice that I found did me more harm than good-
• use the long end of the hex wrench to prevent over-tightening at the pegs:
Doing this lead to me not tightening them enough, causing the strings to slip & needing to start over. I think this is string dependent though, as when I tried putting DR Legend Flatwounds on my EHB, the peg screw very quickly flattened/chewed through the string & nylon wrap. Whereas the DR Lo-Rider hex-core roundwounds I just put on were unscathed when fully tightening with the long End of the wrench.
Generally, though, use the intended short end of the wrench to tighten, just to the point where you can add no more tension without forcing it. This applies enough force to keep the string in place without guillotining it.
• use a bicycle cable puller to keep tension on the string when tightening:Generally, though, use the intended short end of the wrench to tighten, just to the point where you can add no more tension without forcing it. This applies enough force to keep the string in place without guillotining it.
I found this to be unnecessary and a bit of a hassle. It was hard to keep the string fed through to tension it, the puller could release unexpectedly, and you have to worry about scratching the headless-stock. Plus it costs money. I ended up just standing the bass up vertically at an angle, balancing it with my legs, and applying tension to the new string with one hand while tightening with the other.
As an additional piece of advice that applies to all bass stringing but especially here where you need to worry about peg slippage: if you're not cleaning the fretboard, both destring & restring one string at a time. This will keep tension on the neck so that you can more easily get up to pitch, and notice if the string has slipped.
If you don't do them one by one, just be sure to put all the strings on & tune them up a little bit at a time, alternating frequently at first & then taking more care as you get close to your desired pitches, so that the tension remains evenly distributed & you can more accurately see what pitches you'll settle to.
Thanks. This is very helpful. The tuning system on the NS basses is brilliant. I have a WAV4 Radius and I can change all the strings in about 5 minutes.
On the other hand, I have never loved the tone of the bass. Maybe I need to try some different types of strings.
i've changed the strings twice on my EHB-1505 without any issues.
i'll definitely be more alert from now on, though.
i'll definitely be more alert from now on, though.
Not by much. I've had both as far as neck only the single is rowdier but not by much. I liked the splits better when using both neck and bridge together.
Thanks. Based on this, I think I’m leaning towards the NS bass. Although the EHB1500 sure is intriguing (and beautiful). How’s the build quality on these basses? Any issues?
One other tip would be: don't cut the string until it's up to pitch and you're sure it won't slip.
On my ehb 1000, when I turn my mid frequency clockwise on active mode from halfway, my bass goes dead. Absolutely mute. But when I go anti clockwise and pass the other way round it’s on.
Sometimes it distorts a little as well.
Has anyone faced this problem?
Sometimes it distorts a little as well.
Has anyone faced this problem?
Is the pot loose in the body?
If it's loose, then perhaps the body of the pot rotates when it's at one extreme, and one of the contacts grounds out against the shielding paint in the control cavity.
Otherwise, my money would be on a bad pot.
I haven't read this entire thread, but to my knowledge, your problem hasn't been reported previously.
Did you try a new battery? This distortion could come from low voltage and god knows how the preamp circuit behaves .
I just replaced Big Singles in an Ibanez SRFF with Big Splits and I have to say I like the Big Splits better. The splits are louder and have a bolder, fatter sound, yet they are surprisingly clear and open on top, and only a tiny bit scooped. The singles are more laid back with a rounder top end. NS or Strandberg will have better build quality. For the EHBs, dead notes/wolf tones on G and D strings, preamp issues, and a few cracks have been reported. Only the dead notes have been an issue for me so I either want to try the unit or ask a technician at the seller to check the G string, especially from frets 4-11 for any weak notes. I would consider one of the better units of the 1505ms with Big Splits to be as good as an NS or Strandberg, or even better (e.g. MR5 bridges, routed-in, are contenders for the best monorail bridges available)--some EHB units have issues though, so there is a risk to ordering sight unseen, even new.
My 1505 is strung with Chromes atm. Due to the lightweight nature of the 1505 compared to my other basses it became my go to live bass. I personally don’t like roundwounds, even if it’s nickel when using a bass for live because the finger noise they produce drives me crazy. Chromes are a good compromise for this but as a flatwound of course I wouldn’t look for that roundwound string sound characteristics. I just rely on my pedals to bring back some of that roundwound string sound characteristics. Until I get my hands on some groundwounds or even halfwounds then the Chrome stays.
Are there active pickups that will fit the 1005MS? *ducks and hides*
Alternatively, at least some passives with decent noise rejection?
I use a lot of compression, which brings up both 60hz hum & EMI substantially. I can edit it out but it's a pain to not compromise the bass tone in the process & I'd rather just work from a cleaner signal.
