Ibanez sr/atk premium...

[subtraction]

I simply have the most awesome (not to mention beautiful) significant other who has mentioned purchasing me a new bass of my choice...

The Ibanez sr premiums have really caught my eye but I've only been able to get my hands on a horrifically set up 1800e at the local guitar center. I loved the nord pups and overall feel and construction but I desire more thoughts on the sr premium line despite having read generally positive opinions of them both here and elsewhere. I've also been looking at the atk800e and the new atk810e as well...

Despite the differences from the sr, given the choice what would you pick? As far as my use its simply a hobby for piddling away time and playing along to a wide variety of rock/metal by myself. I enjoy using a pick primarily and love the skinny fast sr neck because it's what I'm used to but I feel like I could adjust to the atk fairly easily. But unfortunately no one locally has one (an atk that is) in stock so I am stuck with ordering online.

Any input would be greatly appreciated. I really want to pick something I'll be as happy as possible about as I don't usually get the opportunity to receive nice things like this.

 

[Bobster]

I have an SR1400e. I absolutely love the Atlas-4 neck for both feel, and construction. The neck is wenge/bubinga with KTS titanium rods for stiffening and is EXTREMELY stable. The fret ends are finished well. I did have two slightly high frets but it was quickly resolved. I think the Nordstrand Big Singles sound amazing with this bass and the pickups inherent jazz-ish tone combined with mid selector and bypass switch gives the bass a lot of range. I also like the light weight. Mine is 6 lbs.

I did have an issue with the magnetic pull on the strings from the Nordstrands effecting intonation. I'm running the D'Addario EXL170BT set (.045 - .107), but I was able to resolve that as well, but not without some work.

For me, the weakest link is the monorail bridge. It is limited in terms of intonation and height adjustment range, replacement parts are expensive, and the body routing makes it more difficult than normal to replace it, should you choose to.

I'm also not a fan of gold hardware, but I can live with it.

After resolving those issues, I'm very happy with the bass.

All the best,

Bob

 

[KramerDon]

I got a premium SR1400TE(neck thru)just before the holidays and love it! The only thing I'll add is that I sent the 1st one back because of several bad cosmetic flaws,I had to order it because no one around had one in stock,but GC was very good about sending the 1st back and the second one had no problems.After playing it almost excusively for a while,it sure makes my 5 string w/19MM spacing seem like a very wide fretboard when I pick it up!!

 

[subtraction]

Thanks for the input... I do really like the SR's but think im going for the ATK. Price is definitely a deciding factor and I really liked the sound clips linked on the Ibanez site. My only concern is the beefier neck which if I really dont like I can always return it. Ill wait for an sr premium to pop up for cheap on craigslist later down the road.