Ibanez SR500 found in local pawnshop

[BooDoggie]

Today I was just out checking out local pawn shops to see what I might find in the way of a decent bass to play around with at home. I don't gig anymore due to health reasons, but I would like to have a bass here to record with on some of my "original" stuff.

Anyway, I found this Ibanez SR500 hanging there in one of the local shops, but there is definitely something wrong with it. The bridge saddles appear to be adjusted all the way to the limit on the height. I don't like the way they only have one adjustment screw instead of two, so the saddles are leaning at a very odd angle. The action seems very low considering the amount that the saddles are raised. It is really hard to tell but I think the neck has a slight forward bow as well. From what I can see, if you lower the saddles back to a level position the strings will be laying on the neck and pickups. It looks pretty good otherwise...

It is priced at $250.00 and from what it says on the tag I believe it comes with a case. Since I know the owner of the pawn shop quite well, (I used to work on all of their computers and get passwords cleared on a lot of them so they could sell them.) I may be able to get it even cheaper. I am just wondering if it would be worth the expense and effort to buy it and then try to repair it. I have a lot of experience with guitar and bass setups, so I can do the work myself. Since it has a bolt on neck I assume that maybe a shim or two will fix the string height issue. I'm just not too sure about the neck bow and whether a truss rod adjustment will take care of that.

So... What do you more experienced Ibanez enthusiasts think? Should I try to buy it, or let it be??? I've never owned anything but Fender basses, so I'm just a little gun shy about it.

 

[Bass Man Dan]

Looks like they routinely go for under $300 on eBay. Not sure it's that great of a deal if you have to end up buying a neck, which could be the case.

 

[bholder]

With a wonky neck, I'd stay away. Unless the shop owner would let me bring my tools and see if I could get it set up decently, but sounds to me like there's a good chance the neck is wrecked.

 

[Reedt2000]

Typically Ibanez basses are pretty solid. If the truss rod works there is no reason you shouldn't be able to remove any excess forward bow. I'd be more concerned with why the strings lay on the neck at normal heights. I'd want to make sure the neck is original.

If it really only needs standard adjustments it's worth picking up. The bridge saddle thing raises a red flag and would make me want to really examine it closely.

 

[BooDoggie]

With a wonky neck, I'd stay away. Unless the shop owner would let me bring my tools and see if I could get it set up decently, but sounds to me like there's a good chance the neck is wrecked.

They would probably let me take it home and try it out or do whatever I want to it short of breaking it in half...

The bridge saddle thing raises a red flag and would make me want to really examine it closely.

That has me freaked a bit too. I had a similar situation on my 62 jazz when I re-built it. I lowered the bridge saddles back to 0 and added a shim in the neck pocket. It played better than it had in years after a little bit of adjustment at the bridge. I've never seen a bridge saddle with only one adjustment screw before. That just doesn't seem like a very good way to adjust the bridge and really limits the amount of vertical adjustment.

I'll take a ride back by there tomorrow and get some more details and pictures. It does have a serial # on the back of the headstock, so Ill get that too. Or as i said earlier, I think I'll just ask them to let me take it home and test it out before I commit to buy.

 

[Reedt2000]

had a similar situation on my 62 jazz when I re-built it. I lowered the bridge saddles back to 0 and added a shim in the neck pocket. It played better than it had in years after a little bit of adjustment at the bridge. I've never seen a bridge saddle with only one adjustment screw before. That just doesn't seem like a very good way to adjust the bridge and really limits the amount of vertical adjustment.

I've seen similar situations where a well-placed shim totally fixes playability issues. Working on the Ibanez won't be any different than a fender. The single screw adjustment might limit range but you shouldn't have to even get close to maxing them out. $250 or less with a case is a good deal, definitely worth going back for further investigation.