Alternatively, at least some passives with decent noise rejection?
I use a lot of compression, which brings up both 60hz hum & EMI substantially. I can edit it out but it's a pain to not compromise the bass tone in the process & I'd rather just work from a cleaner signal.
The stock humbuckers in the 1005 MS should not have a problem with sixty cycle hum. I might replace my Bartolini's with Big Splits, but that would be for the bolder tone. I've seen a number of posts by TBers who have installed shielding. That could help, but it's never perfect. If you have the preamp turned on a lot (I mostly keep it off, since I use a lot of digital processing plug-ins), then preamp noise can be an issue. You hear it best by boosting treble. Glockenlang, John East and Nordstrand preamps have lower noise compared to some others--I've not tried a John East preamp, but I have the other two. Also consider your environment--is there anything you can do to distance the bass from EMI/RFI equipment when playing? Are you using good EMI/RFI filtering power strips (e.g. Furman, etc.)?
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Yes I did change the battery. Sometimes it’s working and sometimes not. Planning to take it to a guitar tech tomorrow.
Including in passive mode? I've not been using the preamp as I can't be bothered to unplug my bass, and don't find the onboard preamp particularly useful when I'm recording into my DAW through MOTU preamps & have infinite EQs available.
I can put my phone in airplane mode, though there's unfortunately also smart lighting + a router that can't be relocated in this room (& neighbors phones/routers etc). All of my gear (monitor, monitor speakers, audio interface, computer etc.) is plugged into a LiveWire power conditioner.
It's not super noisy- both the hum & abrasive hi-freqs are too low to hear just monitoring DI- but when I start using an excess of compression/distortion it becomes more of a problem.
On-board bass pre-amps will introduce some noise, usually more than you would hear passive with humbucking (multicoil) pickups (pre-amp noise is a hiss that you hear when you turn the preamp on and/or boost treble. 60 cycle hum is cancelled by the two coils. With 2 single coils, often jazz pickups, the two pickups can cancel hum when balanced, but you hear the hum when you turn the balance knob. If your bass is not noisier when you turn the balance knob, then hum is not the issue. Passive with humbuckers should be less noisy if different at all, since DI and other offboard preamps tend to be more quiet than onboard bass preamps. If the noise varies when you are moving around, that's interference. Shielding (StewMac has what you would need to do it yourself, but you have to remove and reinstall your preamp and pickups) and a good RME/EMI filtering power strip (Furman PST-8 Power Station | Reverb or Black Lion Audio PG-P Portable Power Conditioner) may be your best options. I would try keeping the computer equipment on your LiveWire and running a separate power strip to a different outlet for all the audio gear. If possible move away from the computer when playing--even a few feet can make a difference. If you haven't already searched, there must be hundreds of posts on dealing with interference and adding shielding. You can also have grounding or other noise issues with the preamp itself. Removing and reinstalling when doing shielding can help that, or you can replace the preamp, which sometimes can fix grounding issues that were just hard to figure out with the existing preamp.
They are useless as the filter modules in them only work in the MHz region, about 100x higher than the audio BW and are completely ineffective at reducing mains hum from a pickup.
Here's the frequency spectrum of the bass not-in-use with +20dB on my MOTU's preamp (the level I record at) and then absurdly amplified digitally (+60db) to see the noise floor on the frequency graph. This is both pickups mixed equally, in passive mode.
The loudest energy is at 60hz and then subsequent harmonics. Interestingly there's the subharmonic of 30hz present & its own exclusive harmonics, but quieter. When I switch to just the neck pickup, harmonics of the *30hz* get much louder, but have a vibrato to them- 60hz starts warbling & so does 90 etc. As if the 30hz sound is phasing in and out with the 60hz hum or something.
...given the absurd amplification needed to show it on the graph, is it probably an acceptable level of noise for most use cases? Yeah.
...Do I want as low of a noise floor as possible so that I can compress and/or distort to death without irritating hi-freq buzz or muddy lo-freq rumble? Also yeah.
The loudest energy is at 60hz and then subsequent harmonics. Interestingly there's the subharmonic of 30hz present & its own exclusive harmonics, but quieter. When I switch to just the neck pickup, harmonics of the *30hz* get much louder, but have a vibrato to them- 60hz starts warbling & so does 90 etc. As if the 30hz sound is phasing in and out with the 60hz hum or something.
...given the absurd amplification needed to show it on the graph, is it probably an acceptable level of noise for most use cases? Yeah.
...Do I want as low of a noise floor as possible so that I can compress and/or distort to death without irritating hi-freq buzz or muddy lo-freq rumble? Also yeah.
