Ibanez Portamento Club

[W3DW]

Well, after years of lurking, I'm gonna request a number! That black Roadstar II was my only bass since I bought it new in 1986 and a few years ago I wanted something entirely different and bought this August 2016 Portamento. Different indeed! The Roadstar remains in the lineup, but now plays second fiddle.

She's entirely stock except for the Slinky Cobalt flatwounds which are now over 3 years old and still just right. I appreciate all you folks have taught me along the way.

W3DW

 

[Michael Jewels]

Good for you, W3DW.

Another 700 owner/player.
Much good luck with yours.
Here's mine.

 

[tellheryousawme]

View attachment 4243194

Well, after years of lurking, I'm gonna request a number!

Welcome W3DW, #71 is yours!

Ibanez Portamento Club​

1. vmabus #0
2. tellheryousawme #1
3. Jazzbrew #2
4. PaulNYC #18
5. aproud1 #4
6. Idle Plucker #5
7. Awesome Sauce #7
8. ransombass #8
9. Gee Phil #9
10. Ibby #10
11. Marcel66 #66
12. hiredlenz #12
13. Grand Moff Tim #13
14. brossmac #14
15. steelbed45 #15
16. audionut36 #16
17. MethodsofDance #17
18. Kico #19
19. Stellvia #20
20. Bassconbeatz #21
21. Dum Bass #22
22. bherman #23
23. Flabzilla #24
24. gary m #25
25. slap2much #26
26. cchorney #27
27. Aidil #28
28. BassJuju #29
29. Jezza #30
30. thirtyhz #31
31. Christoph #32
32. Coriolis #33
33. Guittarman10 #34
34. Dana R Gregory #35
35. web824 #36
36. mike4bass #37
37. kirkdickinson #6
38. newb #38
39. raphaeld #39
40. Hunter34 #40
41. sinewavemattic #41
42. Michael Jewels #42
43. xshawk #43
44. Adam Blaknovski #11
45. B-Mac #45
46. animus.terry005 #46
47. Spblat #47
48. BritFunk #48
49. Todd McIntosh #49
50. JCKA #50
51. rbbrnck #51
52. EnVico379 #52
53. GlueKill #53
54. rickster4003 #54
55. Supadope #55
56. Guitarman59 #59
57. JC Vallejo #57
58. Ghook #3
59. Spherical Cube #44
60. HangryBassMan #60
61. McThumpenstein #61
62. Papazita #62
63. P A U L #63
64. Hansi91 #91
65. Face_east #64
66. cbdriver #65
67. Bill Clifton #67
68. Lebowitz #68
69. comatosedragon #69
70. xKingfisher #70
71. W3DW #71

 

[Lebowitz]

Thanks @Aidil Currently my Port is getting fixed (hopefully) at Ibanez. While I had it, I ran it through both sides to try. Neither distorted the sound, so I was unsure. Appreciate the info!

Update: Ibanez fixed my Portamento. Wiring issues. The bass sounds fantastic! Thanks for the suggestions all!

 

[stretch80]

Quite possibly a silly question, but since I am unsure..Do you guys run your Portamento's through the active or passive side on your amps? The Bart's are passive, but the piezo's are active. Help?

Typically the active/passive difference on an amp is simply that the active side has a slightly attenuated input to reflect that most "active" basses send a hotter signal. The Portamento is an "active" bass since it has an active (battery powered) preamp.

 

[Michael Jewels]

Update: Ibanez fixed my Portamento. Wiring issues. The bass sounds fantastic! Thanks for the suggestions all!

Good for you, Lebowitz!

And yes, these basses do sound fantastic.
My favorite right now:
Piezos only.
Play over the 20th fret.
Ernie Ball Cobalt Flats.
Mike

 

[Matthew_84]

Anyone rip all of the electronics out their Portamento and run it passive?

I know you'd lose the piezo pickups, but there's something about having a battery in my bass that I hate...

Also, I feel like sometimes passive electronics "breathe" more. Like they're a little less compressed or something. That's probably true for some active basses, but not sure about this one.

Finally, my bass has some wicked buzzing going on, and I know it's just a shielding issue, but i don't feel like shielding it properly because of all of the electronics in there

 

[Matthew_84]

I've been away from TB from a while and not sure when you stopped being able to edit posts after the fact but, I realized the above post is kinda stupid. The hum I get from my magnetic pickups suck (so I should work on sorting it out or hiring a qualified tech to have a look) but the signal would become active at some part of the chain, so no point in ripping out the battery and electronics, as if it would matter much...

Yeah, it would make everything simpler, which I am big fan of, but at what cost? If I didn't have the piezo bridge, I would have taken it all out by now, but I do like that piezo system.

 

[Lebowitz]

Kinda odd, I'm not having the humming issue. I did have wiring problems that Ibanez took care of. Maybe something isn't quite connected as it should?

