Ibanez Fretless SRF 705 vs Ibanez SRD 905

[sidonbass]

I've narrowed down my fretless purchase to either the SRF 705 which has a Piezo and the
Bartolini MK-1, Passive Humbuckers.
OR
The SRD 905 which has a Piezo and the
Nordstrand Big Break Passive Soapbars

The Piezo is my most important feature because I will be running it through a Tonedexter, which works great with a Piezo. The Upright like sound is my priority, but I'm also wanting to have a better idea of what to expect regarding the magnetic PUs. I've seen some good examples of the SRF 705 on you tube and I like what I'm hearing. There aren't many examples of the 905. The 905 has a chambered body which may or may not make a difference. Certainly the 905 cosmetics are fancier, which I don't really care about that much.
Can anyone chime in to help me with comparing what I might hear if I had both in front of me?

 

[L-u-A-R]

From my experience with MK-1 Barts, they have a 'round' low mid/low focused sound.
Now, I've tried a fretted SRD905, it was a while back, but I remember the Nordtstrands sounding more balanced, maybe a touch high mid focused.

My view is that the Nordstrands will EQ better, covering more tonal ground.
The Barts will be able to do really thick sounds quite well.

I have the piezo only SRH505F. If I were choosing which sound to blend into it, I would go with Nordstrand Big Break. The 'one-trick' piezo sound is better served by the more versatile Big Breaks in my opinion.

 

[DCGuy]

I have the SRD900F, which is the four-string version of the 905. The Nordys add low end depth to the piezos, and do so in a linear way throughout their range. I really only use the bridge PU in the first half of its range, and use the piezos full-on. You'll want to adjust the piezos with the trim pots on the back of the bass. One thing I noticed is that you can get that upright-ish percussion sound of the strings hitting the fingerboard to come through your amp, if you pluck downward. One thing this bass doesn't do very well is sound like it's NOT a fretless. It's mwah comes through so easily that it's hard to supress entirely. Also, @LowEndLobster did an extensive and IMO very accurate youtube video about the SRD900F. BTW, thanks for the reference to the tonedexter. I never knew that existed, and I'd love to hear more about it.

 

[sidonbass]

I have the SRD900F, which is the four-string version of the 905. The Nordys add low end depth to the piezos, and do so in a linear way throughout their range. I really only use the bridge PU in the first half of its range, and use the piezos full-on. You'll want to adjust the piezos with the trim pots on the back of the bass. One thing I noticed is that you can get that upright-ish percussion sound of the strings hitting the fingerboard to come through your amp, if you pluck downward. One thing this bass doesn't do very well is sound like it's NOT a fretless. It's mwah comes through so easily that it's hard to supress entirely. Also, @LowEndLobster did an extensive and IMO very accurate youtube video about the SRD900F. BTW, thanks for the reference to the tonedexter. I never knew that existed, and I'd love to hear more about it.

Thank you!!! I’m primarily an upright player and for years I’ve looked for a pickup and preamp that would amplify the sound but not change it. The ToneDexter is it! For any acoustic instrument with a piezo, it’s the holy grail in my opinion.

 

[crazycloud]

No experience with them beyond listening to videos, but I'd like to try the SRD905. I think it's an instrument that could add to my arsenal.

 

[bassin again]

First time caller, long time listener (kinda)

anyway, I'm in a similar position (and I have a tonedexter 2 for some other applications- it's that good and I've tried the fishman system, etc etc...etc)
I'm returning to bass after a number of years (cough decades)

So I'm in a similar boat with the OP..when I was playing bass, I was playing doublebass (I come from the gamba world)
being retired, I'm looking to move to more popular music styles to play in the community for funsies
(and as the old joke goes "power trio looking for bass and drummer")

So I'm looking at which one of these beasties have a more "upright" sound
The sound samples are certainly helpful, but I find "feel" as in response interacts with the sound in terms of playing the damn things.

I realize I'm serving two masters and could go with a yamaha silent or something (which could happen eventually) - but I am looking to join the rest of the world from a history of early music geekdom

so I guess I'm looking for a sweetspot pretty much exactly like the OP

I was just wondering if there were any updates

(sorry for typos, his keyboard is playing up)