 

[nonohmic]

Has anyone "downgraded" from a Jaco sig to one of these?

 

[Matthew_84]

Kinda odd, I'm not having the humming issue. I did have wiring problems that Ibanez took care of. Maybe something isn't quite connected as it should?

It's been a while since I peaked in there, but everything looked connected as far I could tell, but the cavity was packed and I didn't want to budge the wiring too much to peak around

 

[PhatBasstard]

I've been away from TB from a while and not sure when you stopped being able to edit posts after the fact...

Click on the 3 dashes in the lower left corner of your post. Click "Edit".

 

[Matthew_84]

Click on the 3 dashes in the lower left corner of your post. Click "Edit".

yeah... You seem to lose that ability after a few hours. At least I do

 

[Michael Jewels]

yeah... You seem to lose that ability after a few hours. At least I do

I think the ability to edit ends after one hour.
Enough time to edit/erase things you might have regreted posting.

Mike

 

[Matthew_84]

I think the ability to edit ends after one hour.
Enough time to edit/erase things you might have regreted posting.

Mike

Yeah that seems to be the case. I'm curious when that kicked in because I don't recall that being there before, but I haven't been here in a long time. Oh well. Thanks.

 

[jbjam]

Greetings everyone! My name is Jack and I've owned a 5 string port for a few years. Bought it at Sweetwater and have played out with it quite a few times. I love it, and have enjoyed this thread a great deal. I'd like to sign up and get a number, photo attached.

I am having a little issue. I'm using TI Jazz Flats for strings, and the A string buzzes slightly at multiple locations up the board. The other 4 strings are very clear, no buzz. I switched out just the A string with the original D-Addario A string, and that one buzzes as well. Any thoughts?

Thanks so much, all.

 

[Aidil]

Greetings everyone! My name is Jack and I've owned a 5 string port for a few years. Bought it at Sweetwater and have played out with it quite a few times. I love it, and have enjoyed this thread a great deal. I'd like to sign up and get a number, photo attached.

I am having a little issue. I'm using TI Jazz Flats for strings, and the A string buzzes slightly at multiple locations up the board. The other 4 strings are very clear, no buzz. I switched out just the A string with the original D-Addario A string, and that one buzzes as well. Any thoughts?

Thanks so much, all.View attachment 4300881

Didn't you counter the change from high tensioned factory strings (D'Addario Chromes) to lower tensioned ones (TI JF) with a proper setup? The neck most likely had gone into a bowed back state with the change.

For sure switching to lower tensioned strings means you need to release some tensions off the truss rod so the neck could be reverted to its optimum straight (and a little bit of bow) state. Putting back only the A string isn't enough to pull the neck from bowed back state.

And then the TI JF are known as flexible strings (whereas Chromes are the otherwise), thus the 2nd step of a proper setup in changing strings would be setting the string action higher to avoid too much of the string/fretless buzz (mwah).

 

[W3DW]

Welcome, Jack!

Aidil probably has the suggestions that you need, since you did not encounter this problem with the stock strings. Start there.

You might also find that the neck itself requires some work. My preference is for low action, and when set up that way I had a "high second fret" on the A string, and a "high seventh fret" on my G. My luthier rocks - not every guitar fixer can get a fretless flawless!

I can't really fault Ibanez/Cort for not providing the ultimate fretboard, just keep in mind that a bit of careful scraping might come after a set-up for these lighter strings. Enjoy the ride!

Daniel

 

[jbjam]

Didn't you counter the change from high tensioned factory strings (D'Addario Chromes) to lower tensioned ones (TI JF) with a proper setup? The neck most likely had gone into a bowed back state with the change.

For sure switching to lower tensioned strings means you need to release some tensions off the truss rod so the neck could be reverted to its optimum straight (and a little bit of bow) state. Putting back only the A string isn't enough to pull the neck from bowed back state.

And then the TI JF are known as flexible strings (whereas Chromes are the otherwise), thus the 2nd step of a proper setup in changing strings would be setting the string action higher to avoid too much of the string/fretless buzz (mwah).

Thanks very much Aidil. Very good info. I did look at the neck very closely and it is - in its current state with the A string being different from the others - bowed slightly forward. I did try raising the string height slightly at the bridge as well.

One other question I had was, could there be a problem at the nut possibly, with the cutout for the string being too large? Just a thought.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Jack

 

[Aidil]

One other question I had was, could there be a problem at the nut possibly, with the cutout for the string being too large? Just a thought.

Could be, Jack. But, was there any similar problem when you had your Portamento the first time?

If it was, usually it's the bottom of groove shape and depth which most likely be causing the problem, that is when it wasn't cut as a proper U shape and/or when it was cut too low.

Wider slot shouldn't be a problem if you had the string wound on the tuning post with a good amount of wraps so that there's a good amount of down force, combined with Portamento angled back headstock, to keep the string stay on the bottom of the U shaped groove.